{"id":3893,"date":"2016-12-30T12:10:59","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T11:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3893"},"modified":"2016-12-30T12:10:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T11:10:59","slug":"obamas-legacy-chasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/3893\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Legacy-Chasing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Streetwise Professor once again writes the post that I was going to, describing\u00a0the farce<\/a> that is becoming the last weeks of Barack Obama’s Presidency. \u00a0SWP cites the following three decisions as being the worst of the lot, and I agree with him:<\/p>\n

1. Obama’s ruling all of the USA’s Arctic offshore areas off-limits for future oil and gas developments (I wrote about that here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

2. His seemingly personal decision to break with decades of US policy and abstain from the UN vote on Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n

3. His decision to expel Russian diplomats from the US, supposedly in retaliation for their “hacking” the election, evidence for which is laughably\u00a0weak.<\/p>\n

I have been saying for some time that history will judge Barack Obama very harshly indeed (by contrast, I think George W. Bush will be treated surprisingly kindly). \u00a0The truth behind somebody’s\u00a0Presidency usually\u00a0emerges when the key players retire and start writing their memoirs, and the personalities and the processes behind each major decision\u00a0are revealed. \u00a0Judging by his behaviour in recent weeks,\u00a0Obama seems keen that we not wait that long to find out\u00a0who he really is.<\/p>\n

There is a key word in all of this, mentioned in this report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

President Barack Obama has unilaterally designated two new “national monument” nature preserves in the western US states of Nevada and Utah.<\/p>\n

The Bears Ears National Monument and the Gold Butte National Monument will protect areas rich in Native American artefacts from energy drilling.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans in those states are opposed to the move and say it amounts to a federal land-grab.<\/p>\n

It comes as Mr Obama attempts to secure his environmental legacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Legacy. \u00a0Right from the beginning, all Obama has been interested in is “securing his legacy”, regardless of what catastrophe was brought about in the meantime. \u00a0I’ve written about<\/a> leaders chasing legacies before, and it is as bad a sign as any. \u00a0Like a person’s character, somebody’s legacy is best described by other people, not the individual concerned.<\/p>\n

Obama, realising time is very short,\u00a0is desperately trying to comprehend\u00a0the disparity between what he thinks of himself and the\u00a0verdict that the electorate just delivered on his eight years in office. \u00a0In trying to shore up his legacy he is cutting an increasingly childish and pathetic figure, one who is in serious danger of becoming a laughing stock. \u00a0If he breaks with precedent and does what he has threatened by\u00a0continuing to sound off once he leaves office, then he will at least have the comfort of knowing his legacy will be assured. \u00a0It just won’t be the one he wanted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Streetwise Professor once again writes the post that I was going to, describing\u00a0the farce that is becoming the last weeks of Barack Obama’s Presidency. \u00a0SWP cites the following three decisions as being the worst of the lot, and I agree … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3894,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions\/3894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}