Acknowledging that candidates must “push past” his achievements, Mr. Obama urged his party’s candidates not to push too far, as he urged them to adopt a message that would allow them to compete in all corners of the country.
“I don’t think we should be deluded into thinking that the resistance to certain approaches to things is simply because voters haven’t heard a bold enough proposal and if they hear something as bold as possible then immediately that’s going to activate them,” he said.
The fact that Mr. Obama offered his reassurances at the annual meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a club of wealthy liberals who donate hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to recommended political organizations, only underscored the intended audience of his message. In recent weeks, establishment-aligned Democrats, top donors and some strategists have expressed fears that the party lacks a strong enough candidate to defeat President Trump.
[italics added] Tom Perez could not have said it better. (Who knows, Tom Perez may have written the speech.)
On Nov. 16, NY Times published online a follow-up, "Too Far Left? Some Democratic Candidates Don’t Buy Obama’s Argument [subheadlined] One day after former President Barack Obama cautioned against being out of touch with voters, Democratic candidates said there was a winner among them." That item stated in part:
During a televised forum sponsored by Univision, Jorge Ramos, an anchor for the Spanish-language station, asked Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont if Mr. Obama was right in saying that “the average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system.”
Mr. Sanders chuckled briefly and responded, “Well, it depends on what you mean by tear down the system.”
“The agenda that we have is an agenda supported by the vast majority of working people,” he said. “When I talk about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, I’m not tearing down the system. We’re fighting for justice. When I talk about health care being a human right and ending the embarrassment of America being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for every man, woman and child, that’s not tearing down the system. That’s doing what we should have done 30 years ago.”
Julián Castro, who served as the housing secretary under Mr. Obama and has embraced some of the most left-leaning policies during the primary, said [...] “I don’t think that anybody in this campaign has articulated a vision for the future of the country that would not command a majority of voters in November of 2020,”[...] “Their vision for the future of the country is much better and will be more popular than Donald Trump’s.”
[...] Among the liberal wing of the party, Mr. Obama’s remarks prompted fierce backlash online and the creation of the hashtag #TooFarLeft by Peter Daou, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton.
[italics added; re that hashtag traffic, see, e.g., CommonDreams, here]. Adding to some of the thinking, Obama's record as viewed here hinged on HOPE and CHANGE being slogans, not promises.
______________UPDATE______________
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/12/warren-obama-2020-228068
__________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Last, there is the "who'dat" -- "The Democracy Alliance" is the inner party Dem big-money donor club Obama was addressing when saying don't tear down our edifices; Wikipedia:
The Democracy Alliance [...] has been described by Politico as "the country's most powerful liberal donor club."[5]
Members of the Democracy Alliance are required to contribute at least $200,000 a year to groups the Democracy Alliance vets and recommends. As of 2014, the Alliance had helped distribute approximately $500 million to liberal organizations since its founding in 2005. Members of the Democracy Alliance include billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer.[6]
[...] According to the Democracy Alliance's website, the group "was created to build progressive infrastructure that could help counter the well-funded and sophisticated conservative apparatus in the areas of civic engagement, leadership, media, and ideas."[7]
[...] In 2012, the Democracy Alliance ceased funding a number of prominent progressive organizations. According to the Huffington Post, "The groups dropped by the Democracy Alliance tend to be those that work outside the [Democratic] party's structure." This move cost the Democracy Alliance the support of Soros ally Peter B. Lewis, the billionaire founder of Progressive Auto Insurance.[14]
According to the Huffington Post, the Democracy Alliance "is largely divided into two camps: one that prefers to focus on electing Democrats to office, and another that argues for more attention to movement and progressive infrastructure building in order to create a power center independent of the Democratic Party apparatus."[15]
[...] Under its latest strategy, the Democracy Alliance will divide its funding streams into four categories. There are 35 groups funded in these categories. This is the old STRATEGY, and in 2017 the issue of Latino and maginilized communities was addressed in the Alliances New American Majority Fund, with specific investments in Latino engagement and African American electoral funding.
As of 2015, the Democracy Alliance, which does not disclose its membership, is reported to have about 110 partners who are required to contribute at least $200,000 a year to groups it vets and recommends. Members include Tom Steyer and some of the U.S.'s biggest labor unions.[10] It has recommended that its donors financially support the Black Lives Matter movement.[17]
[links and footnotes omitted] The Democracy Alliance has its website
https://democracyalliance.org/
and describes itself:
For nearly 15 years, the Democracy Alliance has helped to raise significant resources to promote progressive ideas, impact media coverage, develop new leadership, create sophisticated civic engagement strategies, and engage young people and communities of color. In our collaborative giving strategy, an informed and engaged body of donors comes together to aggregate resources for focused investment, for which we have marshaled as much as $80 million per year.
Our collective giving is grounded in a shared set of values, namely that we work to build and support a fair democracy, an inclusive economy, a safe and sustainable planet, and an equitable and just nation.
At a time when nearly every democratic institution of our country and collective values as a nation are under attack by an administration fueled by negligence, false truths, and ego, the need for a more powerful and cohesive progressive community has never been greater.
As a donor group with a two hundred grand annual buy-in, it is high rollers only. It is more radical in self description than other wealth-centered political contribution apparatus; but with 2020 looming, for now, who do they love? Are they a part of some Bernie blacklist? Will they partner with the bloc behind the PAC being formed to promote Joe Biden? How autonomous is each member-donor in raining its two hundred grand among the approved other subordinate political outlets - which Wikipedia lists (as does the Alliance website).
Getting the influence of money out of politics likely is not to them their key 2020 issue.
____________FURTHER UPDATE__________
So, a big-buck donor collective audience and a middle of the road past president addressing them, what about the one Bernie quote above, “Well, it depends on what you mean by tear down the system?" What "system" would be "torn down" as opposed to made more just via the Sanders proposed "21st Century Economic Bill of Rights?” Where is there too much radicalism there to justify the Obama view of fair systems being in teardown peril?