OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
OUR VIEW
E
ach week we recognize those people and organizations
in the community deserving of public praise for the good
things they do to make the North Coast a better place to
live, and also those who should be called out for their actions.
SHOUTOUTS
This week’s Shoutouts go to:
• Gearhart Mayor-elect and PGA golf pro Matt Brown,
who received the 2016 PGA National Merchandiser of the Year
award for public golf courses. Brown, the golf pro and manager at
Highlands Golf Course, received the award in New York City the
day after Gearhart voters elected him to be the city’s new mayor.
• The Seaside Downtown Wine Walk, which brought visitors
to the Gilbert District who sampled a wide assortment of regional
and international wines while connecting with friends and fam-
ily in Seaside last weekend. Sarah Dailey, executive director of the
Seaside Downtown Development Association, which organized
the Wine Walk, said response to the event was “awesome” with
841 tasters.
• Windermere employees throughout the North Coast who are
conducting their annual Share the Wealth coat and blanket drive.
The drive seeks donations of new or laundered, gently used coats
and blankets and can be dropped off at Windermere offices in
Astoria, Gearhart and Cannon Beach along with Columbia Bank
and U.S. Bank branches in Cannon Beach and Manzanita. The
donated items will be distributed to those in need by The Wishing
Tree and Food Basket Program, Head Start, Astoria Rescue
Mission, Siuslaw Outreach Services, NESKO Women’s Club an
Seashore Family Literacy.
• Marine Corps Sgt. Rebekah Eggleston of Astoria, who was
part of a team that ran 241 miles through California to commemo-
rate the Marine Corps 214th anniversary on Nov. 10. The Marine
team incorporated their run as part of the Regnar Relay, a 183-
mile endurance event through the Napa Valley, and Eggleston and
her teammates added an additional 58 miles to the end of the run
to commemorate the number of years of service the Marines have
given to the United States. Eggleston, a Marine administrator, and
her teammates ran the final five miles together as a unit, crossing
the finish line with an American flag in hand.
• The Cannon Beach Academy, which held a potluck dinner
this past Monday to celebrate the Seaside School District’s uncon-
ditional approval of its application as well as the passage of the
district’s $99.7 million bond to move the schools. Supporters of
the academy hope to open an elementary school in Cannon Beach
in fall 2017.
• The Astoria High School football team, which concluded its
best season since 2008. The Fishermen lost a 25-21 heartbreaker to
Cottage Grove this past weekend in the state playoff quarterfinals
and finished the season 8-2 overall. Coach Howard Rub called it
“a tremendous season” and one that the team “will remember for-
ever.” Across the river in Washington, Ilwaco ended its Class 2B
state playoff run with a 35-14 loss to Toledo, while Naselle won
its first-round playoff game in Class 1B with a 34-28 victory over
Rainier Christian. Naselle will play Lummi Nation this weekend.
CALLOUTS
This week’s Callouts go to:
• The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety
Program, which an audit shows has a backlog of inspections that
are long overdue. The agency is responsible for carrying out inspec-
tions of dairies, grocery stores, food processors and other establish-
ments to ensure food safety. Auditors from the secretary of state’s
office found that out of approximately 12,000 food safety licenses in
Oregon, 2,841 licenses were overdue for inspections by more than
three months. The 28-page report resulting from the audit stressed
that adhering to food safety regulations is crucial to minimize the
risk of food contamination and that it’s up to the agency’s food
safety inspectors to make sure those regulations are followed. The
agency said it would adopt and follow the audit’s recommendations.
Suggestions?
Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know
about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make
sure to take a look.
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President Obama fights
obliteration by Trump
By MAUREEN DOWD
New York Times News Service
W
ASHINGTON — You
know how desperate Pres-
ident Barack Obama is
— as he contemplates all his accom-
plishments going
down the drain at
the hands of a man
he has total con-
tempt for — when
he is willing to
do something so
against his nature.
He tried to persuade Donald
Trump.
We saw that unicorn glimpsed
only fleetingly in the last eight years:
the cajoling Barack Obama.
The president flattered the presi-
dent-elect by letting Trump rack up
the ego arithmetic.
“This was a meeting that was
going to last for maybe 10 or 15 min-
utes and we were just going to get to
know each other,” Trump told report-
ers afterward, as they sat in front of
the Oval Office fireplace. But, he
marveled, “The meeting lasted for
almost an hour and a half.”
It worked, sort of
And lo and behold, it worked —
sort of. In his first postelection news-
paper interview, Trump told The
Wall Street Journal that he would
consider leaving in place the parts
of Obamacare that allow children
to stay on their parents’ health plan
until they are 26 and that prevent
people from being refused insurance
because of existing conditions.
“I told him I will look at his sug-
gestions, and out of respect, I will do
that,” Trump said.
