"Obama has made clear in private conversations that he doesn't like the idea of Sanders as the

[highplainsdem]

nominee"


From "The Hidden History of Sanders’s Plot to Primary Obama" in The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/sanders-obama-primary-challenge/606709/

Obama has made clear in private conversations that he doesn’t like the idea of Sanders as the nominee (and has been only slightly more subtle in public comments), but he’s pushed back on some who have urged him to get involved, anxious that any move he makes could destroy the hope of him using his unique position to unite the party and defeat Trump during the general election. In a party this divided, Obama- and Sanders-style Democrats finding a connection may be the only way to win in November.

Obama is determined to make it work—if he has to.

“Obama has several friends and former colleagues in the race but believes that in order for the Democratic Party to be successful, voters will have to pick their candidate,” a person close to Obama told me. “Obama will campaign his heart out for whoever the nominee is, and that includes Senator Sanders.”

-snip-

Criticism of Obama from the left, while not representative of the opinions of most Democrats, was not unusual at the time. Left-leaning activists pushed the president on issues such as foreclosure relief, judicial nominations, and drone strikes. In August 2011, just as Reid was being called in to to help stop Sanders’s primary plans, David Sirota—a former Sanders press secretary who remained plugged in to the senator’s thinking during the Obama years and would join Sanders’s 2020 campaign as a senior adviser and speechwriter—wrote that Obama was “eloquent, dissembling, conniving, intelligent and, above all, calm,” and was using those traits in service of being “a Bizarro FDR” with a “hideous and destructive” record.

-snip-

On the rare occasions Obama White House staff thought about Sanders, it was because he was needling or annoying them, several former Obama aides recalled. Before Sanders started running for president, he had never been to see Obama in the Oval Office. And even though most of them didn’t know how far Sanders’s primary plans had gone, Obama aides took notice of his public comments. Today, the bitterness lingers.

-snip-

[Beakybird]

1. Obama has wisdom.

[highplainsdem]

5. Yes.

[Cha]

2. Yeah, I can't imagine that

President Obama would be.

I'm betting he knows we have a long way to go still.

[greenjar_01]

3. Obama knows damn well Bernie will lose 35-38 states

His mama didn't raise no fool.

[greenjar_01]

28. It's far easier to list the states he will win

MA, VT, CT, RI, NY, MD, DE, IL, CA, WA, OR, HI.

That's it. An optimist will say he'll win NJ, but the financial industry Dems in the NY suburbs will stay home, so I don't think so. Some have said NM. Maybe, hence the range. But it will be an epic wipe out.

Needless to say, nobody will take responsibility, and we'll be hearing all about how it was "stolen," etc.

[tinrobot]

39. Trending blue means still kinda red

Would those kinda-red voters go for a far-left candidate such as Sanders?

Hard to imagine them coming out in the numbers needed to win... and that's the problem.

[Callado119]

60. No amount of phone banking can pull an awful candidate like BS over the line..

..in anything but the bluest states and districts...if he is the nominee you’ll find out the hard way that voters in swing states aren’t just waiting for an 80 year east coast socialist to show them the way...but nice to see some are already trying pass off blame so early to non-sanders fanatics...there just aren’t enough blue no matter who voters

[ehrnst]

64. Keep on setting up those straw men and going after them.

Nobody's going to defend them.

[HarlanPepper]

47. LOL AZ isn't going blue with Bernie

Best get back to reality land with that one.

[HarlanPepper]

52. Yeah

[Callado119]

62. BS will lose AZ by about 10 points, he'll be poison in the Phoenix suburbs..

[wisteria]

51. He won't win DE. I live here.

[CalFione]

4. Obama needs to find a way to make this widely known

He can’t come right out and say it, the red rose brigade would go nuts.

But he can find other ways.

[dalton99a]

6. And Bernie told CNN that he speaks with Obama regularly

[highplainsdem]

7. And lied about that.

[dalton99a]

9. Yep.

[MontanaMama]

32. Obama's people deny it.

Good enough for me,

[MontanaMama]

36. You didn't ask me that.

You asked another poster...simmer down.

[white_wolf]

8. Ehh good for him. I really don't care.

The Democrats lost hundreds of seats under his leadership and we've tried the "sensible moderate" route in 2016.

[IluvPitties]

11. Obama was one of the best presidents this country has had in the last 50 years.

Any good Democrat would care about what he has to say.

Again, any good Democrat...

[IluvPitties]

13. Obama was a moderate Republican? Clinton?

WTF is wrong with you?

[white_wolf]

14. The Republican Party went far right and moved the country to the right.

The DLC and so-called New Democrats openly talked about their plans to move the party toward the right in order to win votes. I won't deny it worked, but policy-wise people like Obama and Clinton are what the GOP should be. Sane, reasonable conservatives.

