The people who like to brand Barack
Obama's presidency as a “failure” are saying more about
themselves than Obama or about their understanding of politics. Like
baseball Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson (1919-72), Obama broke new
ground in the USA and has had to put up with relentless mean-spirited attacks to
block his way and undermine his efforts.
During Robinson's career with
the Brooklyn Dodgers (1947-56), not only were there ballplayers who deliberately tried to injure him, there were fans of a certain mindset
who claimed he really wasn't all that good. Some still say it. Of course they
had to overlook his Rookie of the Years award in 1947. Same with his
Most Valuable Player award in 1949. Same with his six times being
selected as a National League All-Star. Robinson received those honors in
spite of the abject racism in the air in those days, attitudes that
blinded some of those who were voters.
Fortunately, Robinson's stats still speak for
themselves – .311 lifetime batting average; 197 stolen bases, etc. It should be noted that he didn't start his 10-year MLB career until he was 28 years old.
Like Robinson's accomplishment's were, Obama's have been made as part of a team, and they were made
in spite of relentless focused efforts to undermine him and deny him
fair treatment. Today, 59 years after Robinson's last game in a Dodgers uniform, those who
assert that Obama has been a failure as a president obviously have no
interest in speaking the truth. Some of them are still claiming he's a closet Muslim who was born in Kenya.
As it has turned out with history's view of Jackie Robinson, historians will know what label to put
on all that crap. And, in my view Obama has been the most successful president in a long time, maybe since the days when Robinson was pissing off racists.
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