Barack Obama gave it everything he had trying to defeat Donald Trump.
His failure raised questions about whether he lost political relevance.
And Barack Obama had to face this scary reality after Donald Trump’s victory.
Obama is worried about his legacy after Trump’s victory
Former President Barack Obama played a major role in the 2024 Election.
He was advising President Joe Biden about his campaign before the June debate upended everything.
Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) led the charge to force Biden to drop out of the race after he botched the debate.
The final weeks of the election saw Obama stump for Vice President Kamala Harris across the country with his most active campaign schedule since his 2012 re-election bid.
He made videos, signed fundraising emails, and worked his connections in Hollywood to stop President-elect Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama stumped for Kamala and used her voter turnout group When We All Vote to help her swing states.
But the Obama who hit the campaign trail this year wasn’t the same man who electrified the country in 2008.
The former President now has gray hair and doesn’t excite voters the way he did when he was a candidate.
Author David Garrow who wrote the 2017 biography, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, explained the former President’s aggressive campaigning during the election.
He told the Daily Mail that Obama saw his legacy on the line during this election.
“He has been and remains extremely concerned and nervous about his historical legacy,” Garrow said. “That has certainly taken a big hit with Trump once again triumphing.”
Garrow thought the lesson from this election is that Democrats need to move on to the next generation.
“The conclusion for Democrats is that they’ve got to dispense with these people from the past, including Hillary Clinton too, and move to a new generation of figures who are not in the AOC club at all,” Garrow explained.
Hope and change were gone for the Obamas in this election
Barack Obama ran for President in 2008 on an optimistic message of hope and change for the country.
That was replaced with bitterness and anger during this campaign from him and his wife.
Obama scolded black men who were thinking about voting for Trump noting that the black community didn’t have the same energy for Kamala that they had for him.
Michelle Obama lectured men at a rally in Michigan that they had a duty to vote for Kamala because women felt unsafe.
“So fellas, before you cast your votes, ask yourself, what side of history do you want to be on? Now I recognize that there are a lot of angry disillusioned people out there upset with the slow pace of change,” Michelle Obama ranted. “So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety?”
Garrow thought that the Obamas hurt Kamala on the margins during the election with their campaigning.
An earlier report from CNN from an Obama insider stated that he was worried his Presidency would be seen as a historical aberration if Trump won.
Barack Obama is no longer the influential figure he once was in American politics.
