A group of psychologists wrote President Obama a letter expressing their concern that Trump does not have the mental health for executing the office of President. The letter became more poignant when you released that Trump tweeted he could defeat Obama when one sentence of an hour-long interview was quoted. But there is truth to the psychologists' letter.
David Axelrod asked his old friend how he avoided that craving of approval and applause that so many politicians have. He said Obama couldn't become President because he wasn't crazy enough. Axelrod stated Obama had been abandoned by his father and left for prolonged periods by his mother, which should have been a recipe for that craving. Obama's answer showed his self-awareness, which I am not so sure Trump has.
Trump's critical period of his adult life was when he had to have a gift of $30 million from his father, go through several bankruptcies in the age when Greed was good. During that period,Kurt Eichenwald writes Trump was heavy on amphetamines and put into a mental institution. It was be fascinating to hear what that experience was like. But Trump is hidden--everything essential is hidden. While Obama is not, which drove his critics while with searching for his secret Muslim marriage ring with his male lover or the libertarian candidate who says no one ever knew him at Colombia.
Obama in this interview laid out his view that culturally we have gotten to the place he wanted,especially with those under the age oif 30. Unfortunately, this wasn't translated in our political life. He claims that unless Democrats mount campaigns in the southern states ,yes,his Obama coalition can win the popular vote every time but that you have to govern.
He said that Mitch McConnell's strategy of obstruction was developed to mute Obama's message. McConnell felt that if Obama's agenda gained momentum through GOP compromise than it would dominate for a generation. Obama said that actually McConnell carried this off with amazing discipline in his GOP caucus.
What Axelrod and Obama talked about was his resurrection of the American economy. Here Axelrod questioned Obama over the Clinton campaign use of their economic message. Axelrod felt they just threw back whatever outrage Trump put out. Obama felt that Clinton was against a heavy and longterm media bias against her so that her economic ideas didn't get across. Obama reminded everyone that she didn't do so bad--she in fact won the popular vote.
Obama surprised me when he said that his administration put more resources in the rural areas than anyone had done in decades. He cited his work with Tom Vilsack, his Secretary of Agriculture. It was on this point he emphasized he could have put a majority of Americans together for his vision.
Through it all,you get a sense of a balanced personality with a touch of class. Listening to him just makes me happy and calmer. Which is maybe the effect of not being an older male with an authoritarian bent. We will all miss him, especially with Mr. blow horn alarming us for no real reason and today he badmouthed the economy, which anyone would love to inherit rather than the global dissolution Obama inherited from Bush. The Great Recession still has not registered on Republicans as anything they had to do with. That's all edited out of their worldview.
Obama says he is not going to get back into the fray for several months and will not opine on every Trump scheme. He says he will make statements on whether something is fundamentally against our values.
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