Former President Barack Obama told Zohran Mamdani “your campaign has been impressive to watch,” and suggested that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election.
Former President Barack Obama called New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, praising his campaign and offering to be a “sounding board” into the future.
The private, roughly 30-minute phone call, which has not previously been reported, was described by two people who participated or were briefed immediately on what had been said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.
Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said.
Iceland didn’t. But Bush put us on the bailout path, and Obama reversing course would have cause serious economic turmoil.
I think we should have regardless, but that’s neither here nor there.
Iceland has the luxury of not being able to eliminate the global economic landscape with one big mistake. No one here is happy with the bank bailout, but it was the only realistic option available.
There were many different ways that it could have been implemented, though. Giving the banks that fucked the economy free money with no strings was not it.