https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...7/20/how-i-miss-obama/?utm_term=.795cbf9a76a0
How I miss Obama
"Now I would take Obama back in a nanosecond."
His presidency appears to be a lost golden age when reason and morality reigned. All of his faults, real as they were, fade into insignificance compared with the crippling defects of his successor. And his strengths — seriousness, dignity, intellect, probity, dedication to ideals larger than self — shine all the more clearly in retrospect.
Can you believe that an Obama-era scandal was that the president wore a tan suit or put his feet up on the desk? (Actual Washington Times headline from Sept. 4, 2013: “Obama’s foot on Oval Office desk sends shockwaves around the world.”) Oh, to have those days back again.
What was supposedly the worst abuse of power committed by the Obama administration — the IRS investigations of conservative organizations — has been revealed as “fake news”: It turns out that the IRS was also investigating liberal organizations.
By contrast, evidence continues to accumulate about Trump scandals, from alleged campaign collusion with Russia to violations of the emoluments clause. Obama may have told a few fibs, like any politician, but he was not a pathological liar.
The Iran nuclear deal was flawed, but it was infinitely stronger than the non-agreement Trump reached with North Korea. Obama even looks like a fiscal conservative compared with Trump, who is ushering in trillion-dollar deficits.
It can be depressing to think about our current predicament under a president whose loyalty to America is suspect but whose racism and xenophobia are undoubted. However, Obama’s speech gave me a glimmer of optimism — and not only because he cited Mandela’s “example of persistence and of hope.” He reminds me that just 18 months ago — can you believe it was so recently? — we had a president with whom I could disagree without ever doubting his fitness to lead. We can have one again.