© Unknown
Yup, the fact that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate, that much of America was sick of the Left's identity politics, and that Donald Trump ran one of the most energized campaigns in recent years weren't the prime cause of the Democrats' woes; it was simply that Democrats couldn't muster the energy to vote because of Obama himself. As Politico reports, speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, Obama intoned, "Do not wait for the perfect message, don't wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you're expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, 'OK, I'll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote.' Because that's part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much. Boil it down ... If we don't vote, then this democracy doesn't work."
Politico writes, "He almost accepted some of the blame for the state of the party, though he framed it less as the DNC atrophying from years of benign neglect while he was in the White House and being saddled with his reelection campaign debt and more as people making the mistake of falling too much in love with him." Obama pontificated, "I'll be honest with you, if I have a regret during my presidency, it is that people were so focused on me and the battles we were having, particularly after we lost the House, that folks stopped paying attention up and down the ballot."
Obama implied that President Trump has succeeded by stoking fear among his constituents, asserting, "Fear is powerful. Telling people that somebody's out to get you, or somebody took your job, or somebody has it out for you, or is going to change you, or your community, or your way of life - that's an old story and it has shown itself to be powerful in societies all around the world. It is a deliberate, systematic effort to tap into that part of our brain that carries fear in it."
Then, the man on whose watch racial division became far more of an issue than it had been for years stated, "All these people that are out here kvetching and wringing their hands and stressed and anxious and constantly watching cable TV and howling at the moon, 'What are we going to do?,' their hair's falling out, they can't sleep. The majority of the American people prefer a story of hope. A majority of the American people prefer a country that comes together rather than being divided. The majority of the country doesn't want to see a dog-eat-dog world where everybody is angry all the time." Obama concluded of Trump and the GOP, "They're mad even when they win."
Author Ben Stein said of Obama in 2014:
What the White House is trying to do is racialize all politics and their especially trying to tell the African-American voter that the GOP is against letting them have a chance at a good life in this economy, and that's just a complete lie. I watch with fascination - with incredible fascination - all the stories about how the Democratic politicians, especially Hillary, are trying to whip up the African-American vote and say, 'Oh, the Republicans have policies against black people in terms of the economy.' But there are no such policies ... It's all a way to racialize voting in this country. This president is the most racist president there has ever been in America. He is purposely trying to use race to divide Americans.
With John McCain having gotten the GOP nomination in '08, Hillary had a high bar to hurdle to be the most despised, but she cleared it with a foot to spare.