Why obama is likely to lose

The Obama administration failed to break up the big banks, provided no relief for hard-up homeowners, and offered struggling workers more ill-advised trade deals. Is it any surprise the Rust Belt turned on Democrats? Wrong Messenger, Right Message. The problem for Clinton was that the opportunistic message of this demagogue rang true to the middle class and working class voters in these states, even if the messenger himself was quite flawed.

True, these working class voters going over to Trump or boycotting the polls were mainly white. But then these were the same people that placed their faith in Obama in , when they favored him by large margin over John McCain. And they stuck with him in , though his margins of victory were for the most part narrower. The politics were pretty disastrous. According to Ballotpedia , more Democratic state legislative seats were lost under Obama than under any president in modern history.

Yet even with such political fallout, the overall tone of the book is surprisingly wistful. Or perhaps it is unsurprising when you notice that it was written shortly after the election. As such, the book frequently makes excuses for Obama. This sort of benefit-of-the-doubt thinking, however, does not produce very insightful history. True, playing golf and drinking bourbon would not alone have changed the composition of the Republican caucus, but it would have given the president a better idea of what he was up against.

Moreover, it caricatures what really happened: Obama was not just distant from the Republicans in Congress—he was distant from the Democrats as well. His reluctance to engage members of Congress cut across the aisle, with many Democrats just as furious as Republicans. This would only occasionally break out into the press, but it was well known on the Hill. So while it is true that Obama faced an extremely oppositional Republican Party, historians must not ignore the fact that Obama was a distant politician.

In the end, he was more concerned with policy and reluctant to engage in the political battles that make for successful and sustainable policy. Sign up for our weekly newsletter Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings. Are you a Faith and Flag Conservative? Progressive Left?

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