Salena Zito documents for Washington Examiner readers voters’ reactions to President Obama’s unwillingness to exit the political scene with grace and humility.
CHARLEROI, Pa. — Kevin Lee believes the main point of last year’s election was a wholesale rejection of President Obama’s policies.
“So I wish the president would stop pushing those very same agenda policies like Obamacare, or issuing more executive orders and tacking on more regulations as he is walking out the door,” said the president of Lee Supply Company president in this Mon Valley town.
“These are issues and policies voters clearly wanted nothing to do with,” he said.
Since November, Obama has conducted a flurry of actions and issued executive orders that have not just irked Trump voters, but also many Democrats.
His list of last-minute political maneuvers is impressive. He gave an order to the EPA to proceed with its controversial Stream Protection Rule that even further curtails the coal industry; designated the majority of government-owned Artic lands closed to drilling; commuted the sentences of more prisoners than all of the last six presidents combined; sped up the refugee resettlement process; permitted the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution declaring all Israeli settlement activity to be illegal; and designated over 1.5 million acres for two new national monuments, Gold Butte in Nevada and Bears Ears in Utah.
“His tin ear has been breathtaking,” said Anthony Ripepi, a 54-year-old chief of surgery at a suburban Pittsburgh hospital.
Ripepi also found Washington Democrats standing behind Obamacare praising the law on Wednesday an amusing stage setting, “considering I have not seen or heard anyone of them running on the merits of that law since it was passed,” he said.
“All they have done is run away from it, and I’ve seen a lot of local Democrats lose their seats because of it, now he uses them to try to resurrect it as he is walking out the door? Like I said, it’s amusing,” he said.