Barack Obama
Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation. On 4 shows, 3 appearances, plus 4 compilation re-airs not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
politicianauthorfounder@BarackObama ↗barackobama.com ↗Wikipedia ↗YouTube ↗Instagram ↗
Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Following his presidency, he established the Obama Foundation, co-founded Higher Ground, and authored bestselling memoirs.
4shows
3appearances
21statements
3resolved
2supported
1contradicted
67%fully supported
465said about them ↓ Everything Barack Obama said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Obama: Republican filibuster obstruction in 2009 was unprecedented in US history
“At the time, there was no precedent for the kind of obstruction that we had seen from the Republican Party. There was no precedent for the use of the filibuster to literally block everything.”
Obama: Single-payer healthcare would have been economically disruptive and politically impossible
“Not only politically would it be impossible to start from scratch, but economically be wildly disruptive. A lot of people work for insurance companies and a lot of people work for hospitals under current arrangements and doctors get paid in certain ways and so…”
Obama: Economic inequality continued to grow throughout his presidency
“You saw some trends that unfortunately continued even through my presidency of growing inequality.”
Obama: Federal IT procurement is massively inefficient despite high-caliber talent
“The truth is, certainly at the highest levels of the federal government, people are just as smart and work just as hard, if not harder, than anybody in the private sector. But where there is massive inefficiency is technology and IT procurement. It's just mise…”
Obama: Administration's 2008 crisis decisions averted depression and drove record job streak
“The decisions we made at the time did not solve some of the broader underlying trends that I had actually campaigned on, like income and wealth inequality, but it did avert a great depression and stabilize the situation that would allow for painfully slow, but…”
Obama: Administration wanted a stimulus package twice as large as $800B Recovery Act
“As a consequence, we could not get enough votes to do more in the initial Recovery Act, as we called it, than eight hundred billion dollars. And I think Subsequently, people have said, ah, you know, you should have done twice as much. Well, yeah, we wanted to …”
Obama: Passing on an opportunity window means accepting it may never return
“Sometimes you don't choose the time chooses you. That doesn't mean you have to seize that moment, but it does mean you have to be comfortable with the possibility that the moment won't come again.”
Obama: Empowering 23-year-olds with decision-making power won the 2008 campaign
“That democratization of the campaign, even though we maintained a lot of discipline within it, combined with our innovations with social media and the internet, which again required us to give over power to a bunch of 23 and 25 and 27 year olds who understood …”
Obama: Federal procurement rules forced waterfall development instead of iterative scaling
“Because of the procurement rules, the way we bought software was this massive stack of specs and working with these huge contractors as opposed to an iterative process of buying software and problem solving and starting small and scaling up.”
Obama: Healthcare.gov rollout was his most frustrating self-inflicted presidential wound
“Bottom line is the thing didn't work on the first day. And then it didn't work on the second day or the first seven days, and it was a political nightmare. Probably the most frustrated, self-inflicted wound of my presidency.”
Obama: 2008 crisis differed from COVID-19 due to extreme systemic leverage
“What made it, I think, different than the current crisis that we've been going through with the pandemic was it was a financial crisis that involved enormous amounts of leverage. You had a crisis of confidence and a full blown panic in the financial markets, a…”
Obama: Early push against the filibuster would not have swayed Senate Democrats
“And so, even if I had warned my earlier self, you're not going to get any cooperation on anything, So you might as well start making the argument to blow through some of these Senate rules. I probably couldn't have persuaded a bunch of Democrats who'd been in …”
Obama: Administration lost early PR battle over Keynesian stimulus spending
“I think there was a failure to communicate, to quote a great movie, Cool Hand Luke, in Describing all the good things that were being done, and we ended up losing early on the PR battle around what was essentially Keynesian spending in response to a major cris…”
Obama: Passing healthcare reform was more satisfying than winning the presidency
“This is the reason why I said, even in the moment, I felt more satisfaction the night The healthcare bill passed than I did the night I won the presidency.”
Obama: Major US social programs typically launch smaller than needed and expand
“Most big social programs in America, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as is true in other countries, typically start off smaller than they probably should in terms of overall need. That's why I call this starter house, and then you build from it, b…”
Obama: Transitioning to the presidency is like a startup taking over GM
“When you move from the presidential campaign to the actual presidency, the analogy is not you're a startup and then you become a big company. It's actually you're a successful startup that then suddenly is taking over, you know, General Motors.”
