President Obama said Republicans who predicted economic doom and gloom if he won in 2008 were proven wrong.
He ticked off the economic gains made since the Great Recession, concluding the economy is on a growth path at a Hillary Clinton campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C., Friday night.
“Eight years later, because of the hard work of the American people, we’ve turned the page,” he said. “And gas is two bucks a gallon. Back then they were saying, ‘if you elect Obama, it will be 6 bucks.’ And now it’s two bucks. Thanks Obama,” he said, mocking a popular sarcastic refrain against him.
“This should not be a close race, but it’s going to be a close race,” Obama predicted.
“The fact that he has gotten this far tells me the degree to which our politics has become like a bad reality TV show,” Obama said about Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Obama said that if anyone else made some of the claims and comments that Trump makes, anyone within earshot would tune him out.
Trump has said he can advise himself on foreign policy “because he has a good brain,” Obama said. “Who says that? If you just knew somebody … and they were like, ‘no, I’ve got a good brain,’ what would you think? You would not put that guy in charge of nothing,” Obama exclaimed.
“Imagine if in 2008 I had said the things that this man has said,” Obama said. “Imagine if I had acted like this man has acted — what Republicans would have said.”
Yet, Republicans today shrug off Trump’s outlandish rhetoric, which stumps him, Obama said.
If a Democrat said such things, Obama would chastise him or her, he said.
Obama said running against Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary made him admire her and decide he needed her in his cabinet.
“She made me a better president,” Obama said.
