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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¿What gaffe will Trump give us come the Cinco de Mayo holiday?

The word is getting out on how badly the Trumpites managed to botch the ceremonial fluff this week related to Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day.

Which is odd because, as the Washington Post reported, so many of the prominent people allied with Donald J. Trump’s presidency are of Irish-American descent – even though Trump himself is German/Scottish-American.

It's a wonder Trump didn't dig this sign out to post at White House

OF COURSE, THEY’RE also the kind of people who go around screeching and screaming at every opportunity that they’re “Real Americans!!!!” and none of that hyphenated American talk that they want to believe is what’s wrong with our society these days. Even though I suspect the real issue is many of them don’t know what they are!

So maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they really didn’t have a clue as to how vacuous they were being on Thursday when officials from Ireland were in Washington, D.C., for rituals long associated with the White House to acknowledge the long-standing ties between the two nations and to show just how far our nation has come from the days of “No Irish Need Apply.”

Then again, it would be totally in character for the Trumpites to think it all essential to snub other people. Perhaps they think it shows superiority and strength. I think it merely shows boorishness.

Then again, being a boor has been tied into the Trump persona for so long. It probably is second nature.

SO HOW BAD was the behavior? According to the Washington Post:

·        Vice President Mike Pence managed to create rolled eyes with his initial greeting of “Top of the Morning” to the Irish delegation.

·        Trump managed to recite an “Irish proverb” that no one in the Irish delegation recognized ("Always remember to forget the friends who proved untrue, but never forget to remember those who stood by you"), and it turns out may actually be a line written by a Nigerian poet -- a gaffe only The Donald is capable of making.

·        House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made an attempt at a joke by pointing out all the golf courses Trump has owned on his properties – apparently thinking that Ireland and Scotland (where the game was created) are identical.

·        But Ryan topped himself when he tried offering up a toast, using a pre-poured glass of Guinness that had gone flat. None of that luscious foam that hard-core Guinness drinkers would insist is the mark of a real drink.

Tunisia officials showed Angela Merkel of Germany more respect than U.S.

About the only way Trump could top that last gaffe would be, if the next time he visits Chicago, he were to stop off for a hot dog and insist on no tomatoes or pickle spears, but lots of ketchup.

This, admittedly, is all trivial. But these ceremonial rituals usually are the things that are so heavily researched in advance to ensure that nothing goes wrong. Ineptitude is putting things mildly.

PERSONALLY, I THINK the Mike Pence gaffe is the worst, because this IS the man who would become president, should the fantasies of many people that Trump become bored with the presidency and resign were to actually come true!

Although the fact that Trump followed up his Ireland gaffes of Thursday with a Germany snub on Friday is purely pathetic.

For Friday was the day that Chancellor Angela Markel was at the White House. She got a private meeting with Trump, followed up with a public appearance by the two during which Trump refused her offer of a handshake.

Reports also noted that Trump wouldn’t even look Markel in the eye during the time they were together before the cameras – the moment in which the world’s eye was literally on the two.

I find this sign outside an Austin, Texas restaurant to be amusing

IT WAS POINTED out how Trump had been critical of Germany during his campaigning last year, what with the way that nation has accepted refugees from Syria. A move Trump has called “a catastrophic mistake” mainly because it makes his attempts at creating xenophobic U.S. policies on travel and immigration look all the more ridiculous by comparison.

You’d think that even someone with a limited world view of Donald Trump (be honest, those hotels he builds overseas are largely for Americans who don’t want to have to interact with foreigners when they travel abroad) would be able to find aspects of Ireland and Germany he could identify with.

TRUMP: Gaffes galore!

It makes me dread what we’re likely to get when Trump is forced to acknowledge the existence of May 5 and the Mexican holiday of that date. Maybe he’ll head back to the Trump Tower in New York for one of the now-infamous “Taco Bowls” they serve in their restaurant.

Which makes me think that for those who wish to disdain Mexico, the locals there and in Mexican-oriented communities in this country probably showed more respect for the Irish this week than our nation did.

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