Obama: Hillary Clinton ‘Can Be A Great President’
In 2008, Hillary Clinton campaigned for then-senator Barack Obama after losing the Democratic nomination. Now, eight years later, the president is returning the favor by saying that Clinton would be “a great president” and is far preferable to Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“I hope my headline is that the President of the United States is profoundly optimistic about America’s future and is 100 percent convinced that Hillary Clinton can be a great president,” Obama said during a July 27 interview with TODAY.
Clinton was lauded in 2008 for stepping down at the end of the Democratic primaries and throwing her support behind Obama. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also endorsed and campaigned for him.
“[We must] take our energy, our passion and our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama,” Mrs. Clinton said after conceding in 2008, according to CNN “… I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.”
Now, Obama said that he hopes the American people will wholeheartedly support Clinton and not become complacent in the assumption that Clinton will easily take the presidency, according to TODAY.
“It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we don’t know,” Obama explained.
He went on to call Trump “scary,” saying that he “doesn’t know [his] stuff” and “hasn’t seemed to spend a lot of time” learning, according to TODAY.
“For one thing, he doesn’t seem to have any plans or policies or proposals or specific solutions,” Obama said of Trump. “The good news is we’ve got a candidate in Hillary Clinton who has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what she’s going to do.”
The president cautioned against electing Trump and supporting “a government where some strong man orders people around and banishes enemies,” instead urging people to fight against a Trump win.
“So my advice to Democrats — and I don’t have to give this advice to Hillary Clinton, because she already knows it — is you stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted because one of the dangers in an election like this is that people don’t take the challenge seriously,” Obama said. “They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected.”