Obama remains extremely popular with the Democratic base, and his return to the White House comes as Biden struggles to bolster opinion polls in the face of a series of challenges, most notably the spike in inflation. “I think this comes at the right time,” said one Democratic general. “We need a surge of energy right now and no one brings it more than Obama.” Biden and Obama will push for the Affordable Care Act, the former president’s signature bill during his term. Obama has remained out of the limelight since stepping down from the White House in 2017, reappearing only at key moments during the Trump and Biden administrations. At the time, he had voiced support for Biden on issues such as the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Biden Build Back Better framework and voting rights. The former president has not visited the White House since Biden took office, even privately, two sources said. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that the two talk on the phone regularly and are “true friends, not just friends of Washington.” The presidents will also have lunch together Tuesday, he said, continuing their tradition of weekly meals during the Obama White House. Their reunion, Democrats say, will be a moment that invokes the nostalgia and longing for the Obama era, and marks one of the most important legislative achievements in years. “Historically, it’s a beautiful narrative of Obama and Biden passing the bill to Obama, returning to celebrate the way he was developed and protected under current President Biden,” said Democratic General Eddie Vail. “And it will be a good event and a good speech as one always gets from Obama.” But Veil warned that “no one should expect Obama to solve all our problems magically.” “If the Democrats want to win in 2022 and 2024, they have to bend over and get more bills in Biden’s office,” he said.
Matt Bennett, a former Clinton White House staffer and co-founder of the Third Way think tank, said it was wise for the Biden White House to involve Obama, given the popularity of the signed health care bill. Bennett noted the potential added benefit: “Popular and talented former presidents can really help established art and get the message across.” A White House official downplayed any political aspects of Obama’s induction into the White House, saying the former president had defended the law, which has been unofficially named for years, and that it made sense to be there to push for new legislation. . Biden and Obama both attended the funeral of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Last August and appeared together on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York last fall. The two also recorded a conversation with Zoom last summer to promote access to care law. Obama is expected to return to the White House in the coming months to unveil the presidential portraits of himself and First Lady Michelle Obama. Although they live miles away from each other, they have rarely seen each other since Biden came to power, sources say, including privately. While Biden campaigned as vice president of the popular president, he kept his distance as president. “I’m not sure it would be helpful for Barack Obama to appear in the shadow of his presidency,” said a source familiar with their relationship. While the two presidents share close ties on their common history in the Senate and later in the White House, there has also been a calm tension. During the 2016 presidential race, Biden and his team were disappointed by Obama’s pressure to have Hillary Clinton succeed him. And later in the 2020 presidential race, Obama remained neutral, refusing to support anyone in the Democratic primary, including his former vice president. Biden has reportedly told his ex-partner not to support him in the race, but sources close to the former president say this never happened.
Last year, during a CNN mayoral election, Biden acknowledged that while he was in the Oval Office several times as vice president, “I had never been home” while Obama was president. However, there is goodwill between the two men, sources say, and the Biden White House includes dozens of former Obama aides, including Chief of Staff Ron Klein and Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Vulnerable Democrats Prepare to Increase Borders Man from New York charged with hate crimes for attacking Asian women Obama was one of the most sought-after replacements in the 2018 and 2020 election campaigns, along with Michelle Obama. A 2018 Gallup poll put Obama’s approval rating at 63%, while a Fox News poll in May 2020 found that Obama had a higher approval rating than either Biden or then-President Trump. Biden can only hope that it will affect him, given his anemic acceptance score, which has worried Democrats about what is coming in the middle of autumn. “Every time you have a popular former president with whom it is never bad to associate a White House, especially when you think about the story between President Biden and President Obama,” said Democratic Gov. Joel Payne. “That being said, President Obama is of limited value to the Biden White House right now given the multiple crises he manages in real time.” The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the discussion. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.