OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2017
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
OUR VIEW
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.
E
SHOUTOUTS
This week’s Shoutouts go to:
• The Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation, which has
raised $3 million in its largest ever fundraising campaign that
will support the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Center. Columbia
Memorial Hospital President and CEO Erik Thorsen said the
campaign is helping strengthen the community by “bringing
focus and unity to a shared vision.” The campaign was launched
in May 2015 with an announcement of a collaboration between
the hospital and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health &
Science University to build a new comprehensive cancer treat-
ment center and specialty clinic in Astoria. The center will pro-
vide coastal residents with medical care they previously had to
travel to Portland to receive.
• Seaside Fire and Rescue personnel who received a number
of awards at their annual banquet earlier this month. In addition
to those who received service awards, Doug Roberts was hon-
ored as the EMS Provider of the Year; Div. Chief Chris Dugan
was recognized as the Fire Officer of the Year; and Cesar Alcala
was named Firefighter of the Year. Seaside Mayor Jay Barber
lauded the firefighters at the event for their level of commitment
to their profession and the community.
• Columbia Bank and US Bank for donation and grant pro-
grams that aid local nonprofit groups. Columbia Bank recently
conducted its second annual Warm Hearts Winter Drive that
raised $209,333 and 8,140 items for homeless shelters across the
Northwest. In Clatsop County, the program brought in $4,120
in donations that benefited the Astoria Warming Center and the
Helping Hands Re-Entry Outreach Centers. US Bank provided
the Friends of the Astoria Armory with a $5,000 grant that will
help support the Armory’s anti-bullying program along with
other programs for youth and adults.
• Warrenton High School students who are participat-
ing in the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation’s
“Community Care” program, which introduces young people to
the importance of community service. Warrenton High School
students have raised and donated $33,000 to area nonprofit organi-
zations during the past three years, and will be making additional
grants to nonprofit organizations totaling $11,000 later this year.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside High School’s Maddi Utti was nominated to play in the
McDonald’s All-American game.
• Seaside High School girls basketball player Maddi Utti,
who has been nominated to play in the annual McDonald’s All-
American game. The game features the best high school seniors
in the country. Utti has accepted a scholarship offer to play at
Fresno State after she graduates from Seaside.
CALLOUTS
This week’s Callouts go to:
• Oregon legislators who are spending their time on unneces-
sary, symbolic resolutions on items that won’t make any real dif-
ference in the state’s future. Instead of determining whether we
need a state dog or a state tartan, we would hope that they would
be devoting more of the time to trying to solve the serious finan-
cial problems the state faces. The state has enough symbols and
emblems, and legislators have enough to do without spending
time on any more of them.
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.
Editorials that appear on this page are written by
Publisher David Pero and Matt Winters, editor of the
Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal, or staff
members from the EO Media Group’s sister newspapers.
Missing Obama already
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
B
arack Obama’s legacy
is being systematically
unraveled even before he
leaves office, with The Wall Street
Journal scoffing
that he “has been a
historic president
but perhaps not
a consequential
one.”
Historians will
also note that the Democratic Party
is in far worse shape today than
when Obama took office: It has lost
its House and Senate majorities, as
well as 13 governorships and more
than 900 state legislative seats.
More broadly, the sunny Obama
optimism of “Yes, we can” has
faded into a rancorous miasma
of distrust and dysfunction. One
example of that rancor is unfolding
at the Woodmont Country Club
outside Washington, D.C., where
hawkish pro-Israeli members
are campaigning to deny Obama
membership — even though there’s
no official indication he will even
apply.
Yet here’s my prediction:
America and the world will soon be
craving that Obama Cool again.
Voters are fickle and promis-
cuous, suffering an eight-year itch
for a fling with someone who is the
opposite of their last infatuation.
Sick of Bill Clinton, we turned to
a Texas governor who was utterly
different. Eight years later, weary
of George W. Bush, we elected his
polar opposite, a liberal black law
professor. And now we’ve elected
Obama’s antipode.
