The recently taciturn former President Barack Obama broke his silence Thursday, speaking at a DNC fundraiser about how it’s time to stop “kvetching” and “howling at the moon” and get mobilized instead—even if the candidates are less inspiring than he was.
According to a Friday Politico report, Obama focused on a message of hope over despair, though he acknowledged to the crowd that “you are right to be concerned.”
“Do not wait for the perfect message, don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote,’” he said. “Because that’s part of what happened in the last election.”
He also acknowledged the down-ballot shellacking Democrats took across the country during his tenure. “I’ll be honest with you, if I have a regret during my presidency, it is that people were so focused on me and the battles we were having, particularly after we lost the House, that folks stopped paying attention up and down the ballot,” Obama said.
He said that Democrats should take a page out of the Republican book when it comes to philosophy. “They don’t worry about inspiration,” Obama said. “They worry about winning the seat and they are very systematic about work not just at the presidential level but at the congressional and state legislative levels.”
He added that, until candidates emerge and a clear 2020 message is formulated, people can use his slogan: “yes we can.”
“All these people that are out here kvetching and wringing their hands and stressed and anxious and constantly watching cable TV and howling at the moon, ‘What are we going to do?,’ their hair’s falling out, they can’t sleep,” Obama said. “The majority of the American people prefer a story of hope. A majority of the American people prefer a country that comes together rather than being divided. The majority of the country doesn’t want to see a dog-eat-dog world where everybody is angry all the time.”
dude WTF have you been for the past 1.5 years? Parasailing??? Jeez.
So now it’s our fault for not getting up off the couch in 2010?
Waiting for …‘when they go low…’
That would be a hard sell today.
As far as I can tell he’s done a lot of good and constructive stuff. And you know what? It’s his life. It’s time for other people to step up now. It’s time for everyone to do what they can. That’s what he’s saying. It’s pretty explicitly what he’s saying. He’s saying many of the people who voted for him failed to even vote for other Democratic candidates. We outnumber them and will win if we vote. There’s nothing complicated or puzzling about it.
It is, actually. If you didn’t vote you can’t complain. That’s how it works.
Can’t just, right out of the gate snipe at the next president. Obama respected that precedent.
In fact Dubya’s relative silence after leaving office is one of the few positive things I can say about him… and the man can dodge a shoe like nobody’s business.
@mattinpa
One question I’ve wrestled with is who is the voice of the progressives, the “resistance” etc. He was best qualified and has played it a bit too conservative IMHO. These are not normal times and normal concepts of “we go high they go low” etc. are not cutting it. In business speak, when plan A is certain doom you go to plan B. Plan A is not working and as the minority party we’ve got to outwork the party in power. Nonviolently, smartly, but with a big voice, and it’s not Pelosi, it’s not Schumer (Amy or Chuck) nor any celeb. BHO and his wife are uniquely revered - it’s time to step up.