Exclusive: Obama on Iowa, Clinton, Sanders and 2016

[sufrommich]

In a candid 40-minute interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast as the first flakes of the blizzard fell outside the Oval Office, he couldn’t hide his obvious affection for Clinton or his implicit feeling that she, not Sanders, best understands the unpalatably pragmatic demands of a presidency he likens to the world’s most challenging walk-and-chew-gum exercise.

“[The] one thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,” a relaxed and reflective Obama told me in his most expansive discussion of the 2016 race to date.....


When I asked Obama if Clinton is facing “unfair scrutiny” this time around, his answer was a clipped “yes” – and he even admitted a tinge of regret that his own campaign had been so hard on her eight years ago.

But when I asked him if Sanders reminded him of himself in 2008, he quickly shot me down: “I don’t think that's true.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/obama-iowa-2016-sanders-off-message-218166#ixzz3yG0GfiVx

[BlueMTexpat]

1. Great read, sufrommich!

Thanks for posting.

Also from the link:

“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,” he said. “I think Hillary came in with the both privilege – and burden – of being perceived as the frontrunner… You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before – that's a disadvantage to her.”

[Cha]

3. Prez said bernie was a

"bright shiny object".

[BlueMTexpat]

4. I LOLed at that.

He said nothing bad about Bernie, but that comment alone may be enough to throw him under the bus with the rest of us.

If he isn't already there ....

[Cha]

5. President Obama has the honor of being one of the very first residents under

their ****** bus.

Shows me what he thinks of this guy who wanted him primaried in 2012 and continued to diss him during his Presidency and out on the campaign trail.

[Treant]

26. He's already there.

According to many Sanders supporters (who've told me that directly), President Obama's presidency was, somehow, a complete mess and something they would never want to repeat.

Apparently Romney was the better choice or something, because I sure didn't see a third option there.

They not only threw him under the bus, they're driving the bus back and forth over him. Which I find sickening.

[BlueMTexpat]

33. Yet there seems to be a new trend

where they are now claiming Obama's mantle.

It literally makes one's head spin.

[Cha]

2. OMG! I love that man.. Mr President, Sir!

“ one thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,” a relaxed and reflective Obama told me in his most expansive discussion of the 2016 race to date.....


When I asked Obama if Clinton is facing “unfair scrutiny” this time around, his answer was a clipped “yes” – and he even admitted a tinge of regret that his own campaign had been so hard on her eight years ago.

But when I asked him if Sanders reminded him of himself in 2008, he quickly shot me down: “I don’t think that's true.”

Hell No, it's not true!

Thank you so much, sufrommich!

[Thinkingabout]

20. Yes, from the mouth of experience “ one thing everybody understands is that this job right here,

you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,”

This says lots more than the few words it took say this, President is speaking from experience, he knows Sanders is not up to the job, Thanks President Obama for an honest evaluation.

[Cha]

22. So true, Thinkingabout.. President Obama has carried the world on his shoulders at times.

He's the very best one to say ".. you don't have the luxury of just focusing on one thing."

Sounding like a broken record is not going to be good enough.

Yes, Thank you, President Obama!

[livetohike]

6. "Don't have the luxury of focusing on one thing.." Gee, who was that aimed at? LOL

I'm really going to miss him.

[Cha]

7. Gee I wonder who's been making it too obvious for himself?

Hmmm.. Even Prez noticed.. busy ol Prez!

[stonecutter357]

8. K&R!

[Rose Siding]

9. Establishment!

Obama’s experiences in office have brought him around to Clinton’s hardheaded view of the presidency, first forged during her eight years as first lady. “I think that what Hillary presents is a recognition that translating values into governance and delivering the goods is ultimately the job of politics, making a real-life difference to people in their day-to-day lives,” he said, echoing the very critique Clinton makes of Sanders.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/obama-iowa-2016-sanders-off-message-218166#ixzz3yGOqO0hx

[Walk away]

10. I believe the President is going to be making his support of Hillary clearer as time goes on.

Long before she wins the nomination, President Obama will be giving her support in every way he can. That includes shutting Biden up when he needs to.

He knows who can do the job and how much we need her leadership in the next 8 years.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. The president doesn't need Biden to shut up. He knows that Biden speaks truth, and he doesn't

have to muffle truth.

Hillary Clinton has to earn votes just like everyone else. She gets no special treatment.

Her cheerleaders need to come to grips with that reality.

[Cha]

12. I think we're quite aware of the reality about no special treatment.. we are in Hillary's Group

after all.. while the rest of the board is trashing her.

In the article it is very apparent that President Obama has a genuine affection for Hillary and I am very happy about that.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

14. My post wasn't directed at HRC and the president's adoration of her. Neither was my post directed

at Sanders' supporters. I'm neutral on the subject.

