The Party Uber Alles

After weeks of trying to create a moral panic about the fact that the DNC didn't have adequate computer security, Obama turns the narrative on its head by commuting the sentence of a person who used his position inside the military to give military secrets to Wikileaks.

The question is asked:

//Because Manning was granted clemency, shouldn’t the DNC hacker, whoever he or she is, be let off as well? Otherwise, the message seems to be that actual espionage against the United States for causes Obama seems to favor is just fine, but embarrassing the president’s party and his handpicked successor is a high crime against democracy.//

After eight years we end where we began.

William Jacobson wrote eight years ago:


//Barack Obama also reminds me of many lawyers I have dealt with in my career.   He's the smooth talking lawyer on TV who will get you "the settlement you deserve."  But he has no credibility where it counts because he hasn't beaten the insurance companies at trial.  He is a paper lawyer who fools only his own clients.  So Barack Obama can promise "tough diplomacy" with the likes of Iran, but he hasn't fought the tough fights that would cause dictators and tyrants to take him seriously.

Barack Obama also is the deep thinker who ponders great things.  And the thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness.  He doesn't write biographies, he writes only autobiographies.  He gives speeches which he declares to be historic.  He recognizes his place in history long before he has created history.  This nation is but a stage upon which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it's all about him.

Yet Barack Obama has never been in one place long enough to make a real difference, or to fight the hard fights.  He was a community activist for a few years, then a law student, then in private practice for not too long, then a state senator for not too long, then a United States Senator for not too long.  The paint was barely dry in his Senate office when he began running for President.  Barack Obama's career is a series of not-too-long positions, each one more grand than the one before it.

Yet what great achievement has Barack Obama obtained other than his own political advancement?  What historic law did he author, what historic court case did he argue, what historic battle did he fight, what cause greater than himself warranted more than a passing interest in his historic life?  If my life were on the line, I wouldn't hire Barack Obama as my lawyer.  I'd be concerned that he'd be up late at night working on a draft of his book about how my case affected his life.//