Why did President Obama push Clinton to concede?

[democrattotheend]

I understand that he believes strongly in the peaceful transition of power, but it seems odd to me that he thought it was such an emergency for her to concede the second the networks called Pennsylvania. It seems out of character for him to push her to concede so soon instead of letting her do it on her own terms.

I don't think it was about preserving his legacy, because his legacy was much more threatened by a Trump presidency, and Bill Clinton's legacy wasn't negatively affected by Gore contesting the election in 2000. If anything, pushing her to concede threatens his legacy by pissing off a lot of her supporters.

I get the peaceful transition of power thing, but it was not necessary for her to concede the second the networks called the election to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Given the shock of the results, it would seem reasonable to want to wait and make sure the projections were correct. It would be one thing if he pushed her to concede the next day or even a few hours later, but to call her so soon after the projections to push her to concede is really strange.

I am ruling out any theory that suggests he didn't want her to win. If that were the case he would have given the expected endorsement at the convention and left it at that, instead of going all out for her.

Something seems really off here.

[FBaggins]

1. Probably because he knew that we lost

It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. Sadly, I'm afraid you're right.

[rzemanfl]

2. In my secret heart I am hoping the Commander in Chief knows more about Russian hacking

than we do and is playing three dimensional chess. It is probably wishful thinking.

[Lil Missy]

3. That's between Hillary and Obama.

[quaker bill]

4. Because it does not matter.

It takes the heat off a bit, and bottom line, means nothing at all. Let's say Hillary concedes and more vote counting finds that she actually won after the concession speech. She still becomes President. It literally means nothing to concede.

[jmg257]

5. After all the crap trump brought on by saying he might not, maybe Obama thought it be better

optics to take the classy route once we lost?

It was after 2:30 in the AM, and the results were pretty clear after that. Maybe she was pissed she "had" to, and that was why she sent out Podesta?

[uponit7771]

7. My dream ... is ... Obama is calling to light voter suppression and the ability to hack US elections

... the statement he made about the US elections was a hedge statement at best

[Bob41213]

8. Because she lost

And it would look bad to not concede when you lost.

[Exilednight]

9. Pure speculation, but Obama

does have the best pollers in the business. In 2008 polls had him winning the NH primary, but his internal polls showed him losing.

All of Axelrod's poll break downs had him within 1% of accuracy. I get the feeling he knew something the rest of the world did not.

[democrattotheend]

12. That occurred to me, but I don't think that's it

I am assuming the president, like any politician, cares about his own legacy/political capital/influence. In the past, he has distanced himself from candidates he did not expect to win to avoid stories about how he couldn't make a difference. This is not a criticism - any smart politician does this.

My point is, if he knew Hillary was going to lose he would not have continued to go all out for her up through the very last night. He would not have told his supporters that he would be personally insulted if they did not vote for Hillary. He would have tried to distance himself if he knew she would lose.

[Exilednight]

13. That's a double edged sword.

The margins were pretty close, well within any MOE of accurate polling.

MI was 47.6 to 47.3 percent.
PA favored Trump by 1.2%
WI was 1% difference

Those are razor thin margins. He had to put his all into it if she were to succeed.

Think about it this way, if he didn't and she loss by those margins he would have been blamed.

[yellowcanine]

10. I am not sure he did.

With all of the fake news stories floating about I am skeptical.

First of all, I do not believe she needed to be pushed.
She very likely had more information on the votes which were possibly still out than Obama did.
Her campaign did the calculations and knew when to pull the plug.

[LeftInTX]

11. It almost does sound like fake news

I can't picture Obama asking Hillary to concede unless her lack of concession became a serious issue. When you look at Obama's style, I just can't picture him interfering on election night.