My post was in direct response to the poster directly above me who cannot keep the divisive rhetoric at bay.

[Walk away]

15. Really???

[Cha]

16. "Hillary Clinton has to earn votes just like everyone else. She gets no special treatment."

Well you did say that.. so I was replying.

[72DejaVu]

18. We are aware as to how that works

Supporting the life long Democrat who leads in every national poll is divisive.

Supporting the outsider who trashed the Democratic Party for years, then joined it when he thought he could advance his career is unifying.

[William769]

30. You can go be neutral someplace else. nt

[Walk away]

13. Hillary Clinton is earning her votes but she has also earned the respect and...

admiration of President Obama. It's obvious that he doesn't think much of Bernie Sanders. It's also very obvious that Bernie's fellow Senators admire and endorse Hillary and are shunning poor Bernie.

This may come as a big shock to many people, but most Democrats believe that President Obama is right. The President didn't have to answer those questions. He could have said that he couldn't comment during the nominating process. There is a reason that he said what he did about both candidates. It's going to become more clear every day.

And shutting Joe Biden up has it's own department in the Obama administration. He is well know for being a friendly guy who doesn't know when to shut his mouth. You can't blame him for being jealous of Hillary. Nobody is jealous of Bernie.

[72DejaVu]

17. That's as close as any sitting president

Has ever come to endorsing a candidate in a contested primary in his own party.

[yallerdawg]

19. For those who criticize 2008 Hillary?

Obama says, from the OP link:

In fact, he said, Clinton “had a tougher job throughout that primary than I did.”

“She had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels,” he said. “She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to, you know, handle all the expectations that were placed on her.”

“Had things gone a little bit different in some states or if the sequence of primaries and caucuses been a little different,” Obama added, “she could have easily won.”

Even the president acknowledges a 'higher standard' for Hillary, including from the media.

[BlueCaliDem]

21. Hm...President Obama has written his choice on the wall - in neon.

“one thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,”

Yep. Like "economic inequality!!11".

Bernie: A noun, a vowel, and economic inequality!

But when I asked him if Sanders reminded him of himself in 2008, he quickly shot me down: “I don’t think that's true.”

If he isn't sending a strong message that he's supporting Hillary Clinton over Bernie with the above, I don't know what is.

I guess President Obama hasn't forgotten that Bernie was pushing to primary him back in 2012, even if Bernie supporters would rather he did. Then again, the majority of Bernie supporters have never liked President Obama, either, so why again should he support their never-been-a-Democrat-until-he-needed-to-for-political-expediency gadfly?

[Thinkingabout]

23. We must not forget President Obama's pledge

not to support any Democratic candidate who opposes what the president calls common sense gun reform. He knows where Hillary is on common sense gun reform.

[NastyRiffraff]

24. I think Obama knows

that Bernie is not, and never has been, a Democrat. Naturally, he hasn't forgotten that Bernie wanted to primary him in 2012. And that he has verbally trashed the party, and Democrats, for years.

Not surprising that Sanders doesn't remind him of himself! I think the last thing Obama wants is to be compared to Bernie.

[katmille]

25. Excellent interview

Listening to it and also reading it I can see clearly that he leans toward Hillary. Just wait, though, already the media, even MSNBC, is calling for people to criticize the president for his remarks. Unbelievable how anti-Hillary the MSM is! I didn't write that to be negative, but rather to point out that we have to be vigilant and support every way we can -- money, volunteering, promoting, whatever -- the best candidate for the next president of the US! Hillary Rodham Clinton!

[Iliyah]

27. K& R

This Democrat is not going backward - go Hillary!

[lunamagica]

28. K&R. Great interview!

Thank ou Mr. President!

[William769]

29. Kick & highly recommended!

[Gothmog]

31. Thanks for posting

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. “I don’t think that's true.”

And neither do I, Mr. President. Neither do I.

[Cha]

34. Or as I say.. "Hell No!"

Tarheel~

[Tarheel_Dem]

35. Damn straight! I am so gonna miss this smart & gifted man once his term is over.

[Cha]

36. I know.. there are no words.. :(

TheObamaDiary.com ?@TheObamaDiary
Paul Krugman on President Obama:

“He’s doing more to advance the progressive agenda than anyone since L.B.J.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/opinion/how-change-happens.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0 …

8:11 AM - 22 Jan 2016

The New York Times

How Change Happens

Idealism is nice, but it’s not a virtue without tough minded realism.

117 117 Retweets 76 76 likes

http://theobamadiary.com/2016/01/25/140-characters-of-food-for-thought/

I feel for all those who had their heads buried and missed all this.

[Tarheel_Dem]

37. I've sometimes found myself on the opposite side of Krugman, but he's definitely winning me back.

[Cha]

38. I hear that!