Voters are drawn to Sen. Bernie Sanders because he’s the “bright, shiny object” in the presidential race, and Hillary Clinton is sometimes too smart for her own good on the campaign trail, President Obama said in an interview published Monday.
In his most extensive comments on the race, Mr. Obama told Politico that Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent who is waging a strong challenge against Mrs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination, is benefiting from low expectations.
“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,” Mr. Obama said. “His attitude is, ’I got nothing to lose.’”
He said Mrs. Clinton “came in with the both privilege – and burden – of being perceived as the frontrunner.”
“You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before – that’s a disadvantage to her,” Mr. Obama said.
The president also said that Mrs. Clinton, his former secretary of State, is better campaigning in front of “small groups” than big audiences, and that her first campaign appearances last year showed her to be “rusty.”
“She’s extraordinarily experienced – and, you know, wicked smart and knows every policy inside and out – sometimes [that] could make her more cautious, and her campaign more prose than poetry,” Mr. Obama said.
His comments come just a week before the Iowa caucuses, where polls show the state essentially as a tossup. A CBS News survey on Sunday found Mr. Sanders leading by one percentage point, 47 percent to 46 percent.
Mr. Obama said the appeal of Mr. Sanders’ populist, anti-Wall Street message is understandable.
“Why is it that we should be scared to challenge conventional wisdom and talk bluntly about inequality and, you know, be full-throated in our progressivism?” Mr. Obama asked. “That has an appeal and I understand that.”
By contrast, Mrs. Clinton “presents is a recognition that translating values into governance and delivering the goods is ultimately the job of politics, making a real-life difference to people in their day-to-day lives.”
“I don’t want to exaggerate those differences, though, because Hillary is really idealistic and progressive,” he said.
Reflecting on his 2008 primary against Mrs. Clinton, the president said she had a tougher job than he did.
“She had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels,” Mr. Obama said. “She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to, you know, handle all the expectations that were placed on her. She had a tougher job throughout that primary than I did and, you know, she was right there the entire time and, had things gone a little bit different in some states or if the sequence of primaries and caucuses been a little different, she could have easily won.”
Of the Republican presidential candidates, Mr. Obama reiterated his displeasure with the rhetoric from frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, saying they are “exploiting anger” within the GOP.
The president said he hopes that “after this venting, Republican voters will settle down and say, ’Who do we want actually sitting behind the desk, making decisions that are critical to our future?’”
“It will be interesting to watch, during the course of this campaign, whether or not Republican voters steer back towards the center,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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