They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. But in the case of Barack Obama, it appears that the public is realizing that fact a bit early.
Recent polls have shown that Obama’s approval ratings have climbed, and appears to have higher favorability numbers than any presidential candidate in either party. According to Time, 53 percent of survey participants had a positive opinion of Obama, with the highest presidential candidate being Bernie Sanders with 48 percent. John Kasich was the highest Republican candidate at just 34 percent.
These poll numbers are hardly surprising on one level. People have been betting on these numbers using sports betting sites for years. The economy is slowly recovering, and that has always been the most reliable predictor of a president’s approval rating.
But on another level, this increased approval for Barack Obama is clearly the result of the long and tough primary fights both in the Republican and Democratic primaries. And over the long term, this will be better news for the Democrats.
Ever since Barack Obama took office in 2009, he has faced a Republican party which has fought him tooth and nail over every issues for reasons which have absolutely, positively, nothing to do with his race. They even created the Tea Party and continued to give power to people like Sarah Palin in order to continue their anti-Obama hysteria.
But now that has come back to bite them with the rise of Trump. Conservative commentators like Glenn Beck like to claim that Trumpism is an animal very different from the Tea Party, but they are both the product of an outrage against “Washington politics” which the Republican Party has promoted for years.
Well, now the voters have reached the logical conclusion of this rhetoric, and turned to a man who has nothing to do with Washington politics. And in the process, the Trump has proceeded to horrify decent people across race, gender, political identity, and every political spectrum you can think of. When one looks at the civil war which has embroiled the Republican Party, then suddenly Barack Obama does not look that bad after all.
It is true that Clinton faces an establishment challenge in the form of Bernie Sanders and the “Berniebro” who prefers Trump to Clinton. But by and large, the Democratic primary has remained civil. Even the recent scuffle over who is qualified or unqualified is a minor remark compared to the Trump campaign claiming that Ted Cruz’s campaign is using “Gestapo tactics.”
And while the Democrats bicker a bit and the Republicans brawl, Obama’s reign has been a success. In addition the recovering economy, he has brought health insurance to millions of Americans, reconciled America with Iran and Cuba, and kept this country out of any truly devastating wars like his predecessor did.
It is a shame that we cannot have a third term of Barack Obama. But after watching him fight with this Republican congress for the better part of eight years, one suspects that you would have to drag him kicking and screaming into the Oval Office to serve out a third term.