Obama: GUILTY!
Kamala Harris gaboi gjithçka në rrugën e fushatës. Por ish-presidenti ishte ai që “komplotoi” për vite me radhë: transparent në publik, aspirant për “kingmaker ” prapa kuintave. Dhe kështu, ai shkatërroi partinë. E cila tani nuk di si ta gjejë veten.
2024-12-03 20:22:37
TiranaPost
The dramatic electoral loss of Kamala Harris was not only due to the many mistakes of the Democratic candidate.
The structural causes of that failure actually come from afar. And they have one main culprit: Barack Obama. Although he does not hold a formal position in the Democratic Party, it is known that the former president continues to be one of the most influential figures of its ruling class. He himself contributed to the creation of the conditions of the crisis in which the party with the donkey symbol fell. To understand this, however, we need to take a step back.
When he emerged as a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama was an anti-establishment figure: he defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary that year and Republican John McCain in the presidential election. He was, in other words, an alternative candidate of the system and very close to the blue-collar workers of the Rust Belt, the area of the country with an industrial tradition, hit hard by the crisis. Then, something happened.
After winning his party's nomination, he made peace with the power he had originally fought against. During the 2016 Democratic primaries, Obama endorsed Clinton, disappointing the entire American left, which, on the contrary, supported the anti-establishment candidacy of Bernie Sanders. Not only that. For the former first lady, Obama also clashed with his deputy, Joe Biden, who in 2015 had hinted that he wanted to run for the next year. Clinton's loss did little to dent Obama's hold on the party. So much so that it reappeared four years later.
The 2020 Democratic primary was crowded. And, instead of allowing the development of an internal dialectic capable of renewing the ruling class, Obama again intervened from above. As NBC News reported at the time, the former president moved behind the scenes to push various candidates to back off and support Joe Biden, who had had a terrible start, losing for example in the New Hampshire primary. .
Obama's guaranteed support for Biden was not out of friendship or admiration: the two do not like each other and, indeed, Biden as vice president was often cornered by the White House's number one. No: the objective was, once again, to block Sanders' electoral rise. In the end, Biden won the nomination and then the presidency, ensuring, also because of his weak leadership, a division of duties in his administration between Obama allies (such as Lloyd Austin or Janet Yellen) and those of Clinton (such as Jake Sullivan).
And here we come to the point. Not only did the Democratic Party continue to be under the heel of an institution that prevented an internal dialectic. But Obama miscalculated. His scheme was to transform Biden into a transition president: who would have to give up his candidacy in the summer of 2023, to be replaced by a stronger personality the following year.
And here came the surprise: Biden, pushed by his wife Jill and embattled son Hunter, unexpectedly refused to withdraw from the race for reconfirmation. The choice shocked and irritated Obama, who, despite officially declaring his loyalty to the former vice president, asked members of his historic circle, starting with David Axelrod, to shoot "mace" at him. Biden, without serious rivals in the field, meanwhile won the 2024 Democratic primaries, albeit in increasingly uncertain psychophysical conditions.
The turning point came in May, when the president's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, de facto agreed to a televised debate between her candidate and Donald Trump: a somewhat odd position, given the state of health – especially mental – of Biden. It may be a coincidence, but O'Malley Dillon has a political history mostly associated with Obama. And so we arrive at the televised showdown with Trump on June 27, on CNN. Biden collapsed. And, at that moment, the party structure openly turned against him.
The president tried to resist, but under pressure from Obama and Nancy Pelosi, he relented in late July. Obama achieved his goal. But… too late. The elections were only three months away. And the rising stars of the Democratic Party - Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer - did not want to risk being sacrificed: it was better for them to wait until 2028. Therefore, only Harris remained available. Biden coolly gave his endorsement on the same day of his withdrawal. Obama knew she was a weak candidate, he would have preferred Newsom. But, as mentioned, the latter and other possible contenders withdrew.
Therefore, the former president waited before taking sides. And while the situation was not resolved, he nevertheless gave his approval to the vice president, interfering in an electoral campaign in the balance, which did Harris more harm than good: it is enough to remember when, a few weeks before the election, the former president angered the African-American male electorate, accusing her of sexism because she was showing a lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate.
Even Shapiro and Whitmer, though officially supportive, had no real interest in a Harris victory because, in such a scenario, their 2028 presidential ambitions would be compromised. In other words, Obama was a victim of the mechanism he himself instigated. His Machiavellianism backfired. It prevented a healthy internal discussion to renew the democratic ruling class. Over the past decade, he has systematically sacrificed the working-class wing of the party in favor of the liberal West Bank wing. In the end, he executed an internal coup that produced a boomerang effect.
Yes, because after Harris lost, the shots started flying. Sanders accused the Democratic Party of "abandoning" the working class. Additionally, various Democratic lawmakers, such as Tom Suozzi, have acknowledged that Woke extremism contributed to the Democrats losing the election. It is clear that these criticisms have a specific target: Obama.
The former president knows very well that he has ended up in the dock. And to blame Biden for the loss, he brought out his speechwriter: Jon Favreau. "Joe Biden's decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake," Favreau said after the election. This is a thesis which, also supported by Pelosi, introduces water and which is unlikely to be accepted by the Democratic Party, both at the parliamentary and electoral levels.
Obama now finds his domestic power shaky as Newsom, Shapiro and Whitmer rev up their engines to run for the 2028 presidential nomination. It remains to be seen whether they will have the strength to finally shelve those names that, starting with Obama and Clinton, led their party to defeat. Shapiro and Whitmer, the governors of Pennsylvania and Michigan, respectively, may have the upper hand, as they represent the Rust Belt from which victory must begin again. So these are profiles that, at least on paper, may be able to recover a political dialogue with the workers of that area.
originally published on bota.al
