Radio and TV legend Art Linkletter, whose heirs live in Laguna, used to say, “Kids say the darndest things.” After hearing what some Donald Trump supporters recently have said about Barack and Michelle Obama (i.e., “I hope he dies in 2017” and “She is an ape in heels”), I wonder what the late talk-show pioneer would have said about these disgusting comments?
Now that Barack Obama is down to a handful of days left in office, I have a few things I’d like to say about the way he has conducted himself as president. I know many people wanted him to disappear years ago, but not yours truly.
The first time I met then-Senator Obama was in June, 2007. He was attending a breakfast meeting with Orange County Democrats, and I was picked to be his wing man for the morning. For 45 minutes, I whispered into his ear little tidbits about each person he was about to meet. He was all business, but I could tell there was something special about the man. Months later, when he gave his breakthrough speech in Iowa during that state’s first-in-the-nation caucus in 2008, I knew I was backing a winner.
Just before he went to Denver to accept my party’s nomination for president, Obama made another stop in Orange County. This time it was at the Balboa Bay Club. Having been one of a handful of supporters who helped raise $1.2 million that day, I was anxious to see him again. When it was my turn to have my picture taken with Obama, he greeted me with that big smile of his and said, “Hey, I remember you. You helped me a year ago.” I was floored. About the only thing I could say was, “I remember you, too.” We both laughed as the cameras zoomed in on us.
As I stepped away, I turned back and said, “We’re counting on you.” Obama looked at me and replied, “I won’t let you down.” And you know what, he didn’t. I have voted in every presidential election since 1972. I was happy when Jimmy Carter won four years later. I was thrilled when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, and reelected in 1996. But I was proud to have voted for Barack Obama twice.
It’s not every day you get to stand next to a truly remarkable person. I always will cherish the two times I stood, literally, inches from Barack Obama. The night 300 of us gathered at Seven-Degrees in town to celebrate his 2009 inauguration, I read my letter to the crowd that Newsweek magazine had published weeks before. I don’t know if Art Linkletter would have agreed, but here is what I said:
“Barack Obama’s victory was as significant as George Washington becoming America’s first president, Abraham Lincoln holding the country together during the Civil War or Franklin D. Roosevelt taking office during the depths of the Great Depression. The lasting legacy of Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt is that they governed wisely. I have every expectation that a soon-to-be President Obama will do the same.”
He did. I am hopeful the nation will forever be grateful as well. I know I always will be.
Denny Freidenrich writes from Laguna Beach. He can be reached on Twitter @freidomreport.
Thank you for describing your up-close-and-personal interactions with our President. Warmed my heart and inspired a big grin. In the fall of 08, Obama landed (in a Navy helicopter) in the southwest corner of the Orange County Fairgrounds parking lot. I and some friends were inside the Fairview Community Church property atop a berm that looked over the rooftop, in full view of Obama as he climbed out of the copter. We cheered and waved,cheered and waved. Obama looked our way AND, grinning his wonderfully wide grin, waved back. What a Mensch!
The reverence expressed so lovingly by Democrats like Freidenrich is attributable to racism. They coo and compliment Obama because he is black. That is as contemptible as supporting white candidates for their nationality.
As to “disgusting comments Donald Trump supporters recently said about Michelle and Barack Obama,” Freidenrich conveniently ignores the litany of far more hateful, more disgusting comments expressed by his fellow leftists. George Bush was hung in effigy at every protest. He was Hitler, a fascist, a buffoon, and a war criminal who was the subject of a movie wherein he was assassinated, much to the delight of Hollywood.
Freidenrich and his alt-left cohorts expected to celebrate Hillary’s victory on November 8. Instead, they have rioted, burned cars, desecrated the U.S. flag and defecated on it, overturned cars, and will soon disrupt the presidential inauguration. This is the real face of the Democratic Party, hateful, intolerant, and petty, but always congratulating itself with false narratives much like their false news.