Obama Suffered Scandal Upon Scandal Upon Scandal

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog:

For years former President Obama remained more or less off the grid. It could be argued that it is not uncommon for an ex-president to stay out of the limelight. Several Presidents have done this even claiming it was for the good of the country and in an effort not to interfere with the country moving forward. Obama has recently reemerged and injected himself into the public spotlight, at times taking aim at President Trump and the way his administration is handling various situations. It is not surprising that President Trump is not pleased.

While our memory has a way of removing rough edges from events we should not try to whitewash the past and rewrite history to present a different picture of what really happened. Because of the stark contrast in the demeanor and style of Trump and Obama, the media has “photo shopped” reality. Obama has been painted as, a thoughtful, intelligent, capable man full of hope and able to bring us together. He did, after all, bring America’s economy back from the brink of disaster following the Great Recession. Trump, on the other hand, is often portrayed as a divisive, dishonest, braggart, and a buffoon. The fact is during Obama’s time as President the country suffered scandal upon scandal upon scandal, it might be fair to say we had “scandals galore.”

And then, there was Mosul. The destruction of Mosul and the many lives lost there stand as a monument of Obama’s failings. We should not forget that during Obama’s watch the once-proud Iraqi city of Mosul was reduced to rubble. This was done as a coalition of anti-ISIS forces try to retake the city. The very roots of ISIS were fed by America and its botched policies. The saying, “never throw stones if you live in a glass house” would lead people to think Obama should have remained in the shadows.

Looking back, there were so many, big and small scandals such as the fast and furious, the operation that sent guns into the hands of drug gangs in Mexico, they became difficult to track. In Las Vegas, the GSA went on a spending spree. A large number of sexual assaults occurring in the military. Solyndra which should be placed in the dictionary and defined as “what happens when politicians and bureaucrats play businessman with taxpayer money” failed. The CIA had a “prostitutes fiasco” in South America. Fisker Automotive failed, this deal reeked of government cronyism and waste. Add to this what looked like a “Benghazi coverup” (including the way it was handled in the second presidential debate) add the DOJ doing an over the top and wiretapping the Associated Press.

We should not forget some of the following if truth be told. The resurfacing of Mr. Obama and images of him opining with his chin tilted slightly upward motivated me to look back at some posts written during his time as President. Remember, because of his persona, a degree of optimism was in the air as he took office, across the world many people saw him as the answer to taking the whole world forward. Below are a few of those with links to the original as well as a few other comments on what history has revealed as major policy blunders flowing from his time in office.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/04/fisker-automotive-another-government.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/04/gsa-las-vegas-scandle-spending-run.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/02/solyndra-report-posted-little-late.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/05/secret-service-sex-scandal.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/05/scandal-upon-scandal-upon-scandal.html

Other major faux-pas, blunders or missteps of the Obama administration include;

•    Generated the destabilizing “Arab Spring” 
•    Failed in helping Iraq stabilize
•    Horribly mishandling the situation in Syria and in doing so fund the creation of ISIS 
•   Underestimating ISIS
•   Aiding in turning Libya into a failed state
•   Obama care failed to reduce health care cost but transferred them to other payers
•   Failed to lessen racial strife, note Ferguson, Missouri, and other events
•   Destabilizing Ukraine in a pissing war with Putin 
•   IRS, when it targeted conservative groups
•   Fast and Furious – where the US illegally sold guns in Mexico

To say we were awash in scandals during the Obama era is an understatement, fortunately for Obama, most Americans have the attention span of a gnat. To be clear, not everyone will agree with what I have listed as “faux-pas, blunders or missteps” but some will. Time tends to reveal whether the decisions we make are great, good, so-so, or were horribly wrong. If you feel this post was overly biased, unto you I say, sorry, sorry, sorry. In an effort to be transparent I confess I’m not a fan of either of these men and to be fair this post is not a critique of Trump’s time in office. While some people may try or continue to paint Obama as Mr. Clean, a closer look at history rapidly dispels that image.

Footnote; This footnote is being added well after this article was posted. The comment below points out many of the examples used to signal scandal fall into the category of bad policy rather than being a scandal. Please note scandals need not be large or overpowering. Anytime a whiff of corruption is present the event moves into the area of scandal.