President Obama's post-election graciousness to his successor is a model for how to promote a democratic transition of power, and a sign of a paradox that many of us are feeling right now. Obama tells us that he wishes success for Donald Trump, because if Trump succeeds, America succeeds. Abstractly it's a notion that's hard to disagree with, but it's also dependent on certain assumptions about what an American president will work to accomplish - it all depends mightily on the definition of "succeed." Obama's sentiment clashed so strongly with what I hope for the Trump presidency that his words have been bouncing around my head the last few days. Any number of items on Trump's agenda would count not as America succeeding, but of America failing: banning immigrants from Muslim nations, breaking up countless families as millions of illegal immigrants are deported, turning NATO into a pay-to-play alliance, abandoning efforts to thwart global warming. I suppose no one believes Obama really wants Donald Trump to succeed, but I find myself wanting to believe in the sheer civility of his saying it. Or maybe Obama was talking broadly and optimistically, out of faith that even Trump might find his way to understanding what really makes this country great, and what really could make it better. It sounds like Obama did make a pitch around preserving some parts of Obamacare during his meeting with the president-elect, so I suspect he's also hoping to inject some small amount of example and influence into Trump's bloodstream while he can.