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Just as his limited rsum and celebrity candidacy helped open the door for President Trumps run, his politicking since leaving office may be setting a dangerous precedent.

In a break from modern tradition, former President Barack Obama appears to be wading back into political waters.

Its coming. [President Obama is] coming, former Attorney General Eric Holder told a gaggle of reporters last month. And hes ready to roll.

We dont know the scope of involvement he has planned. The New York Times, though, reported that Obamas team rushed to preserve intelligence regarding possible contacts between Trumps presidential campaign and Russia. That since leaving office, Obama tapped Holder to chair a new group focused on helping Democrats with redistricting efforts, while his loyal holdovers are leaking secrets about the Trump administration.

For all the talk about Trumps atypical behavior, the Obama camps unfolding machinations feel almost equally unprecedented.

Jimmy Carter threw himself into philanthropy, observes presidential historian David Pietrusza, but also took up oil and canvas, as did U.S. Grant, Dwight Eisenhower, and George W. Bush, who threw himself into folk art. Theodore Roosevelt took after his successors, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, with hammer and tongs. It is up to Obama whether he paints or smears.

One could argue that Obamas choice is both acceptable and appropriate. Hes young, just 55, and you could even say that its his civic responsibility to do everything within his power to check Trumps authoritarian tendencies.

This is the justificationor possibly a rationalizationfor what Obama appears to be doing. [I]f the only way to protect norms is to destroy norms, writes The Atlantics David A. Graham, the effect is a feedback doom-loop for norms in general.

The ends justify the means. He has to destroy the village in order to save it.

To be sure, Trump, too, has played into that destructive feedback loop throughout his campaign and now his candidacy, as when he tweeted Saturday about Obama supposedly wiretapping him during the campaign, andin still another example of Trump reflecting attacks aimed at him back at his enemiessaid of Obama This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

Trump also recently told Fox News he thinks President Obama is behind [the disruptive protests happening at Republican town halls] because his people certainly are behind it. Is this another outlandish Trump claim?

Perhaps, but there also may be some merit. Organizing for Action, a successor to the Obama campaign, is urging progressives to attend Republican town hall meetings.

The fact that Obama has decided to remain in Washington, D.C., is both unusual and symbolic. True, a retired Woodrow Wilson also remained in Washington, but he had reasons. He had remarried a Washington widow, possessed no private home to return to and was too sick to do much more than privately fume about a presidency gone wrong.

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Obama, however, will remain politically active; that break with tradition is simply another aspect of his political abnormality. The truth is that Barack Obama bears a lot of responsibility for destroying what had been acceptable standardsthe destruction of which ultimately made possible Donald Trumps ascendancy. While Obama now poses as a defender of decorum, tradition, and protocol, he (in a much subtler way) flouted convention.

This is a guy who, in not even a single term as a U.S. senator before running for the highest office in the land, accomplished little but did try to filibuster Sam Alitos nomination to the Supreme Court, and supported a poison pill to kill immigration reform. Who ran as a celebrity, helping pave the way for the sort of hero worship that President Trumps fans now employ.

He won office at a time when America felt like it was already coming apart, and given the opportunity to be a true post-partisan leader who could unite the country, chose instead to run a highly partisan and ideological presidency. That began with his choice of the divisive issue of health care reform as his landmark legislationObamacare being Obamas original sinusing every means necessary to pass it on a party-line vote. And he frequently resorted to unilateral decisions outside the scope of his constitutional authority. Sound familiar?

Along the way, he got us used to a lot of things that his team is now accusing Donald Trump of inventing. Think Donald Trump is an undignified reality star? Yeah, remember the time that Obama gave an interview to a YouTube star who drinks cereal out of a bathtub? Cultural degradation doesnt just happen overnight.

Do you think President Trump was the first politician to have a casual relationship with the truth? Then answer this: Who said, If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor and that ISIS is the JV team?

Dont get me wrongin his outward demeanor and rhetoric, Obama generally acted much more like a traditional politician than does Trump. But while the narrative seems to be that Obama was kind and normaland that Republicans were mean and obstructionistit takes two to tango. Dont forget that Obama curtly told Republicans I won when they were first trying to negotiate with him.

