Sour Grapes

The contrast between how Obama dealt with Iran and how Trump does is so dramatic that it makes Obama supporters uncomfortable. Here is a typical liberal quote: “I’m kinda happy that this evil man Soleimani is dead ... but, but I still want to blame Trump for something. Let’s see, perhaps he didn’t think things all the way through to 2034? Or perhaps Trump will certainly have blood on his hands when the Iranians strike back.” (Not that this Iran Revolutionary Guard leader didn’t kill and wound thousands of Americans already.) Or even, maybe this was Trump’s attempt to distract the public from his impeachment.

All rubbish! What’s the saying? “Having your cake and eating it too?” Particularly if topped with sour grapes.

The Bully

Although he presented himself as an upstanding student, he was, in fact, a terrible bare-knuckled bully. And he had assembled around himself a number of like-minded aggressive poltroons … so many, in fact, that they once outnumbered their schoolyard victims. They would confiscate from the meek their lunch money or sift through any unhidden lunch bags for the more luscious items. They forced many of the smarter students to do their homework and to keep their quizzes and test uncovered so that they were easily copied. They brewed up numerous hazing rituals whose only purpose was the humiliation of their victims. Yet, the bully and most of his cronies regularly attended Sunday school, dressed fairly well, went through the motions of community outreach (volunteering at food pantries, taking their pets to senior centers, etc.) and appeared to most adults to be perfect teenagers. They were even elected, generally out of fear or naïveté, to most of the student government offices.

Even the school administration and the local constabulary were not really clued into the severity of the trouble-making by this group of bad actors. Yes, there were occasional complaints, but they were mostly ignored by higher-ups as being sour grapes. Didn’t these kids get good grades, often run things, and volunteer in the community? Finally, like in the movie, A Christmas Story, one of their perennial victims couldn’t take it any more and snapped. When the number-one bully threw a snowball hitting him right in the face, he went wild, attacking the bully with arms flailing and spittle spewing from his bleeding lip. He wailed on the bully. He quickly had him pinned down and mewling for help. Even this bully’s compatriots seemed reluctant to aid him because this one act of rebellion had quickly spread to the rest of their erstwhile victims. They had been transformed into a posse standing up to this outlaw gang. They even shouted down the bullies and dared them to act to help their leader.

And the next day, this very same bully went to the school principal and unashamedly ask that the school start a program to stop such violence as he was subjected to the previous day. He also suggested, with his halo shining brightly if a bit askew, that yesterday’s posse be castigated for their ganging up on his pals and that they be punished for their hate speech. That afternoon the principal called an assembly of the entire student body and the now angelic bully gave a very moving talk about how everyone should be less hostile to one another and now sit together in classes and school assemblies. Most of the unclued-in students cheered and did the wave

If you haven’t already guessed it, the above vignette is an allegory for something much bigger that is happening today on the U.S. political scene. Can you guess what it is?

Sour Grapes

Here are a few of Obama's recent sour-grapes comments:

“And then there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the president.”

"When we passed a bill earlier this summer to help states save jobs -- the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and nurses and police officers and firefighters that were about to be laid off -- they said no. And the Republican who thinks he's going to take over as speaker [John Boehner]... when he was asked about this, he dismissed those jobs as 'government jobs' that weren't worth saving. That's what he said, I'm quoting -- 'government jobs.'"

“Looks like the ‘Tan-Man’ [Boehner] keeps drinking from the tanning oil bottle with his buds.”

“We've got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox [News] is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

“ What I'm seeing out of the Republican leadership over the last several years has been a set of policies that are just irresponsible. And we saw in their 'Pledge to America' a similar set of irresponsible policies.”

“ [The GOP Pledge promotes] the very same policies that led to the economic crisis in the first place. It is grounded in the same worn-out philosophy: cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires; cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests; and cut the middle class loose to fend for itself. That’s not a prescription for a better future. It’s an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.”

“After they [the Republicans] drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want to keys back. No! You can’t drive. We don’t want to have to go back into the ditch. We just got the car out.”

"It is inexcusable [for Democrats] to stand on the sidelines [this election year, given the prospect of big Republican gains]."

“Folks [Liberal audience] wake up! This is not some academic exercise. As Joe Biden put it, Don’t compare us to the Almighty, compare us to the alternative.”

"People [Democrat voters] need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up, if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks [his voters in 2008] weren't serious in the first place.”

All delivered in that snide, haughty, condescending, cadenced, high-handed, smirking manner that typifies Obama.  I ask, do these swipes sound Presidential?