Obama brought this same kind of carefree attitude to a Democratic fundraiser in Manhattan last night, where the president seemed only too pleased to openly mock the Republican Party's presidential field.
“Have you noticed that every one of these candidates says, ‘Obama’s weak. Putin’s kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin, he’s going to straighten out’?” Mr. Obama asked a crowd of Democratic donors in New York, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “And then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators at a debate,” he added to huge applause from his partisan audience. “I mean, let me tell you,” he added with gleeful scorn, “if you can’t handle those guys, you know, then I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you.”
As it turns out, the president's ridicule wasn't limited to the GOP candidates hoping to replace him -- Obama seemed equally eager to deride the Republican Party overall.
For example, the president highlighted some of the key successes of his White House tenure, which Obama believes his GOP critics aren't aware of. "[T]hey occupy a different reality, it seems," he said. "According to them, everything was really good in 2008 when we were going through the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes.... This apparently was the golden age that I messed up."
Reflecting on the incident in February in which Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) threw a snowball on the Senate floor -- the Republican lawmaker believes snow in the Northeast during the winter is evidence against climate change -- Obama remains flabbergasted.
"I’m not making that up," the president said, noting the Inhofe story. "That’s what happened. That’s crazy. I was going to quote Kanye [West] but this is a family audience. But that's cray."
That's not a typo; "cray" is slang for "crazy."
And keeping his focus on the climate crisis, the president added, “If you go to 100 doctors and 99 of them tell you you have diabetes ... you wouldn’t say, 'Ahh, that’s a conspiracy, All 99 doctors got together with Obama to keep me from having bacon and donuts.' You wouldn’t do that."
The Washington Post described the remarks as "some of his most barbed comments to date about the 2016 race."
Keep in mind, the president will be hitting the campaign trail aggressively next year in support of Democrats and up and down the ballot. If last night was any indication, Obama not only has a potent message; he seems eager to share it.