Waiting for Obama

[JoeOtterbein]

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/26/barack-obama-2020-democrats-candidates-biden-073025|

The Democratic establishment is counting on him to stop Trump and, perhaps, stave off Bernie as well. But can his cerebral politics still galvanize voters in an age of extremes?

By RYAN LIZZA 11/26/2019 05:19 AM EST

Today, almost every Democratic presidential campaign starts with what one close adviser to Barack Obama calls “The Pilgrimage”: the journey to the West End to meet the former president.

The West End of Washington, D.C., sandwiched between the better-known districts of Georgetown and Dupont Circle, is known as a neighborhood that people travel through, not to. For elite Democrats, that changed four years ago when Obama set up his personal office here. You wouldn’t know from outside that one of its bland concrete and glass building houses the man whom polls rank as the most popular Democrat in America, and who, according to one global survey, is the second-most admired man in the world.

first presidential pilgrims started in early 2018, and they continued to trickle through this summer. Not every declared candidate has met with Obama—Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbad were notable no-shows—but he let it be known he was available to anyone seeking advice. As a rule of thumb, the closer one is to Obama personally, the less important the West End summit is. Joe Biden, one of only two candidates who Obama knows at a familial, rather than strictly professional level, was an “exception,” said an Obama adviser, who had a rolling series of conversations about 2020, the most recent of which was backstage at the funeral for Elijah Cummings in Baltimore on October 25. Deval Patrick, a close Obama pal and board member at the Obama Foundation who parachuted into the race last week, checked in with a phone call before announcing.

snip

more at link

[JustAnotherGen]

1. He doesn't have to

Why would the 'establishment' expect a man who served two terms to stop Trump?

That's not his job - and he's not America's whipping post anymore. I see a set up to continue to demean and denigrate a stellar man if we lose in 2020. Let his legacy be his.

[TidalWave46]

3. It's kind of really funny.

The establishment is in the corner crying waiting for someone to save them from Trump and BS!!!!

[JustAnotherGen]

4. I'm actually the establishment

I'm a Democratic Committee Member in NJ. 18 months into a 2 year term.


If I've learned anything in the NJ 7th, my borough, my county - neither the 'old school' nor the 'new school' are where its at.

I am. We ain't playing nice here in 'Horse Country' NJ. There's not a one of us that wouldn't tell a lie on our mother's soul to get our candidate over the finish line.

Obama is too good for us.
And so is Bernie.


They can go high.

We are down here going low and smearing the GOP Candidates locally, county, state, and nationally in the gutter.

Oh just wait until Tom Keans relationship comes out with Trump. He can sit his ass down.

[OldRed2450]

8. The establishment sounds wonderful right now.

The deep state and the establishment has kept America strong for centuries.

[TidalWave46]

2. Pure Politico. Trash. This is aimed at the lowest common denominator on the left. NT

[NurseJackie]

7. They have very low standards for their writers, it seems.

Pure Politico. Trash. This is aimed at the lowest common denominator on the left. NT

They have very low standards for their writers, it seems. What good purpose does this serve?

[Celerity]

5. I enjoyed the article. Thought it well done and even-handed.

[Dennis Donovan]

6. I liked this nugget:

<snip>

...Throughout 2017 the main struggle of the small staff Obama assembled in the West End was how to deal with what they viewed as a crazy president personally obsessed with Obama. After running against Obama’s legacy, and then holding one awkward but collegial meeting in the White House—“He knows absolutely nothing,” Obama privately told a visitor about Trump, immediately after the meeting—Trump discarded historical precedent and began attacking Obama personally as he worked to overturn his policies. For the most part, Obama and his staff chose to ignore the personal and weighed in only on big policy questions.

</snip>

[NurseJackie]

9. It's GOLD!