Among other spurious claims the outgoing president has made this week, including that race relations have improved under his tenure, and that America is “a better, stronger place,” is that he is actually the “father of the Tea Party”.

Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, Obama splutteringly claimed that he inspired the Tea Party movement which helped to “invigorate” the grass roots.

Host George Stephanopoulos Quoted Clare Boothe Luce in a question to Obama about his legacy:

“The greater the man, the easier it is to describe him in a single sentence. What’s your sentence.” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Uh,” Obama replied before hesitating.

“I, I, I, I, I’d like to think that, uh, maybe the sentence is, um, President Obama, um, believed deeply in this democracy and the American people,” he finally responded.

Obama further claimed that he got people “who didn’t believe in the process to get engaged,” including those who vehemently disagree with him.

“I gather I’m the father of the Tea Party,” Obama said. “Um, I invigorated the grassroots in the Republican Party as well as the Democratic Party.”

Firstly, to for Obama to claim that he fathered a movement that was spurred in 1773 is massively self aggrandizing.

Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty may have had something to do with the Tea Party movement. The founding fathers could be attributed a mention when discussing the Tea Party. Encompassing modern American conservatism one might point to Ronald Regan, Dick Armey, the Koch brothers, and certainly to Ron Paul as having played a huge hand in the origins of the Tea Party movement.

Barack Obama is not on the list of influential people who fomented the Tea Party movement.

Secondly, what kind of legacy is it that a presidency was defined by how much political opposition and division was stirred up owing to the total alienation of vast swathes of the US population?

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