“It’s not as if we didn’t see some of this coming,” said Barack Obama, a note of bleak humour in his voice. “I will admit it’s worse than even I expected, but I did warn y’all!”
The crowd at a sports arena in Norfolk, Virginia, half-laughed and half-groaned. “I did,” Obama added. “You can run the tape.”
Now Obama is back on the campaign trail, for Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. It gives him a platform to deliver an alternative State of the Union address. And the gloves are off.
To hear the expectant buzz of the 7,000-plus crowd in Norfolk as candidate Abigail Spanberger promised that Obama’s entrance was just moments away was to be reminded that Democrats did once have a president who could match Trump’s superstar charisma.
You know how Bernie has spent like 2-3 decades saying “it’s not about me, it’s about a movement”?
Obama fundamentally disagrees…
Not that I have a quote of him explicitly saying that, he never would say it on record.
But as a two term president he could have named a progressive chair to the DNC that entire 8 year period. The immediate benefit of that being 2016 would have been a fair primary…
So while some do, I would be shocked to find out Obama suddenly started to care about what happened after him, the day he left office.