this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
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“It’s not as if we didn’t see some of this coming,” said Barack Obama, a note of bleak humour in his voice. “I will admit it’s worse than even I expected, but I did warn y’all!”

The crowd at a sports arena in Norfolk, Virginia, half-laughed and half-groaned. “I did,” Obama added. “You can run the tape.”

Now Obama is back on the campaign trail, for Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. It gives him a platform to deliver an alternative State of the Union address. And the gloves are off.

To hear the expectant buzz of the 7,000-plus crowd in Norfolk as candidate Abigail Spanberger promised that Obama’s entrance was just moments away was to be reminded that Democrats did once have a president who could match Trump’s superstar charisma.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 123 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Trump’s superstar charisma.

I'm so sick of people saying this dipshit with diarrhea of the mouth is charismatic.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 81 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The problem is: he is charismatic to other dipshits with diarrhea of the mouth.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

He's persuasive to idiots. That's not the same thing as charismatic

[–] 7355608@piefed.social 18 points 9 months ago

When the number idiots is sizeble percentage of the voting population, sadly it does count.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

He is charismatic. He does grab people. Hitler was also charismatic, undeniably so, a great orator. Trump is incoherently charismatic in comparison 😆

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If we compare Trump to a phishing email, they are remarkably close.

Use of language: Phishing emails usually incorporate misspellings and bad grammar, this is done to prevent people who are too detail oriented from wasting the scammer's time, if they sort themselves out the scammer can focus on the gullible people who will believe them later in the process. Trump uses child like grammar in the same way, it turns away educated people from his fans, reducing the risk that they will start convincing followers that Trump is bad, which increase the echo chamber effect.

Use of hyperbole: Phishing emails will push hard for fast action, telling you that doing X is extremely important, and needs to be done now. Same with Trump, there is always a big crisis, putting you on edge, stressing you out, this further reduce his follower's ability to use critical thinking, so they will have an easier time to mindlessly support whatever action they are told will solve the crisis.

There are way more similarities, but I am on mobile, and starting to cramp, so I end this comment here.

TL;DR: Trump is a scam email.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 4 points 9 months ago

I think he is a cursed chain letter. Everything he touches in the chain turns into shit.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's fun watching people debate whether the populist dictator that created a cult of personality using words and delivery is charismatic or not 😂

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

It's all in how he communicates, not what. He's an old-school con man, a confidence trickster. That whole style relies on the fact that people are really bad at judging character, and someone who lies with a straight face and never shows an iota of guilt will be believed to be innocent and truthful no matter what evidence is presented against them.

Combine that with a heavy dose of sunk cost fallacy and an increasingly uneducated and desperate electorate, and it's easy to see why many follow him despite his near complete lack of articulateness.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 53 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I just want to point out here, Obama was a moderate, not progressive. He used a Romney healthcare plan, he put in compromise appointments all over, he didn't support gay marriage in his first campaign. He had to "evolve" on that, along with public opinion, conveniently.

And this guy won 2 terms.

Before that we had Clinton, who was - surprise - a moderate. He got some things done for Dems but cut the government way back. He was still grappling with Reagan fanatics so he had to appeal to them. This guy put in don't-ask-don't-tell, which we look back on as a nightmare, but it was also a foot in the door for queers to serve without being dishonorably discharged.

My point is, in recent memory, and certainly now in the Trump era, voters don't want to see out-of-touch positions, they want to see someone very calm and charismatic who says they can solve their everyday problems.

Can we learn anything for 2028 from this?

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

it's not even about being moderate. i believe the stronger vision wins. it's more like this:

on some policies (like gender issues) you heavily divide the population because people see it very differently. some people will agree heavily, others will disagree just as strongly, and all you're doing is to divide the population, which is not what we need. if you focus on economic policies instead, people's agreement is much more even and you get a lot of support from many people, which carries you and the country forward much more, i believe.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah that's a good way of putting it. We can split ourselves over many different issues which do and don't align with people, thus splitting our voter base. Or we can unite behind one standard that everyone desperately wants, and coincidentally we have the track record to win on.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Run the most conservative candidates possible so the party can surprised Pikachu when Trump accidentally pushes decent policy through shear contrarianism. Got it

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Were Clinton and Obama and Biden the "most conservative candidate" in their races?

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Bill and Hillary Clinton are directly responsible for making the DNC into neoliberal shills.

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.world -2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Obama wasn't a great president. He was a good source of hope which made his weakness worse.

He pulled the US out of a financial crisis only to to go complwte centrist, folding on healthcare (which might have been the right strategic choice), folding on peace in the middle east, folding on socual support, folding on Russia, folding on the SC.

Obama contributed to Democratic decline in the world (through loss of trust in Democrstic instituions) during his term, and then lead to borh Trump and Biden.

Biden was a better president than Obama, despite being half there, and funneling the States towards Trump 2.0.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My point wasn't how good each president was, just that they actually won, and social causes advanced under their administrations.

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

You were probably clear ... I probably just needed to rant.

