Obama outshines the Trumpster?

You have to admit that Barack Obama has kept a low profile since leaving the presidency some 91 days ago.

Obama to make a return trip. Does anyone think Trump would have something significant to say there?

I’m sure the ideological nitwits amongst us want to lambast the former president for being frivolous – what with his post-presidential vacation trips to Palm Springs, Calif.; a resort in French Polynesia and to the Caribbean with English billionaire Richard Branson.

BUT THEN, THEY’D have to acknowledge the constant weekend trips that President Donald Trump makes (at public expense) to the Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida that he owns.

As though Trump can’t stand the thought of traveling anywhere where he can’t stay in a place with his business brand on the marquee, or have somebody fired for serving him chicken salad rather than tuna.

And while Obama is spending time with people such as Branson, we’re getting the current White House occupant spending his time there with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her rock ‘n’ roll buddies.

Just a thought; how sad is it that we still refer to Palin for the political post she held for two years and gave up nearly a decade ago? Because she hasn’t done anything of significance since then that we could use to identify her.

BUT BACK TO Obama and Trump – with the former president expected to make his first post-presidential appearance in public in Chicago come Monday. He’ll be partaking in a forum of high school and college students – hoping to inspire our society’s future.

Rather than Trump, whose idea of our “future” is to turn back to elements of our society’s past that, frankly, we should be ashamed we ever tolerated to begin with.

How many pretending this image still relevant ...

Although not directly affiliated with the Obama Foundation, the program next week will be held in the Jackson Park neighborhood, and will create a sense of what we can expect to get from having that Obama presidential library and museum in our city.

These thoughts bop about my brain because of the constant efforts by the Trump administration to erase elements of our government that can be traced back to the Obama years. As though they want us to forget we were ever deluded enough to reject the idea of either John McCain or Mitt Romney as U.S. president.

OBAMA SEEMS TO exist in a separate realm – not getting dragged into the current president’s world. Which is probably a good thing, on account of the fact that Trump truly seems to live in his own world – and thinks the rest of us need to suffer there with him for his amusement.

... rather than the current occupant?

Such as when Trump talks of how successful his “first 100 days” (which have just over a week to go) have been, and thinks it is a media conspiracy that prevents the masses from realizing this fact!

Perhaps we’re just seeing how separate segments of our society have become; and why I’m not surprised that various polls show evidence that the people who DID vote for Trump aren’t showing any regrets – no matter how little is accomplished.

The rest of us may be following the lead of Simon and Garfunkel when they sang, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” Obama probably will carry on a symbolism far greater than his actual accomplishments. Just as DiMaggio was called the “Greatest Living Player” even though others had more home runs or a better batting average!

HOPING THAT SOMEHOW, we can get something in the way of leadership from a man who at age 55 is retired from political life – unless he can somehow create a second segment of life for himself that could rival the post-presidency of Jimmy Carter. We’re probably going to spend the next few decades comparing the lives of Obama vs. Trump – and seeing which one matches up to our ideological sensibilities.

Such as when Obama appears May 25 in Germany at the Brandenburg Gate – recalling his 2008 speech that gave him international recognition and which the McCain campaign tried to use to mock him as an insubstantial “rock star” rather than a serious politician.

That didn’t work, and German Chancellor Angela Markel will be at Obama’s side. The same Markel whom Trump managed to offend when he wouldn’t publicly shake her hand during a visit to the White House.

KENNEDY: Fired? Or honored!

Or perhaps when Obama later this year receives the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, with Kennedy daughter, Caroline, whom Obama made his U.S. ambassador to Japan. And whom Trump insisted had to be fired from the post and leave that country the instant he became president back on Jan. 20.

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