Bill Straub: Despite host of critics, Obama will go down as one of our most consequential presidents

LONDON – The man much of Kentucky loves to hate, a Kenyan pretender who openly worships Allah and has waged a sickening war against white people over the past eight years, is finally moving out of the Oval Office and into the ignominy he deserves.

Barak Hussein (ha ha, Hussein) Obama has led this great nation down the garden path for too long and it’s time the reins of power be turned over to a real American – billionaire businessman Donald J. Trump, a white guy with a sound attitude and wise judgment – to make this country great again.

Who cares if Obama led the charge to assure that more Americans, about 20 million, including those in underserved areas like Eastern Kentucky, obtained life-saving health insurance that they wouldn’t have been privy to without the Affordable Care Act? Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, and others contend it’s a failure, so who are you going to believe, McConnell or that other fellow?

So what if Obama assumed office during the biggest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, saved the auto industry and put America back to work, taking the Bluegrass State from an unemployment rate of 10.9 percent in June 1981, about five months after assuming office, to the current 4.8 percent, lower than the commonwealth’s long-term average of 6.9 percent?

The country as a whole has suffered from 75 straight months of job growth – a record.

But Obama had nothing to do with that. If you go back when a real American, St. Ronald Reagan, was president, you’ll find unemployment in Kentucky rose to 12.1 percent in February 1983 – more than two years after he took office – before finally falling to 6.8 percent at the time he departed – two points higher than Obama but, hey, as we said before, he was a real president.

It’s also worth mentioning that St. Reagan’s trickle-down economics only worked after Paul Volker and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in June 1981 to finally combat inflation, setting off the revolution. Obama, as usual, took the easy way out – creating jobs to address some of the nation’s infrastructure needs.

Obama, unlike St. Reagan, of course, who bravely sent our troops into Grenada for lord knows what reason other than to prove the U.S. still had an army, cowardly saved untold numbers of lives by reducing the nation’s commitment in places like Afghanistan and Iraq while making a big deal out of killing one measly little bugger named bin Laden, acting as if the poor guy had done something wrong.

And of course Obama the braggart is trying to make a big deal about the fact that his eight-year administration was scandal-free, nobody on the take or anything like that, once again failing to measure up to the great St. Reagan – who should be on Mt. Rushmore, after all – who had only one minor issue over selling arms to Iran despite an embargo brought on by the taking of American hostages and then sending the ill-gotten gains to Contra rebels in Nicaragua despite a law prohibiting such transactions.

Some people said St. Reagan should have been impeached. For what? Breaking the law? They all do that. Except for Obama.

And while Obama has taken several steps to address this bogus global climate change business, St. Reagan appointed Anne Gorsuch Burford to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and she wanted nothing to do with protecting the climate, even opposing initiatives to phase out lead in gasoline before she resigned, leaving the agency in a shambles.

And, by god, Obama took our guns away. Well, maybe not. Never mind. But, by god, he did raise our taxes. Well, not really, unless you make $250,000 a year.

Okay, folks, enough of that nonsense.

Barak Obama will do down in history as one of America’s most consequential presidents, whether most Kentuckians agree or not. His actions helped place the economy back on track, he toiled to provide health care to millions who never had it before, presided over significant cultural shifts by paving a path to bring gay and lesbian folks into the mainstream, took desperately needed steps to address the climate and even served when the stock market neared the magic 20,000 mark.

For all that, in most quarters of Kentucky, the mention of his name is met with a seething rage. People say the most terrible and outrageous things about Obama and his family, usually neglecting to cite any specific action he has taken but often colored by race. A public official in West Virginia called his wife, Michelle Obama, “an ape in heels.’’ He and his family, who resided in the White House without the slightest hint of scandal, handled that and other scurrilous comments with aplomb by simply moving on.

Most of the country grew to appreciate Obama and his accomplishments. On Tuesday, Rasmussen Reports, a generally Republican survey, reported that he is leaving office with a 62 percent approval rating – just about tying Reagan at 63 percent upon his departure — with 38 percent voicing disapproval. Gallup, with the longest experience tracking his approval, but it at 57 percent.

Those figures would undoubtedly be lower in Kentucky, where Obama received 38 percent of the vote in his 2012 re-election bid against Republican Mitt Romney. By comparison, his successor, Trump, whose middle name is scandal, having racked up so many outrages they’re too numerous to count, captured 62.5 percent of the vote last November.

Analysts cite several reasons Obama has been slighted by the Kentucky electorate, with coal leading the list. The Obama administration has, indeed, imposed new clean air standards, aimed at reducing global climate change and improving the nation’s overall health, which had a severe impact on the commonwealth’s coal industry.

But that industry has been declining for years, resulting from factors like played out seams and the emergence of natural gas. It started during the administration of Obama’s predecessor, former President George W. Bush, and it will continue through the administration of his successor, despite promises to the contrary. There remains fewer than 4,000 jobs in the Easter Kentucky coal fields. It would be better if they started preparing for the new economy than blaming Obama for the decline.

Then there’s the argument about economic inequality – that the rich have benefitted more from the Obama economy than those in the middle. And, indeed, figures generally support that claim, citing factors like advancing technology, tax policy and capital gains as the biggest reasons. It supposedly explains why Trump carried Ohio and other Midwestern states during his successful campaign.

But a president, regardless of how powerful he or she may be cannot snap his or her fingers and force employers to hike up salaries to beneficial levels. The market, which operates much too freely, addresses these matters. Here’s an idea – how about a return to organized labor? That will jack up take-home pay, not the whims of whoever is sitting as president.

Kentucky just went in the worst direction possible in regard to middle class salaries – transforming itself into an inaccurately named right-to-work state. That’s not Obama’s doing, that results from the representatives sent to Frankfort by the good people of the commonwealth.

But no. The biggest reason for Obama’s lack of popularity in the Bluegrass is white folks who believe his policies have favored African-Americans and Latinos to their detriment. Kentucky is 88 percent white and the commonwealth’s voters, as evidence, cite instances where Obama suggested that law enforcement officials may want to stop shooting unarmed black men.

They seem to believe that Obama favors permitting blacks and browns to cut in line ahead of the white folks who, of course have never benefitted from the privileges historically provided to the paler members of American society. There’s no evidence to back the claim, only the perception because Obama is an African-American who, to many people, would naturally support his “own kind.’’

Kentucky has been grappling with perceptions like that for a long and it’s something the commonwealth will have to get a grip on sooner or later.

A lot of folks, guys like McConnell, are now dismissing Obama’s accomplishments with a flick of the hand, asserting that they are ephemeral and will be gone before long, especially in the area of Obamacare and the environment.

But the true onus will not be on Obama, who set the proper course, but on them. Opposing those initiatives will almost certainly place them on the wrong side of history.

Did I mention Obama also does a mean Rev. Al Green imitation?

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.