It seems each week brings a new wrinkle of rancor during the presidential transition. On Monday, President Obama, during a podcast with David Axelrod, his former campaign guru, said he could have defeated Donald Trump if given a third term.
“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,” the president said. “I know that in conversation 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.”
Of course, there is no way to ever prove such a claim because the 22nd Amendment prevents a third term for the president.
Even so, there came the expected response from Trump. He tweeted, “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY!—jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.”
Some pundits believe that Obama made this declaration to protect his legacy, which to some degree was damaged with the defeat of Hillary Clinton, who he backed so vigorously, particularly in the late stages of her campaign.
The president praised Clinton and said she did very well, given the “double standard with her.” He did not explain what that double standard was, but being a woman was certainly one of the double standards. In effect, Obama was echoing some of the concerns voiced by Vice President Biden, who also criticized Clinton’s campaign.
“For whatever reason,” he said, “there’s been a longstanding difficulty in her relationship with the press that meant her flaws were wildly amplified.” Clinton, he added, campaigned too cautiously.
At no point during the interview did he note the fact that she won the popular vote by nearly 3 million, leaving Trump with the largest deficit of any victor since the 19th century.
Commenting further on Clinton’s defeat, the president said that the economy has been improving. “There is a sense, obviously, that some communities have been left behind from the recovery and people feeling anxious about that.” This was perhaps another way of suggesting a weakness in the Clinton campaign.
After an additional statement or two about factors that may have been decisive in Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory, the president discussed what has to be done to rectify things.
“There’s an emotional connection,” he said of the need for Democrats to reach out to those left behind, “and part of what we have to do to rebuild is to be there. And that means organizing, that means caring about state parties, it means caring about local races, state boards or school boards and city councils and state legislative races, and not thinking that somehow, just a great set of progressive policies that we present to The New York Times editorial board will win the day.”
Obama did not mention race at all, which for many voters was a critical factor in the presidential outcome, nor did he say anything about the Electoral College.
We will have to wait and to see what role he will play in bringing about any of the repairs the party needs.