Obama defends Clinton, likens Sanders to 'bright, shiny object'
Weighing in extensively on the race a week before the leadoff Iowa caucuses where Clinton and Sanders are locked in a tight race, the president told Politico that Clinton entered the race with the “privilege and burden of being perceived as the frontrunner.”
By contrast, he said, “I think Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete longshot and just letting loose.”
Obama offered this context to explain the dynamic in the race, with Sanders increasingly posing a challenge to what was once thought to be Clinton’s cakewalk to the nomination. He cast Clinton as the experienced candidate, and Sanders as the new political attraction that has captured voters’ attention.
“She is a good, smart, tough person who cares deeply about this country, and she has been in the public eye for a long time and in a culture in which new is always better. And, you know, you're always looking at the bright, shiny object that people don't, haven't seen before,” Obama said. “That's a disadvantage to her. Bernie is somebody who -- although I don't know as well because he wasn't, obviously, in my administration, has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, and great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless. His attitude is, ‘I got nothing to lose.’”
More at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/25/obama-defends-clinton-likens-sanders-to-bright-shiny-object.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
in this case, to "remain neutral" in Primary. 
I always try to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, he ran as the hope & change
progressive candidate against Hillary in 2008. I've voted for him at every opportunity
ever since.
It's really disappointing to see Obama jumping on the "circling Establishment wagons"
bandwagon right before Iowa, when he said he wouldn't do this. It makes me feel really
sad and disappointed, and kind of embarrassed for him in a weird way.
It's very fascinating to see how the political landscape is morphing virtually overnight,
the more it looks like Sanders is going to win both Iowa and NH, as the Goldman Sachs
owned Establishment pulls out all the stops, to try shut-down the voice of 'the little people'
who have decided "fuck this shit" enough is enough!!
We're being baited to attack Obama, in an attempt to alienate as many AA's
as possible, and I'm determined to not do that.
Thanks for your reply 
Those were Obama's own thoughts and words. Why would he prefer Sanders to continue his legacy? That's silly. He and Hillary are politically and personally closer. She was also his choice for SOS.
Have I been disappointed with his Wall St.-friendly appointments. Yes.
Not managing to close Gitmo yet? well, yah.
Still being in Afghanistan? .. ok, yes again.
On the whole though, I do respect Obama's tenacity and how he's handled himself
in the face of racist animosities and irrational obstructions by most Republicans in
Congress. Kudos to O for Iran deal & and easing relations with Cuba.
The 'bright & shiny object' thing really hasn't applied to him, & doesn't now either. it's
a disrespectful slur, and I kinda thought Obama wouldn't resort to that kind of thing in
the Primary. It makes me sad to see it. 
coming from the man who was the "bright shiny object" in 2008. 
Thanks for this post!
on his part, along with the long-shot comparison. Dude just described himself in '08 to a T. 
But in a candid 40-minute interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast as the first flakes of the blizzard fell outside the Oval Office, he couldn’t hide his obvious affection for Clinton or his implicit feeling that she, not Sanders, best understands the unpalatably pragmatic demands of a presidency he likens to the world’s most challenging walk-and-chew-gum exercise.
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“The truth is, in 2007 and 2008, sometimes my supporters and my staff, I think, got too huffy about what were legitimate questions she was raising,” he admitted. “And there were times where I think the media probably was a little unfair to her and tilted a little my way in calling her out.”
In fact, he said, Clinton “had a tougher job throughout that primary than I did.”
“She had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels,” he 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.”
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It’s an open secret inside the White House that Obama was relieved to see Vice President Joe Biden pass on a 2016 presidential run— though he did nothing to prod his friend in either direction. Obama has remained above the fray in the Clinton-Sanders duel, but people close to him say he believes his onetime opponent is better equipped to defeat the Republicans.
“He’s not panicked by Sanders,” said one former top aide, “but he’s clearly thumbing the scale for Hillary.”
I'm glad he said that in 2008 Hillary was given a harder time that he was by the media. They are still doing it. They are chortling about Sanders being ahead in IA & NH. As for who he prefers to continue his legacy, of course it's Hillary. Did anyone think that he would say Sanders?
That's a positive statement about Bernie.