In my estimation, there were basically two President Barack Obamas.

[StevieM]

First, there was the man who did so many wonderful things, and who left our country much better off than he found it. That President Obama is represented by almost everything he did while in office.

Then there is the guy who appointed James Comey. That President Obama is represented by his disastrous decision to appoint James Comey as FBI director.

Obama was a phenomenal president. But in his 8 years in office he made one terrible mistake. He put James Comey in charge of the FBI.

I blame Comey, more than anyone else, for the dark path that our country is going down. The fact that his own people turned on him when he outlived his usefulness is irrelevant. He is responsible for what is happening.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Hope your post fares well

I mentioned a few weeks back that he was weak when dealing with McConnell and all hell broke loose.

[BeyondGeography]

2. There was the campaigner and there was the President

eom

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. I dunno

I thought he was a pretty great campaigner.

[BeyondGeography]

4. The best

[GreenWave]

5. My complaint was stop hiring Republicans to key posts. The bad guys do not do the opposite.

Comey, when the chips were down, was a Republican not an FBI director.

[Ocelot II]

6. That's ridiculous. Obama appointed Comey for several reasons:

1. He knew the Senate would likely confirm Comey, avoiding another confirmation battle; 2. Comey had pushed back against Bush's wiretapping program as acting AG; and 3. he had a reputation within DOJ for integrity and following the law and was well-liked within that agency. Obama had no reason not to appoint him, and he certainly had no reason to predict that Comey would disregard DOJ's long-standing policy to avoid announcing investigations of political candidates within 60 days of an election - which Comey ultimately did because he, like most of the universe, assumed Clinton would win the election and that if he did not immediately announce the reopening of the Clinton email investigation, the FBI (and Comey himself, by extension) would be accused of suppressing the investigation to help Clinton, especially if the investigation did turn up something negative. This, of course, was an act of supreme arrogance on Comey's part; he was more concerned with protecting his and the FBI's reputations than with avoiding the possibility that the election could be affected. Was this Obama's fault for appointing him in the first place? Fuck, no! There was nothing in Comey's history that would lead Obama to believe he might ever disregard DOJ policy. Comey fucked up big time, but Obama is not responsible for Comey. Only Comey is responsible for Comey.