Obama confident he would beat Trump

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – President Barack Obama said Monday he believes he would have won this year’s election if he had been able to run for a third term.

“I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that … if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said in at an exit interview with his former top adviser David Axelrod, for his podcast produced by the CNN network and the University of Chicago.

Obama described his confidence in an America “full of energy and “tolerant.

"I know that in conversations that I've had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me,” he added.

Term limits prevents Obama from being able to seek a third term.

Obama’s 2008 primary rival and secretary of state during his first term, Hillary Clinton, ran as the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nominee but lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Clinton ran in large part on Obama’s agenda, pledging to preserve some of his signature policies, including his health care reform legislation known as Obamacare.

Obama acknowledged that Democrats face political challenges, especially in rural areas.

“If we can't find some way to break through what is a complicated history in the south and start winning races there and winning back southern white voters without betraying our commitment to civil rights and diversity -- if we can do those things, then we can win elections,” he said.