There is a lot of speculation as to what President Obama might do after January, when he s no longer the Commander-in-Chief and lead punching bag for the racist right. Obama wants to be a businessman, maybe.The Obama family will be staying in Washington, D.C., at least for the foreseeable future, but that doesn t mean Obama s post-White House activities have to be limited to the nation s capital. Like all great American pioneers, Obama is looking west   this time, toward Silicon Valley, not Wall Street. In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama said: Well, I ve said this before and, I think, surprised a lot of people, but if I think about what would stir my passions had I not gone into politics, it d probably be starting some kind of business. The skill set of starting my presidential campaigns and building the kinds of teams that we did and marketing ideas I think would be the same kinds of skills that I would enjoy exercising in the private sector. The President was careful not to repeat the Republican talking point, that business skill somehow translates to running a country: Now, I m always careful about drawing too many easy parallels there, because sometimes there are CEOs who come in and start explaining to me how I should be running the presidency. And I sometimes have to stop them and say,  All right. One, I appreciate your advice. But imagine a situation in which half your board and management were actively trying to get rid of you and prevent you from accomplishing anything. And you had 2 million employees, and you couldn t fire a large portion of them. And your competitors weren t simply promoting their own products, but were continually saying how your products were the worst that were ever invented and will cause a civilizational crisis. If you pull that all together, then you ve got about half of what I m dealing with on a daily basis.' As for the type of business, Obama wants to help the world. He is interested in science and medicine. Like Bill Gates, Obama wants to use capitalism to try to save the world, one small project at a time. You can become Bill Gates. Or, in some cases, you can electrify a village. You can save water in a desert. That s the thing about the U.S. economy that continues to be unique. And it s tied to capitalism and markets, but it s also tied to a faith in science and reason and a mindset that says there s always something new to discover, and we don t know everything, and we re going to try new things, and we re pragmatic. And if we ever lose that, then we will have lost what has made us an incredible force for good in the world. If we sustain it, then we can maintain the kind of progress that has been made. I always tell interns and young people who I talk to that as tough as things seem right now, do not believe people when they tell you they wish they could go back to the good old days. Because the good old days aren t I m now old enough where I remember some of those good old days. While Obama s plans might not be locked in yet, we can be sure of one thing, he won t let his time go to waste painting pictures of feet or living on the golf course. Former Democratic presidents get s*it done, and Obama will be no exception. The right will hate whatever he does, though.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla at Getty Images.  