Barack Obama is breaking with tradition by threatening to intervene if President Trump takes any actions that he feels are not consistent with his worldview. What gall. What nerve.

Most other ex-presidents respect their successors and opine only when asked. Even though Obama is responsible for a large portion of current global chaos he says he will interfere when it suits him.

Trump has promised to clean up Obama’s mess, so it’s puzzling why Obama thinks the president will be interested in his perspectives prospectively. In fact Trump will likely unwind most of his predecessor’s “signature” achievements including Obamacare and scores of unproductive, burdensome and unconstitutional mandates.

Many Americans are stunned by Obama’s arrogance and sense of self-importance. He is anything but a patron of bi-partisanship, American exceptionalism and leadership.

The past eight years, which Obama has lauded during his final speeches, were fraught with missteps.

In spite of his enthusiastic support of Hillary Clinton she was trounced in the 2016 elections. Usually a president’s support is beneficial to a candidate.

His reticence in the Middle East relating to Syria has resulted in great turmoil in the region and increased Russian and Iranian dominance.

The Iran nuclear deal, regardless of repeated assurances by Obama and John Kerry that it’s beneficial to all the parties, is probably the worst diplomatic agreement in history. When has anyone armed their worst enemy with weapons of mass destruction and believe they did a good job?

Domestically Obama did next to nothing to improve the lifestyles of Americans, in particular African Americans. Unbelievably this group still supports  Obama. This occurred even as welfare rolls increased and inner city violence escalated during Obama’s tenure.

Negativity has pervaded the African American community. It manifested itself in their relations with the police. Every time an officer had a deadly encounter with a black person, too many protested and became violent. Ironically hundreds of black on black homicides during the same time evoked little empathy.

Income inequality has persevered and resulted in great discontent in many parts of the country. The gap between affluent and the other 99% has never been greater. Obama ranted about this situation but was never able to craft a solution other than to increase taxes.

In education there has been little progress. Democrats continue to support broken public school systems and corrupt teachers’ unions that operate them, while eschewing charter schools and proposals to give parents more freedom to pick schools for the children. It’s all about votes.

Great changes must be made in our society to deal with deteriorating scholastic performance. Liberals don’t seem to understand that no amount of money will encourage children to learn if they don’t consider learning a worthwhile goal.

The only line in the sand that Obama enforced is the one that separates the affluent from the rest of the country. He bifurcated his country for political gain into the haves and the have-nots. He proclaimed that the wealthy do not pay their fair share. Yet this small group pays the lion’s share of taxes in the country.

Obama has devastated his political party by force-feeding it his warped ideology. He began his reign by controlling the presidency and both houses of Congress. Right after Obamacare (a political blunder) became law the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority. Democrats were then decimated in each succeeding election culminating with the 2016 campaign. Republicans now control the presidency, both houses of Congress, most of the governorships and have a huge advantage in local and state governments.

When Obama says he’s proud of his performance I scratch my head. By any measure he has done little to make America a better place.

People who disagree with the aforementioned perspective will cite Obama’s current approval rating. I hasten to remind everyone that he was in the low 40s a short time ago, and his higher ratings have more to do with his likability than his performance. Of course many people may just be happy that his tenure is now ending.