Posted on 08/03/2015 3:55:16 AM PDT by markomalley
For a man who has 17 months left in the Oval Office, President Obama can alternate between sounding like an ex-president, and one who has many years still ahead in the White House. But in many of his remarks, he's starting to drop hints about how a former President Obama might stay busy.
The most recent hint came last week when Obama was in Africa.
"I'm looking forward to life after being president," Obama told the African Union. "I won't have such a big security detail all the time. It means I can go take a walk. I can spend time with my family. I can find other ways to serve. I can visit Africa more often," he added to applause.
Picking up on the "other ways to serve" idea, Pulitzer prize-winning presidential historian Joseph Ellis predicts that Obama will return to Chicago and possibly emulate President John Quincy Adams and run for a lower office.
"I think he could be mayor of Chicago; he's got nothing to prove," Ellis said, noting that Quincy Adams entered Congress when his time as the nation's sixth president expired.
Obama did sound like someone with another election in him when he addressed the African Union. Noting that at 53 he is still relatively young (he turns 54 on Aug. 4), Obama explained that he is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, but then joked, "I actually think I'm a pretty good president, I think if I ran I could win."
"So there's a lot that I'd like to do to keep America moving, but the law is the law," he added.
Obama first discussed the notion that a third term would be his best yet in a podcast with comedian Marc Maron June 22.
"I was talking to somebody the other day about why I actually think I'm a better president and would be a better candidate if I were running again than I ever have been," he said. "It's sort of like an athlete. You might slow down a little bit, and you might not jump as high as you used to, but I know what I'm doing, and I'm fearless."
He's been discussing how he will use that fearlessness to push his late-term agenda, which includes overhauling the criminal justice system and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, even though his list far surpasses how much time he has left as commander-in-chief.
"I am really interested in the possibilities, the prospect of bipartisan legislation around the criminal justice system," he said in June, responding to a question about his agenda. "I want to keep on making progress on job training and making sure that the idea of two years of free community college starts taking root."
"And the list is long," he continued. "And what we're going to do is just keep on hammering away at all the issues that I think are going to have an impact on the American people. Some of them will be left undone. But we're going to try to make progress on every single one of them."
Obama has acknowledged several times that his desire to tighten the nation's gun laws will go unfulfilled. He's discussed it in the context of recent mass shootings as well as during speeches on race relations and the criminal justice system. Those themes are likely to carry into his post-presidential work.
His imitative to help young minority males, "My Brother's Keeper," and first lady Michelle Obama's "Let Girls Learn" program are indicative of what causes the Obamas will purse, the White House has said.
Unlike President Clinton, who started a massive philanthropic foundation, or President Carter, who has become the most-traveled ex-president ever, Obama will likely return to his scholarly and community organizing roots, Ellis forecasts.
"I think he's going to write some books and not just about his presidency," Ellis said. "He's still a thinking guy; he's going to write some stuff and I predict the book he is going to write that is going to be a biggie is going to be about race."
Even as he discusses his outstanding agenda, Obama often reflects on what he has accomplished so far and how those feats will be perceived and measured after he leaves office.
"I know what I'm doing," Obama told Jon Stewart in his last appearance on "The Daily Show" before Stewart steps down Monday. "A lot of the work that we did early starts bearing fruit late. The way I'm feeling right now is, I've got 18 months."
He's also been frank about what he will leave undone.
"I think my key goal when I turn over the keys to the next president is that we are on track to defeat ISIL, that they are much more contained and we're moving in the right direction there, that we have jump-started a process to resolve the civil war in Syria … and [that we're] in a conversation with all our partners in the region about how we have strengthened our security partnerships," he said in discussing the nuclear deal with Iran on July 15.
"It's been a remarkable few weeks in America," Obama said speaking in LaCrosse, Wis. on July 2. "Health care is now affirmed as something that everybody can get, not just some, and so that was a great affirmation … And then, the freedom to marry who you love, that's now open to all of us. That's a good thing. That's a good thing."
Despite such reflection, Obama says he is not done, and is promising to squeeze every last drop of authority from his presidency.
"And my instructions to my team and my instructions to myself have always been that we are going to squeeze every last ounce of progress that we can make when I have the privilege, as long as I have the privilege of holding this office," he said while appearing at the White House with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on June 30.
Please please please let it be serving time.
I’m sure they will. They fawn all over the guy now. Why would it be any different?
I’d like to see him serve 10-20 in Leavenworth.
“I can handle things. I’m smart! Not like everybody says ... Like dumb. I’m smart and...I’ll do anything for my ideology... Errr, country”
Mayor of chicago? Bunk. He will hang around our necks like a stone and keep trying to influence the direction this country takes. He will do everything he can to try to protect his EO programs as well as O-care from meddling by the republicans. He will, unfortunately, keep his hand in and control the democarp party. This sumbish is going nowhere.
My suggestion is “time” ... as in “serve time”.
I believe that when Obama leaves office that we are going to see the democratic party tear it self apart. the only thing holding the party together is the fear of what will happen after the democratic party leaves office
many crimes have been committed by operatives of the democrats and they know that the only thing keeping them from being gone after legally is the presidents hold on the justice department.
currently the democratic party is trying to have a primary with out having its presidential Candidates ask each other the hard questions and with out any debate. the reason for this is that they are scared . ..... when Obama leaves office he will find most of his supporters turning on each other
this will only happen if we take the presidency.
The only way I want to see this sumbitch ‘serve’ is in an orange jumpsuit with a number on it.
Yes, angling for his next job. I won’t be surprised if it has something to do with the caliphate he’s establishing in the ME, SecGen of the UN would be too predictable a choice.
Think he’s dangerous now? Just wait til he’s over at the UN.
I’m scared of what these last few months will bring...
The best way Obama could serve us is to dig a deep, deep hole, crawl into it and never, ever come out again.
Its not a privilege for Obama to hold the office of president. It’s a threat to my freedom and my country.
“The best way Obama could serve us is to dig a deep, deep hole, crawl into it and never, ever come out again.”
I’d like to see him get addicted to meth, blow through all his money, and end up on the street turning tricks and blaming whitey.
He wants to remain a servant? The boy really needs to try to find a REAL job. He’s mooched off of the public long enough.
It'll be called the Barack Moochelle Malia Sasha Obama Global Prosperity Foundation (Obama family prosperity, for short).
They will all live blissfully in a five-million-dollar little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii where the humuhumonukunukuapuaa goes swimming by.
Leni
The only happy outcome at the conclusion of his presidency that I can imagine is if I were to wake up tomorrow and learn Michelle Obama filled him full of holes.
I think BO has his sites set on the UN—a lifetime supply of Obama sycophants.
The only two who would actually investigate what the Rats - especially Obozo - have done during their tenure are Cruz and Trump. That is the exact reason the GOPe is scared to death of them, as they know the part they played in all of it too.
I think you can count Scott Walker as one of theb ones that will go after corruption if he were to get the presidency
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