title:  Obama Cancels ‘Sleep’ Plans, Will Stick Around To Save The Democratic Party Instead
text: Earlier this year, President Obama joked that as soon as he was out of office he would set aside three to four months to sleep off the previous eight years, but those plans are officially canceled thanks to Donald Trump. Months ago Obama, like the rest of us, expected Hillary Clinton to win the election. Past staying in Washington, D.C. while Sasha finished school, the Obamas  futures were not set in stone. Now, out of a sense of duty to his country, the President says he will do what he must to save the Democratic Party.In the November 28 edition of The New Yorker, Obama says that he d be done if Hillary Clinton was going to be our next President, but Trump s  landslide victory  gives him no choice but to stay in politics for a while: I think that if Hillary Clinton had won the election then I d just turn over the keys,  he said.  We d make sure the briefing books were in order and out we go. I think now I have some responsibility to at least offer my counsel to those who will continue to be elected officials about how the D.N.C. can help rebuild, how state parties and progressive organizations can work together. But don t worry, Republicans, the President made it clear that he won t be declaring himself Emperor-For-Life, no matter how many scary right-wing conspiracy websites told you he would:Not long before the election, Valerie Jarrett, the senior aide with the closest relationship to the Obamas, asked the President,  Don t you sometimes wish you could run for another term? I m sure you could win, and there s so much more to do. Obama had no appetite for superseding the Twenty-second Amendment.  I said no, because, look, at some point you lose touch,  he recounted.  By being in this room. At some point, you get worn down. At some point, you start getting into bad habits. I told her,  We re playing on house money here. We weren t supposed to be here. For us to have had this opportunity and to be able to make this much change, as much as we wish that we could have gotten everything done, it s remarkable. What will be Obama s role in the Trumpocalypse? That much is unclear   but the party will be much better off with him involved than otherwise.Featured image via Getty Images/Carsten Koall