Barack Obama: Éminence grise

During a November 2020 interview with comedian Stephen Colbert , former President Barack Obama spoke with fondness of his days in the White House .

“Even on my worst days,” he said, “I found puzzling out these big complicated, difficult issues, especially if you were working with some great people, to be, especially professionally, really satisfying.”

In a somewhat playful tone, he continued , “I used to say if I can make an arrangement where I had a stand-in or frontman or frontwoman, and they had an earpiece in and I was just in my basement in my sweats, looking through the stuff and I could sort of deliver the lines while someone was doing all the talking and ceremony, I’d be fine with that because I found the work fascinating.”

Despite Obama’s half-joking manner, one was left with the distinct impression that he missed those days and wouldn’t mind if they returned — on his terms.

It’s not really surprising when one considers that he never left Washington as presidents typically do when their terms end. Except for state funerals and campaign events during presidential election cycles, we rarely see ex-presidents. Not so for Obama.

President Joe Biden took office two months after this interview. Although only Republicans acknowledged his cognitive problems at that time, Biden’s struggle had already begun. And it strains credulity to believe that, even early on, he was executing the duties of the office by himself.

His steady decline over the past four years has rendered him incapable of serving as president. Someone else is in charge and we aren’t quite sure who that is. It could be first lady Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden, Obama, Biden’s close advisers, or some combination of these individuals. My hunch is that Obama is the power behind the throne.

And now Biden is out of the 2024 race. Sources told Politico that Obama, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), “have done more to engineer Biden’s ouster from the campaign than anyone else.”

Obama, who operates from the shadows, was the mastermind. It’s no coincidence that former Obama adviser David Axelrod and actor George Clooney, Obama’s close friend, were the first voices to publicly call on Biden to leave the race. Pelosi, who knows a thing or two about how to force an agenda, did the heavy lifting. And Schumer and Jeffries acted as liaisons between their respective caucuses and Team Biden.

However, Obama reportedly was shocked when Biden, on his way out, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. A source told the New York Post that Obama wanted Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) at the top of the ticket, and was “furious … which is why he is not joining in the Democratic Party’s support of Harris,” the source added.

Note: It was reported Friday morning that Obama and his wife, Michelle, endorsed Harris.

Perhaps the whispers about “Biden’s revenge” are true.

A second “well-placed Democratic source” told the New York Post, “Obama being surprised by a smart political decision actually makes sense when coupled with his personal inability to see politics beyond his singular, immediate interests.” Indeed.

On Tuesday, the always amusing former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “Biden gets the Chicago treatment: Barack Obama, an old-fashioned ward boss orchestrates the president’s removal.” According to Blagojevich, “It isn’t Donald Trump who is an existential threat to our democracy. It’s Barack Obama.”

Blagojevich noted that he’s known Obama since 1995 and that they’d both grown up in Chicago politics.

“We understand how it works—with the bosses over the people,” Blagojevich wrote. “Mr. Obama learned the lessons well. And what he just did to Mr. Biden is what political bosses have been doing in Chicago since the 1871 fire—selections masquerading as elections.” (Emphasis added.)

Finally, Chicago-based journalist John Kass, who has known Obama for decades, published a brutal article Wednesday about the “coup” to remove Biden. Its title? “Obama Leaves No Fingerprints Behind.”

Referring to Biden’s exit from the race, Kass asked, “But where was Barack Obama, author of the coup, to push old Joe Biden off the cliff?”

“Obama was nowhere, the way he likes it,” Kass wrote. “No Obama fingerprints on the blade in Biden’s back. He was nowhere, man. Obama and Kamala and the herd of weasels who lied to the American people, insisting like the idiot mop-head press lady that Joe Biden was at the top of his game though all close to him knew he was a drooling puddle of goo. And they got away with it for years too."

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“But the main thing I’ve learned about the silky Obama over the years, is that he never stands up to face his enemies.” Kass added, “This littlefinger works from the shadows, through lickspittles, and never shows himself. Obama is the one-eyed jack who never lets you see the other side of his face.”

A question for Obama: What will you do to Harris if her poll numbers turn south?

Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal . Follow her on X or LinkedIn .