Former President Barack Obama has been sitting down with House Democrats through the spring for a series of private meetings.
“The initial session featured the chamber’s new trio of leaders, but he then held subsequent conversations with a range of lawmakers,” POLITICO reported. “Included were progressive members, like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), as well as more moderate lawmakers, such as Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.).”
Apparently, the meetings were Obama’s initiative – a way for the former president, now six years removed from office, to stay in touch with the contemporary party.
New leaf for Barack Obama
Obama was not known for counseling lawmakers when he was in office, so that he would offer to do so now, having been functionally retired for years, is odd. Especially given that Obama did not move into a role, after leaving office, as the Democratic Party’s unofficial power broker. He certainly could have. He was the Democrat’s biggest star in a generation, the biggest star since Bill Clinton. But since leaving office, Obama’s priorities have included: “podcasts, documentaries, his foundation and, yes, golf in Hawaii and on Martha’s Vineyard.”
Podcasts and golf aside, Obama has also taken a backseat for more practical reasons: to give President Biden some room. The simple fact is that Obama overshadows Biden. Obama is more charismatic, more articulate, younger. Biden was Obama’s number two and the public by and large still sees Biden as secondary to Obama. That wasn’t good for the party, to have a new president, after a hotly contested election, to be perceived as an underling. Obama recognized this dynamic and stepped back.
Additionally, “there’s the Obama-Biden relationship, which was never the bromance it was made out to be and was soured by Obama effectively tapping Hillary Clinton as his would-be successor,” POLITICO reported. Meaning that Obama has taken steps not to irritate the sitting president.
Careful not to criticize Biden
Obama knows that the Biden administration is wary of Obama’s role in government and that hosting several meetings with high-profile Democrats had the potential to upset Biden himself. Accordingly, Obama avoided criticizing the president. Rather, Obama encouraged the lawmakers “to be aggressive marketing their accomplishments” and to “establish their own identity…while allowing that the party’s fate in 2024 would be largely tied to Biden’s success.”
Although, during one of the meetings, a knock was taken at the sitting president. “When [Obama] recalled having won Florida twice, one lawmaker interjected that he also won Ohio.” Biden, meanwhile, failed to win either state.
Why the meetings?
The exact objective of the meetings was never quite clear to those invited. The meetings have been described as a mixture of “get-to-know-you chatter” and “long-winded advice, talk of best practices and curiosity about what the lawmakers were hearing at home.”
How not to come off as elitist was also discussed, although, I’m not sure I’d consult Obama on that one.
It’s gotta be tough to become president in your forties, out of office in your fifties. What else do you do? You’ve got half your life ahead of you, with the full knowledge that your peak is behind you, that you will never do anything of such consequence as you have already done.
That’s a tough one, although I don’t feel too bad for Obama. He seems to be enjoying himself.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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