[–] hcf@sh.itjust.works 40 points 9 months ago (1 children)

“I will admit it’s worse than even I expected, but I did warn y’all!” The crowd at a sports arena in Norfolk, Virginia, half-laughed and half-groaned.

Told who exactly? What a wild thing to say in Norfolk—where the surrounding cities (Norfolk included) overwhelmingly voted Harris in 2020.

Voters told YOU (and the DNC) to back someone other than Biden, and YOU didn't listen until it was way too late. If anyone fumbled the election, it's the folks who had Biden's ear and said nothing.

"I told you so" smug assed energy—get the fuck outta here and say that to Michiganders or Pennsylvanians, you tone deaf dickhead.

The way some people throw themselves all over this man...

:/

[–] Sammy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 9 months ago

IKR this fool had a mildly progressive couple of terms (mildly because of you know, the drone strikes), didn't shore up ANYthing to prevent this, and has the gall to be like 'told you so'?

Further solidifies my position that anyone who wants to be in charge for any reason is not to be trusted.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

Do elder statesmen like Obama bother mentoring or training their “replacements”? Seems like we would have more Obama’s in the pipeline if that was the case.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 37 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You know how Bernie has spent like 2-3 decades saying "it's not about me, it's about a movement"?

Obama fundamentally disagrees...

Not that I have a quote of him explicitly saying that, he never would say it on record.

But as a two term president he could have named a progressive chair to the DNC that entire 8 year period. The immediate benefit of that being 2016 would have been a fair primary...

So while some do, I would be shocked to find out Obama suddenly started to care about what happened after him, the day he left office.

[–] beella@lemmings.world 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Obama was extremely overrated.

It sucks how the right gets 'their guy' and we're stuck with establishment crap. spits

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

It's been shit so long people don't understand what their literal ancestors had.

Like, Gen Z was born when Clinton was in office, Alpha when Obama was.

They don't even really remember it because they were kids, just the memory that people said he was either progressive or a commie muslim.

and we’re stuck with establishment crap. spits

But right now we're not stuck with shit.

The DNC is throwing Biden/Kamal's whole war hest back to state parties for use in midterms, and that will generate more candidates in primaries because more generals are winnable.

And competitive primaries help Dem turnout in the general, coupled with republicans shitting the bed and we're likely to see a progressive, not just blue, wave in midterms. Then another along with a progressive presidential.

It doesn't happen often, not in most of our lifetimes really, but now we actually do need to build party unity.

Billionaires and their remaining puppets are going to put a lot of time and money into depressing interest until after primaries.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 9 months ago

sadly its mostly PELOSi, or schumer who do the replacement for DNC. i dont think former presidents can do it, since they dont have political power anymore. all they can do is endorse and promote them.

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[–] oakey66@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Obama gave us Trump because he chose not to hold any bankers during the financial crisis accountable. He bailed on his constituents and bailed out corporations. He also dismantled the organizing that swept him into office. Not to mention the continuation of the illegal bush Era foreign policy. The fact that he also did not hold bush accountable. He folded on a public option. He propped up the worst people in his cabinet. He let Republicans prevent a SCOTUS judge from being confirmed to the bench. Obama let Republicans take the worst of their excesses to a new level with no accountability. We were told that the fever will break and that sanity will return. Despite the fact that the Republican project was decades in the making. Voters didn't do this. They responded to the disdain their party leaders had for them with the reciprocal disdain for their elected officials.

[–] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago

I really hope Debbie Wasserman Schulz is having many bad days for what she did to the party by denying us Bernie

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Barrack Obama completely dismantled his campaign infrastructure immediately after he was elected, knowing full well that the Republicans and their think tanks were targeting local races and federal judges around the country. Why did he do this? Because the Democrats did not want to engage with populism on a mass level beyond campaign slogans and getting individual establishment-friendly candidates in office.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Neoliberals do not like populism. They're not fully committed to democracy, either. Or, at least, their support for democracy is conditional. Friedrich Hayek, one of the architects of neoliberalism, once said:

Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

I think it's worth noting that this is not unique or exclusive to neoliberals. Really, any ideologue or technocrat will only ever support democracy conditionally.

[–] Novamdomum@fedia.io 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Man, the Russian disinfo hubs really want to shutdown anything Obama has to say don't they... Anyone without a vast deficit of logic should be able to spot the contradictions though. How anyone with a brain can look at the wholesale greed led destruction of America that Trump is doing and then say that Obama is the real problem is just bonkers. I suppose it just shows how threatened they are by him.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ah, yes, everyone who disagrees with you is a filthy foreigner.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

not just any foreigner, a russian. that's ... that's communism (/s)

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

He should run for VP.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's neat how people who shit on Obama and Democrats in general have zero policy stances. They almost never cite any event or impact a politician has. It's just labels and namecalling.

[–] Jtotheb@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I don’t understand this claim. Almost all of the criticism of Obama that I see is about his drone strike policies, and a significant majority of the positive things I read about Obama these days are that he was so well spoken and don’t you just miss it. I know that’s anecdotal, but I’m curious how your experience has specifically differed.

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