Former NYT editor Jill Abramson carries 'little plastic Obama doll' to comfort her during Trump era

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson said this week she keeps a plastic Obama doll in her purse to comfort her during the Trump presidency.

Why does she have an Obama doll?

“It’s easy to look at what’s happening in Washington DC and despair,” Abramson wrote in her political column for the Guardian. “That’s why I carry a little plastic Obama doll in my purse. I pull him out every now and then to remind myself that the United States had a progressive, African American president until very recently. Some people find this strange, but you have to take comfort where you can find it in Donald Trump’s America.”

Abramson’s misty-eyed longing for a more liberal era included an account of Hillary Clinton’s former running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), recently bringing “donors in Boston to tears with a performance of This Land is Your Land, played on his harmonica.”

She went on to describe a “raft” of Democrats who could oppose Trump in 2020, including potential candidates who want to impose stricter gun laws.

"Though winning control of the House of Representatives in 2018 is their focus, my Democratic sources say that there are already 20 credible presidential challengers giving serious thought to opposing Donald Trump in 2020. The list, unsurprisingly, includes a raft of Democratic senators, and, perhaps surprisingly, at least three strong women, New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren," she wrote.

Others include “New Jersey’s Cory Booker, an African American and Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, a passionate promoter of stiffer gun laws,” she continued.

What did Abramson say about southern Republicans?

Abramson also declared that she believes the South’s Republican base is racist.

“Still, it’s thrilling to see signs of a Trump rebellion building in the Solid South, the Republican base where religion, racism and love of guns have advantaged Republicans since Richard Nixon’s election in 1968,” she wrote.