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The Obama Wing of Democratic Party Is Losing Power and Prestige
Hot Air ^ | May 29, 2025 | Staff

Posted on 05/29/2025 10:59:08 AM PDT by Red Badger

There is no such thing as a "normal" president--there have only been 45 people in history to have held the job and "normal" people don't rise to that level of political power.

But some presidents are more normal than others. You have the machine politicians like Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson, for instance. You have the dynasty presidents--the Roosevelts and Bushes--and you have the scrappers who are smart enough to build machines that endure, like the Clintons. You could slice and dice the categories all you want, but it's hard to put either Barack Obama or Donald Trump into any category. They are sui generis, each in his way. Their success was built on personal magnetism, which is irreproducible.

That's why Obama's political success has never translated to anybody else, even though a mystique was built up around his tech-savvy team.

Obama's team was never good for the Democrats. Recall how the Democratic Party was devastated at all levels below the president during his term, and the Democrats have lost two out of the last three elections to Donald Trump, and the Biden victory--whether legitimate or not--didn't see the country flock to basement Joe Biden. It was driven by hundreds of millions in dark money funding the rewriting of election rules--often illegally--and a massive conspiracy to "save" the 2020 election.

Democrats, apparently, are beginning to notice that the Obama team were not geniuses who took a rough-around-the-edges political neophyte and turned him into a president, but a bunch of smart hacks who are better at promoting themselves than any candidate.

NBC has a deeply reported story on how Democrats are turning on the Obama crowd, and it is worth taking a look at it.

To be fair, the reputation of political consultants is largely driven by their proximity to successful politicians. Any win reflects on them, and any loss does as well, regardless of how little or much they had to do with the results. But if you have a reputation for making magic, it's important to choose wisely who you work for.

After Kamala Harris entered the presidential race last year, she reached out to Barack Obama campaign alum Jim Messina to help lead her White House bid.

But when Messina shared news of the vice president’s offer with a friend, he received a stern warning.

“I said ‘Jim, if you get involved in this, it’ll be political suicide,’” Democratic megadonor John Morgan, a longtime Harris critic, recalled of his conversation with Messina, who had served in Obama’s White House and managed his successful 2012 re-election campaign. “You’re going to be a loser. And your whole shine is you’re undefeated.”

Messina declined the job. And after Harris’ loss to Donald Trump, it may not have been a bad move.

David Plouffe, long hailed as the brilliant architect of Obama’s 2008 victory, served in a key role in Harris’ campaign and is now among those tagged with a devastating defeat.

“The shine’s off Plouffe now. He was the golden boy,” Morgan said. “Now he’s just an old broken-down boy, who lost. Big.”

It's true that Kamala's campaign, especially in the last 6 weeks, was execrable, and Plouffe has to share the blame. But even the best political mind could not have carried Kamala Harris over the finish line because she has negative charisma and a talent for making poor choices.

More Democrats are openly criticizing Obama strategists and consultants, who were long treated as the high priests of their party’s politics. Democratic National Committee officials at a news event last month blamed Obama’s lack of investment in state parties over his two terms for setting back local organizing, with the party still feeling the effects. The so-called Obama coalition of voters — less politically engaged voters, younger voters and voters of color — is no more. In 2024, each of those groups shifted toward Trump in high numbers.

Going forward, it could mark a clean slate for a party whose course for nearly two decades cascaded from decisions Obama had made. It was Obama who chose Biden as his vice president, offering him the elevated perch that set up his 2020 election and his aborted 2024 re-election. Obama selected Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, then anointed her for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 race against Trump. The operatives Obama and his top aides empowered have carved out leading, decision-making roles at the top of the Democratic Party since then.

Relying on Obama's advisors in either policymaking or political roles was always a dumb idea. Obama was successful as a politician--or should I say successful at creating an attractive brand--but he never was good for Democrats. His policies were disastrous, Obamacare crippled his party for three successive elections, and the choice of Hillary Clinton as his successor didn't work out so well.

And, even though Biden squeaked by in 2020 by hook or by crook, that choice turned out to be a disaster as well. Look at what Biden and the Obama team around him did to both the country and the Democratic Party. Democrats are less popular than Herpes.

In 2024, Biden-Harris campaign chief Jen O’Malley Dillon tapped fellow Obama alumni for major roles. For example, Stephanie Cutter, managing partner of O’Malley Dillon’s old firm, Precision Strategies, was picked to help run the Democratic convention program and prep Harris for media interviews. 270 Strategies founding partner Mitch Stewart, who managed battleground states for Obama, was brought on to oversee a similar program for Biden. Rufus Gifford, the big-donor wrangler for Obama, acted as director of fundraising for the Biden campaign. The list goes on.

Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist with experience on past presidential campaigns, said it’s time for the party to take a hard look at the same set of operatives, including Obama campaign alums, who have been running national Democratic campaigns.

