After Donald Trump was elected as then-President Barack Obama’s successor, Obama processed the news with short dashes of anger and self reflection, according to a New York Times review of longtime Obama adviser Benjamin Rhodes’ new book.
“What if we were wrong,” Obama reportedly asked aides after reading a column about the gap between liberals and middle America conservatives. “Maybe we pushed too far. … Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”
In the days following the 2016 election, Obama attempted to cheer up his crestfallen staff. He sent Rhodes a note saying “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth,” the former deputy national security adviser recalls. But Obama’s tone with staff fluctuated between optimism and irritability, Rhodes wrote.
At one point Obama told staff that “maybe” Trump is “what people want.”
“I’ve got the economy set up well for him,” Rhodes remembers Obama saying. “No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”
During Trump’s first visit to the White House after the election, Rhodes said the President-elect was hellbent on maneuvering the conversation back to himself and his popularity at campaign rallies. He reportedly admitted that he knew that he and Obama could draw a big crowd, but that Hillary Clinton could not, per the Times.
Read the Times’ full report here.
Hate is a powerful weapon.
So is apathy.
The outcome was so disastrous that I can understand asking this. But a more cautious Obama would have been attacked just as viciously as a cowardly do-nothing caretaker president. It might have made Trump’s wild promises even more effective. I just don’t see how not daring to act on his campaign themes and move the country forward for fear of inciting the entrenched plutocracy and hateful, ignorant third of the voters who made Trump happen would have produced a better outcome. Dude, Obamacare was not what made all those idiots say “I want my country back.” The country they wanted back was a country where a black man couldn’t be president and the McDonald’s menu didn’t have any Spanish on it and you could tell dirty jokes at work. Those were frightening and incomprehensible changes to the scum, as absurd as it seems to the normals. So they came boiling out of their sewers when a demagogue as scummy as they were showed up.
One thing I noticed about people who are resistant to change is how they embrace the change after it happens. They are terrified of change even though the status quo is negative. I’ve seen it with my home town with the revitalization of our downtown. They go to great length to justify the decay rather than see any improvements. I seen one person commenting how the decay was history and should be preserved. However, after the project is completed, I bet they will say “What a wonder thing it is!”
What do Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump both have in common?
They both beat Hillary Clinton in Presidential elections.
And if Obama had been able to run for a third term, he would have destroyed Trump.
Should have, could have, would have
20/20 hindsight
Probably should have been ABC
anybody but Clinton