Barack Obama? Is That You?

Have you ever wondered what happened to Barack Obama? Well, the forty-fourth President of the United States is back.

The former President, who turned 57 this past Saturday, announced that he and his wife Michelle are endorsing 81 Democratic candidates for congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative elections, with more endorsements to come.  It's part of Obama's efforts to help the Democrats regain power nationwide.  Two of those candidates are in my home state of New Jersey - Andy Kim (no, not that guy who sang "Rock Me Gently" in the seventies) for the state's Third U.S. House District and Tom Malinowski for its Seventh U.S. House District.  No endorsement for Mikie Sherrill in my district, the Eleventh, just yet.

So why is Obama doing all this?  Because he says that, in the past decade, the Democrats lost far too many elective offices, including governorships and control of federal and state legislatures, to the Republicans, and they have to start winning these offices back if they have any chance of surviving going forward.

Hmm . . . it's too bad Obama was never in a position to do anything about this before!

And what Obama has said sounds suspiciously like what another Democrat who had hoped to succeed him as President has been saying for about nine months now. This other Democrat has been doing something about it for those nine months and counting  - and he's already done more than what Obama did for his party in eight years!

And here he is!            

Martin O'Malley has been toiling in obscurity - obscurity created by a media establishment that doesn't give a twit about him - helping Democrats win state and local elections (mostly special elections) through his Win Back Your State PAC.  The fanfare he has failed to get will likely be compensated by the numerous endorsements from the state and local Democratic officials he helps get elected this year and next should he run for President in 2020.  Obama isn't doing anything now that O'Malley hasn't already done.

O'Malley was always charitable toward President Obama (who apparently wants former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick to run for President in 2020) during Obama's two terms, saying that he couldn't solve every problem in America because he was merely the President, not a magician.  But Obama was a magician - he made the Democratic Party disappear!  And party chairs Tim Kaine and Debbie Wasserman Schultz were his apprentices.   

I'm glad Obama is helping people like O'Malley rebuild the Democratic Party.  But with Donald Trump having reversed every policy initiative Obama instigated, the sad truth is that Obama's legacy is a smaller Democratic Party with a thousand fewer elective offices - death by a thousand cuts.  Before 2017, no President had left office with his party in such a sorry state since Millard Fillmore left office in 1853.

Millard Fillmore, of course, was the last Whig President.     

Legacy Lost?

Donald Trump appears to have done what he set out to do - completely erase Barack Obama's legacy from the annals of history as sure as the Harding and Coolidge administrations erased that of Woodrow Wilson.

First up: health care!  Insisting that the payment of money to private health insurers to subsidize insurance plans for poor people under the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, Trump ended those payments and also allowed health plans to be sold across state lines without being subject to regulation.  The result?  Costs will go up for people who can least afford it, and a lot of people will be screwed.

Also: the Iran nuclear deal!  Trump decertified that Iran is living up to the deal, even though the deal has worked at preventing Iran from getting a bomb.  He wants to tie it with efforts to stop Iran from funding terrorist groups - a different issue - and his attempt to unravel a plan that would keep the Iranians at bay for several years has angered our European ex-allies (you think they'll be with us in solidarity after this?), destroyed American credibility, and pleased the paranoid Israeli right wing - including the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who sees any effort at peace in the Middle East as threat to his nation.  Trump has indicated that he wants to fix parts of the deal, such as the part that allows the Iranians to test ballistic missiles, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has indicated that the U.S. hopes to use leverage in from decertifying the deal, but the Europeans have made it clear that renegotiation is, well, non-negotiable.  Congress can pass on re-imposing sanctions against Iran that would undermine the deal, but Trump could just as easily pull out altogether.

Why are Americans so hung up about making a deal with Iran, even if it keeps the mullahs from nuking anyone?  Two words - "hostage crisis."  The 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis is something we just can't let go of after thirty-six years.

So Obama's legacy is kaput?  Not entirely.  There's still one remaining piece of his legacy - Donald Trump.  By neglecting the need to build up the Democratic Party and placing at the helm of the Democratic National Committee the insufferable Debbie Wasserman Schultz - who tired to satisfy her lust for power by trying to satisfy the lust of the Clintons to get their power back - he paved the way a Republican comeback and, ultimately, for Trump.

Yes, he was the first black President.  But he may also be the last Democratic President - much like Millard Fillmore was the last Whig President.