he knew what he was doing. he was trying to present a forceful reminder to the candidates but also to the party at large as sort of the dangers of driving off a too liberal cliff and making yourself essentially unelectable. but it s interesting, because for all barack obama represented, this kind of new hope, new generation, the hope and change generation, by the end of his eight years in office, one of the legacies is that the progressive wing of his party became really disaffected with him, they didn t think he went far enough. part of what fueled the bernie sanders and the elizabeth warren rise was a kind of assessment, a kind of end of the term assessment of obama, that he hadn t seized the moment the way he might have and that he became too cautious and he became too much of a sort of establishment figure as opposed to the kind of, you know, progressive person they think they needed. that s what he truly believes, and i think he fears heading