It's so sad!
The job market is about to get even more crowded for Washington Democrats, as thousands of Obama appointees join the hundreds of Clinton campaign staffers looking for employment.
There’s rarely been less demand for their services.
Aren't the tears running down your face right now? They're running down mine.
And I'm not talking about the 4,000 political appointments to his administration that President-elect Donald J. Trump will be making over the next couple of weeks. I'm talking about all those cushy lobbying jobs that it seems the Obama and Clinton staffers feel they're entitled to hold down just because…they're Obama and Clinton staffers.
It’s insult to injury for a generation of young operatives who are still managing their shock and grief from Hillary Clinton’s loss. And for those who want to fight to keep President Barack Obama’s legacy from being erased, there aren’t a lot of places ready to pay them to do it.
“It feels like there are just thousands of us trying to find a job, and there are no jobs,” said Mira Patel, a longtime Clinton aide who went from her Senate office to the State Department and, starting last summer, her presidential campaign.
Love the idea that these youngsters expect to be paid to gas on about what a wonderful U.S. president Barack Obama has been. Obama seems plenty able and willing to do that on his own.
And as for the Clinton campaign workers: If they're such great hires, how come Hillary Clinton didn't win?
As Politico points out, being out of a job every four or eight years is an occupational hazard for people whose livelihood depends on a particular candidate's staying in office. Massive Republican unemployment followed George W. Bush's leaving office in 2008.
But it seems that the case of the young Democrats is special–because Trump wasn't supposed to win! Everybody said so! So his surprise upset on Nov. 8 came as such a blow to their delicate millennial sensibilities that it's just unfair that they can't land a cushy lobbying job now that the party's over (the Democratic Party, that is, at least for the time being).
“There’s anger, there’s frustration, there’s anxiety, there’s burnout,” said Russ Finkelstein, a managing director at Clearly Next and longtime progressive career guru (including as a founding team member at the lefty jobs board Idealist.org) who has been counseling Clinton alumni.
“People are in shock,” said Anastasia Kessler-Dellaccio, 35, who quit her job at Sister Cities International to run Foreign Policy Professionals for Hillary. Some Clinton campaign workers say they’ve lost their bearings, so rattled they are by the differences in Trump’s values from those represented by Obama and Clinton.
Kessler-Dellaccio added, “I think people, myself included, are trying to figure out, ‘How do I recalibrate my dreams?’”
Fortunately the Obama administration is helping the snowflakes recover–if not their lost paychecks–their mental health:
Recent efforts include a program through Georgetown University, called “Future 44,” to help Obama staff prepare (in their downtime) for post-White House life, along with various ongoing programs with outside speakers.
Maybe one of the speakers could explain to them that just because you've got "Barack Obama" or "Hillary Clinton" on your resume, that doesn't mean you're entitled to a job for life.