[CFP] Barack Obama has two faces. After Trump’s victory and Hillary’s defeat, the public Obama has been gracious and diplomatic. His lectures to Trump, directly and indirectly, are couched in praise. He echoed the feeling of millions on both sides when he said, "We are now all rooting for his success".
That’s a lie. Or rather a disguise.
Obama and his aides had, in one insider narrative, decided to don the "mask of decorum". The contempt for Trump still seeps through the mask. And the mask hides Obama’s next big move.
President Obama is over. He knows that. There are still some things that he can do before he leaves office, but everything except the most destructive, can be undone by his successor. The next phase of his campaign will not be fought from the White House. It will be fought against the White House .
The other Obama is emerging in conference calls with his supporters. "One of the challenges that I’ve discovered being president is I’d like to be organizer-in-chief, but it’s hard," he said in one call.
Obama can no longer be commander-in-chief. Instead he’s plotting to become organizer-in-chief.
The infrastructure for the organization was put into place long before anyone thought that Hillary might lose. Organizing for Action gave him his own organizing hub. If Hillary had won, it would have been a pressure group. Now that Trump won, it’s an axis to build a personal counterrevolution around.
In his post-election conference call with his OFA troops, Obama told them, "I’m giving you like a week and a half to get over it". Then it would be time to "move forward not only to protect what we’ve accomplished, but also to see this as an opportunity". What opportunity could there be in Trump’s win? |