While discussing congressional Republicans’ fierce opposition to his agenda on Wednesday, President Obama downplayed the idea that they are motivated primarily by racial animus. He suggested instead that it was merely hardball politics, because if things in Washington, D.C. aren’t working, it’s bad for incumbent president.
“Although there’s no doubt that there are pockets of the country where some dog whistles blow and there’s underlying racial fears that may be exploited, overall, what’s more the case, I think, is just the straight hardball politics of running against an incumbent and beating the heck out of him and softening him up,” Obama said. “Because if a whole bunch of stuff gets done, he’s going to get the credit.”
Obama made the remarks after his speech on bipartisanship in Illinois on Wednesday when he joined the Chicago Tribune for a roundtable interview with three Illinois state senators who worked with Obama when he held office there.
Obama lamented that it is hard to get things done in Washington, explaining that by preventing anything from happening, Republicans gained a political advantage by making Obama look ineffective.
Former Illinois state Sen. Denny Jacobs suggested that Republican lawmakers were actually “afraid” of Obama because he is black.
“I talked to my Republican friends, and I’ve got a lot of them, and that’s all they could ever talk about, was the race card,” Jacobs said.
Obama first addressed his election, and how his race may have been a factor.
“Look, I’ve always said this, that I’ve no doubt that there are people who voted against me because of race or didn’t approve of my agenda because of race. I also suspect there are a bunch of people who are excited and voted for me or I got political benefits because the notion of the first African American president,” he said.
“So, those things cut both ways,” the President continued. “I think that a lot of proof that we are a lot further along than we were is, I got re-elected. So it’d be one thing if the first time that was just an accident. The second time, I won again, and each time, I got more votes in consecutive terms.”
Obama also see less racism among younger Americans.
“The attitudes you talk about Denny, they’re there, but they’re there a lot less with young people,” the President later added, talking about how kids have now grown up with a black president.
“You got a whole generation of kids growing up where the first president they’ve known is an African American,” he continued. “Even if they’re hearing their parents say; ‘He’s terrible,’ it kind of seeps in that it’s not a crazy thing. So that sometime later, if there’s a Hispanic, or a woman or another African American, that won’t seem as exceptional. These things change over time.”
