From Obama to Trump
How do we assess the legacy of President Barack Obama, especially in the wake of an election that is determined to undo many of his accomplishments? Al Jazeera attempts to form a clear-eyed perspective on this confusing period in American politics with their documentary From Obama to Trump.
When he was first elected in 2008, President Obama stood as a transformative figure of hope and change for people throughout the civilized world. The film acknowledges a myriad of positive accomplishments during his two terms in office, but it is also extremely frank in what it views as his failures. These include mounting tensions in Syria, the emergence of ISIS, trembling relations with Russia, and an economy that remains far too sluggish for many Americans.
The filmmakers view race as a particularly fascinating factor of the Obama legacy. Much of the positivity and goodwill that surrounded his election stemmed from the notion of a post-racial society. Alas, this hope might have just been an illusion as deep racial divisions continued to plague America's cities during his presidency. One brief segment of the film explores the inner city discord which led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Obama's foreign and domestic policies are also placed under a microscope throughout the course of the film. The film smartly provides the pros and cons of each issue, including the enactment of the Affordable Care act, the Iran nuclear deal, historic climate change agreements, and escalating skirmishes in the Middle East.
From Obama to Trump summarizes the former president's legacy as a mixed bag of merits and shortcomings. Regardless of each viewer's individual take on Obama's overall job performance, one thing is for certain. President Trump was elected in large part on the promise that he would reverse many of his key actions.
So, what does it all mean? Only time will tell. After all, the true meaning of history can only reveal itself in hindsight, and the concluding chapters on the Obama presidency have not yet been determined. For this reason, the film focuses on providing thoughtful questions more than concrete conclusions.
Obama was the ultimate Soros puppet. Media created and media protected. The real life Manchurian Candidate. A Hollywood facade. Looks good on the outside, and no depth on the inside.
Al Jazeera you are fake news. Period
Can I download it?
The man isn't gone a month, and already his legacy is being assessed. Really.
Reasonable commentators/historians wait up to 5 years to see the long term effects of policy.
But perhaps Al Jaz knows better.
This reply is to Gunnar in LA: I wouldn't short change myself. I think there's interesting stuff in this documentary. It's a history of events, someone's idea of what was important about Obama's election, what he promised to do, what he didn't do...
I was more interested in the Why? That's an amorphous topic that shape changes depending upon distance in time, the viewer, available knowledge, depth of understanding, etc. I focused on the Deep State because it's become a huge topic in the past year or so. From here on out US history cannot be told truthfully, and certainly with no pretension to accuracy, if the Deep State's machinations in the background of events is not taken into consideration which means an analysis of motives, intentions, goals, etc., and especially attention to the question of "What's in this for the Deep State actors?"
So much we don't know -- so much more we need to know.
Obama's big lie was his Muslim ascendancy. It colored all his decisions on terrorism and foreign policy to the point, a Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard led a fact finding trip on the horrors of Muslim extremism which the president said was "contained" but infringed untold terror even among moderate Muslims. The image I have of the Obama's presidency is given by clock boy's invitation to the White House while the school district was sued by his parents, even though the school followed the directions of the DHS, "if you see something, say something".
I would very much like to hear a dissection of elections in America that focuses on the Deep State, the truth that all of America's presidents since JFK have been chosen for us, that the election system is rigged, that Obama's entire cabinet was chosen for him by persons in the higher echelons of Citibank. Obama did exactly as he was told to do by his handlers... He was an obedient puppet. As for Putin colluding with Wikileaks to engineer Trump's election, there's no basis in fact for that. Wikileaks has flatly denied it--and they have a 100% positive score in the matter of truth-telling. Concerning Ukraine: Do you remember what happened when Khruschev put missiles in Cuba? How is Nato's presence and the US State Department's interference in Ukraine any different from the interference by the Soviets into our sphere of influence under the Kennedy regime? We can do it, but they can't. Is that the idea? The NeoCons in Clinton's State Department engineered the coup in Ukraine and were most probably behind the downing of the Dutch airliner in 2014 which was used most disingenuously -- the meme "Putin Has Blood On His Hands" was out in the public arena -- in Bangkok newspapers -- before nightfall on the day of the crash. So much for examination of evidence and fair judicial review. It was the US who sequestered the results and has refused to allow re-examination of any of the conclusions reached re culpability -- probably because we have a lot to hide.
This is just a beginning of how this story might be retold from another point of view which would not exclude the blatant interference of the US in Russia's internal affairs in the 1990s, our rigging of their elections so that Yeltsin would not be canned -- which is probably what most knowledgeable Russians wanted. (See Abbie Martin's Empire Files on this subject). In other words, we can blatantly interfere in their elections but God forbid that they should even think about doing the same to us. There's no evidence that Putin had anything to do with seeing Hillary Clinton defeated. She didn't need his help. And lastly, Iran has similarly been the target of US interventions into their sovereign affairs, but someone please check the record for when the last time Iran acted as an aggressor nation toward anyone.
Hey Fred, I bet you can get a transcript of this from aljazeera.com
This is from a show/documentary show called "Empire"
Apologies, am asking a question instead of a comment: would it be possible to download the articles? Am teaching this topic (biography) so am interested in this. Thanks!