Former President Barack Obama has long been viewed as the golden boy of the Democratic Party despite not being in the White House for nearly a decade.
Even in the 2024 presidential election, many Democratic insiders flocked to Obama to help guide the party to navigate how they would work against Donald Trump (even though it didn’t work).
But a deeper look at Obama and his so-called influence with Democrats as they continue to scramble to find a common ground after the blowout loss in the 2024 election has uncovered something shocking.
Democrats want Obama to go away — for good!
In a CNN poll last month, Obama received only 4% support from Democrats who were asked which leader best represents the party, sitting way behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders.
The staggering poll numbers only tell a small piece of the story of how far Obama has fallen from grace.
New stories and behind-the-scenes accounts have revealed that Obama has alienated a number of Democratic leaders and that it’s festered into the general view of Democratic voters.
According to a new book, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes who told stories of what happened in the aftermath of former President Joe Biden’s debate performance against Trump, Obama “was alerted to the catastrophe by his phone … Obama kept his thoughts to himself that night, but his proxies didn’t afford Biden the same courtesy.”
Behind the scenes, the book suggests he was urging the party to dump Biden and run a mini-primary to choose his replacement, and he didn’t want Harris.
“The mini-primary was Obama’s way of trying to kneecap Harris,” the book claims.
At one point, when Biden looked like he was clinging to his candidacy, Obama called him and demanded to know, “What is your path?”
According to the authors, Biden angrily thought to himself as he listened: “What’s my path? What’s your f–king plan?”
The plan, according to accounts, was that Obama wanted to stay out of the limelight and let others speak on his behalf.
According to reports, Obama privately worked with the likes of actor George Clooney and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to orchestrate messaging about Biden and Harris.
“Pelosi’s biggest initial fear had been about Harris,” the authors write. “She actually was worried when people were panicking the night of the debate, saying, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be her.’ ”
After speaking with Obama on the phone, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and said that the party was waiting on Biden to decide about dropping out when he had already vowed to stay on.
Shortly thereafter, Clooney, published an op-ed in the New York Times urging Biden to abandon his bid for re-election and allow the party to hold a mini-primary.
“Clooney’s words so closely reflected Obama’s thinking that the op-ed might as well have carried the former president’s byline. Obama didn’t want to get his own hands dirty — couldn’t face leaving bloody fingerprints on Biden’s political corpse — but he hoped others would shoulder the wet work,” the authors write.
The fallout from that effort was not good.
Clooney was reportedly furious when “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski suggested that Obama had put him up to writing the Times op-ed and maybe even ghost-wrote it.
Reports say that Clooney yelled obscenities at an MSNBC producer, according to another new book about the Biden campaign, “Uncharted.”
“How the f–k could you let her link me with Barack Obama, saying he made me write the op-ed?” Clooney shouted.
The sentiment amongst Democrats now is that Obama thought he could control the party he once led when it came to choosing his replacement for the 2024 presidential race.
But it didn’t work out that way.
“He left the Democratic Party far weaker than he found it,” one party operative told the authors.
“Obama destroyed that s–t.”