Ex-N.Y. Times editor carries Obama doll in purse as therapy

Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson

A former New York Times executive editor has a secret some might consider bizarre or even a bit creepy: She keeps a plastic Barack Obama doll in her purse as therapy to get her through the Trump presidency.

Jill Abramson, a 63-year-old Harvard-educated journalist, made the admission in a March 7 opinion piece for the London Guardian headlined "Are we seeing signs of a Democratic wave in the primaries?"

"It's easy to look at what's happening in Washington, D.C., and despair," wrote Abramson, who was the executive editor at the Times from 2011 to 2014. "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."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh opined: "Remember, they hype themselves as, 'We're journalists. We are not activists.' B.S. She just confirmed that while running the New York Times she was actually just nothing more than a very high-powered, highly placed Democrat Party operative disguised as an editor at the New York Times. Carrying around an Obama doll? And besides what it means in terms of her biases and so forth. What does it say? A grown woman admitting proudly that in her moments of deepest depression and stress, she opens her purse to pull out an Obama doll, which means that it’s in there all the time.

"Her Obama doll is right next to the lipstick. Her Obama doll is right next to the skin cleanser, the fabric softener, whatever else is in there. An adult needing to see an Obama doll to be able to get through the day?"

Abramson is optimistic about an impending "Trump rebellion" that she believes can deliver the U.S. Senate, House and perhaps even the White House to Democrats in 2020.

So she's carrying her Obama therapy doll until that happens.

"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 wrote.

Abramson, author of the 2009 book "Obama: The Historic Journey," also hopes Democrats can gain greater influence in the South, which she said is filled with racist Republicans who love guns.

"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.

Abramson made headlines in March 2016 when she wrote a column headlined "This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest."

"Based on what I know about the emails, the idea of her being indicted or going to prison is nonsensical," she wrote, concluding: "It's fair to expect more transparency. But it's a double standard to insist on her purity."