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The President on the Primaries
Author: Raine    Date: 01/25/2016 14:20:12

I just spent a few moments reading about the interview President Obama gave to Politico's Glenn Thrush on Friday before all hell broke loose here in the DMV.

While Obama is trying to remain neutral in the primary race we are seeing he offers a candid view from a unique perspective.
“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,” he said. “I think Hillary came in with the both privilege – and burden – of being perceived as the frontrunner… You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before – that's a disadvantage to her.”

Even as he spoke wistfully of his 80-plus cold-pizza and crowded-van days in Iowa eight years ago, Obama seemed to embrace Clinton’s 2008 closing Iowa argument as much as his own, adopting her contention that inspiration without experience won’t cut it. He repeatedly praised Clinton without reservation while offering more tempered praise to the surging Sanders, whom he sees as a principled outsider seeking to change “terms of the debate that were set by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago.”
(snip)
Gesturing to the Resolute Desk, with its spread-winged eagle seal, first brought into the Oval Office by John F. Kennedy, Obama said of Sanders: “Well, I don't want to play political consultant, because obviously what he’s doing is working. I will say that the longer you go in the process, the more you’re going to have to pass a series of hurdles that the voters are going to put in front of you.”
(snip)
When I asked Obama if Clinton is facing “unfair scrutiny” this time around, his answer was a clipped “yes” – and he even admitted a tinge of regret that his own campaign had been so hard on her eight years ago.

But when I asked him if Sanders reminded him of himself in 2008, he quickly shot me down: “I don’t think that's true.”

The entire article is worth a read, but it is interesting to be given a perspective that many don't see.

I have my issues with both of these candidates, I don't think there is any secret there. Unlike 2008, I want to see how this all shakes out. It could be that I am 8 years older, and as a result, more cautious about who would be better to serve as our next president. It seems like the stakes are higher given the state of insanity that the GOP finds itself in.

Having said that, both of these candidates offer so much more possibility than anyone else running for the Republican nomination. The party I align with offers a way forward. That is what matters most to me.

One week from today, all of this finally begins. Iowa will hold it caucus. By the end of the evening of March 1, Super Tuesday, we will probably know whom our party will nominate to run for the Office of President of the United States.

I will support whoever we nominate and fight to see another Democrat in the white House. The stakes are really that important.

and
Raine
 

12 comments (Latest Comment: 01/25/2016 19:03:24 by Will in Chicago)
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