Obama: The 2008 economy contracted faster than in 1929, losing 800k jobs monthly
“In fact, the economy was contracting faster than it had after the Wall Street collapse in 1929. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month.”
Obama: Social change requires execution and preparation, not just inspiration
“Politics, like everything else, requires attention to detail and execution, and that a lot of times we think of politics and social change generally as a matter of vision and inspiration, but a lot of it ends up being preparation and perspiration.”
Obama: The 2008 presidential campaign scaled exactly like a successful startup
“It did end up being this strange process where, like a successful startup, what began with a credible campaign, but not a juggernaut, by the time we are finished with the primary into the general, we really have built a national juggernaut.”
Obama: As president, I strictly blocked out 6:30 PM for family dinner
“That's why I used to say I was very strict about blocking out 6:30 for dinner with my family. And I just listened to my daughters and answer their questions and then help them with their homework or read to them and then tuck them in. And then I'd go back to w…”
Obama: Daily family dinners renewed my mission and made me better
“It made me a better president because each time I sat at that dinner table and I listened to them, I was reminded about what's important. I was reminded about why I was doing what I was doing. It renewed and refreshed that sense of mission and focus that kept …”
The other half of the tape: Barack Obama's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 441 times in 164 episodes across the shows. 24 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most David Sacks 99Jason Calacanis 84Chamath Palihapitiya 84Stephen Lacey 14Glenn Greenwald 13David Friedberg 11Tulsi Gabbard 8Katherine Hamilton 7
Statements about Barack Obama, by other people (24)
Gabbard: Obama explicitly tasked intelligence to show how Russia meddled, not whether
“Said this is a POTUS tasking on Russia meddling with the election. And what you'll see in those documents was not President Obama asking, ah, look into the intelligence and see if Russia meddled the election. It was, Provide me with an assessment saying how Ru…”
DNI Gabbard: Draft 2016 PDB finding no Russian election interference was pulled
“This December eighth president's daily brief was consistent with all of the other assessments, essentially saying there was no interference in the outcome of the election by Russia. That brief was pulled. It was never published. It was pulled back from publish…”
Sacks: Donald Trump is the transformational political figure, not Obama
“If you look back now over the last 10 years, it's clear that he's the transformational figure In American politics. It's not Barack Obama with all due respect. It's Trump.”
Greenwald: Over 10 million Americans voted for Obama twice, then Trump
“There are literally millions of voters in excess of ten million, depending on how you count, but definitely in excess of ten million. Voters who twice voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 12, and then in 2016 voted for Donald Trump.”
Chamath Palihapitiya asserts Obama and Trump manipulated US unemployment statistics
“The unemployment numbers that we have had in the last probably seven or eight years. So during Obama and Trump have been completely manipulated because the number of people that are entirely leaving the workforce is quite high.”
Tillis claims Barack Obama created modern-day populism alongside social media's rise
“I think what we've seen with Obama kind of really creating modern-day populism at the same time that social media was coming about, the way we get our news, podcasts, all that stuff,”
Manchin: Harry Reid told Obama never to send Joe Biden to negotiate again
“Harry Reid says, I told President Obama, don't ever send that damn Joe Biden back to make a deal. We don't want him here at all making a deal for Democrats.”
Vance: Wall Street shifted from 3-to-1 Republican to 9-to-1 Democrat
“I believe that in 2012, Wall Street, which I think Wall Street fundamentally has been the main beneficiary of globalization, of a lot of the policies that I pushed back against and criticized over the last 30 years, Wall Street went three to one for Romney ove…”
Kushner: Iranian oil exports fell from 2.6M to 100k daily barrels under Trump
“Under Obama, when he left, they were selling about 2.6 million barrels of oil a day. Under Trump, when he left office, they were selling a 100,000 barrels of oil a day.”
Gurley: Obama appointed Epic CEO Judith Faulkner as sole corporate IT council member
“In 2009, Obama put her on his Health IT Council. She was the only corporate representative.”
Baker: Tariffs are traditionally a Democratic position that Clinton and Obama ran on
“Tariffs are traditionally a democratic policy position. You know, Clinton ran on them. Obama ran on them to be a slightly lesser degree.”
