A trying week for President Obama for sure, starting with the memorial service for five slain Dallas Police Department officers, capped with terrorism in France and a coup attempt in Turkey. He tried, but efforts to unify the country stalled in bitter partisanship.
John Zogby
“These are times that try men’s souls,” Tom Paine once wrote. That was then (1776) and this is now (2016). These are times that certainly try presidents’ souls, too.
A horrible week. The unthinkable happened in Nice, with 84 killed by a mad terrorist who drove a truck into crowds for a whole mile. Then apparent coup by the secular military in Turkey, a key strategic ally of the United States.
Politically, President Obama is still at 50 percent and he hit a homerun with his speech at the Dallas memorial for five murdered police officers. On my blog, I noted that “He touched a lot of hearts in his Dallas speech. He deserves a solid appreciation by historians.”
But his party’s choice to succeed him is actually behind in the polls against Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton is such a damaged candidate, and her top message was undercut by the head of the FBI who labeled her as ‘careless.’
But this is not about her, it is about Mr. Obama. This week he is still more popular than not; Americans appear to be safe. The economy continues grow (sort of). And the horrors overseas have not reached the U.S.
Grade C
Jed Babbin
According to a New York Times poll, 69 percent of Americans believe race relations in our country are generally bad, one of the highest levels measured since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles over the Rodney King case.
This week President Obama did his best to make things worse, sounding like a community organizer, not a president.
His remarks at the memorial service for the five slain Dallas police officers set a record for the speech least appropriate to the occasion and most offensive to the audience.
Obama began by defending the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that “it hurts” when peaceful protesters of police discrimination against African-Americans are “…dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and co-worker and fellow church members again and again and again.” Obama said bigotry remains a problem in police departments around the country, a condition that is contributing to street violence.
“America, we know that bias remains,” he said. “Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune. And that includes our police departments. We know this.”
All of this at a memorial service to honor police officers murdered in cold blood.
Yes, bias and discrimination remain. But to say and imply relentlessly, as Obama has since 2009, that police are generally racist is simply false. Saying as much at a funeral service honoring murdered cops was outrageous.
Grade F
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him @jedbabbin
John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author of “We Are Many, We Are One.” Follow him at @TheJohnZogby
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