Yet, his faade masked a partisan motivation that harmed not only the nation and the Constitution but also his own party. Now, he may harm his party yet again because a too-active ex-president possesses its own risks. Theodore Roosevelts post-presidential political resurrection deterred the rise of any alternative Republican progressives, such as a Robert La Follette, a Hiram Johnson, or a William E. Borah. A still-active, Washington-based Obama may similarly retard the ascent of badly needed new Democratic leadership, much as any sitting president eclipses his own party.

By turning his term into a never-ending, eight-year campaign, Obama established a non-traditional presidency which begat an even more non-traditional president as his successor. He will open even more previously-locked doors by continuing his tradition of ignoring tradition.

Hastened by those who should know better, the erosion and devolution of discourse is already finding easy footholds in an already-surreal Trump Presidency. The reverberations, sadly, could echo far beyond the four or eight years of the current administration and tinge Presidential politics for a generation or more.

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Barack Obamas Politically Active Post-Presidency Isnt ...

In a report demonstrating the collapse in diplomatic relations between the current and previous president, the WSJ wrote overnight that rapport between Barack Obama and Donald Trump has "unraveled" with Trump "convinced that Mr. Obama is undermining his nascent administration" while Obama is "furious" over Trump tweets accusing him of illegal wiretapping. The WSJ notes that after shaking hands on Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, the two presidents havent spoken since, "although Trump tried to call Obama to thank him for the traditional letter that one president leaves for his successor in the Oval Office." The reason: Obama was traveling at the time and the two never connected.

As an amusing aside, the WSJ adds that the rift is distancing Mr. Trump from a former two-term president "who had offered to give private advice and counsel as the onetime businessman settles into his first job in public office." Of course, if Trump is correct and Obama did in fact order a wiretap of the Trump Tower, Obama was actively seeking to impair the Trump campaign and chances for presidency, so that statement may seem a little suspect in retrospect.

Accuracy of the report notwithstanding, it is obvious that the bad blood between the two people has grown to unprecedented levels: Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the open friction has upended tradition, an almost unwritten rule that you treat your predecessor with a degree of grace and decorum.

There are these kinds of things that have happened in the past, but nothing to the degree where a sitting president would charge his predecessor with a felony, Mr. Brinkley said. It creates a feeling of instability in the United States.

Whether real or imagine, Trump and other White House officials believe that Obama loyalists sprinkled throughout the federal bureaucracy are behind leaks that are damaging his personnel, White House officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Obama wouldnt comment to the WSJ on the claim. In fact, as NewsMax CEO Christopher Ruddy, a friend of Mr. Trump who sees him on weekends at the presidents Mar-a-Lago, said in an interview: From what Im hearing, Trumps people think Obama is at war with them.

This president has been under siege since Day One from both the press and Obama loyalists and hes reacting to it, Mr. Ruddy said. I dont think theres any doubt that Obama loyalists inside the administration and outside are giving Donald Trump a lot of grief and a lot of problems.

As is well-known by now, the animosity between Trump and Obama hit a climax last weekend, when Trump responded to recent allegations of ties to Russia by tweeting How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

Keeping a low profile in post-presidency, Obama - who is currently writing a book for which he will receive tens of millions in proceeds - had decided he wouldnt respond to every intemperate Trump tweet, an aide said. "But he was livid over the accusation that he bugged the Republican campaign offices, believing that Mr. Trump was questioning both the integrity of the office of the president and Mr. Obama himself, people familiar with his thinking said."

Ironically, as the WSJ adds, Obama had been critical of leaks when he was president, specifically those related to the Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into the email use of Mrs. Clinton, his former secretary of state. He was very quick to condemn it then and obviously his silence now is notable, one White House official said Tuesday. Obama, in an interview with the mobile news outlet NowThis News just days before the November election, said that when it comes to investigations we dont operate on innuendo, we dont operate on incomplete information, we dont operate on leakswe operate based on concrete decisions that are made.

For now, Trump's attacks on Obama continue, first responding to a Fox News report yesterday when he claimed incorrectly that a number of Guantanamo Bay detainees who returned to the battlefield were released under Mr. Obamas watch (most were released under President Bush), followed by calling Obamacare a total disaster and said Mr. Obama had allowed Russia to grow stronger and stronger over eight years in office.

So far, Obama and his spokesman have not responded to those tweets; it is unclear how long the former president can hold his silence.

