Do Progressives take the bus, or are they driving their Tesla's to the Ivy in Santa Monica for Sunday brunch? Progressives are really an obnoxious self-absorbed vile lily white movement. They don't mix well with people of color do they, at least that's my observation when I'm in LA for the rare meeting, function, event, etc.

I trust you are not one of those egalitarian sorts that believe in a all encompassing ubiquitous "It takes a village" type government?

How do we get the independents, moderates, incrementalists, which are 50% of the population, to take over the debate about the future of this country? Or maybe we need a good old garden variety revolution where the other 50% is taken out.  

Let me end this in a simple way. As long as you exist. I want, no I demand, the "at heart nationalist with a furor for totalitarianism" (your words) to exist in order to counter the 20% of the population that are Progressives. It's kinda my version of Yin and Yang for two groups that I despise.  

...I disagree with you that all things being equal he was positive force and believe that rise of Donald Trump lies squarely on his shoulders, that he could've done so much to improve race relations in America in relation to what they were before but as a result of his nearsightedness, and let's face it, his inexperience as politician and inability to be more of an American and less of a "black" president I don't remember race relations to be that bad since late 70s. And I'm sorry but it's all on him.  

Oh I can already hear how littlegirl30, the integral part of our three stooges team ChoosyCynic, bigguy/littlegirl30 and Laffy, is screaming: "R-r-racist!" Whatever. People like her gave us Obama, while, alas, but the other side of the same coin is set to provide us with Trump.  

But back to the points you made WickedBrut. It's not surprising that you're using almost exactly the same words as Bush people did after W left office. "In the future", they said, "Bush is going to be looked at as a great president." I personally have my doubts about that, even more so then of what you said in regards to Obama. Because Obama is the 1st black president and I know no matter what happens he is going to be looked at as "great" just because of that, no matter what else he did or did not do. It's just a nature of this society. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just "is".  

Simply on merit however I personally look at the last 16 years as the years of Bush/Obama presidency which followed general tranquility of Bill Clinton. Bush turned Middle East upside down, Obama made it even worse (if you want to discuss how, challenge me on that and I'll spell it out for you in my next post). West's relationship with Russia hasn't been as bad since the Cold War. Obama bears large share of responsibility for that too. China is getting more and more brazen but to be fair I don't think anybody could've done anything about that.

Economy... between you and I I don't see that much difference between Bush years and Obama years. You may point to the unemployment numbers but you know that these numbers are irrelevant, that they cover only those actively looking for a job. In reality the number of unemployed is probably larger then in Bush's times. I hear numbers from 5%(unemployment rate) to 42% (Trump of course) and everything in between. I personally suspect that it's somewhere around 20-25%. My friends seem to be loosing jobs at about the same rate now as they were in the middle of Bush years.  

The main positive aspect of Obama presidency that I see is the general sense of empowerment that I feel among my African-American friends. For them he is a symbol and that's great. But that hasn't changed since 2008. Back then I remember my friends were telling me that "you gotta understand! This is an incredible thing that just happened!" I did then and I do now. But that goes only to who he is not to what he did while he was in office.  

Alright, you may say, what about the Health Care? Many may disagree but I personally think that it's a great thing. Kudos to Obama for that. His successor whether it's Hillary or Trump (see how he is changing on immigration? He'll do the same on Health Care) will more then likely take it to its logical conclusion and establish the Universal Health Care for all, long overdo.  

So to me Obama was good in only two things as a symbol for African-Americans and for moving the United States towards Universal Health Care. In everything else he sucked.  

I suspect he'll be remembered for those two things in 16 years. Will they overshadow his other failures? I don't know. I suspect it would depend on how bad Middle East gets after Obama, and whether next president would be able to make economy feel better not only by looking at official economic indicators.  

Now, all that being said I agree with you that in what he would decide to do Obama was very effective as well as together with the W. one of the most decisive presidents that I can remember. I for example don't see Mitt Romney ordering the raid on Osama bin Laden, but I also don't see Romney turning his ships around after he announced to the whole world that he was going to punish Syria too. So we agree on Obama being effective, we just disagree on whether with all things being equal Obama's effectiveness and decisiveness was more for the better then for the worse.

You say perhaps 33% of voters may support Trump.  Well, a big portion of those 33% are doing so only because the alternative is Hillary Clinton.  That big portion of the 33% is far from being white nationalists or bloodthirsty thugs.

And my opinion of Obama is mostly based not on whatever list of accomplishments his legacy-writers come up with but more on his lack of leadership and his "me first" over "country first" attitude.  The man may be a good father, good husband, inspirational speaker and all-around good guy but he is an absolute atrocious leader.  At least in my opinion.  You, and others, are certainly entitled to your own viewpoints.  After all, that's what makes America great.  And it isn't in need of being made "great again.

The sad part is, my guess is that English is truly your first language so somewhere our educational system failed in that regard.

But, on to your points.

President Obama's high approval ratings have little if anything to do with his accomplishments while in office.  His ratings are high because people like him. Period.  He has a great smile, a great family, a great sense of humor. He is the first minority representative in the White House and has the full -- as he should -- support and love of nearly all African-Americans.  People give him a great approval rating but have no idea what he has done or even what he is supposed to do as President.  And, sadly, that is one of the faults of today's America.  Actually, today's world as that is common in other countries as well.

And the thought of either Sec. Clinton or Trump in the White House has also given a huge boost to President Obama's approval rating.  People really are afraid of what is coming . . . .

Trump announced his bid for the WH at an event staged at Trump Tower in which he and Melania arrived down an escalator.
Again and again, you make us wonder if your IQ is as high as your body temperature.
Hint: that is a rhetorical question

but is has never been one.

With each and every comment that Trump makes, he buries himself further and further into the biggest loss since Mondale's in '84.

This was so easy to predict.  How could anyone ever possibly think that this loudmouth could actually be our Commander-in-Chief?  

Trump's next move will be to try anything to push the blame for this embarrassment onto someone else.  He is trying to put all the blame on the media but that doesn't stick for too long.  His ego can't stomach losing in these proportions.  If he could find a way to drop out and somehow put the blame on someone else, he would do it faster than he fired the first few contestants on The Apprentice