In his fourth interview with Rolling Stone magazine’s publisher, Jann Wenner, President Barack Obama reflected on his legacy, Donald Trump’s stunning election win and the road ahead after the White House. The president seemed to be in both a reflective and reactive mood in the interview, conducted in the Oval Office the day after the Nov. 8 election, cautioning against a “sky is falling” attitude toward the next four years.
Most surprising, Obama, who stumped hard for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, said he wasn’t all that surprised by Trump’s win.
“So I think the odds of Donald Trump winning were always around 20 percent,” he said. “That (doesn’t) seem like a lot, but one out of five is not that unusual. It’s not a miracle.”
The Obamas plan to stay active after leaving the White House, the president said. After catching up on some sleep and taking his wife on a “well-deserved vacation,” Obama said, he plans to write a book and organize his presidential center around training the next generation of political leaders. But, no, Michelle Obama is not running for office – ever. “You can see the incredible resonance she has with the American people. But I joke that she’s too sensible to want to be in politics.”
Throughout the interview, which Wenner had thought the administration might cancel considering the timing and the outcome of the election, the publisher attempts to get the president to wax poetic on how many of his progressive policies will be reversed in the Trump years – his efforts on climate change, the Affordable Care Act. But Obama doesn’t bite.
“Yeah, listen. If you want to persuade me that everything is going to be terrible, then we can talk ourselves into that. Or we can act. It is what it is. There’s been an election. There’s going to be a Trump presidency, and Republicans are going to control Congress. And the question is gonna be, for those like you and I, who care about these issues, do we figure out how to continue to make progress in this environment until we have a chance for the next election,” he said.
Later he re-emphasized that point: “There’s no benefit that’s derived from pulling into a fetal position. We go out there, and we work.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Helena Andrews-Dyer
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9 Responses
Hear the mussar? He’s teaching us how to respond to setbacks.
Atheist President. Do we think perhaps with less than 2 months left in office will our president Mr. Obama say anything smart ever.
He’s taking another vacation??He spent a great deal of his presidency taking vacations(costing the U.S. taxpayers $100 million dollars) and playing golf.He should take a vacation now until Jan 20.
It’s a VERY HUGE miracle that Trump won. That Trump won over 10 million fraudulent votes, as well as government fraud to get the corrupt Devil in by hook or by “crook” is a HUGE VICTORY and MIRACLE and clear proof that Trump won by a landslide both in Electoral Votes and Popular Votes. You cannot deny that.
“The Obamas plan to stay active after leaving the White House, the president said.” OH, PLEASE DON’T. Go on vacation with your wife and stay there, please. Trump is smart enough to handle the presidency without you.
Well deserved vacation would have been the ine after his first term, and the deserving party would have been the American people.
Now it is the time for the Obamas to hit the pasture and become a memory, or legacy, as he called it, between the putts.
Go graze, dig for your roots in Kenya, find that village that is still missing you, write a book called The Dreams of My Brothers, play some more golf, at your own expense, and read that pamphlet at your presidential library.
If anyone is interested in facts, the last few Republican presidents took many more vacations (each) than obama. But a”vacation” for any President is a misnomer, they are always on call and at work whatever location or season they happen to be in at the time.
What may be of interest is the report that the secret service may rent an entire floor in trump tower for trump’s security. Rent amount is $1.5 million a year, meaning trump will be making over $70 million from we the people in the next 4 years that goes into his pocket!
Rt,
Please explain how 1.5 million per year, multiplied by 4 years, amounts to 70 million?
Obama wants to fight against Trump for the next four years. What he hasn’t understood yet, is that he, Obama is one if the reasons that The Republicans won.
Obama has been a failed president.
Rt get a life. Stop defending the democrats. Thank God they are a minority in the house and congress. Everything they did was terrible. N no one took as many vacations and spent as much money as Obama. For example sending back airforce one to pick up his dog bec his daughters missed it. Give me a break!!! Good riddance to bad rubbish!!