I admired Michelle Obama’s explanation of how she and the president have handled with class the unprecedented political, personal and racial insults they’ve faced.
“When they go low,” she said, “we go high.”
Barack Obama summoned the grace again after Donald Trump’s shocking win over Hillary Clinton to succeed him.
Trump launched his political career by promoting racist lies that Hawaii native Obama, America’s first black president, was born in Kenya.
As a candidate, Trump wouldn’t accord Obama the most minimal respect a president gets, lied about his record, made ugly personal attacks and vowed to undo every vestige of Obama’s legacy.
So how did the president respond to the bitter news of Trump’s victory?
He called Trump early Wednesday to congratulate him, promised a smooth transition and invited him to the White House to talk the next day.
“Remember that we’re actually all on one team,” Obama later said.
Despite their differences, he said, “We are now all rooting for his success in uniting the country.”
This is how a president acts, and let’s hope the congenitally ungracious Trump learned something.
Respect of election results and peaceful transfer of power are the foundation of our constitutional democracy, and Obama’s gesture to Trump was by no means historically unique; George W. Bush showed Obama the same courtesy in 2008 despite their differences.
What made Obama’s gesture to Trump compelling is that the president-elect fancies himself an above-the-rules outlier unbound by conventions that have made our country a model of strength and stability for more than two centuries.
He repeatedly wouldn’t commit to accepting the election results if Clinton won and hinted at violence by his supporters against a “rigged” system.
In a turnabout in the days after the election, Trump was more generous than we’ve seen.
He called Obama “a very good man.”
Of the woman he had threatened to jail, he said, “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”
To fellow Americans, he said, “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.”
To foreign countries he’d crudely insulted, he said, “We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict.”
Did attaining the presidency sober Trump to the responsibilities he’s taken on?
I doubt it, but Obama said we owe him a fair chance and I agree, so I’m trying.
The best I can manage is cautious dread and a feeling that the excellent lesson Obama gave him on being presidential was probably wasted.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
