A Quote by Jonathan Chait
Trump is what Obama critics think Obama is: Someone who's focused on symbolism rather than substance.
Related Quotes
Often President Obama's worst critics are Senator Obama and candidate Obama.
I do think Donald Trump has conservative instincts. I think he had anti-Obama instincts. I think he saw Obamacare, the Obama foreign policy, the Obama economic policies as harmful to America.
I was very surprised Barack Obama called Donald Trump "unfit to serve" during a press conference with the prime minister of Singapore. That is the sort of full-weight-of-the-presidency thing that I don't necessarily expect from Obama. So, why did he do it? I think he not only genuinely dislikes Trump but believes Trump would be dangerous as the commander-in-chief.
Donald Trump's connection is personal. It's rooted in personal desire, personal loyalty for him to succeed. Barack Obama doesn't have that. Never did. But don't try to tell Obama that. Obama believes that he has the exact kind of connection with voters that Trump has.
In some ways, it's better that Obama got elected than McCain. I'd rather be stabbed in the chest with an Obama steak knife than to have been slowly bled to death with McCain paper cuts. Say what you will, but Obama has brought about a patriotic and civic renaissance, the likes of which I have never seen.
Coming from Donald Trump, who pushed the racist birth conspiracy theory for years against Barack Obama, I think Barack Obama has been very much a gentleman. And he has a lot of reason to just not even bother to deal with Trump.
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself. The symbolism was in - and this sounds really, really small, but it's actually big for African-Americans - the symbolism was not in being an embarrassment, but to being a figure that folks were actually proud of.
The Republicans' response to Obama confused a lot of people. I really think there's been a measure of clarity at the end, with Trump's election, that was not present during the Obama presidency.
I don't want the Obama era to be more about symbolism than substance when it comes to black people. I love him, but I love black people even more.
Obama the President needs to stand up for what Obama the candidate and what Obama the Senator and what Obama the Chicago community organizer stood for and lead the Congress towards reform.
I have never in my life seen a more petty, childish, bitter, soon-to-be ex-president of the United States. Barack Obama is in fact participating in this effort to undermine the Trump transition, the Trump election, and the Trump presidency. And it's unprecedented in U.S. history. Ex-presidents have never engaged in the kind of behavior Obama is engaging in.
Even CEOs police their own bureaucracy. Trump is not that. He does have more in common with these guys than most elected officials would have, particularly in the Obama administration. Obama didn't have anybody that'd ever worked in the private sector. All they had is a bunch of theoreticians who thought they were smarter than everybody that runs businesses in the private sector. And who knows what kind of pressure was brought to bear. Remember, Obama's agenda was one that was to be governed against the will of the people.
I think it's worrisome that Barack Obama actually contributed to the bifurcation of our society. I don't think that he made nearly enough effort to be a uniter. And there's, I think, been a backlash against him, and some of that has been reflected in Trump's success. And I think it's really sad, and that's part of Obama's legacy.
Obama and the Democrats are not focused on the moderates. They're focused on getting their base out, and they're trying to expand that base by forming sympathetic, empathetic alliances with the downtrodden, and there are a lot of downtrodden because Obama has made them that way via his policies.
I think Barack Obama has been a terrible disappointment environmentally. It's very sobering to realize, as a westerner, that under the Obama administration, we now have more active oil and gas leases on public lands than Americans ever did. Obama has been worse.
There is a real hunger for information about Obama and a sense that information is not being covered or, in some cases, even being withheld. There is a sense that there are elements of the media that are protective of Obama, that they would rather block a story that is embarassing about Obama than let the American public decide.
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