WaPost: 'Obama yet to leave a lasting legacy for Africa on the scale of Bush and Clinton'

Laura and George W. Bush in Zambia, June 30, 2013.

The pictures are all over Facebook showing Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura traveling Africa this week as they continue their humanitarian mission that began before leaving the White House four years ago.

Slowly but surely liberals have begrudingly had to admit GWB has played a large role in AIDs relief that has been credited with saving millions of lives. The Bushes have been instrumental in other global health advances, too, and are almost revered in that part of the world.

President Barack Obama? Not so much, and the Washington Post has noticed:

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama’s efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

It must be a tad awkward for Obama to find himself in Bush's shadow after spending the first four years of his administration blaming his predecessor for everything that went wrong in America. The Post notes that Obama is five years into his administration and just now on a major tour of Africa, just the second time while President:

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

The people of Africa had expected more from America's first black president after he told them in his first year in office, "I have the blood of Africa in me."

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush captured the heart of Africa with work that continues to this day:

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office. Bush’s trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

After a week of renovating, President and Mrs. Bush opened the Mosi-Oa-Tunya clinic, a cervical cancer facility in Livingstone, Zambia. Their trip demonstrates their continued commitment to the people of Africa through the work of the global health initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. June 30, 2013

Photos from the George W. Bush Presidential Center

'The GOP and the Conspiratorial Mindset'

The post, "The GOP and the Conspiratorial Mindset," pulls some current political issues out of the shadows as is typical of writer and DC attorney Doug Mataconis who has never been afraid to face difficult subjects head on. His latest post at Outside the Beltway addresses the split going on within the Republican Party.

He began his post by noting the conspiracy theories that have floated in groups that have moved into the GOP:

Ever since Barack Obama became President, indeed while he was still running for office, there has been a cottage industry of conspiracy theories on the right making seemingly outrageous allegations about the President. They’ve ranged from the now familiar birther conspiracy that, even with the release of the President’s long-form birth certificate, still refuses to die, to claims that the Administration was conspiring to confiscate weapons from legal gun owners. For the most part, though, these conspiracy theories were mostly the province of the Internet and a segment of conservatism that most mainstream Republicans tried as best they could to distance themselves from.

His comment, "Mainstream Republicans tried as best they could to distance themselves from" the constant conspiracy theories, resonates. He then documented that some Republican elected officials have bought into those conspiracies, something that may appease a small but vocal portion of the population.

It reminded of an event in Augusta County in 2009.

In April of 2009, one of the first tea party rallies was held in Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton with a group of about 50 gathering to declare their disapproval of ObamaCare. Immediately following that small gathering, another rally was held at Expoland in Fishersville. The building filled with citizens against one-size-fits-all health care who cheered as speakers talked about fighting against its passage in Congress.

Then the truthers began speaking about 9/11 and accused the U.S. Government of being behind the attacks on the Twin Towers. It was a stunning turning point for those attending. Almost in unison, at least three-fourths of the crowd rose from their seats and began filing toward the doors, many shaking their heads and wondering who had organized the event. The organizers were the Constitution Party, another of the groups that are part of the overall tea party federation. Their conspiracy theories drove a previously enthusiastic crowd, concerned about fiscal responsibility, out the doors.

Mataconis ended his post with this sobering comment:

This isn’t to say that every Republican and every conservative is a conspiracy theorist or a birther, of course. There are plenty of them who aren’t and who have a perfectly rational opposition to the President and his policies that doesn’t include the need to allege that he’s involved in some vast conspiracy to destroy the country. The problem is, as it always has been for the past four years, is that these voices tend to get drowned out by the shrill voices of the Obama Derangement Syndrome crowd, and it’s that crowd that becomes associated in the public mind with the party and the movement. That is the price the GOP is paying for giving these people space to grow rather than denouncing him in the manner that they should have been.

I saw Bush Derangement Syndrome from liberals during the administration of President George W. Bush, and did not like it. Now I see my side of the aisle doing the same to President Barack Obama. Sadly, those loud, angry voices tend to drown out the voices of others who understand that this country can better move forward with rational, pragmatic, bipartisan leadership.

See Pineapple contributor Kurt Michael's latest humorous political cartoon: "Pineapples and Coconuts: Angry Coconuts."