In an interview released Monday with David Axelrod on The Axe Files, Obama openly suggests that had he been running against Donald Trump, he never have taken his potential win for granted against the Trump campaign, or squandered opportunities for connecting with voters. After explaining how with Trump’s win there’s this sense that “all this talk about hope and change” is “proven to be a mirage, a fantasy,” Obama argues that in fact those messages were simply lost during the Democrat’s campaign this year:
What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and — and full of energy and dynamism.
And — and the problem is, it doesn’t always manifest itself in politics, right? You know, I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.
I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one.
He adds, “Look, you know, I think that Hillary Clinton performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances. I’ve said this publicly, I’ll repeat it. I think there was a double standard with her. For whatever reason, there’s been a longstanding difficulty in her relationship with the press that meant her flaws were wildly amplified relative to.
“But — but — well, the reason I bring this up is because we’ve both been in campaigns. If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer.”
It’s entirely possible that if term limits were abolished, Obama would be our Glorious President Elect for life, and faced with the current situation, that sounds pretty good. It’s likely for the best that we’ll never know, much like with the eternal question of Bernie Sanders electability. In other news, Donald Trump is also watching CNN and has taken umbrage with the idea that someone could theoretically beat him:
