Obama warns 2020 candidates about getting out of step with voters: Be 'rooted in reality'
Washington (CNN)Former President Barack Obama used an appearance at a high-dollar donor confab on Friday to urge the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls
to "pay some attention to where voters actually are," warning them
about going so far on certain policies that they become out of step with
voters.
Obama said
that some Democrats are listening too closely to liberal Twitter and
progressive activists, specifically singling out issues like health care
and immigration and, in what amounted to a stern warning to the 2020
field, bluntly said that voters are "less revolutionary than ...
interested in improvement" and warned about turning off certain segments
of the electorate by not being "rooted in reality."
"My
one cautionary note is I think it is very important for all the
candidates who are running at every level to pay some attention to where
voters actually are," Obama said, specifically saying he doesn't think
candidates should be "diluted into thinking that the resistance to
certain approaches to things is simply because voters haven't heard a
bold enough proposal."
The
former president specifically noted health care and immigration, saying
people are "rightly ... cautious" on health care because "they don't
have a lot of margin for error."
Obama's
comments are particularly noteworthy because he rarely comments on the
Democratic field, aside from -- as he did on Friday -- promising to
"work my tail off to make sure" whoever wins the nomination defeats
President Donald Trump.
Obama said
his comments were not meant to be a "criticism to the activist wing"
because those people should be pushing the party, but added that the
"candidates' job, whoever that ends up being, is to get elected" and
warned them from thinking that "if you get so far out and you think
automatically people will follow" because you are being "bold and
creative."
The former president's
comments come at the same time that the party -- led by the large field
of presidential hopefuls -- debates a host of sweeping policy proposals.
These include "Medicare for All," a liberal proposal to remake the
country's health care system, the Green New Deal, a sizable plan aimed
at combating climate change, and policies like decriminalizing border
crossings into the United States and remaking the Supreme Court.
"This
is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in
improvement. They like seeing things improved, but the average American
doesn't think you have to completely tear down the system and remake
it," he said. "I think it is important for us not to lose sight of
that."
Obama also used the
appearance to urge members of the Democratic Party to stop worrying so
much about the turmoil and tumult within the Democratic race for
president.
"For those who get
stressed about robust primaries, I just have to remind you that I had a
very robust primary," Obama said, nodding to his 2008 race against
then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, which dragged on for months.
He
added: "I am confident that at the end of the process we will have a
candidate who has been tested and will be able to proudly carry the
Democratic banner, and we are going to have to unify around that."
The
forum for the comment was not lost on those in the room: Obama offered
his advice during an onstage interview with former Georgia gubernatorial
candidate Stacey Abrams at an event hosted by Democracy Alliance, a
club of the party's top donors, the same group of people whose private
and public worrying about the 2020 race has led some Democrats who had
ruled out bids to consider getting back in.
The
field of Democrats vying to take on Trump has grown in recent weeks,
not shrunk, with former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick launching a late-entry presidential campaign on Thursday.
Patrick,
who jumped into the race out of fear over the state of the current crop
of Democrats, has since subtly knocked his Democratic opponents,
casting the race as one between "nostalgia" -- a nod to former Vice
President Biden -- and the idea that "it is our way, our big idea, or no
way" -- a nod to Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie
Sanders of Vermont.
Democratic
donors, watching Biden struggle to break out in the crowded field and
liberals like Warren and Sanders pick up momentum, have been whispering
for weeks that other Democrats should consider shaking up the race.
Their key concern: None of the current candidates could defeat Trump if
the election were today, despite polls that show otherwise.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also publicly weighing a run, after ruling it out earlier this year, because of concerns about Biden's ability to win the primary and go on to beat Trump.
Obama
said Friday that debates within the party are good for the eventual
nominee, and that losing states in 2008 had made him a better president.
"If
Iowa showed that I could win the presidency, New Hampshire showed I
could handle the presidency," he said, "because when you are president
you also experience losses and setbacks and things don't break your
way."
Obama's most stinging indictment of the party came during his warnings to its field of 2020 presidential candidates.
He
showed that he was closely watching the Democratic race, especially how
the candidates were debating his legacy and policies he had enacted
during his eight years in the White House.
"Let
people hear directly from me on this: I think it is important for
candidates to push past what I was able to achieve as president. I
wouldn't run the same campaign today in this environment that I ran in
2008, in part because we made enough progress since 2008, of which I am
very proud, that it moved what is possible," he said. "So I don't want
people to just revert to what is safe. I want them to push on and try
more."
He added: "So I don't take
it as a criticism when people say, 'That is great, Obama did what he did
and now we want to do more.' I hope so. That is the whole point. I
built off the progress other people made. And tried to take the baton
and run the race a little further, and then I expect people to take the
baton from me and then I want them to run it a little further from
that."
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