Of course, those are two very
popular elements of the law that
Republicans wouldn’t dream of kill-
ing anyway. Still, Obama’s charm
and civility clearly made a strong
impression, though it’s impossible to
say when a nasty tweet will come in
the middle of the night.
“I want a country that loves each
other,” Trump told the paper. “I want
to stress that.”
Harry Reid wasn’t in a kumbaya
frame of mind, calling Trump “a sex-
ual predator who lost the popular
vote.”
The Obama revolution
Out of a hailstorm of unfathom-
able things during the week, one
sticks out to me: How can it be that
in the end, Barack Obama did not
understand the Obama revolution?
He came away from that elated
whoosh in 2008 not comprehend-
ing that many voters viewed him as
the escape hatch from Clinton Inc. It
never would have occurred to any-
one then — even the Clintons — that
Obama would be the one to brush
away any aversions and objections,
take us by the elbow, and firmly steer
us back to Clinton Inc.
Voters waited in line for hours at
those early Obama rallies because
they wanted thunderous change.
They wanted a newcomer who
didn’t look like the old dudes on our
money, someone who would bust up
the incestuous system and give us, as
the poster said, hope.
But Obama lost touch with his
revolutionary side and settled com-
fortably into being an Ivy League
East Coast cerebral elitist who hung
out with celebrities, lectured Con-
gress and scorned the art of political
persuasion.
He was cozy with Silicon Val-
ley and dismissive of working-class
voters anxious about globaliza-
tion, shrugging that “We’re part of
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Donald Trump, the president-elect, and President Barack Obama
meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington last week.
How can it be that in the end, Barack Obama did not understand the
Obama revolution, asks Maureen Dowd.
an interconnected global economy
now, and there’s no going back from
that.” He was dismissive of Amer-
icans anxious about terrorism after
the Paris attacks, noting that you’d
be more likely to die from a bath-
tub fall.
He was dismissive of Ber-
nie Sanders and his voters, treating
Sanders as a fairy tale, just as Bill
Clinton treated him in 2008 when
he was a senator with little record
but with an army of passionate sup-
porters who wanted to upend moldy
politics.
Hillary should
have spent less
time collecting
money on Wall
Street and more
time collecting
votes in
Wisconsin.
Nudging Sanders and Joe Biden
toward the exit, Obama was the ulti-
mate establishmentarian. As he
told the Rutgers student paper in
May, “We have to make incremen-
tal changes where we can, and every
once in a while you’ll get a break-
through and make the kind of big
changes that are necessary.”
The man who swept into the
White House in a boisterous rebel-
lion was dismissive of the boisterous
rebellions in both the Democratic
and Republican parties. He insisted
that an incrementalist and fellow Ivy
League East Coast cerebral elitist
who hangs out with celebrities would
be best to save his legacy.
Even Michelle, who under-
stands the importance of the visceral
in politics better than her husband
and who said in 2007 that the bid to
usurp Hillary was about “our souls,”
tamped down hope. “Remember,
it’s not about voting for the perfect
candidate,” she told a crowd at La
Salle University. “There is no such
person.”
Insurgent mood
The leaked John Podesta emails
showed how deluded the campaign
was about the insurgent mood of the
voters.
In January 2015, Hillary’s com-
munications director, Jennifer Palm-
ieri, advised Podesta: “Make a vir-
tue of her longevity. Embrace all the
Clinton-ness — the forty years in
politics, the decades on the national
stage.”
As late as February, Hillary’s
chief strategist, Joel Benenson,
was fretting that the candidate had
no vision or message compared to
Sanders: “Do we have any sense
from her what she believes or wants
her core message to be?”
As she cuddled up to Wall Street,
Hillary forgot about the forgotten
man — and woman. Bill complained
in meetings that campaign manager
Robby Mook was ignoring white
working-class voters, according to
Politico, but his concern was waved
off as the plea of “a talented but
aging politician who simply refused
to accept the new Democratic map.”
They should have listened. Bill
ousted the first President Bush by
focusing on “you” rather than “I,”
what the voters wanted. Hillary’s
campaign message boiled down to
“It’s my turn, dammit.”
Obama, trying to hoist Hillary
over the finish line, offered a solip-
sistic message, saying it would be “a
personal insult” if African-Ameri-
cans did not vote for Hillary, and an
accusatory message, suggesting that
sexism was stopping men from vot-
ing for Hillary.
In September, Hillary stumbled
when she dismissed half of Trump
supporters as a “basket of deplor-
ables.” Tellingly, the snooty remarks
were made at a high-dollar fund-
raiser hosted by Barbra Streisand
and other sparklies at Cipriani Wall
Street.
Hillary should have spent less
time collecting money on Wall Street
and more time collecting votes in
Wisconsin.