“I’m sorry — I don’t want a surgeon who keeps killing patients,” he said.

Some victories, he noted, are a reflection of the skills of the candidate, rather than the operatives around them.

“It’s pretty easy to win with a guy like Obama,” Kofinis said, adding that Democrats tend to put too much emphasis on experience when they hire operatives, rather than “whether they’re any good” at their jobs.

Consultants of either party think first of themselves--this is their business--and part of their job is to create a mystique that they have a special sauce that will elevate the appeal of their campaign. Great consultants can, in fact, bring real value to a campaign to keep it on track and running smoothly, but most of the time they are cooking up ideas like this:

It's like USAID--we have this great thing, and if you give us money, great things will happen. The great thing is that money is going into the pockets of insiders.

Democrats are smart to dump the Obama folks, but it is difficult to believe that what comes next won't be worse. The party has moved so far to the left, and relying on "grassroots" activists to power the party won't turn out well for them. Rainbow-haired gender-nonspecific leather bondage-wearing furries knocking on your door will hardly send ordinary Americans flocking back to the party.

The Obama consultants at least looked and spoke the language of big-money people, which helps. What will the next crew look like, especially if AOC or someone similar is the nominee?


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
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1 posted on 05/29/2025 10:59:08 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

2 posted on 05/29/2025 11:02:02 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Red Badger

Doesn’t matter. The judges have taken over for them.


3 posted on 05/29/2025 11:02:54 AM PDT by sheana
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To: Red Badger
....there have only been 45 people in history to have held the job

Unless you include Nurse Jill and her band of elder abusers.

4 posted on 05/29/2025 11:05:51 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: Red Badger
Barrack Obama=Elmer Gantry (or Isaiah Jenkins from the 1925 Body and Soul)
5 posted on 05/29/2025 11:07:17 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Red Badger

46 if you include Otto Penn.


6 posted on 05/29/2025 11:08:17 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: Texas Eagle

And Edith Wilson.....................


7 posted on 05/29/2025 11:08:31 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Texas Eagle

Any kin to Otto Pilot?....................

8 posted on 05/29/2025 11:09:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Texas Eagle
Unless you include Nurse Jill and her band of elder abusers.

In that case you would have to add Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, and maybe even Frances Folsom

9 posted on 05/29/2025 11:10:36 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Red Badger
Democratic National Committee officials at a news event last month blamed Obama’s lack of investment in state parties over his two terms for setting back local organizing, with the party still feeling the effects.

That's because Obama is a progressive with limited appeal to both coasts.

Bill Clinton's Third Way appealed to all Americans.

West Virginia used to be a blue state.

10 posted on 05/29/2025 11:13:45 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Red Badger

11 posted on 05/29/2025 11:21:05 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

It would be a happy day if he got his comeuppance in this life.


12 posted on 05/29/2025 11:30:04 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Red Badger
"Dynasty presidents like the Roosevelts and Bush's."
Is this idiot implying that Teddy Roosevelt led to FDR?
13 posted on 05/29/2025 11:41:38 AM PDT by Waverunner
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To: Resolute Conservative

Yeah

Unfortunately Satan is the (temporary) god of this world 🌎🌍
(2nd Corinthians 4:3-4)

And Barack Hussein Obama is a son of Satan

He has fame and fortune...

For now...


14 posted on 05/29/2025 11:44:08 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

Obama had that mystique attracting female voters. Add to it his limited exposure to the public we never really got to know who he was. Will there be another? I don’t think so.

Example: 1991 Clarence Thomas vote. 20+ democrat senators in red states. They can’t hide themselves now as their successors are now various shades of red.


15 posted on 05/29/2025 11:50:34 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Red Badger

Not to worry, the DNC’s Hamas wing is movin’ in.


16 posted on 05/29/2025 11:51:00 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Red Badger

17 posted on 05/29/2025 12:24:11 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Red Badger

The Choom Gang has seen better days.


18 posted on 05/29/2025 12:25:10 PM PDT by Thrownatbirth (.....Iraq Invasion fan since '91. )
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To: SaveFerris

Sadly, in my old age I don’t take solace in that, I want him to fall hard in this world as a spectacle.


19 posted on 05/29/2025 12:44:18 PM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Thrownatbirth

I’ll have to disagree with the author(s) that Obamacare was a disaster. It destroyed the demonized “Cadillac” health insurance programs that many had and were happy with (which IMHO was Obama’s primary intention all along), so in that regard it was a complete success. But yes, politically it cost them because they were popular, which is why Obama violated his own existing law by unilaterally pushing back that part of the implementation by a year (without congressional approval) to get it out of his re-election cycle.


20 posted on 05/29/2025 2:17:29 PM PDT by niteowl (Wisdom comes in two parts: 1) Having a lot to say, and 2) not saying it.)
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