Anonymous ID: 6a48ab July 10, 2018, 8:38 a.m. No.2105575   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5590 >>5605 >>5609 >>5633

The myth of Obama’s ‘disappearance’

 

REAKING: Obama coordinating anti-Trump resistance from DC nypost.com/2018/06/30/oba…

10:24 AM - 30 Jun 2018

 

https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1013110945688715264

The myth of Obama’s ‘disappearance’

By Paul Sperry June 30, 2018 | 9:01am | U

Former President Barack Obama may be out of the spotlight, but he's organizing resistance behind the scenes. AP

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PAUL SPERRY

 

If you believe recent media accounts, the former Democratic president has suddenly transcended the political fray. It’s as if a newly “Zen-like” Barack Obama is content to just write his memoir and let Donald Trump and Republicans write the next chapter of history.

 

In a cover story asking “Where is Barack Obama?,” for example, New York magazine concluded that the 44th president has “virtually disappeared” from the political scene and is sitting idly by as his legacy is dismantled piece by piece. From an exclusive interview, the periodical concluded Obama was “modeling his political engagement out of office after George W. Bush’s” — that is, staying out of the rough-and-tumble of politics, maintaining distance from his former office and resigning himself to be an elder statesman fading into the sunset.

 

Don’t buy it.

 

Obama is doing far more to shape the political landscape than is visible. In fact, for an ex-prez, he’s taking an unusually active role in politics, including helping radical protest groups fight Trump and his policies and devising a scheme to flip the GOP majority in the House and permanently turn red seats blue.

 

From his sprawling DC office not far from the White House, where he oversees a full-time staff of 20, Obama has held regular meetings with Democratic lawmakers, as well as DNC chief Tom Perez, whom he personally helped install to run the Democratic Party. Obama has also met with his attorney general, Eric Holder, to craft a strategy to redraw congressional district maps in Democrats’ favor, according to Politico. Holder now runs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which Obama helped his old friend launch.

 

Obama, who maintains a home in Chicago, originally said he only planned to stay in Washington temporarily, until his younger daughter, Sasha, now 17, finished high school there. But the family is clearly putting down deeper roots. They recently bought their DC rental home and erected a massive security wall around the property, which includes offices, and are installing a swimming pool.

 

While it may be true Obama does not want to engage directly in Washington politics, including personally protesting Trump’s policies, he is using a political organizing group he founded to do that for him.

 

That nonprofit — Organizing for Action — is not exactly a household name. But it is no less than the organizing and training hub of the anti-Trump resistance.

 

Most recently, OFA helped stage rallies across the country against the administration’s border policies, which it has decried as “cruel and inhumane.” OFA describes itself as a “nonpartisan grass-roots-driven organization,” but it clearly has a pro-Obama agenda. In fact, it’s run almost entirely by alums from Obama’s campaign and White House, including Jon Carson and Jim Messina, who co-chair the group, and Katie Hogan, who serves as its executive director, according to recent tax filings by the nonprofit.

 

https://nypost.com/2018/06/30/obamas-disappearance-is-a-myth/