Chamath: Obama's campaign rhetoric was reputationally damaging to him
“And I was just so saddened to see the tone and the rhetoric from Barack Obama during this last homestretch. It, I think, was reputationally very damaging to him.”
Chamath: US energy independence stems from policies under Obama and Trump
“And a lot of that developed under two presidents, Obama and Trump, and both of them deserve a lot of credit because we have a capability now. To be self-sufficient and we are a net exporter because of the work that happened during that time.”
Calacanis: Trump and Biden doubled US annual deficit spending over Obama
“In eight years, Obama added eight Trillion. So it was one trillion a year. These new guys getting close to two trillion per year. So they doubled the velocity of spending.”
Chamath: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Vivek Ramaswamy are intellectual outliers
“Clinton as well. Clinton was incredibly steeped in policy. He was excellent. He was intellectually... A massive outlier. Obama is an intellectual outlier. Vivek is an intellectual outlier.”
Tim Urban: Republican concern over national debt vanished under Donald Trump's tax package
“The classic example, the debt was the worst thing in the world during Obama's presidency, and then Trump comes in office, starts doing up these tax packages that are adding to it, and suddenly it's no problem.”
Sacks: Obama de-escalated military in Syria against his staff's objections
“Obama pulled the plug and he de-escalated in Syria over the objections of his staff.”
Baker: U.S. tax receipts topped out at 18-19% GDP under Obama
“Even when Obama controlled the house, the Senate, and was the most popular democratic president of our lifetime, I don't think federal government tax receipts has a percentage of GDP got above 18, 19%.”
Lacey: US makes just over 5% of global batteries despite Obama-era goals
“In fact, rather than making 40% of batteries, like Obama envisioned, we now make Just over five percent.”
Greenwald: Elon Musk voted for Obama and is a top ACLU donor
“And even now Elon Musk, who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 over Mitt Romney and is one of the largest donors to the ACLU.”
Hamilton: 2022 midterm losses will stall Biden's agenda like Obama's
“If he loses those, it will be exactly what happened to President Obama when the Congress flipped and he ended up not being able to get as much done as he wanted to.”
Hoffman: Teams cannot move at speed without inspirational storytelling
“Without the ability to inspire, without the power of story, as President Obama put it, you'll never be able to motivate a team at speed.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
All-In 395
the Green Blueprint 38
Catalyst 8
2026 37 mentions in 16 episodes 2 per episode
- Rahm Emanuel: Trump's Foreign Policy, China, Europe's Decline, Immigration & DSA vs Democrats
- Nate Silver Predicts: Democrats Take the House, Newsom Is Fading, President AOC?!
- Howard Lutnick: How America Can Hit 6% GDP Growth in 2026
- Iran's Breaking Point, Trump's Greenland Acquisition, and Solving Energy Costs
- Anthropic's $2T IPO, Zuck's AI Manifesto, Nvidia's $500B AI Bet, Grok's Comeback
- Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi: Transition Plan and the Fight for Iran's Freedom
- War with Iran + Pentagon vs Anthropic with Under Secretary of War Emil Michael
- Dario Defends Himself, Datacenter Panic, AI Doomer Trap, Senate Toss-Up
- 8 more episodes that year, every mention in 2026 →
2025 129 mentions in 44 episodes 3 per episode
- Joe Manchin Exposes The Chaos Inside Biden’s White House
- All-In Inauguration Day Livestream with the Besties from Washington, DC!
- Tulsi Gabbard on Russiagate Hoax Evidence and How She’s Reforming Politicized Intelligence Agencies
- Trump Brokers Gaza Peace Deal, National Guard in Chicago, OpenAI/AMD, AI Roundtripping, Gold Rally
- This VC wants climate tech to play hardball in Washington
- Senator Ron Johnson on the Senate showdown over Trump's Big Beautiful Bill | All-In Interview
- Tucker Carlson and Mark Cuban Debate How to Save America 🔥 | All-In Summit 2025
- DOGE vs USAID, Crypto Framework, Google's $75B AI Spend, US Sovereign Wealth Fund, GLP-1s
- 36 more episodes that year, every mention in 2025 →
2024 56 mentions in 19 episodes 3 per episode
- Trump wins! How it happened and what's next
- Mark Cuban: Love/Hate Relationship with Trump, Why He's Backing Kamala Harris
- Biden chaos, Soft landing secured? AI sentiment turns bearish, French elections
- Trump verdict, COVID Cover-up, Crypto Corner, Salesforce drops 20%, AI correction?
