Barack Obama & the good old days

Barack Obama was back in the White House yesterday, this time visiting with his friend Joe Biden. After the men chatted privately, Barack spoke publicly. Obama said that Democrats have a story to tell and that they just have to tell that story to the American people.

That isn't entirely fiction, though if Obama's speech were another of his books, it'd be sold in the fiction section of the bookstore. When asked by a reporter about the midterm elections, Obama replied "We got a story to tell, just got to tell it." It isn't likely that the Democrats' message will play well with battleground districts. This year, there are tons of battleground districts.

This year, the topic that's at the top of most voters' minds is inflation. Let me state this clearly. The top topic isn't the economy. It isn't jobs. It's inflation, aka gas prices, aka groceries. After that, it's woke ideology, cancel culture, energy independence and education, not necessarily in that order.

Barack Obama is lots of things but nobody thinks of him as the guy with the solution to inflation. He definitely isn't the guy who'll drive down gas prices. Today's gas prices are the highest in history. The only national average for gas that compares came during Obama's administration.

I'm old enough to remember Obama campaigning, saying this:

Nothing says inflation like "electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket." The constant between Obama's administration and Biden's administration is their war against fossil fuels.

This is passive proof that Democrats are in trouble. Elections are about the future. Obama is a blast from the past. Biden is seen as ancient and perhaps senile. Kamala is seen as overrated and perhaps too stupid to be an effective campaign surrogate. What is the Democrats' message for the campaign? Decent jobs reports? To most people, that's just statistics. COVID? Republicans will say that Democrats overstepped their authority. Lots of people will agree. Education? Nowhere is Woke, Inc. more hated by this year's biggest group of swing voters, parents. That issue alone will deliver the suburbs to the GOP. Democrats want to reminisce about the good old days of the Obama administration. The thing is that the Obama years weren't that good for Democrats:

During President Barack Obama's (D) presidency, Democrats lost a net 948 state legislative seats, the largest loss of Democratic seats during any presidency since at least 1921. Twenty-nine state legislative chambers in 19 states flipped from Democratic to Republican control compared to the start of Obama's presidency. In ten states these flips resulted in the creation of Republican trifectas, where Republicans controlled both chambers as well as the governorship. Democrats did not gain total control of any chambers by the end of Obama's presidency that they did not already control at its start, however, the Alaska House of Representatives flipped from Republican control to a bipartisan coalition following the 2016 elections.

If that's what Democrats consider the good old days, that's something Republicans agree with. No wonder Democrats had to invent voting bills to win in 2020. Most of the Democrats' bills have gotten wiped away. That means Democrats will need to persuade voters the old-fashioned way. Good luck with that.