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Obama "Furious" With Trump Over Wiretapping Allegations ...

When former first lady Michelle Obama walked into a D.C. high school classroom, the stunned students erupted in tears. One student even darted out of the classroom to regain her composure before she could sit next to her.

Obama, who still lives in Washington, made a surprise visit Tuesday to Ballou STAY High School to speak with 14 students for two hours. Upon arriving, she hugged each of them before taking her seat in the circle.

Once she came in, it was an inspirational feeling, said Alliyah Williams, 18. She was so sweet and warm. She was like a mom.

[Watch Michelle Obama crash these D.C. classrooms and surprise students.]

After visiting the public alternative high school in Southeast Washington, she tweeted Always love visiting DC schools. Thank you for hosting me today @BallouSTAY. Stories of students #reachinghigher continue to inspire me. The tweet referenced the White House initiative Reach Higher she launched to encourage students to continue their education.

Mrs. Obama had an emotional and heartfelt discussion with the students, Caroline Adler Morales, a spokeswoman for the former first lady, wrote in an email. There were tears, laughs and lots of hugs.

While the Obamas shared a close rapport with D.C. Public Schools, the relationship with the Trump administration has had a rocky start. Protesters greeted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos when she visited a D.C. school last month. DeVos later criticized teachers, prompting the school to send 11 tweets defending itself.

The previous White House occupants are still D.C. residents, renting a house in the Kalorama neighborhood at least while their youngest daughter finishes high school.

[One of Michelle Obamas legacies in D.C.? This nonprofit.]

Ballou STAY principal Cara Fuller said she learned of the visit an hour before, although the students didnt know until Obama walked in. Students had been expecting a discussion with new D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson, so Fuller had selected the students to participate.

Fuller said the students ranged in age from 16 to 23. Four have children, some live in shelters, and others had been expelled from previous schools.

I think she really just wanted a school and a group of students who are typically counted out to know that they themselves are amazing and wonderful and have the talents that they need to be successful, Fuller said.

Fuller said Obama led an informal discussion, with students asking her how she met the former president and how she survived as first lady. In response to one question, Obama said she has no presidential aspirations, saying that she didnt have the freedom to crack open a window in the White House because of security. Students also asked for her thoughts on Trump.

They just asked what her thoughts were on the current president and they were deeply concerned about the rhetoric that has been going around, she said.

At one point, a student told Obama of her struggles living in a shelter, and Obama walked the student through steps she could take to achieve her goals. Another student, Williams, told the former first lady she wants to be an anesthesiologist.

She told me not to let anything get in the way, and she said dont go back and help everyone until you get where you want to be, said Williams, who has a 2-year-old son.

Fuller said one student, 18-year-old Vonte Walker, had never talked about his ambitions in school. Since Obamas visit, hes been telling the staff of his college plans.

She motivated me, Walker said.

Fuller recalled Obama calling a young mother in the class a superstar and listening to a student who said his biggest fear was making minimum wage at 40.

These are students, students who no one says positive things to you generally, and it was really just to affirm their journey, Fuller said.

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Michelle Obama surprises D.C. students, talks struggles and ...

At a candidates forum in early 2015, then presidential candidate Trump without a blink said, I dont know if he loves America. The he Trump referred to was, of course, former President Obama. The slap at Obama was simply the latest in Trumps by then three-year campaign to vilify, impugn, slander, and harass Obama as not only not an American citizen, but as an illegitimate President. Trumps ruthless, near obsessive, vendetta of lies against Obama paid big dividends early on. It got him briefly in the hunt for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. That made him a political household name. Three years later, in 2015, it got him to the top of the GOP presidential pack and kept him there during the primaries. It then got him the biggest prize of all, the White House.

Obama from the start was Trumps political meal ticket. When things got dull or there was a momentary rough patch on the campaign trial, Trump had Obama as his ready-made whipping boy. Nothing has changed. With Democrats screaming for answers about Trumps relations with Russia and Putin, and even some GOP leaders feeling the heat and making weak soundings about a probe or two here and there, Trump quickly trotted out his Obama meal ticket. This time its the ludicrous claim that Obama wiretapped him during the campaign, complete with the demand that Congress investigate Obama. Its tempting to simply chalk this up as yet another Trump ploy to deflect attention from his Russia connection, and in part it is. But theres more, much more to this.

