Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump

by Dan Pfeiffer

At first, we didn’t even know the reporters were tweeting about us because Twitter, along with Facebook and Gmail, was blocked on all White House computers. The IT folks believed them to be vulnerable to hacking from foreign powers like Russia—just to pick one random example from around the globe.

Twitter doesn’t make Trump act like a fool; he is a fool who has Twitter on his phone.

In March 2014, I was on Meet the Press right after Vladimir Putin and Russia had invaded Crimea, which heretofore had been part of the independent state of Ukraine.

A few days later, the Russian government announced that they had sanctioned a number of US government officials, banning them from traveling to Russia. On the list were several US lawmakers including Democratic and Republican congressional leadership; the White House official responsible for coordinating and implementing US sanctions on Russia; Ben Rhodes; and me.

He continued, “Here’s the advice I give everyone about marriage—is she someone you find interesting?” I was initially confused by the question, but I figured he must have a point. “You will spend more time with this person than anyone else for the rest of your life, and there is nothing more important than always wanting to hear what she has to say about things,” Obama continued.

“Does she make you laugh? And I don’t know if you want kids, but if you do, do you think she will be a good mom? Life is long. These are the things that really matter over the long term.”

Second, if the Russians had not intervened and FBI Director Jim Comey had not decided to violate Department of Justice procedure to announce a short-lived and irrelevant reopening of the e-mail investigation, she would have won the White House and perhaps by a sizable margin.

Yes, Clinton made mistakes. She was overly cautious and played not to lose. She didn’t have a clear message or rationale for her candidacy other than that she would be a good president who would do good things.

It’s also impossible to talk about assessments of Hillary Clinton’s abilities as a candidate without mentioning the insidious effect of sexism in the media and the voting public. Behavior, body language, and tone that were applauded in male candidates were derided in Clinton.

A man who had never served in public office, never served in the military, never served his country or his community in any way big or small. A man famous for being famous.

When I was working in the White House and the world felt dark and depressing, it never lasted because hope was just down the hall.

“The March on Washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history, that we are masters of our fate,” he said. “The arc of the universe may bend toward justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own.”

As Obama said in almost every speech he gave in 2008, he is not a perfect man and he was never going to be a perfect president. But he is a better man than he was a president, and he was a pretty great president.

Chance the Rapper, the hip-hop artist who has known Obama for most of his life, put it best in a 2016 interview with GQ: “He’s a good man. Even if he wasn’t president, if his ass worked at, like, Red Lobster, he’d be just a good man working at Red Lobster.”

Many people in this country would feel better if we could hear from Obama more often, particularly after times of tragedy. His voice provides a sense of comfort and helps us believe that we can come out of the Trump era without too much lasting damage to the country.

“Look, I know why you guys are concerned.3 I said it because it happened to be true. I’m not going to play the game where I edit what I say because I am afraid of Republican attacks. That’s their game. If we play their game, we lose. We have to change the game.”

“This is some pretty funny stuff,” Obama told us. “But do I have to stick to the script?” “Umm, I mean, not technically, but…,” I said. “Good. I want to have some fun with this.”

Second, comedy is Obama’s superpower.

but I was pretty much out of hope for the first time since I had met Barack Obama.

Understatement for the purposes of gallows humor is a tried-and-true Obama-ism. Then he said, “Maybe I am just looking for a silver lining, but I am hopeful that this will be the clarifying event that will show the public the two different visions for the country.” And there it was: the eternal optimism and unending faith in the American people.

For teaching me that the best staff are the one’s willing to have the hard conversations with the boss

hour. I put all of my faith and hope in you, and never once did I regret that decision.