Keller @ Large: Why Some Obama Supporters Have Changed Their Opinion
BOSTON (CBS) - Former President Barack Obama's return to the White House Tuesday for the first time since January 2017 brought back memories of the way things once were.
President Joe Biden was all smiles as he welcomed Obama back and said it "feels like the good old days." And Obama drew a big laugh by referring to Biden as "Mr. Vice President."
But there's nothing funny about White House reality these days. And while Biden aides hoped the reunion would be a boost for the embattled president, it seems the good old days are long gone.
When Obama left office, he enjoyed a strong 60% approval rating, closer to 70% with independents. Five years later, current polling shows him below 50%, with independent approval collapsing to the low 40's.
What happened?
Obama's demonization by the right didn't end when he left office. And in our hyper-polarized partisan environment, says presidential historian Marc Landy of Boston College, "Obama is suffering in no small measure simply because he's a Democrat."
The Affordable Care Act - which brought Obama to the White House to mark its 12th anniversary - may be widely popular, but big government's handling of the pandemic and the economy are not. Obama is "part of big government, and what is big government all about these days? It's about ineptitude, it's about intrusion," says Landy.
And then there's the decades-long bi-partisan bungling of our Russia policy, captured in an open-mic incident in 2012 that showed Obama cozying up to Putin toady Dmitry Medvedev: "This is my last election, after my election I have more flexibility."
Observes Landy: "hindsight is very unpleasant in this regard."
So, is it a net positive for President Biden to remind voters of his association with former President Obama?
For many Obama supporters, sure. But even for some of them, the comparison may not be all that helpful to Biden. Some of his biggest slippage in the polls has come from younger voters who were really turned on by Obama but voted for Biden more because they were turned off by Trump.
Reminding them of what they're missing these days can cut both ways.