Trumps persistent use of Obama as his foil isnt just to slander his presidency. Its to slander him. It isnt just political, it is personal. The two cant be separated. Trump repeatedly made clear during the early stages of his campaign that if he got in the White House hed sign any and every executive order he could to try and halt, gut, or obliterate every initiative that Obama had ever put in place. Hes been as good as his word.

Trumps assault on Obamas initiatives normally would have been the end of it. Presidents from an opposing party to varying degrees quickly sign executive orders to roll back some of their predecessors initiatives and actions when they take office. However, Trumps obsessive attacks on Obama have another aim beyond mere personal vindictiveness and deflecting attention from his disastrous administration. It sends the strong signal to his base that he will try and demolish everything that they loathed about Obama; not just his policies, but what he personally stood for.

Obama was an eight-year embarrassment to the chronic Obama haters. He was liberal. He was a Democratic. And most odious to them, he was black. Tea Party demonstrators greeted Obama at many stops during his first two years in office with placards, signs and pictures that depicted him in the most lewd, grotesque and often animal-like characterizations. This went way beyond the bounds of normal political attacks and criticism of a president. It was blatantly personal, and showed the depth of the personal distaste many had for Obama and they were not shy about showing it.

Trump at points during his campaign made no effort to correct or reprimand anyone at his townhalls and rallies who got up and vilified Obama in personal terms. This reinforced the point that Trump would make again and again that Obama was not fit from a political or personal standpoint to occupy the White House.

Even Trumps very belated acknowledgement that Obama was an American citizen was said matter of factly. There was absolutely no elaboration, let alone showing any sign of contrition for waging his ruthless and prolonged campaign to slur him as an alien.

Trump set the template early in his political game about how to go after Obama. That was to pithily toss out a sensational, outrageous accusation against or about Obama without a shred of evidence to back it up and then sit back and watch the media plaster it out as a headline or top headline news feature. The damage was done and the mission of getting tongues wagging about Obama and legions believing there must be some truth to it was accomplished.

The wiretapping charge fits the pattern to the letter. Trump doubled down on that by demanding a Congressional probe into it. The hope is that the more who believe theres any truth to this will serve to whittle away yet another tiny chunk from Obamas well-established legacy of personal honor and integrity.

The charge will, of course, go nowhere because its another Trump lie. But thats less important than making the accusation, and getting the media and public headline hit on Obama. This wont be the end. We can be sure that Trump wont rest until hes destroyed Obamas political legacy, and Obama as well.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of In Scalias Shadow: The Trump Supreme Court ( Amazon Kindle). He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

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Trump Aims To Destroy Obama Politically And Personally

By Elura Nanos, Law Newz

Remember when Donald Trump threatened to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault for defamation? Or when he threatened to sue the New York Times? Or when he filed that ridiculous lawsuit against Bill Maher for joking that hed been the result of orangutan sex? Were used to Trumps crying slander! at every turn but what about former President Obama? Could he sue Donald Trump for accusing him of having wiretapped Trump Tower?

Lets face it, the idea of Barack Obama squaring off against Donald Trump in a courtroom would be nothing short of show-stopping, even if its just a civil courtroom, and even if its not for impeachment purposes. By now, Obama must have had his fill of unfounded Trump-inspired accusations about everything from his citizenship to his religion; he would hardly appear thin-skinned if he attempted to hold Trumps feet to the fire over claims of campaign corruption and misuse of power. Likely, though, even assuming Trump is lying about the wiretapping in the tweet below, theres not much of a case.

Defamation (libel, for anything written, such as Trumps tweet, and slander for anything spoken) has several requirements beyond simply proving that someone told a lie. For one, Plaintiff Obama would need to prove that the lie damaged his reputation. In many cases, the making of a negative false statement clearly damages the victims reputation; but when it comes to President Trump, things are markedly different. The combination of Trumps serious credibility problem with Obamas ever-skyward popularity simply does not add up to an obvious damage to reputation. Those who love Obama probably wouldnt be swayed by anything President Trump says, and the haters would surely remain haters. Kind of a net-zero on the whole reputation thing.

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Could Obama Sue Trump for Libel Over Wiretapping Accusation ...