Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama Insiders Try to Explain Trump Phenomenon, Fail Spectacularly
PJ Media ^ | December 28, 2015 | Debra Heine

Posted on 12/29/2015 6:26:59 PM PST by Kaslin

According to past and present aides to President Barack Obama, the Republicans are "getting devoured by a candidate" (Donald Trump) who personifies "the anger agenda" because they stood "in the White House's way at every turn." The Obama insiders are right about one thing -- Republican voters are angry. But perhaps these White House aides are too close to the problem to put their finger on the real reason why.

"It's not so much a reaction to Obama," one person familiar with the president's thinking told Politico. "It's more of a reaction to their strategy that, 'We're just going to be antithetical to everything [Obama] stands for.'"

Yeah, that sounds exactly like Obama's thinking: Gee, if only the intransigent "party of no" had gone along with my agenda without a fight, there would be no Trump.

But on everything from guns to reproductive health to opening up Cuba, Obama's team says it has been battling for years the very politics that paved the way for Trump's ascendance this election cycle.

Translation: this wouldn't be happening had the GOP given Obama his way on gun control etc.

Of course Obama's flacks are 180 degrees wrong, as they usually are. The reason for the Trump temper tantrum is not because Republicans opposed Obama's agenda too much -- it is because they didn't oppose him enough. The GOP was given the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014 and its conservative base feels like they've gotten bupkis out of the deal. Republicans have caved to Obama almost as many times as Obama has caved to the mullahs in Iran.

People in the White House tell Politico that "Obama doesn't talk about Trump much," which is nice, but --

When he does, it's with a combination of amusement and disgust at the rhetoric, occasionally mentioning his amazement at GOP leaders' inability to understand Trump's supporters and the long-term damage the president thinks Trump is doing to the party with the groups of voters who will decide future elections.

It should come as no surprise that Obama thinks he understands Trump supporters better than anyone else. He's simply better at politics than anyone else -- and he'll be the first one to tell you that.

"I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters," Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm going to think I'm a better political director than my political director." So of course he's got the Trump phenomenon all figured out.

In addition to the GOP's not rolling over enough to suit Obama's needs, there's another factor at work here that explains voter anger, according to the White House. And that factor begins with the letter "R."

Aides say Trump played into fears and racism and encouraged voter distrust of the president, as he's doing now on the campaign trail.

Obama administration alumni remember hearing what they call the "those people" strain of politics when they were knocking on doors in 2008. It was evident at rallies for Sarah Palin and at tea party events in the first term of his presidency. Americans weren't wrong to think Obama’s election in 2008 meant the country had changed the president himself bought into it and was frustrated in the early years to see how slowly it translated into policy accomplishments.

See? Some people think that the Tea Party movement was born out of principled opposition to the increase in spending and expansion of government that was in the bloated 2009 stimulus bill. They now stand corrected. It was because he looks different than they do and has "a funny name."

Politico goes on to report that "Obama's team refuses to see Trump's political success as some kind of backlash against the president."

"In the long sweep of history, this chapter is all pretty simple: The country actually switched from one dominant culture that was in charge for 240 years to one that's multicultural," said one Obama campaign veteran. "And that wasn't going to go easy. But now we're in the middle of it, so it seems chaotic and complicated."

In other words, Trump's supporters are racist troglodytes who just don't appreciate how much better things are now that we're "fundamentally transformed." In our new utopia, the government gets to pick the winners and losers. And people who work hard for a living tend to be the biggest losers. Big government-loving plutocrats and bureaucrats are meant to be the biggest winners in our new "progressive" economy.

"It's not that the country has changed, it's that a narrow band of mostly white, low- and middle-income Americans are supporting a candidate who is speaking to their anxiety about being left behind in this economy," said Bill Burton, a former deputy White House press secretary.

The good news is, the president knows how to fix this. It's the same way he thinks everything gets fixed, from his ISIS failures to his ObamaCare failures. That's right: more speeches.