[redstateblues]

31. America will elect a sociopath before it elects a Socialist

[whathehell]

38. Lol!

[ehrnst]

58. You said you're overseas?

Hmmm.

[redstateblues]

66. Won't happen.

[StevieM]

15. Carter was the most conservative of the group.

He may be more liberal now, but he wasn't when he was president.

And he had less of an excuse, because he had a huge Democratic majority and he came before the Reagan Revolution.

Paul Tsongas, Jerry Brown and Bob Kerrey would not have given us more liberal presidencies than Bill Clinton did. Tsongas and Kerrey were more conservative and Brown was talking about a flat tax. On the other hand, Mo Udall probably would have pursued a significantly more liberal agenda than Jimmy Carter did.

[ehrnst]

59. Attacking yet another straw man.

[MontanaMama]

37. +1

Well said.

[Cha]

26. Yeah because of all those sitting home and NOT voting

Because of all the Gaslighting Hate on President Obama.. they were just hurting themselves and Everyone else, too.

[HarlanPepper]

48. Yeah

Wait till you see what Bernie loses.

[VarryOn]

10. He needs to say something...

He's probably the only person in the USA that could say something and impact the race. So, his bitching about it rings pretty hollow. If he doesnt like Sanders, he could assemble a press conference in about 30 seconds. Do it!

[Bayard]

16. He can't do that

Obama cannot say anything about anybody until we have a nominee. He cannot show favoritism to current candidates.

I expect once we have a nominee, no matter who it is, he will campaign for them to the moon and back.

That's just the way it is.

[Bucky]

17. David Plouffe has come out in Newsweek to debunk this report, btw

Plouffe was Obama's 2008 campaign manager. He said trying to arrange a brokered convention to stop Sanders would be a big mistake. I'm pretty sure he's speaking for Obama on that.

The only way to stop Sanders, if that's what must be done, is to let March 3rd primaries whittle the field down to a two-person race. At that point, anyone still a below 20% needs to drop out. Yes, even if they're able spend a million dollars a day

[highplainsdem]

22. If you mean the Newsweek article linked to below, there's nothing in it

debunking the story in The Atlantic and what it says about Obama's opinion of Sanders:

https://www.newsweek.com/former-obama-campaign-manager-warns-democrats-against-contested-convention-talk-future-party-1488604

[OliverQ]

21. He also said he didn't think Joe Biden should run.

Don't you all get tired of the endless Bernie bashing? I can understand having your preferred candidate, but this forum is getting ridiculous.

[highplainsdem]

25. No, he didn't.

[democrattotheend]

63. I think he did in 2016

I recall reading that he advised Biden in 2016 that it was too late to get in by the time Biden started thinking about it. But I'm not aware of Obama not wanting Biden to run in 2020.

[redstateblues]

35. It's not bashing Bernie if you don't think he can win the GE

And I don’t

[yaesu]

43. Agree, all these bashers are doing is helping tRump get another 4 years to further fuck us over nt

[SunSeeker]

24. That makes two of us. nt

[blue-wave]

27. I trust

that Obama has the wisdom to choose the correct course of action.

[cstanleytech]

56. I suspect he will largely stay out of publicly endorsing anyone though

until they win the nomination be it Pete, Warren, Biden or Sanders.

[Mz Pip]

29. Me, either.

Are there enough Sanders supporters who will show up to vote to offset the rabid Trump supporters who definitely will show up to vote?

[HarlanPepper]

50. No.

And he will scare the ever loving shit out of suburban middle class voters with his promised tax increases for M4A.

[ramen]

40. There is more than one takeaway from what Obama actually said.

One of those options is to unite. I choose that one, and not because my preferred candidate happens to be in the lead tonight. All the anger in the world won't stop voters from voting for who they think they should vote for.

[James48]

41. I'm with Bernie.

And I would hope that those Bernie Bashers would just stop bashing as well. I do NOT hear Obama himself bashing anybody.

So, instead of putting words into Obama’s mouth, or conveying stories of nameless people around Obama supposedly reporting Obama doesn’t like Bernie- how about we stick to discussions of why YOUR candidate deserves consideration? I’ll be happy to listen to that.

Right now, Bernie is the best candidate for me. Either try to change my mind with logic and ideas, or sit down and get on board.

Thank you.

[democratisphere]

42. Guaranteed loss.

[wisteria]

53. I don't consider Blue in my equations

[ehrnst]

57. Did you find a sale on straw men?

Don't expect other people to defend them.

[democratisphere]

65. What will you do when your candidate can't deliver on ANYTHING

he has promised. ANYTHING!

[wisteria]

46. Hummm

[Bonobo]

55. A shame about that whole pesky "democracy" thing.

[redstateblues]

67. I'll bet Bernie regrets saying Obama should be primaried