Former President Barack Obama waded back into politics over the weekend, telling a group of Democratic donors in Hawaii that the United States needs “new blood” in leadership, and that Democrats should be focused on finding a candidate for president who will change the world for the better.
The United States has “a deficit of leadership, and we need new blood,” Obama said, according to The Hill. “People cling to power instead of seeing the power in other people.”
Obama is currently on a national tour raising money for the Obama Foundation which is still in the process of building the former president’s official library (though Obama has expanded the scope of his foundation to include his post-presidential non-profit work). The weekend’s events drew mostly Democratic VIPs from across Hawaii and featured a host of current and former politicians, including “U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and former Gov. Neil Abercrombie,” according to local media.
Speaking on the subject of his current agenda, Obama told the audience that he’s focused on national politics at the moment because that’s where he believes the most good can be done. His real agenda will have to wait until after President Donald Trump is out of office, though he never explicitly mentioned Trump by name during his speech.
Oddly enough, Obama also avoided talk of the government shutdown, perhaps because his own administration used a similar tactic to help push through the Affordable Care Act, tying certain aspects of the bill to a long-term funding agreement during Obama’s first term as president. – READ MORE