Warning: Any Candidate Considering Running for President as a Democrat in 2020

[LiberalLovinLug]

73. Isn't there a fine line to be drawn here though?

Obviously we all should agree that Obama should not be criticized for anything to do with his race, or experience, or his birth certificate etc...all the deplorable angles.

But what about issues, for instance his support for the TPP as is. There were other issues but lets use this as an example. Now he was not a king, we can't put it all on him. It was the top leadership of the Democratic party, with close ties to the larger corporations that would benefit from that deal, that also were pushing for the TPP. But he was the visible leader and where the buck stopped. Warren was against the TPP and criticized his support of it while he was in office. But now that he is out of office, we wipe his name and any responsibility for the TPP being pushed along by leaders within his administration? And of course we know how Trump was able to use Obama's endorsement of the TPP, to make it a Democratic idea, to appeal to rust belt workers, equating it with NAFTA and jobs. It was not Obama personally that was responsible for the TPP, in fact he may have had little to do with the actual deal making, but it was still under the "Obama administration" where the TPP sprang up and was given the "gold standard" endorsement from his SoS.

I understand WHY you would give this advice from a political point of view. Of course the GOP has a history of simply ignoring their past failing Presidents and pretending they never existed. Democrats have always prided themselves in celebrating our previous Presidents and including them in conventions etc.

But there is also a case for not only being open to criticizing previous D administrations (not the individuals) actions, or non-actions, but showing those that do feel the Ds are out of touch, that we are not above self criticism. That we are open to finding ways to listen and improve.

I believe Obama was one of the best Presidents in modern history, but that doesn't mean he was perfect. And there surely must be a way to reflectively consider there may have been mistakes made by his administration. And surely we can't be dictated to by a block of very defensive voters that circle his wagon as a private popular celebrity. That we cannot ever share our disagreements with, or opinions about, for instance, a perceived direction shift towards the right and the corporate friendly Third Way started by Bill Clinton and continued by and large with Barack Obama. That shift , that administrative direction from the DLC, at the time, is what Warren has a problem with, not Obama the person. That should be obvious. And it is willful ignorance or personality cultism for anyone to react in such a defensive manner that they would not vote Democratic if any other Democrat dared to have one criticism of the policy direction that Obama oversaw.