Mike Huckabee
You probably saw the story in yesterday’s newsletter about President Obama taking a lunch with President Biden before the holidays to express concern with how the Biden campaign was going and to advise him to surround himself with different people. Obama reportedly expressed anxiety about a possible Trump return to power.
But what we didn’t get into yesterday was the question of why that story would appear now. It first appeared in the WASHINGTON POST, in a piece by Tyler Pager, and so would have been leaked there, perhaps by someone in the White House, perhaps by someone allied with the Obamas (though I may repeat myself).
WAPO reported that Obama “suggested to Biden’s advisers that the campaign needs more top-level decision-makers at its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or else must empower the people already in place. Obama hasn’t recommended specific individuals but did mention David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s 2008 race, as the type of senior strategist needed at the Biden campaign.
“During the lunch,” the report said, “Obama noted the success of his re-election structure in 2012, when some of his top presidential aides, including David Axelrod and Jim Messina, left the White House to take charge of the re-election operation in Chicago.”
So, here we go. Putting an Obama-style campaign in place. Will it eventually be moved to Chicago to work for...someone else?
“Obama also recommended that Biden seek counsel from Obama’s own former campaign aides,” WAPO reported, “which Biden officials say they have done…” In conversations with Biden’s associates, Obama has been even more explicit about the need to be more “agile.”
Matt Margolis in PJ MEDIA made the point that Biden’s problem isn’t his campaign --- it’s his record of utter failure. But he doesn’t tie Biden’s catastrophes to this insidious involvement of the Obamas in his presidential race. We hypothesize a direct connection.
Biden’s gonna be out, you know. And stories about the Obamas’ involvement in the ‘24 race appear to be very strategically timed.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/06/barack-obama-hits-panic-button-on-biden-campaign-n4925271#google_vignette
AXIOS wrote about the WAPO story, mentioning that “Biden and his allies will spend over $1 billion this year telling voters Trump is terrible.” It occurs to me that if Trump really had been so terrible as President, they wouldn’t HAVE to spend a billion dollars to convince voters of that! We’d all just know. They’re spending that much money because the situation is the opposite: we know that Trump was right about so many things and made some great decisions as President.
According to their report, top Democrats who’d been thinking the Biden campaign was being too complacent were relieved at Biden’s speech, because they liked the horrid thing. They called the speech the campaign’s “we get it” moment. So expect to see a lot more darkness and lying about Trump and January 6.
AXIOS likes to answer for its readers the question of “why it matters?” In this case, they say it reflects a need by “someone” to “light a fire” under Biden’s campaign people. But we don’t think that quite captures it. The “someone” is most likely Obama, and the fact that this story was leaked to WAPO at this particular time reflects the Obamas’ strategy for their own comeback.
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/07/obama-biden-trump-2024-election
Adding to the picture of the Obamas’ growing involvement, Sean Hannity reported Monday night that Michelle Obama appeared in a recent wide-ranging interview on what is billed as “the Number One health and wellness podcast” to express her own Trump-fear, which she said keeps her up at night.
“I am terrified about what could possibly happen [in the next election],” she said on the Jay Shetty “On Purpose” podcast, “because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that I --- sometimes I think people take for granted. You know, the fact that people think that government, you know, doesn’t even do anything. And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God! Does government do EVERYTHING for us. And we cannot take this democracy for granted. And sometimes I worry that we do. And those are the things that keep me up.”
Never mind her disturbing observation that government does everything for us. Michelle, without mentioning Trump by name, launched into problems with the tone of messages, and we know exactly who she’s talking about: “The tone and tenor of the message matters. We just can’t say...the first thing that comes into our minds. That is not authenticity to me. That’s childish, and we see childish leadership right before us --- what that looks like and how that feels, where someone is just base, and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position. It doesn’t trickle down well. You know, that just begets more of that.”
It’s as we’ve said for a long time: that if Michelle were running against Trump, she would be offered up as the nation’s “healer,” the strong but gentle antidote for the rawness that is Trump. She reinforced that image during this interview.
“I think we are obligated to model,” she said, “for those of us that have a platform, because it resonates. And I want to resonate good. I want to resonate reason and compassion and empathy. And that’s more important than my feelings. ‘Cause my feelings, I can take care of those.”
“That’s a master class in communication,” Shetty responded with an admiring chuckle. Michelle’s combination of empathy and energy “is so empowering for everyone who’s listening and watching.” Tellingly, she said she learned this perspective “on the campaign trail.”
Michelle also made it clear that after living so closely with the leader of the free world, she knew a LOT. Some of it she didn’t want to know, and it kept her up at night.
She did a skillful cleanup job on remarks she’d made years ago about “not loving my country.” “People will distort you whenever they can,” she said, obviously not thinking about how relentlessly the Democrats distort Trump. She said people tried to “other-ize” her and her husband, as “the first black people,” accusing her husband of “being a terrorist” (what, not a Russian agent?), labeling her as “an angry black woman,” etc. It was “to make people afraid of us,” which is “a strategy that gets played again and again and again.” (What, like calling someone a dictator and a threat to democracy?)
She oh-so-pleasantly dropped a nasty dig at Trump at the end: “I mean, the bars [levels of expectation] are different for people in life. That I’ve learned. This is the thing about being an ‘other’ [as in, being black]. You learn how to be excellent all the time, because you can’t be ‘less than.’ Other people can. Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men can’t.” This teaches you to be good, she said, and you end up benefiting from that “extra resilience.”
“But it’s still not fair.”
By the way, if Michelle would like to see a list of black men who were indicted and went on to run for office (and win), we’ll see what we can do. For now, two words: Marion Barry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry
Certainly, the Obamas aren’t getting involved in this campaign for Biden’s sake. The Obamas famously can’t stand the Bidens. Besides, President Biden has his own problems with “tone” these days, most recently in his dark, divisive, foreboding speech at Valley Forge. Michelle didn’t mention THAT, of course, but we all know it’s true.
The opening to Michelle’s podcast interview, which runs a little more than an hour, looks like a brief promotional piece for her. Watch about the last ten minutes and tell me she’s not running for President, and essentially a socialist one. Low-information voters who know little about Obama-style leadership and the REAL “threat to democracy” currently residing in DC thanks in large part to him will be mightily impressed. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
https://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obama-am-terrified-could-154821087.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Related: I didn’t want to say much more about Biden’s kick-off speech last Friday for his 2024 Scaremongering Tour, but this blog post from John A. Lucas that analyses Biden’s Kim Jong Un-like propaganda tactics, expose some of the outrageous lies Biden spouted, and sums it up as the “worst presidential speech ever,” is well worth reading.
https://johnalucas6.substack.com/p/worst-presidential-speach-ever