{"id":15875,"date":"2025-11-20T22:01:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/our-most-important-battle-obama-privately-urges-freshman-dems-to-fight-cynicism\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:01:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:01:44","slug":"our-most-important-battle-obama-privately-urges-freshman-dems-to-fight-cynicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/our-most-important-battle-obama-privately-urges-freshman-dems-to-fight-cynicism\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Our most important battle\u2019: Obama privately urges freshman Dems to fight cynicism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former President Barack Obama is embracing his role as mentor-in-chief, huddling with nearly three dozen freshman House Democrats at the Capitol Hill home of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) at a Wednesday night event hosted by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n

The event \u2014 moderated by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) \u2014 saw Obama buck up Democrats and offer insights on surviving Republican majorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get feeling discouraged sometimes,\u201d Obama told the room over soda, water, crackers and crudite, according to excerpts provided by his office to Blue Light News. \u201cI get feeling worn out, tired, and embattled. But in our second term, Denis McDonough, my chief of staff, used to pass out stickers based on a conversation that he and I had had that talked about, \u2018we do not succumb to cynicism \u2014 cynicism is our enemy.\u2019 And it’s pervasive in this town.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that McDonough had stickers printed that read: \u201cfight cynicism.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that, I think, is our most important battle, right?\u201d Obama said. \u201cWe don’t give into that, and then we’re going to be able to figure out the same stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama emphasized to attendees that he had \u201cbeen in your shoes. Because when I was \u2014 everybody remembers the Democratic National Convention in 2004 \u2014 when you were. \u2026well, you were in elementary school\u201d \u2014 a line that drew laughter.<\/p>\n

Obama also compared that moment more than 20 years ago to this one in the Democratic Party\u2019s search for a path out of the wilderness.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what people don’t recall is that John Kerry lost that election,\u201d Obama said. \u201cAnd we didn’t control the House, and we did not control the Senate. And Tom Daschle, who was then the Democratic leader of the Senate, lost, which is unheard of. And Karl Rove, who was the chief architect of George Bush’s campaigns and political career was \u2013 could be found on all the TV stations, talking about the \u2018permanent Republican majority\u2019 that had been created.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former president continued, describing a similar sense of despair in 2004 that Democrats felt after 2024 when President Donald Trump swept all seven battleground states and decisively beat former Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

But it ultimately turned out well for Democrats two decades ago, Obama said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd two years later, Nancy Pelosi was the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives. And four years later, somehow, I ended up being president. The reason I tell you that is not for you to, you know, feel complacent,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s to indicate that the work that you are doing right now, the investment you’re making, the focus that you’re applying, the issues that you are developing, the interactions that you’re having with your constituencies. All that is creating the momentum and the opportunity for change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama took five questions on several topics, including on lessons learned on the Affordable Care Act fight. On that point, he told Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) that he overestimated Republicans\u2019 willingness to work with him, saying he could have learned that lesson quicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wasted a lot of time trying to engage the ideas of Republicans on a good faith basis,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n

Obama lingered with McBride in a photo line amid the event, according to a person familiar with the gathering granted anonymity to discuss a private conversation, and has complimented her on her high-profile media appearances and her messaging, including her interview with Ezra Klein<\/u><\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Obama has never been far from the campaign trail over the last year, and his post-presidency has focused on boosting the next generation of Democratic leaders. He stumped for candidates in New Jersey\u2019s and Virginia\u2019s off-year elections, and has had \u00a0phone calls<\/u><\/a> with incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, among others.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2024 elections, he hosted several small group sessions in his office with the goal of offering a sounding board, according to a person close to him granted anonymity to speak candidly, including with a group of Obama administration alumni, emerging voices within the party and in-cycle senators.<\/p>\n

This is only the second time in his post-presidency that Obama has met with freshman Democrats: He also did so in 2019<\/u><\/a>. Obama spoke on the last episode of the Marc Maron podcast recently of his \u201cmove from player to coach\u201d in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis goal,\u201d a person close to the former president said, \u201cis to build a sustainable Democratic Party that can survive without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Barack Obama is embracing his role as mentor-in-chief, huddling with nearly three dozen freshman House Democrats at the Capitol Hill home of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) at a Wednesday night event hosted by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The event \u2014 moderated by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) \u2014 saw Obama buck up Democrats and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}