What Barack Obama said about Donald Trump last night wasn't extraordinary -- it was what most of us have been saying about Trump for years. (In fact, it was a milder, more measured version of what we've been saying.) What's extraordinary is that it came from Obama, a former president. Former presidents aren't suuposed to criticize their successors.
For several years, Obama respected this norm. But why bother now? If the polls are right, and we manage to have a reasonably fair election -- two big ifs, I know -- the next ex-president will be Trump. And if Trump is no longer president starting January 20, that norm is gone. Trump's first post-presidential tweet attacking Joe Biden will be posted before Biden has a chance to lower his hand after taking the oath of office. Trump will attack Biden daily. He'll attack Biden in tweets, in Fox & Friends phone-in interviews (assuming Trump doesn't get his own show on Fox or. on One America News), and in the rallies Trump will almost certain begin staging again as soon as the pandemic is contained.
No norm can survive Trump. That will be true even if we manage to drive him out of office. So there's no point in respecting this norm now.
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