- The All-In Holiday Spectacular
- Deep State, Hegemony & U.S. Foreign Policy: John Mearsheimer vs. Jeffrey Sachs | All-In Summit
- JD Vance | All-In Summit 2024
- Presidential Debate Reaction, Biden Hot Swap?, Tech unemployment, OpenAI considers for-profit & more
- 11 more episodes that year, every mention in 2024 →
2023 70 mentions in 30 episodes 2 per episode
- In conversation with Chris Christie
- E143: Nvidia smashes earnings, Arm walks the plank, M&A market, Vivek dominates GOP debate & more
- E125: SpaceX launch, Fox News settlement, "Zombie-corn" exodus to AI, late-stage implosion
- Jared Kushner: Israel-Hamas War, paths forward, macro picture, AI
- All-In Summit: Bill Gurley presents 2,851 Miles
- Unpacking EPA’s newly proposed power emissions rule
- E150: Israel/Gaza escalating or not? EU censorship regime, Penn donors revolt, GLP-1 hype cycle
- E149: Hamas terror attacks in Israel: fallout, reaction, next steps
- 22 more episodes that year, every mention in 2023 →
2022 108 mentions in 34 episodes 3 per episode
- E88: First principle politics, China chaos & outlook, state of private/public markets & more
- #AIS: Glenn Greenwald & Matt Taibbi discuss the new political divide, moderated by David Sacks
- E65: VC markup dynamics, Russia/US tensions over Ukraine, Altos Labs raises $3B, Stripe mafia & more
- E74: Market update, inverted yield curve, immigration, new SPAC rules, $FB smears TikTok and more
- #AIS: Antonio Garcia Martinez & Glenn Greenwald debate Ukraine, moderated by David Sacks
- E70: EMERGENCY POD! Russia invades Ukraine: Reactions, Putin's ambition, Biden's response and more
- E66: $FB's big drop, Rogan/Spotify mess, Xi/Putin meetup & supply chain issues with Ryan Petersen
- America is finally doing something big on climate
- 26 more episodes that year, every mention in 2022 →
2021 29 mentions in 15 episodes 2 per episode
- E59: Twitter's content warning algo, equity audits, politicians trading stocks, Fed's next move
- E36: New FTC Chair, breaking up big tech, government silent spying, Jon Stewart, wildfires & more
- E29: Coinbase goes public, direct listings vs. IPOs, unions & more with Bestie Guestie Brad Gerstner
- E28: Current state of public & private markets, Archegos debacle, US debt issues, wealth tax & more
- E60: The 2021 Bestie Awards PLUS Jack Dorsey starts the Web3 Wars
- E38: Bestie brawl, Robinhood's $70M fine & S-1, Delta variant, next gen candidates & more
- E61: 2022 Predictions! Business, politics, science, tech, crypto, & more
- E58: November's CPI, preparing for a downturn, macro outlook, Better.com's botched layoffs & more
- 7 more episodes that year, every mention in 2021 →
2020 12 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
- E11: Election Night Special featuring Phil Hellmuth, Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner & more!
- E8: TikTok + Oracle, how privacy loss will impact society, economy & COVID outlooks for 2021
- E12: Biden wins, Pfizer vaccine, markets rip, Trump's next act, COVID endgame scenarios & more
- E9: Trump has COVID, First debate reactions, Coinbase letter response & more
- E6: Big Tech antitrust aftermath, potential effects of an M&A clampdown on Silicon Valley & more
- E3: Modern Cold War, politicizing the pandemic & more with David Sacks & David Friedberg
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Barack's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 2 | 21 | 67% 2/3 | full record on Masters of Scale → |
| ALL-INLEDGER | Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 1 | 0 | — | full record on All-In → |
| CATALYSTLEDGER | Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 0 +1 | 0 | — | full record on Catalyst → |
| GREEN BLUEPRINTLEDGER | Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 0 +3 | 0 | — | full record on the Green Blueprint → |