His signature domestic achievement is failing badly, and could soon get worse. His foreign policy crown jewel has been a humiliation. His preferred candidate is experiencing an eleventh-hour polling swoon that has opened up a possible path for this man to become president of the United States. She is once again under FBI investigation, due entirely to the conduct of herself and her inner circle. But trust him, folks -- Barack Obama knows what's up:
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that sexism is to blame for the tight race for the White House, telling an Ohio crowd that "Hillary Clinton is consistently treated differently than just about any other candidate I see out there." Obama went on: "There's a reason we haven't had a woman president." Speaking specifically to "the guys out there," Obama told them to "look inside yourself and ask yourself, if you're having problems with this stuff how much of it is that we're just not used to it?" He noted, "When a guy is ambitious and out in the public arena and working hard, well that's okay, but when a woman suddenly does it, suddenly you're all like, 'Well, why's she doing that? I'm just being honest." The president added that Clinton is "so much better qualified than" Republican Donald Trump. "This notion that it's somehow hard to choose? it shouldn't be."
He's surely aware that this is over-broad, simplistic garbage, but he's saying it anyway because "sexism!" appears to be a major Democratic closing argument this year, along with "I am not a crook!" and "it's the FBI's fault!" Inspiring stuff. Hillary Clinton has led comfortably at various stages of this race (and remains the favorite to win), but the competition has gotten much more competitive at times, based on actual events -- several of them involving criminal federal probes into her national security-compromising conduct, about which she's lied shamelessly and repeatedly. Under Obama's half-assed theory, what explains her erstwhile large advantages? Did "sexism" stage dramatic comebacks that just so happened to coincide with ethical firestorms that flared up, further plaguing a candidate whose trustworthiness has been an Achilles Heel all along? Also, if Obama is searching for that elusive reason for why "we haven't had a woman president," perhaps he should look at his own 'sexist' self in the mirror:
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And he is the one person most responsible for preventing the election of a woman president in 2008. https://t.co/H8F96nSIlQ
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 2, 2016
She was the Democratic frontrunner in a year in which the Republican brand was in the toilet. She would have been president, but for an upstart candidate -- ahem, a man, we must add -- who decided that America wasn't ready for a woman, and who clearly thought he could do a better job than a woman. And misogynistic Democratic voters agreed. That's a stupidly uncharitable reading of events, of course, but that's exactly how Obama is trying to cast opposition to Clinton in this election: Visceral, mindless, and discriminatory; not rooted in policy preferences, or character evaluations. I'd say this brand of cheap demagoguery and scapegoating is beneath him, but it absolutely and demonstrably is not. Meanwhile, here's the latest New York Times apologia about how the weakness of the men around her is to blame for Mrs. Clinton's problems:
I’m enjoying the daily “Hillary’s corruption is the fault of others” pieces in the NYT. Yesterday: GOP. Today: Men. https://t.co/YKmEO4cyL9
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 2, 2016
I'm tempted to call this embarrassing bilge, but the author may have a point: It was men who set up and serviced the improper, unsecure email server Clinton demanded, exclusively used, then lied about at every turn. So men kinda sorta are literally responsible for this mess, if you think about it. One also wonders why didn't Hillary hire women techies to execute these tasks. She probably could have saved money by paying them less, as she tends to do. Anyway, Hillary is making her women-centric final plea to voters over the airwaves this week, trouncing Trump on dollars spent, as she has all campaign long:
1/ Clinton, Dems outspending Trump, NRA almost 2:1 in final week. State-by-state breakdown to follow. https://t.co/AXuyRKvz5l
— Reid Wilson (@PoliticsReid) November 1, 2016
If those investments don't boost her chances, you know exactly who and what to blame. Just ask the president.
UPDATE - And now he's joining in on the Comey bashing, too. To recap, Obama is racing around criticizing his FBI director, scolding African-Americans for underwhelming turnout, and crying sexism. Trying to create a sense of urgency, or desperate? Either way, it certainly doesn't come across as confidence.
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