[rad-green] The Audacity of Nope

*https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/26/obama-privately-considered-leading-stop-bernie-campaign-combat-sanders-2020-surge
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/26/obama-privately-considered-leading-stop-bernie-campaign-combat-sanders-2020-surge>Common
Dreams                       November 26, 2019Obama Privately Considered
Leading 'Stop-Bernie Campaign' to Combat Sanders 2020 Surge: Report*


*"From lofty heights, Obama has now become a dampener of hope, a barrier to
change, and a threat to progress."by Jake Johnson, staff writer*

*Former President Barack Obama speaks to guests at the Obama Foundation
Summit on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology on October 29,
2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)*

Former President Barack Obama reportedly
<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/26/barack-obama-2020-democrats-candidates-biden-073025>
told
advisers behind closed doors earlier this year that he would actively
oppose Sen. Bernie Sanders if the progressive senator from Vermont opened
up a big lead in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race.

"Publicly, [Obama] has been clear that he won't intervene in the primary
for or against a candidate,"  *Politico* reported
<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/26/barack-obama-2020-democrats-candidates-biden-073025>
Tuesday.
"There is one potential exception: Back when Sanders seemed like more of a
threat than he does now, Obama said privately that if Bernie were running
away with the nomination, Obama would speak up to stop him."

"Obama's post-presidency is grating and full of contradictions. He
considers himself a success but the mere fact of Trump's presidency belies
this. He won on hope and counsels hopelessness."
—David Klion, *Jewish Currents*

Progressives viewed Obama's comments as further evidence
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/16/left-twitter-responds-viral-toofarleft-hashtag-after-obama-counsels-democrats-tamp>
that
the former president, who was elected in 2008 on the soaring promise of
"hope and change," is now using his influence on the Democratic Party to
undercut the grassroots push for transformational policies like Medicare
for All and the Green New Deal.

"Obama's post-presidency is grating and full of contradictions,"  tweeted
<https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1199312465345036288> David Klion,
news editor at *Jewish Currents*. "He considers himself the leader of the
party but refuses to lead. He considers himself a success but the mere fact
of Trump's presidency belies this. He won on hope and counsels
hopelessness."

One anonymous Obama adviser would not confirm to *Politico* that Obama
"would really lay himself on the line to prevent a Sanders nomination."

"He hasn't said that directly to me," the adviser said. "The only reason
I'm hesitating at all is because, yeah, if Bernie were running away with
it, I think maybe we would all have to say something. But I don't think
that's likely. It's not happening."

According to *Politico*, Obama plans to speak out more frequently about the
state of U.S. politics in the coming weeks. Earlier this month, Obama told
a roomful of rich donors that he is worried about "certain left-leaning
Twitter feeds" and "the activist wing of our party," sparking outrage from
progressives
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/16/left-twitter-responds-viral-toofarleft-hashtag-after-obama-counsels-democrats-tamp>
.

"Over the next year, Obama, according to his closest advisers, will start
to emerge with slightly bolder colors," *Politico* reported Tuesday. "The
boldest might be riding into a battle unfolding on his own side, if he did
lead a potential stop-Bernie campaign."

Obama advisers told *Politico* they don't believe Sanders has a chance to
win the Democratic presidential nomination. But recent polling suggests the
Vermont senator is experiencing what his campaign described as a "surge."

A Morning Consult tracking poll
<https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/> released Monday
showed Sanders has gained nine points
<https://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-bernie-has-gained-9-points> in
early primary and caucus states since October. Sanders has also jumped back
into second place
<https://twitter.com/NicholsUprising/status/1199196825179316224> behind
former Vice President Joe Biden in *Real Clear Politics*' national polling
average.

Obama's position on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a 2020 Democratic
presidential candidate, has also been antagonistic, according to *Politico*.

"Back in early 2015, when Warren was considering running for president and
started to excite progressives, Obama said privately that if Democrats
rallied around her as their nominee it would be a repudiation of him—a
clear sign that his economic decisions after the Great Recession had been
seen as inadequate," *Politico* reported. "There are very few former senior
Obama officials in Warren's campaign."

David Dayen, executive editor for *The American Prospect*, wrote
<https://prospect.org/politics/what-obama-really-wants/> last week that
Obama's attacks on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party "are music
to the ears of the wealthy and powerful."

"This defense of the reigning economic order, originating with the donor
class and media allies, with its effective abandonment of the vulnerable
and disenfranchised, with nothing for those struggling to make it in a
rigged economy, is a recipe for social and political unrest," Dayen wrote.
"From lofty heights, Obama has now become a dampener of hope, a barrier to
change, and a threat to progress."

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