Obama fail

In today’s TMI (Too Much Information) world, it seems as if it would be well-nigh impossible to have an old-time gossip dragon like a Louella Parsons holding deep, dark secrets and innuendos gleaned from ‘close associates’ over a celebrity’s head.

Are there any secrets anymore?

The rumors about Barack and Michelle Obama’s marriage won’t go away, and that’s largely because neither of them has bothered to deny them. Despite media portrayals suggesting that Michelle has addressed the speculation, what we keep getting are vague, rehearsed soundbites that avoid saying anything definitive. Her excuse for skipping Trump’s inauguration — that she “had nothing to wear” — was laughable, especially coming from a former first lady with unlimited resources. And her brother’s attempt to vouch for the couple on a podcast only raised more eyebrows. 

As desperate, phony, and even dangerous of a campaign Democrats ran this year, and as embarrassing as the outcome was for all of them, nobody came out looking more pathetic than Barack Obama. From 2024’s vantage point, is there any way to look at his legacy but as a tragic blight on American history?

In the final months of the campaign, Obama seemed to know the outcome of the election would say just as much about him as it would about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Donald Trump. And, like all realistic Democrats, he knew that the nominee he supported was on track to lose. His behavior in those days was nothing short of appalling.

In June, the memoir of veteran publisher and editor Peter Osnos, An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen, was released with minimal fanfare. Although he sanitizes his experience as the publisher of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, Osnos lets slip a detail that could transform Obama’s reputation from “the best writer to occupy the White House since Lincoln” to the best plagiarist to occupy the White House before Biden.