Subtitle: Why Donald Trump is in the White House!
There is a new documentary film being released (in a few theaters near you) about the final year of the Obama Administration and how their foreign policy decisions (blunders!) helped put Trump in the White House.
But, the film idea didn’t start out that way. When filming began, Trump wasn’t supposed to win!
Be prepared for a sympathetic look, dripping with nostalgia, for the good ol’ days.
My special interest in viewing the film is to see what more the ever-cocky Samantha Power has to say. You will find her discussed many times over the years here at RRW from her earliest mention in 2008 as Obama’s ‘Iraqi refugee czar’ to her rise to her UN catbird seat.
See the trailer (here if it doesn’t play below): Pay special attention to the 1:25 minute mark (5 months left which means it would have been early September 2016) where Samantha Power says this:
“We have to be sure to make it harder to dismantle if we take a different turn.”
Does she mean make it harder to dismantle Obama’s foreign policy legacy (which was pretty lousy anyway) in case Trump wins? Did she suspect then that Trump might very well succeed?
The dossier and the FISA applications???? Wasn’t she fingered as a chief ‘unmasker?’ Hmmm!
(By the way, the 1:38 minute mark is pretty good too—Ben Rhodes realizes that they have lost!)
Now here is a bit of the text from the Times of Israel where the reporter seems to be wishing the Obama gang was back.
‘The Final Year’ follows the Obama administration’s last attempt to shape world affairs. (Magnolia Pictures)
For those tired of watching reruns of “The West Wing,” there’s a new political thriller out — and it just so happens to be real.
The recently released documentary “The Final Year” is the story of the Obama administration’s final 12 months in office as told by former president Barack Obama’s foreign policy team.
Leading roles are played by Obama administration stars. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, along with Secretary of State John Kerry — and the president himself — all race against the clock to broker a deal with Iran, negotiate a climate accord in Paris and find a solution to the Syrian crisis, among the other issues on their diplomatic agenda.
For the individuals portrayed in the documentary, “The Final Year” was intended to solidify Obama’s foreign policy legacy, but President Donald Trump’s ultimate victory leaves the Obama team more stunned than assured.
“We tried to change the ending but we couldn’t do it,” joked director Greg Barker in an interview with The Times of Israel …..
[….]
“Samantha [Power] gets very excited and we’re talking about these ideas, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this is great. We’re going to change the world.’”
But by the fourth quarter of Obama’s final term, the glamour of their vision had succumbed to the political reality of the office.
The role refugees played in Trump’s victory….
Barker said that Power now believes that the Obama administration’s failure to take definitive action in Syria prompted a domino-effect of world events.
“[Power] will say that you can make the case that without the Syria tragedy and the outflow of refugees, you may well not have had Brexit in the UK, you may well not have had Trump without this fear of ‘The Other’ which was perpetrated by a million refugees flowing into Europe,” Barker said.
“She’ll make the case that the world could be a very different place [if not for the Syria crisis],” he added.
More here.
Note that comments to the Times of Israel are not flattering to the team.
Heck, it would be fun to watch this in a theater wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat!