"We are still the country that elected Barack Obama in 2008, and we are capable of that and more,” said Jim Papa, a former special assistant for legislative affairs in the White House. “But we’re also capable of making bad choices and being seduced by someone who plays to fears and anxieties and racial differences.”
Trump’s already done things they never thought he could, like mainstreaming racist rhetoric and racking up so many small donors that they worry about the extent of his support. And that was even before he riled up Obama doubters again with his birther pirouette.
And the result: Trump’s doing better in the polls at this late stage than Obama’s team imagined. With 43 days to go, Trump and Clinton are essentially tied, polls sitting within the margin of error, even in battleground states.
Though only a few weeks ago, current and former Obama aides would joke about how the president’s great political legacy might be the Republican Party destroying itself in front of him. Now, on the record, they push back on the very suggestion that Obama’s legacy should be viewed in any frame that Trump also occupies.
“I don’t think he thinks it’s his legacy, I don’t think any of us think it’s his legacy,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to the president. “Trumpism is a lot of things in this country. President Obama is the face of that for some Republicans, but the Republican Party got themselves into this mess.”
Going into Monday night’s debate, Obama’s team is feeling that same anxiety expressed by some top Hillary Clinton aides: maybe the country isn’t what they thought, maybe the resistance to Obamacare and gay marriage and the progress they’re so proud of is broader than the vocal fringe they’ve always dismissed. Maybe, the president’s aides – current and former – now concede, they’re going to have to live with the fact that Trump could end up in the Oval Office in part due to a backlash against Obama.
“I’m trying to think of a series to compare it to, which was a series that started as a comedy and became a high stakes drama,” said Ben LaBolt, a former White House aide and press secretary for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. “I feel like we’re maybe in the fifth season of ‘Breaking Bad’ here. We’re way beyond the laughs, and just sitting on the edge of our seats in terror.”
“There's not a lot of mirth in the circles I run in about him,” said another former senior Obama campaign staffer.
Privately, Obama has expressed mixed feelings, according to people close to the president. He’s still nursing amusement at Republicans for being hapless enough to get railroaded by Trump, but it’s mixed with frustration that there are so many Americans he failed to reach. People who've spoken to him say the president wonders what he might have done differently to break through in a way that would make people who’ve benefited from his policies—like those enjoying added health
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