I highly recommend this Morning Joe episode featuring Michael Moore, who's been quick off the mark to offer a way forward for the Trump opposition movement. I'll get to Moore's commentary in another post, but I quickly wanted to note this MJ discussion because it clarified for me something I had been fretting over the other day - Obama's wishing Trump well and talking about how if Trump succeeds, America succeeds. Since then, I've read people criticizing both Obama and Hillary for their comments about giving Trump a chance. Michael Moore points out that this is indeed what Obama and Hillary must say, given their positions as elected president on the one hand, and presidential nominee on the other; they cannot say otherwise. Such rhetoric is part of the peaceful transition of power that both Obama and Hillary also both mention. Moore goes on to say that while those two have to say such things, the rest of us are under no such obligation, and in fact should exercise our full rights as citizens in a democracy. I also think it's pretty clear that Obama and Hillary were blindingly aware of the subtext of their remarks - that they had raised the possibility that Trump himself had never committed to accepting the election results were they not in his favor. In this pretty obvious context, their remarks were far more pointed than critics give them credit for. Besides, what's the alternative - for Hillary Clinton to tell everyone to fight Trump tooth and nail, not to give him a chance, not to allow him to try to unify the American people? How would that have gone over? I think Hillary and Obama both give Americans more credit than that. We recognize that these are necessary remarks, and the painful circumstances for both under which they speak them.