In an interview with David Axlerod, President Obama made it clear that he believes he would have won the election if he had run against Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. Trump in one of his famous tweets begged to differ. So the question stand – would Barack Obama have been able to crown himself King Obama in a third term?
During the podcast with his former White House adviser Obama said, “I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”
Trump’s reply in his tweet was, “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.”
During this last month of Hillary Clinton’s failed run for the presidency, Democrats banked on the fact that Obama’s name and record would ensure her the win. But, they couldn’t have been more wrong.
In a number of post-election interviews, Obama insisted that Clinton’s resounding loss is not a rejection of his policies or vision for America. Instead, he argues that the Clinton campaign failed to take advantage of the willing coalition he had put together across the country.
“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,” the president said.
Obama blames a lack of communication of what he has done for the country as the problem. “See, I think the issue was less that Democrats have somehow abandoned the white working class, I think that’s nonsense,” Obama said.
“Look, the Affordable Care Act benefits a huge number of Trump voters. There are a lot of folks in places like West Virginia or Kentucky who didn’t vote for Hillary, didn’t vote for me, but are being helped by this . . . The problem is, is that we’re not there on the ground communicating not only the dry policy aspects of this, but that we care about these communities, that we’re bleeding for these communities.”
In spite of the fact the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” Obama gave political pundits reason to debate a non-issue.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich reacted to Obama’s claim by saying, “Obama doesn’t know and neither does anyone else. Obama would have increased the turnout in the African-American community, but he also might have increased the repudiation of him among those who felt they were betrayed. All of the lies he told about Obamacare, ‘keeping your doctor’ . . . would have come back to haunt him. It would have been a totally different race.”
Obama’s assertion that he would win a hypothetical race against Trump is not as certain as he states. Rove said, “I’m not certain if I were President Obama I would be glibly saying ‘I would have won,’ particularly when you read the rest of the interview,” he says, ‘Oh, we were doing great things for rural America and they benefited from the Affordable Care Act, and we really, you know we really did a lot of things for working-class white voters. The economy was getting so much better.'” This is not how people perceived the Affordable Care Act, or the Obama economy, or really even the impact of all of his policies.”
Obama seems to be ignoring the realities of this past election. It is working-class white voters who voted for Trump in record numbers. Middle-class voters of all races have had enough of Obama’s failed agendas. This was no more evident than in Trump’s wins in states that have voted historically Democratic like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Over the past few weeks, Obama has become less and less conciliatory. Trump’s picks for Cabinet-level positions make it obvious he plans to dismantle much of what Obama has accomplished. Trump’s team’s requests for the names of bureaucrats who have worked on Obama priorities like climate change have led liberals to fears he will remove those people from their positions.
Those who voted for Trump, applaud his determination to keep his campaign promises. Those who pine for a King Obama should look at the general election map again. This is still a red country.
~ American Liberty Report
