BloggeRhythms

Obama appeared yesterday in what may have been his last press conference as POTUS. Much of the session was dedicated to his outrage at Russia which he claimed, meddled in the presidential election.   

He said his administration didn’t ascribe motives to Russia's alleged meddling ahead of Election Day because he didn’t want to be seen as influencing the outcome in favor of Clinton, or risk exposing the nation's electoral system to greater attack.

He pledged to respond to Russia's actions with punitive measures, offering no details about when or how he might do that. He also suggested that he believed Vladimir Putin knew about the hacking, saying he warned Putin to “cut it out” during an international summit in the fall.

The reason he gave for not denouncing Russia more forcefully in public before the election was because he did not think that would have any effect. 

What’s far more probable, however, is that Russian hacking  was never pursued prior to election day because during that time Obama, Clinton herself and everyone else on the Democrat side believed a loss to Trump was impossible. So, why bother chasing an unlikely rumor?  

As things stand now, the hacking issue can be added to the Democrat party's growing list of causes for the election’s loss, including the dissemination of fake news regarding Clinton, negative information releases by FBI Director James Comey, the email scandal, Anthony Weiner’s cellphone, Fox News and the alt-right.

Yet, on the Democrat side it’s never, ever uttered that the election was lost because Clinton was a weak, ineffective, personally disliked candidate. 

Right after the press conference’s conclusion the Obama’s took off for their annual Christmas vacation trip to Hawaii. Although no one seems to know what the POTUS is vacationing from, because he’s rarely seen doing anything important, Jennifer Harper wrote about the costs of the 17 day sojourn @washingtontimes.com. 

Ms Harper quotes from Judicial Watch which reported that first family’s personal travel expenses have totaled more than $85 million to date. While this year’s total’s still unknown, last year’s cost was $4.8 million, based on estimates from the Freedom of Information Act, including factors such as the cost of aircraft fuel, among other things. 

While in Hawaii, the POTUS will have perfect weather in which to play golf as he contemplates for two weeks plus, about how to deal with the Russians regarding their alleged assistance to Trump’s election win.   

And there may be plenty for the POTUS to ruminate about, because the job the Russians did in helping Trump had to be one of the biggest technological hacks in history.    

While winning 306 electoral votes, the most for a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988, he carried nine of 13 battleground states. He also won more than 2,600 counties nationwide, the most since Reagan in 1984, as well as 62 million votes in the popular vote, the highest all-time for a Republican nominee, according to soon-to-be White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus. 

Considering the size of the hacking job and the number of machines that had to be individually tampered with to bring off Trump's win, those Russians too must be awfully tired and in need of a few weeks in Hawaii themselves.   

And then, in another article, James Oliphant and Emily Stephenson write about Trump’s cabinet picks to date @reuters.com. 

More than 20 nominees have now been selected, with the group appearing to be much like the president-elect himself: Mostly older, white males, many of them wealthy, they see themselves as risk-takers and deal-makers, prizing action over deliberation. 

Saying Washington is "broken" and controlled by special interests, Trump has largely eschewed technocrats with long government experience. Instead, building a team of “bosses.” The roster “conspicuously lacks intellectuals, lawyers, and academics of the sort sought by some past presidents. In their place are titans of business and finance from the likes of Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs and no fewer than three retired generals in key positions.” 

“Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, said Trump is building a cabinet in his own image: blunt-talkers with real-world experience. 

"Surrounding yourself with military guys and money guys sends a certain message," Zelizer said. "A certain kind of cutthroat aggressive dealmaker is how [Trump] imagines himself to be." 

And that brought me to the paragraph that definitively sets the incoming administration diametrically apart from what exists at present: “Obama, who leaves office in January, relied on experienced hands to form his cabinet in 2008. He named his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, as his secretary of state. Robert Gates, who served the previous administration, remained at the Pentagon, and Obama made longtime Justice Department official Eric Holder attorney general.” 

So, here we have a burgeoning team of Trump’s “go-gettum” types who thrive on accomplishment replacing a cadre of self-serving, divisive sycophants. 

While the faults and missteps of Clinton and Holder are very well-known, Gates too fits the bill whereas he’s a statesman, scholar and university president who first served as “W’s” Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. 

Thus, what the nation can now look forward too is a dramatic change in attitude from top to bottom, leadership-wise. Whereas Obama was known as leading from behind, always a day late and a dollar short, it’s now a different kind of game in D.C. 

Because while many on the left and academics fear those having amassed sizable personal fortunes as being too self-focused, that’s really not the case at all. Whereas in the end, who’s the more likely to help those who want to improve their lot in life? Those proven to have done it themselves, or the one’s always having their hands out? 

The answer to that one’s obvious. 

That’s it for today folks. 

Adios