Former President Barack Obama spoke at a sports analytics conference at MIT last week to an eager audience of 3,500. What drew notice about the event wasn’t so much about what he had to say but what his listeners had to agree to hear the speech.
Attendees were told ahead of time that audio and video recording was prohibited, and reporters in attendance were absolutely forbidden from publishing anything about what Obama had to say. Anyone who violated those ground rules would “be subject to removal from the conference and denied tickets to future SSAC conferences.”
Reason.com, however, obtained a recording of the speech and posted it on its website. At first glance, it appears that Obama had little reason to be so secretive. A closer look, however, reveals more about the man than what he had to say.
Five things Obama had to say:
1. Google, Facebook, etc., are “a public good as well as a commercial enterprise,” and should be aware of their potential to damage our democracy.
2. It’s okay to argue about how we should address climate change but not to deny the underlying science.
3. The NBA needs a junior league and he might have made it one.
4. Diversity isn’t about “charity or political correctness, it’s just common sense.” That’s why his White House was scandal-free.
5. The stereotype of lazy government employees is wrong. In fact, government workers at the higher levels work far harder than their private sector counterparts.
While some of these points might be argued with on merit there is one glaring statement that stands out: “We didn’t have a scandal that embarrassed us.”
Elaborating on that statement, Obama acknowledged his administrative team made a few mistakes but stayed clear of any major screw-ups. To the laughter of his audience, he took a veiled jab at President Trump when he said, “Generally speaking, you didn’t hear about a lot of drama inside our White House.”
Our team “made a few mistakes” is the nearest Obama came to taking the blame for anything over his eight years in office. Saying that he and his administration had no scandals that caused embarrassment and no major breakdowns in governance show that the former president either has a very short memory or is delusional.
Several conservative journalists have been quick to oblige Obama and his team with a list of scandals and failures that he forgot about. A compilation of the scandals that Obama “didn’t have” includes:
- The IRS targeting religious and conservatives groups.
- Candidate Hillary Clinton’s personal server that she denied knowing about, but did.
- Secretary of State’s Hillary Clinton and her failure in Benghazi.
- Attorney General Eric Holder and the gun running program dubbed Fast & Furious.
- AG Holder held in contempt of court.
- $1.7 billion in cash and gold to Iranian terrorists with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard transporting it per the Ayatollah’s orders.
- Illegal spying on journalists.
- Illegal spying on private citizen Donald Trump’s campaign.
- Obamacare and “you can keep your doctor.”
- Inviting Black Lives Matter terrorists to the White House.
- Open Borders.
- Traitor Bowe Bergdahl welcomed as a hero.
- Overruled by SCOTUS nine times.
- Joe Sestak of the New Black Panthers offered a job to stay out of the Pennsylvania race so Arlen Spector could win.
- The Stimulus theft and no “shovel-ready jobs.”
Before Obama left office, Matt Mackowiak of The Washington Times wrote:
“Mr. Obama is either reeling or delusional … His foreign policy rivals Jimmy Carter’s as a historic disaster. His precipitous, political and irrational pullout from Iraq created the space for Islamic State to flourish … Attempting to ‘reset’ relations with Russia has produced almost nothing of value: Vladimir Putin acts as if there are no repercussions for his aggressive and destabilizing actions, first in Crimea, then in Syria, and likely next in the NATO’s Baltic states. North Korea has a larger nuclear arsenal today than ever before. The Iran deal has been a laughable failure, as the regime has openly violated the agreement.”
He won’t admit his complete failure to act to end Syria’s bloody civil war. He won’t admit he moved the country to the far left over two terms … He won’t admit that his … the threat to overstep his executive powers was short-term smart and long-term stupid, while also being consistently ruled as unconstitutional.
Why there was so much secrecy about a speech that revealed nothing that wasn’t already common knowledge is a mystery. Whether Barack Obama really believes he could do no wrong is not.
~ American Liberty Report
