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from the keeping-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer dept.
Edward Snowden said that from contacts he has had with those in the White House and in President Obama's orbit, "we've come to understand that [Obama] was personally wounded as a result of these disclosures," which prompted Snowden to seek asylum outside the country.
[...] Snowden also addressed the notion of President Obama pardoning him. Based on communications he had with Obama's White House and those in the former president's orbit, Snowden realized he would not receive a pardon because the information Snowden leaked significantly damaged Obama's legacy.
[...] It had long been speculated, leading up to Obama's final hours in office, that he would grant Snowden a 11th hour pardon.
Snowden, however, disputed this notion saying, "I don't think it was a likely case. I'm not even sure it was a possible case, because the president himself was the one most personally embarrassed by these disclosures."
"[Obama] campaigned in 2007...on the platform of saying he would end exactly this kind of warrantless mass surveillance," Snowden continued. "In secret, instead of ending this programs, he entrenched them and expanded them. He made their reach greater, he made their use more common, he normalized what had been an unlawful and unpopular program of the George Bush administration and made it a new American tradition."
Will Obama's legacy come to be, as Snowden seems to suggest, that he normalized police state surveillance?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @07:57PM (2 children)
I really doubt that.
People are rarely remembered because of identity factors. Who was the first black baseball player? Many if not most Americans could tell you it was Jackie Robinson. But the reason he's remembered is because not only was he the first black baseball player, but he was a hell of a good player. To wit, who was the first basketball player? There might be some sports of trivia fanatics out there, but almost nobody is going to be able to tell you. The reason is that he sucked.
And in modern times, race/sex/etc are less relevant than ever. Jackie Robinson overcame at a time when there was major and overt racism. Some people think somebody saying nigger on an internet forum is racism. No, that's somebody acting like a 13 year old idiot. Racism is not being able to use the same bathroom or water fountain as other races, living at a time when jobs regularly and overtly refused to hire blacks, to say nothing of living during a time when random lynchings of blacks -in some cases just for being black- was still a semi-regular occurrence.
I think history might look particularly negatively on Obama ironically because of his charisma. He was an incredible speaker. I got chills during numerous speeches of his and I'm hardly an emotional guy. However, I think it's safe to say he's going to go down in history as an unsuccessful president. He just didn't accomplish much good. His biggest accomplishment was arguably Obamacare. But even that is already failing with many Americans left with only 1 choice and soon to be 0 choices in some locations. His results against his charisma and the expectations are quite stark. In many ways, I think the mass disillusionment he created is, more than anything else, what enabled a person like Trump to get into office.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday June 04 2017, @08:43PM
I would disagree, most people don't remember a lot about past leaders at all, at best most of them can hope for that one thing they managed to do or happened while in office so but trivial identifying factors or trivia can and do matter. Few of them ever do anything that amounts to a large and important political legacy. How many people still associate Reagan with having been an actor? Star Wars? Carter was some farm hick that grew peanuts? I'm sure the list can go on. When was the last president that did something fantastic that changed the nation in its core for the better?
I would say there is, probably, a slight difference between whomever was the first black baseball player and the first black president. As first they'll be remembered for that but also as noted for their actions, this is where Robinson shines and Obama will fail and fade. I do admit that I had to look this up but it seems that at least Robinson was the first black player in the MLB. I do admit to not knowing (or caring) much about baseball so I could be utterly wrong here but whomever was the first one was followed by many others. Robinson is still remembered 70 years later. Today there is apparently ~ 7% of all baseball players that are black (down from the all time high of 18.7% in 1981 -- compare it to Basketball where about 75% of the current players are black, or Hockey where 93% of the players are white -- there seem to be some clear racial divides in pro-sports) I'm sure it's not all due to his blackness but that he was also good. Obama as Robinson will forever be remembered for being the first, but unlike him I guess he won't be remembered for being very good -- there was high hopes for him but he just didn't seem to deliver much change. As noted what was supposed to be his legacy, Obamacare, is already being dismantled -- or about to be. If in 70 years times Obama has been followed by many other black presidents then he might been seen as the trailblazer, if not then is the one time chump that blew it for his entire ethnicity.
This will then be repeated for whomever is the first woman, asian, latino or gay president if, or when, they get elected. A lesbian asian or latina would probably hit the trifecta and be remembered forever.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19185242/mlb-race-gender-report-card-shows-progress-needed [espn.com]
https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/baseball-demographics-1947-2012 [sabr.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @08:43PM
Er, no.
Maybe you forgot, Trump's entry into politics was the selling of a racist conspiracy theory about Obama.
Obama's failures didn't enable Trump. The people who had a collective freak-out about a black man in the white house enabled Trump.