Kelly O'Donnell (MSNBC) bitterly complaining from Italy

[karynnj]

47. With all due deference to Obama, who is my opinion the best US President of my life

- and I am 67! , it was EASY for Obama to restore our standing in the world. He did it the instant he won election. He electrified Berlin when he spoke there during the campaign. All he had to do to restore our standing was to let the world get to know who he was and his values -- approval ratings were high almost as soon as he was in office.

This is an important point, because it means that even though we are now going through the worst Presidency in my lifetime - and very likely going back to the very beginning of our country's history, we can change ON A DIME by electing a Democrat in 2020 and winning back at least one House of Congress in 2018. The House leans Republican due to gerrymandering -- and the numbers of seats up in the Senate work against us. That is why it is so important for us to not just despair or mock Trump, but to work hard to change the government.

I never thought we would have a more dysfunctional government than in 2005-2006, when the Republicans controlled everything, but that now looks far less bad than the current situation. As to Europe, it may be interesting to see if a coalition of leaders - maybe led by Merkel may actually be the real leaders of the free world.

I wonder what they make of his bizarre claims - from unifying the 3 Abrahamic faiths (!), getting others to pay NATO, and creating millions of US jobs (!) from deals on this trip. What do you do when the leader of the world's most powerful nation is either delusional or willing to lie to the world? The only answer may be to lead in his stead and to hope that this ends at least in 4 years.