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White House Letter

Obama Asks for Reality Check as ‘Frivolous’ Issues Dominate Election

President Obama speaking last week at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia.Credit...Al Drago/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The sun was shining, thousands of supporters were chanting his name, and President Obama was basking again in the electricity of a campaign rally. But for a moment last week, he could not hide his exasperation at the circuslike atmosphere of this year’s presidential race.

“Do you mind if I just vent for a second?” he said on Tuesday at an outdoor event for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia, after marveling aloud at the news media’s preoccupation with “frivolous” things.

Donald Trump says stuff every day that used to be considered as disqualifying for being president,” Mr. Obama said. “And yet, because he says it over and over and over again, the press just gives up and they just say, ‘Well, yeah, you know — O.K.’ They just stop.”

“So, the bottom line is,” he added, “is that we cannot afford suddenly to treat this like a reality show.”

The off-script broadside was the rhetorical equivalent of a presidential eye roll. The remark was delivered by a commander in chief who is ever more incredulous at the tone and substance of the race to succeed him, and who has limited opportunities in his last months in office to shift the public focus to the issues he prefers.

Mr. Obama continued the theme at a Congressional Black Caucus gala on Saturday night in Washington, a day after the dramatic finale to Mr. Trump’s yearslong campaign to convince voters that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole ‘birther’ thing is over,” Mr. Obama said. “I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change — none of those things weighed on me like the validity of my birth certificate.”

“In other breaking news,” he added, “the world is round, not flat.”

More frequently than ever, when the president’s aides brief him before appearances about the questions he might face from reporters, they are met with raised eyebrows and rueful shakes of the head. The aides insist that, even as he vents his disbelief about the national conversation, he is not overly angry or frustrated.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, tried to make the case to reporters on Friday that Mr. Obama was not particularly consumed by the long birther debate.

“With regard to an apology,” Mr. Earnest said of Mr. Trump’s about-face, “I don’t think the president much cares.”

Still, it is clear that Mr. Obama is taking this election personally. He told the Black Caucus audience that he would consider it “a personal insult, an insult to my legacy” if African-American voters failed to turn out to elect Mrs. Clinton.

He dismissed Mr. Trump’s appeals to black voters as disingenuous and craven, saying, “We do have challenges, but we’re not stupid.”

White House officials argue that Mr. Obama has been able to cut through the election noise and command attention for his priorities, including a 12-nation trans-Pacific trade pact, an international accord to curb climate change and a push to win the confirmation of Judge Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court.

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A campaign event last week for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia.Credit...Al Drago/The New York Times

Presidents have always strained toward the end of their tenures to find a megaphone that can compete with the clamor of a presidential campaign.

“Every president thinks the press should focus more on substance than on politics, and that tension becomes particularly acute in an election year,” said Jake Siewert Jr., who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton during his final year in office.

“The press is always going to be preoccupied by the campaign, but they have a particular challenge this year because the debate has been so devoid of discussion of the issues, and — for better or for worse — the election is super interesting,” Mr. Siewert added.

Unlike Mr. Clinton, who despite strong approval numbers was not invited on the campaign trail by his chosen successor, Al Gore, Mr. Obama is a coveted surrogate for Mrs. Clinton. His aides say he plans to continue spending substantial time raising money and campaigning for her.

Mr. Obama has adhered to a well-worn playbook that second-term presidents have used to stay relevant. He has packed his schedule with foreign trips, including a weeklong visit this month to China and Laos, where he advanced the climate accord and championed the trade pact.

He has also stepped up his use of executive authority in recent weeks, protecting roughly 445,000 square miles of ocean by creating and expanding marine monuments, and promising to lift decades-old sanctions on Myanmar to reward its moves toward democracy.

Yet other issues continue to drown out debate over remaining priorities, such as an overhaul of the criminal justice system and the trade deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Even at an Oval Office meeting called on Friday to build support for the T.P.P., as the trade deal is known, Mr. Obama was asked again by a reporter about his birthplace.

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, one of Mr. Trump’s former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, sat shaking his head in the Oval Office as what was supposed to be a discussion about economic growth and geopolitical imperatives devolved into talk about a conspiracy theory.

“I mean, what am I thinking about it?” Mr. Kasich told reporters at a briefing when asked what was going through his head at the time. “I’m here for T.P.P. and what’s happening in the world, not talking about where somebody was born.”

“It’s almost a surreal 21st-century presidential election,” he continued, “that if you and I had drafted a movie script about everything that was going to be happening on both sides with both candidates, or even the whole process, they would have thrown us out of their offices out in Hollywood because they would have said, ‘This is a fiction that goes well beyond any fiction that would be acceptable.’”

He added, “We have to stay focused on the things that matter.”

That goal may be futile, but it is one that Mr. Obama’s aides say the president will pursue until his last day in office.

“I’m shocked that a question like that would come up at a time when we’ve got so many other things to do,” Mr. Obama said on Friday at the mention of Mr. Trump’s latest comment about his birthplace. But then he bowed to the reality that is the 2016 presidential race.

“Well,” he said. “I’m not that shocked, actually.”

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Asks for Reality Check as ‘Frivolous’ Issues Dominate Election. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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