Obama: Everything Just Seems Bad Because of Social Media

by Jonathan Strong

Aug 29, 2014 3:28 PM PT

At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York Friday, President Obama attributed people's pervasive sense the world is falling apart to “social media.”

“The world’s always been messy… we’re just noticing now in part because of social media,” Obama said.

“I can see why a lot of folks are troubled,” he said. But American military superiority has never been greater, he added, according to a pool report.

Obama has faced withering criticism for taking a lengthy vacation that included nine rounds of golf, while terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) has been on the march in Iraq, an Ebola crisis is spreading in Africa, and Russia is making increasingly aggressive moves against Ukraine.

“If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart,” Obama said. He said this is a time of extraordinary changes around the world. He cited several hotspots, saying, “We’ve seen the barbarity of an organization like ISIL.”

The Middle East is challenging, “but it’s been challenging for quite a while,” Obama said, adding that this challenge was not comparable to the Cold War.