--- title: Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016 description: The President said he himself has gotten a few 'dings' while serving two terms canonical: https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-23T15:11:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:18:15.158Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016 og:description: The President said he himself has gotten a few 'dings' while serving two terms og:url: https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea40b629dbed9e49/69876a77f887dc94b3e888cc/h_51672868.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016 twitter:description: The President said he himself has gotten a few 'dings' while serving two terms twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea40b629dbed9e49/69876a77f887dc94b3e888cc/h_51672868.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 23, 2014 3:11 PM UTC  President Barack Obama at the Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nov. 21 2014. President Barack Obama at the Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nov. 21 2014. Michael Nelson—EPA by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 23, 2014 3:11 PM UTC President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Sunday that voters will be looking for a “fresh start” as they go to the polls in 2016 to select his successor. “I think the American people, you know, they’re going to want—you know, that new car smell. You know, their own—they want to drive something off the lot that doesn’t have as much mileage as me,” Obama told ABC This Week’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview taped Friday in Las Vegas, a day after Obama announced his executive action on immigration. The president acknowledged he’s accumulated “some dings,” while in office, adding he’s “very interested” in making sure a Democrat is his successor. “So I’m gonna do everything I can, obviously, to make sure that—whoever the nominee is is successful,” he said. Obama spoke positively of likely Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose age and longevity in Washington has already become a target of likely Republican challengers, and against whom he ran in 2008 as the ‘new car smell’ candidate. He called Clinton a friend and told Stephanopoulos they still speak regularly, adding, “I think she and—and a number of other possible Democratic candidates, would be terrific presidents.” But Obama, who was largely absent on the campaign trail for Democrats in 2014 due to his low poll numbers, acknowledged his successor would likely want him to stay away in 2016\. “You know, they’re– they’re probably not gonna be looking at me to campaign too much,” he said, predicting “folks will be ready to see me—go off to the next thing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/"},"headline":"Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016","datePublished":"2014-11-23T15:11:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:18:15.158Z","description":"The President said he himself has gotten a few 'dings' while serving two terms","url":"https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/","keywords":["Election 2016","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea40b629dbed9e49/69876a77f887dc94b3e888cc/h_51672868.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea40b629dbed9e49/69876a77f887dc94b3e888cc/h_51672868.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama","caption":"US President Barack Obama","creditText":"Michael Nelson—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/election-2016/","name":"Election 2016"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3601329/obama-new-car-election-2016/","name":"Obama: Voters Want 'New Car Smell' in 2016"}}]}] ```