r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 1d ago

Soft Paywall Obama Breaks Silence on Trump’s ‘Unimaginable’ Presidency - “Imagine if I had done any of this,” the former two-term president said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-breaks-silence-on-trumps-unimaginable-presidency/
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u/UngodlyPain 1d ago

This isn't true. Reagan and Dubya each also got kid gloves too.

Seriously Reagan was allowed to go on national TV and almost explicitly say "I did highly illegal things with Iran Contra and I should probably be impeached then sent to prison... But I'm fucking Reagan, so who cares?" ...

Dubya was also given tons of benefits of the doubt and kid gloves about 9/11, the war on terror, and the entire 2008 financial collapse and the response to it.

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u/Khanscriber 1d ago

Dubya stole the election then failed to prevent 9/11. One or the other is bad, but both should’ve been a (figurative) death sentence.

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u/Pivotalrook 23h ago

I don't think any president could have prevented 9/11 unless they had a crystal ball and wore a giant purple turban.

America wrote their own ticket after arming the Mujahideen, then just peacing out.

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u/mikeh95 22h ago

Actually, had Gore won there was a chance we might have been able to prevent it. A big cause for 9/11 was the transition from Clinton to Bush being delayed due to the election being undecided and Senate confirmations taking forever.

Bush's team didn't have enough time to figure out the attack. All we knew was Bin Laden was planning an attack.

Still, it wasn't anyone's fault. Just worst possible timing on our part.

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u/Pivotalrook 22h ago

It absolutely was America's fault. Rug pulling people after you helped them. Arm the rebels, then turn your back on them...surprised they had some deep seeded resentment to your country?

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u/mikeh95 17h ago

My comment about it being no one's fault was in response to you saying "I don't think any president could have prevented 9/11", not the second part.

If Gore had won, his administration might have been able to prevent the attacks because there probably wouldn't have been that much turnover and they could have figured it out in time.