Going into next year, Obama will be speaking out against Trump, as he did indirectly in several pro-immigration speeches earlier this month and by name in an interview with NPR last week, when he argued that the Republican front-runner is exploiting the fears of "particularly blue-collar men [who] have had a lot of trouble in this new economy." And pushing back against Trump will be a central theme of Obama's international engagement.

Because supporting Trump is exactly what ISIS wants etc., etc...

"The nature of American politics is that all these statements are consumed around the world," said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. "When there are statements that could present challenges in terms of perceptions of America's openness to people of different faiths and America's inclusiveness, the president is going to speak out on that."

That's awesome. Donald Trump has certainly been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism from presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle. But as a general rule, presidents don't speak out against specific candidates. But then, Obama's always been a trailblazer.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016; 2016election; barack0bama; donaldtrump; obama; trump
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-69 next last
To: nopardons

.
I don’t like women with skinny legs and big feet either.


41 posted on 12/29/2015 8:36:46 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor

No......................YOU wake up; didums !


42 posted on 12/29/2015 8:38:05 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
I’ll set you up with my brother-in-law.

He’s a progressive like you, and he’s a millionaire too.


43 posted on 12/29/2015 8:38:30 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
I couldn't care less what your marital status is.

I'm NOT "stalking" you; I am posting to a thread about Trump, whom I support, but YOU don't, but go out of your way to post crap to.

Don't like it?

TOUGH...go cry in your wife's lap.

44 posted on 12/29/2015 8:40:01 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
Nobody round here gonna diddums you!


45 posted on 12/29/2015 8:40:16 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
HUNH ?

So your wife is fat and has bound feet, does she ?

46 posted on 12/29/2015 8:40:55 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
Oh, you like the cryin type!

I’ll loan you the neighbor’s Australian shepherd.


47 posted on 12/29/2015 8:41:43 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
No thanks; didums....not interested.

I'm not a "progressive", have been married , happily so, for a long time, and I have money of my own; unlike you.

48 posted on 12/29/2015 8:42:43 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro
> It’s easy to explain. Obama is the anti-American. Trump is the anti-Obama.

Yep. Everyone wants 0 gone like yesterday despite whatever the left or the MSM says. His only supporters are the freaks and our enemies.

49 posted on 12/29/2015 8:43:02 PM PST by jsanders2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
Don’t have your feet bound; you’re too old for that anyway, and it’ll make you look chinese.


50 posted on 12/29/2015 8:43:15 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor

LOL..so you are unfamiliar with a perfectly good word, I see.
Too b ad that you have such a dirty mind and a stunted vocabulary.


51 posted on 12/29/2015 8:43:37 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: timestax

Months ago on Free-Republic there was an animated gif of your Trump photo, showing “Trump” strolling forward. If anyone has that .gif, can you post it on this thread? I’ve been looking for it for weeks!


52 posted on 12/29/2015 8:43:52 PM PST by Harpo Speaks (Honk! Honk! Honk! Either it's foggy out, or make that a dozen hard boiled eggs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor

Ohn, so YOU are into beastiality, are you ?


53 posted on 12/29/2015 8:44:43 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
You purchased one of those Cambodian husbands?


54 posted on 12/29/2015 8:44:56 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
Tsk, tsk, tsk...you've lost it. LOL

So your wife DOES have bound feet and is a fatty. Poor thing.

55 posted on 12/29/2015 8:45:57 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
We could write a soap opera about your life.


56 posted on 12/29/2015 8:46:21 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
Your wife was a Cambodian street walker, you say?

I hope you have a good doctor !

57 posted on 12/29/2015 8:47:01 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: nopardons

.
How does your Cambodian like your duck feet?


58 posted on 12/29/2015 8:48:03 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
No, more like a movie musical in Cinemascope and Technicolor.

OTOH...your life would be a horror movie.

59 posted on 12/29/2015 8:48:31 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
LOL...ask your CAMBODIAN wifey. :-)

Your cloven hooves must delight her.

60 posted on 12/29/2015 8:49:38 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-69 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson