After weeks of pushing the “Russian hacking” narrative, mostly through White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, Obama is finally admitting that Hillary “lost badly” in her presidential bid by failing to make an argument to people in the Midwest that inspired them to “show up.”  In an “exit interview” with NPR, Obama said that Democrats face “structural problems” with their base clustered in urban areas on the coasts which requires presidential candidates to make their case to swing voters in the Midwest, something he says Hillary failed to do.  Per The Hill:

“There are some things that we know are a challenge for Democrats — structural problems,” he said.

Obama noted that Democratic voters are often clustered in urban areas and on the coasts.

“So as a consequence, you’ve got a situation where there’re not only entire states but also big chunks of states where, if we’re not showing up, if we’re not in there making an argument, then we’re going to lose,” he said.

“And we can lose badly, and that’s what happened in this election.”

Perhaps the President is admitting that a little less golf in his second term might have been beneficial to his party?

Of course, when pressed on whether the electorate understood the democratic argument and simply chose to reject it, Obama assured NPR that that simply couldn’t be the case.  As Obama has told us many times, if anyone disagrees with his position on a certain policy then it is simply because they must not fully understand it. 

 Obama said he doesn’t think the Democratic Party’s problem is its core argument. The values presented by the Democratic Party have strong support, he said, citing the minimum wage.

“There are clearly, though, failures on our part to give people in rural areas or in exurban areas, a sense day-to-day that we’re fighting for them or connected to them,” he said.

A lot of people, he added, don’t know about the Obama administration’s push for collective bargaining or overtime rules and are not aware of all the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

Finally, proving that he still has no idea what happened last month, Obama once again blamed Fox News and Hillary’s failure to adequately pander to the right people…Obama’s words are much more subtle than ours, of course.

 “Some of it is the prism through which they’re seeing the political debate take place.”

“So part of the reason it’s important to show up, and when I say show up, I don’t just mean during election time, but to be in there engaging and listening and being with people,” he said, “is because it then builds trust and it gives you a better sense of how should you talk about issues in a way that feel salient and feel meaningful to people.”

To quote Judge Jeanine Pirro from this weekend, the American people “rejected you and everything you stand for,” Mr. President.  The American people rejected the idea of catering a message “in a way that feels salient and feels meaningful” to each individual group while doing absolutely nothing after election day.  The American people chose action over meaningless political narratives.

Following last week’s report that Saudi Arabia is starting to apply pressure on the incoming Trump administration by hinting it could move the Aramco IPO away from New York to some still undeteremined venue due to concerns the recently passed Sept 11 law could make business in the US problematic, on Sunday Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said he has been lobbying US legislators to change a law allowing victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the kingdom.

According to AFP, Adel al-Jubeir told reporters he had returned from an extended stay in the United States, which was partly “to try to persuade them that there needs to be an amendment of the law”, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). In September, the US Congress voted overwhelmingly to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the JASTA. While 15 of the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Saudi, Riyadh continues to deny any ties to the plotters who killed nearly 3,000 people, and is worried disclosures in court could lead to material complications about conducting business in America.

“We believe the law, that curtails sovereign immunities, represents a grave danger to the international system,” Jubeir said at a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry.

John Kerry talks and Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir,
on December 18, 2016 in Riyadh

In opposing the law, Obama said it would harm US interests by opening up the United States to private lawsuits over its military missions abroad; on the other hand Trump has been a fervent supporter of the bill. He called Obama’s veto attempt shameful and said it would “go down as one of the low points of his presidency.”

In a statement before Congress voted to overturn the veto, Mr. Trump said: “If elected president, I would sign such legislation should it reach my desk.” Mr. Trump didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s Gulf allies have also expressed concern about erosion of sovereign immunity, a principle sacrosanct in international relations.

But the potential implications go far beyond the Gulf. Some British, French and Dutch lawmakers have threatened retaliatory legislation to allow their courts to pursue US officials, threatening a global legal domino effect.

“The United States is, by eroding this principle, opening the door for other countries to take similar steps and then before you know it international order becomes governed by the law of the jungle,” Jubeir said.

He added that the US itself would suffer most from the erosion of sovereign immunity. “The question now becomes how do you go about amending the law”, he said.

Meanwhile, John Kerry, whose visit was focused on the war in Yemen, at the press conference reiterated his government’s concern over JASTA.