A New York Times columnist on Sunday named the one man he believes could take on Donald Trump and come out on top. There’s just one problem.
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The 22nd Amendment.
“I don’t want to see the 22nd Amendment repealed,” wrote Ezra Klein. “But I’ll admit to some frustration that it has denied us the campaign America needed: a direct contest between Barack Obama and Donald Trump.”
Klein argued that Obama is perfectly positioned to take on Trump because he provides the perfect contrast to his character. Klein, interestingly, also placed a lot of emphasis on physique.
“Obama is lean, disciplined, deliberate and restrained,” wrote Klein. “Trump is hulking, bombastic, gaudy and unrestrainable. Obama is defined by his superhuman self-control, his (exaggerated) seven lightly salted almonds before bed; Trump, by his superhuman appetites — for attention, for fame, for money, for women, for power.”
But since the 22nd Amendment restricts U.S. presidents from serving more than two terms in office, Klein suggested future candidates take note, and advantage, of the comparison.
Klein urged Democrats to echo Obama’s message, which he delivered at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, describing his vision for the nation.
“It is worth remembering just how radical the whole idea of self-government really was back in 1776,” Obama said. “To that point, human history was a tale of conquest and caste and rigid hierarchies, a world where the strong dominated the weak, where power and wealth and status flowed through lineage and the many were ruled by the few.”
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Klein called this line on of “political genius” with its ability to unite a large swath of political factions.
“In an era when a flag pin adorned nearly every politician’s lapel, he offered a competing vision of what it meant to believe in the country,” wrote Klein. “America is a process, not a place; those who believe in it are those who do the work of making its radical vision real.”
The columnist then contrasted this message to Trump’s.
“Trump memorably anchored his celebration of America’s 250th with U.F.C. Freedom 250, a cage match on the lawn of the White House,” wrote Klein. “It was a veneration of the strong’s ability to dominate the weak, not of the weak who joined together to reimagine strength.”
As Americans prepare for the midterm election in November and another presidential contest in two years’ time, Klein urged upon them a history lesson mingled with some statistics.
“When CNN polled the standings of every living president, Obama topped them all, with 57 percent approval,” Klein wrote. “Trump is languishing at 34 percent. In the contests to come, there will be much that Democrats can still learn from Obama, and much that Republicans may find they need to unlearn from Trump.”
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