Barack Obama

So basically, the president, in my case, Democrat, I leave office, and there's no obvious person who's now

The shadow prime minister, the leader of the party for the Democrats, right?

And so there were a lot of terrific people who were doing good work.

But we have this weird situation where you don't have a designated person who's speaking on behalf of the whole party.

So I actually found myself drawn back in.

day-to-day politics or commentary more than I had wanted to be.

After the second term.

Yeah, in 2017, 2018.

And I thought I was going to be able to remove myself more from

being out there in public and was going to be able to concentrate on what I really wanted to do, which was coach the next generation of leadership.

Sure.

Yeah, move from player to coach, essentially.

And I kept on being asked to comment on news of the day and look at this outrage and why aren't you out there more and that kind of thing.

And look, that's flattering.

And, you know, it's an indication that you made a connection with people.

Sure.

But I tried to be a little bit disciplined about recognizing that.

I'd moved on to a new phase where I did not have formal power.

I have some hopefully moral suasion, some credibility.

But I didn't have formal power.