Barack Obama Says He Will Criticize Trump If He Thinks It Is “Necessary” … Also Made Excuses Why Democrats Lost in 2016

SO MUCH FOR OBAMA ACTING THE WAY OF PAST PRESIDENTS AND NOT CRITICIZING HIS SUCCESSOR …

At a press conference Sunday in Lima, Peru, Barack Obama said he does not believe he will be the last Democratic president, for a while, and also made no promise to not speak up and criticize President-elect Trump’s proposals,  if he feels it to be “helpful” and “necessary” for him to comment. Obama was also asked whether he thought he might be the last Democrat president, playing off the comments that GWB made earlier this year. Obama stated no and then gave some of the most ridiculous reasons for losing the 2016 elections, including geography and that terrible concept that Wyoming gets the same number of Senators as California. What the hell is he talking about? Note to Obama, this same geography occurred when you won two elections. Why wasn’t that an issue then? Make no mistake about it, Obama was is and always will be a community agitator. Many of his policies are about to be wiped away like a bad dream. Who honestly thinks he is going to sit quietly by and watch his 8 years be eliminated for the good of the American people?

And though Obama said he wouldn’t get involved in every fight—including some fights likely to be about Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress ripping out his legacy—he very deliberately refused to say he’d hold to the tradition of presidents avoiding public comment or political attacks on their successors.“I want to be respectful of the office and give the president-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off in every instance …”

RCP – Transcript:

RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS: Thank you, Mr. President. Earlier this year President George W. Bush reportedly said he warned he would be the last Republican president and now Republicans have won the White House, controlled the House and Senate, two-thirds of state legislatures, 34 governorship’s and there are charges of a shallow Democratic bench behind you.

Are you worried you could be the last Democrat president for a while? And secondly, sir, speaking of your predecessor he made sure to offer essentially no public criticism of you during your time in office. Will you equally withhold public criticism for President Trump even if he attempts to dismantle much of what you have accomplished? Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, no, I am not worried about being the last Democratic president. I think — not even for a while. And I say that not being cute, the Democratic nominee won the popular vote [what a joke that Obama still thinks this means anything. You don't win a football game by the number of yards you run and pass for, it's the scoreboard] and obviously this is an extremely competitive race and I would expect that future races will be competitive.

I certainly think it’s true that politics in America right now are a little bit up for grabs. [Up for grabs? Republicans control The presidency, House, Senate, governorship's and State legislatures in the USA] That some of the old alignments in both parties, Democrat and Republican, are being reshaped. And although the results of this election involved some of the specifics of the candidates and aren’t going to be duplicated in every subsequent election, Democrats do have to do some thinking about how do we make sure that the message we have is received effectively and results in winning elections. This is something that I have been wrestling throughout my presidency…

There was a poll this week subsequent to the election that showed that the general public has a more favorable view of Democrats than Republicans. [Obama is going to quote a poll when the ultimate poll of the American people is an election, Seriously?] As I noted, my approval ratings are quite high yet what has been true during the course of my eight years is that does not always translate. In fact, too often it hasn’t translated into working majorities at the state level or the federal level.

Now, some of that is the nature of our system. And geography. As long as Wyoming gets the same number of Senators as California there is going to be some tilt towards Republicans when it comes to Congressional races [WHAT? So states should not have the same number of US Senators?]. The fact that a lot of Democratic voters are bunched up in big cities and a lot of Republican voters are spread out across geography gives them an advantage when it comes to Congressional races. Some of it is just political bad luck.

For example, I came in as the economy was in flow fall and although I took the right steps to save the economy, in my midterm election of 2010 people couldn’t yet see the recovery and not surprisingly the president’s party got punished. We lost control of a lot of not just Congressional seats but also governorships and state legislative seats and that happened to be the year that the census was done and you start doing redistricting. And so those Republicans took advantage of political gerrymandering to lock in majorities even though in a numerous subsequent elections Democrats have actually cast more votes or more votes have been cast for Democratic Congressional candidates than Republicans and yet you end up having large Republican majorities. So there are just structural problems we have to deal with. But, look, you can’t make excuses about the rules. That’s the deal and we have to do better…

One message I do have for Democrats, that a strategy that’s micro-targeting particular discreet groups in a Democratic coalition sometimes wins the election but it does not when you the birthday mandate — the broad map date you need. And the more we can talk about what we have in common as a nation and speak to a broad set of values, a vision that speaks to everybody, and not just one group at a time, the better off we will be. That is part of the reason I was able to get elected twice that I try to make sure not only in the proposals but in message that I was speaking to everybody…

Look, I said before, President Bush could not have been more gracious to me when I came in and my intention is to certainly for the next two months, finish my job and after that to take Michelle on vacation, get some rest, spend time with my girls and do some writing, some thinking.

I want to be respectful of the office and give the president-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off in every instance.

As an American citizen who cares deeply about our country, if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal but go to core questions about our values and our ideals, and if I think that it is necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals [Exactly what ideals is Obama referring to, socialism? Redistribution of wealth?], I’ll examine it when it comes. But what I do know is that I have to take Michelle on vacation.