Polls suggest that voters are
already souring on Donald Trump,
in ways that may soon create
nostalgia for Obama. Newly elected
presidents usually enjoy a honey-
moon, but Gallup says Trump’s
approval is at the lowest level the
pollster has recorded in a presiden-
tial transition.
Mostly, I think we journalists
overdo the personal and pay insuffi-
cient attention to policies — such as
those that led Obama’s presidency
to enjoy the longest streak of con-
secutive private-sector job creation
in the 78 years the statistic has been
recorded. But while Obama’s policy
legacy is being whittled away, he
also has an important personal
legacy that Trump inadvertently
burnishes.
A president inevitably is not just
commander in chief but also a role
model, a symbol of American val-
ues around the world. We won the
Cold War not only with American
missiles but also with American
“soft power,” and one element of
our soft power arsenal is a presi-
dent who commands respect and
admiration at home and abroad. We
want our children and the world’s
to admire our president — and that
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Photos of President Barack Obama and his family, that for years
have lined the walls of corridors in the West Wing of the White House
in Washington, D.C., are now blank and empty. Only a skeleton staff
remained at the White House on Thursday, creating an eerily quiet
feeling in the normally bustling West Wing.
is where Obama is strongest and
Trump weakest.
Trump spews emotional tweets
impetuously and vindictively,
lacing his venom with misspellings
or grammatical mistakes. We’ll be
craving Obama’s prudence, intellect
and reserve.
Trump may
dismantle
Obamacare and
pull out of the
Paris climate
accord. But he
cannot undo
Obama’s legacy
of dignity and
old-fashioned
virtue, and the
impression he
made on all
of us.
The personal differences
between them aren’t just that
Obama was an African-American
son of a single mom, while Trump
was the scion of a real estate
tycoon. It’s more the behaviors they
model. Trump has had five children
by three wives, has boasted of
his infidelities, has shrugged at
conflicts of interest and is a walking
scandal.
“He will never, ever, let you
down. … Donald is intensely
loyal,” we were told at the
Republican convention — by his
third wife. In contrast, Obama has
the most boring personal life imag-
inable and is the rare president who
got through a second term without
significant scandals.
That seems to be because of
extreme caution. When Obama won
the Nobel Peace Prize, he solicited
a 13-page memo from Justice
Department lawyers verifying that
there was absolutely no conflict in
accepting it. And then he donated
the money to charities.
Whatever our views of Obama’s
politics, we should be able to agree
that he is a superlative family man.
For eight years, this family has
made us proud. The graciousness
that the Obamas displayed toward
the Trumps, even as in private they
must have been beating their heads
against the wall, exemplified class.
When Obama gave his
farewell address in Chicago this
month, he was accompanied by
Michelle and his older daughter,
Malia, but 15-year-old Sasha was
missing. Twitter was abuzz, and
#WheresSasha was soon trending.
It turned out that she wasn’t in a
drunken stupor or staying away in
an angry teenage sulk. Rather, it
seemed that the Obamas had Sasha
stay home to study for an exam the
next morning.
If I were Sasha, I’d be annoyed:
“C’mon, Dad! You coulda written
me a note!” But I’m proud of a first
family that so values education and
is so averse to asserting privilege.
We can argue about Obama’s
policies. For my part, I deplored
his passivity on Syria. But even
on issues that I disagreed with him
on, I never doubted his integrity or
intelligence, his decency or honor.
Trump may dismantle
Obamacare and pull out of the
Paris climate accord. But he cannot
undo Obama’s legacy of dignity
and old-fashioned virtue, and the
impression he made on all of us.
And if, as I fear, we see the
White House transformed into a
bog of scandals flowing from an
unprincipled narcissist, we as a
nation will be more appreciative of
a first family that set an impeccable
example for all the world.
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