Miss Him? Barack Obama Will Be on the Campaign Trail This Year. A Lot.

‘He’s Going to Be Out There for Candidates, He’ll Be Out There Helping Us in Meaningful Ways’

Saturday will mark the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama leaving office and President Donald Trump taking over the White House. Not once since then have the two men seen each other or spoken, according to a new CNN report. In that year, many Americans may also feel they too haven’t seen Barack Obama, and miss him.

“Never before has a former president been as diametrically opposed to his successor as right now, and never before has a former president left office with his party immediately so eager to see him out on the trail,” Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere notes.

The former president has kept his promise to speak out on issues of great importance, and urged all Americans to do the same. 

But now, Obama’s coming back – to the campaign trail.

Noting the midterm elections are approaching, Politico reports that those close to the former president “say he’ll shift into higher gear: campaigning, focusing his endorsements on down-ballot candidates, and headlining fundraisers.” He already has plans to support 40 candidates who are running for various offices, and is “strategizing behind the scenes with Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez and Eric Holder, who’s chairing his redistricting effort.”

Knowing just how much the current president despises him, Obama will do his best to “resist being the face of the Resistance for his own party,” and not become a target for Trump to attack.

Obama’s team is looking to put him in the field where he can have the most impact. 

“The most likely stops will be where races for governor, or perhaps Senate, overlap with competitive races for the House and state legislature. Obama won’t endorse in primaries, but once he does weigh in, will be open to a range of ways to help, from rallies like the one he did for Ralph Northam in the Virginia governor’s race to the robocall he recorded for Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race,” Politico reports.

“He’s going to be out there for candidates, he’ll be out there helping us in meaningful ways, not just in fundraising,” DNC Chair Tom Perez tells Politico. “The guy was a state senator in ’04, and he was president of the United States four years later. He knows something about winning elections and building a brand.”

Obama last month was once again chosen by Americans as the most admired man in the world. It was the tenth year in a row hew earned the title. Trump came in second. 

63 percent of Americans view the former President favorably, according to Gallup, which also notes that a strong majority of Americans still credit Obama for the strong economy over the past year, despite Trump taking credit for it since he was elected in November of 2016.

And within the morass that is the Trump presidency, “the image of U.S. leadership is weaker worldwide than it was under his two predecessors. Median approval of U.S. leadership across 134 countries and areas stands at a new low of 30%,” Gallup reports today.

“U.S. approval dropped substantially in 65 countries and areas,” Gallup notes, thanks to Trump. During President Obama’s last year in office, it was 18 points higher: 48 percent.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license