Nearing The End, Obama Finds Candor

Ruth Marcus on Jun 24, 2015

Still, this president speaks in terms of "a lot more hits than misses," not of launching "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow." He knows, from painful experience, that the latest mass killing, no matter how appalling, is not going to magically produce gun legislation.

But Garage Obama is also freed up, beyond simply using the N-word.

"I actually think I'm a better president and would be a better candidate if I were running again than I ever have been," he told Maron. "And it's sort of like an athlete -- you might slow down a little bit, you might not jump as high as you used to, but I know what I'm doing and I'm fearless. ...

"And also part of that fearlessness is, because you've screwed up enough times, that you know that it's all happened. I've been through this. I've screwed up. I've been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls. And I emerged and I lived. And that's always such a liberating feeling, right?"

This is the point Obama was making at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, when he talked about having "something that rhymes with bucket list,'' citing his executive action on immigration, Cuba and climate.

There is, indeed, a certain WTF quality to the denouement of Obama's presidency, unmoored from party and eying the clock. It emerged in the setting, unlikely but intimate, of a Pasadena garage as a sniper patrolled the roof to protect the middle manager in chief.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.