Obama explains ‘Spock-like’ impression: It was hard acting ‘cheerful’ in 2009

President Obama says he struggled to appear positive after first entering the White House in January 2009, leading to an impression that he was “Spock-like.”

“It was hard to seem cheerful and light,” he said Thursday on Crooked Media’s “Pod Save America” podcast. “I think that’s where the impression arose that, you know, ‘Obama’s really Spock-like.’”

Spock, a character in the Star Trek franchise most famously portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, is raised as a member of the ultra-logical Vulcan race and does not often reveal his emotions.

“I might have said to 2009 Obama, ‘Think about how you got here and spend that same amount of effort and energy touching people directly as opposed to standing behind a podium and giving some grim lectures.’”

{mosads}Obama added that he would have told the 2009 version of himself to reevaluate how the president interacts with Americans.

“I would tell him you have to spend more time thinking about new ways of communicating with the American people,” he said during his last interview as president. “You can’t be so intimidated by the way things have been done in the White House because the communications landscape is shifting.”