'A lot of Obamas out there': Ex-POTUS says splintered media is holding back next Democratic star

WASHINGTON, DC: Former President Barack Obama said this week that today's fragmented media landscape is making it far harder for the next generation of Democratic leaders to break through nationally the way he did, arguing that gifted communicators exist but lack the shared cultural platform he benefited from when he rose to prominence.

Obama made the remarks during an appearance on 'Today' host Craig Melvin's ‘Glass Half Full’ podcast, recorded in connection with the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

Obama credits his rise to a shared national media moment

Melvin told Obama that a former aide had recently said on cable television that Democrats should "stop looking for Obama 2.0," and asked him whether he believed someone with his background and story could break through today the same way he did in 2007 and 2008.

"I do think it's harder because of the nature of your business, the media, it's more splintered," Obama said. 

"I hadn't even been elected yet to the US Senate. I had won the primary. I'd won the nomination — Democratic nomination to be the senator of Illinois, but nobody really knew who I was except outside of Illinois,” he continued.

“And when I gave that speech at the convention, suddenly I'm a national figure because all the networks covered it. And if you're on the cover of Time magazine or Newsweek back then, suddenly everybody knows who you are because we all shared one culture," he added.

The former president pointed to the specific conditions that made his own emergence possible, describing how a single convention speech in 2004 transformed him from an unknown Illinois primary winner into a national figure overnight.

He credited the media environment of that era with giving him instant reach.

Obama says the talent is there, but the spotlight is not

Despite his assessment of the structural challenges, Obama expressed optimism that the next generation of political talent exists and is already doing notable work.

"I think we're in a transition period where there are a lot of Barack and Michelle Obamas out there doing cool stuff, but politics hasn't quite given them the platform yet,” he said. 

“Media hasn't shined a spotlight on them yet," the 64-year-old noted, adding that helping to surface those voices is among the core missions of the Obama Presidential Center and its foundation.

Obama also said he believed people "who are just as gifted or in some cases more gifted" than him were failing to break through not because of a lack of talent but because of the structural limitations of today's media.

The 44th president remains a prominent Democratic voice and fundraiser.