Democrats refuse Barack Obama's election meddling -- as former prez's influence within the desperate party withers

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

Barack Obama has lost his mojo and ruined his brand.

It used to be said that President Joe Biden was serving former President Obama's third term, that his former boss was controlling him from the home he had bought in DC's ritzy Kalorama neighborhood, two miles from the White House.

The feeling was that Obama was the real leader of the Democratic Party and his wife, Michelle, was the secret weapon they would whip out in 2024 to replace Biden and trounce Donald Trump.

If former President Barack Obama really was the puppeteer pulling Joe Biden's strings, he has a lot to answer for, writes columnist Miranda Devine. Fight For Progress/YouTube

Well, none of it came to pass, and judging by his irrelevant poll numbers, Obama's star has long faded.

In a CNN poll last month, Obama received only 4% support from Democrats who were asked which leader best represents the party, lagging behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders. Ouch.

If Obama really was the puppeteer pulling Biden's strings, he has a lot to answer for, judging by the imperiled state of the party.

But in reality, the former prez was so aloof from politics that he didn't even bother watching Biden's disastrous debate performance last summer that killed his re-election bid.

Bid to 'kneecap Harris'

According to a new book, "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House" by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, Obama "was alerted to the catastrophe by his phone … Obama kept his thoughts to himself that night, but his proxies didn't afford Biden the same courtesy."

As his former advisers like David Axelrod and the "Pod Save America" bros waged a campaign against Biden, Obama stayed silent. But behind the scenes, the book suggests he was urging the party to dump Biden and run a mini-primary to choose his replacement, and he didn't want Harris.

"The mini-primary was Obama's way of trying to kneecap Harris," the book claims.

At one point, when Biden looked like he was clinging to his candidacy, Obama called him and demanded to know, "What is your path?"

According to the authors, Biden angrily thought to himself as he listened: "What's my path? What's your f-king plan?"

No Drama Obama, who likes to stay above the fray, ultimately outsourced the "wet work" to movie star George Clooney and party godmother Nancy Pelosi, who didn't like her fellow San Franciscan Harris, either.

"Pelosi's biggest initial fear had been about Harris," the authors write. "She actually was worried when people were panicking the night of the debate, saying, 'Oh my God, it's going to be her.' "

After a pep talk from Obama on the phone, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and damned Biden with faint praise, pretending the party was waiting for him to make up his mind about dropping out when he had already unequivocally vowed to stay on. She resurrected the insurrection Biden thought he had put down.

Then came the death blow from Obama's good buddy Clooney, who published an op-ed in the New York Times urging Biden to abandon his bid for re-election and allow the party to hold a mini-primary.

"Clooney's words so closely reflected Obama's thinking that the op-ed might as well have carried the former president's byline. Obama didn't want to get his own hands dirty — couldn't face leaving bloody fingerprints on Biden's political corpse — but he hoped others would shoulder the wet work," the authors write.

Obama might have won the battle to oust Biden but he was sorely mistaken if he thought he could control the party he once led when it came to choosing his replacement for the 2024 presidential race.

"He left the Democratic Party far weaker than he found it," one party operative told the authors. "Obama destroyed that s-t."

Obama outplayed

In the end, Obama was punked by the demented old man for whom he had such contempt. Biden issued his resignation letter from the race on July 21, 2024, without mentioning Harris.

But he followed up minutes later with a message on social media endorsing his VP as the Democratic nominee.

Party kingmaker Jim Clyburn, who had harnessed the black vote in South Carolina to clinch the nomination for Biden in 2020, also outsmarted Obama by quickly endorsing Harris before he was due to take a call from the ex-prez urging him to back a mini-primary.

To add to the indignities, Clooney was reportedly furious when "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski suggested that Obama had put him up to writing the Times op-ed and maybe even ghost-wrote it.

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People's two-time "Sexiest Man Alive" yelled obscenities at an MSNBC producer, according to another new book about the Biden campaign, "Uncharted." "How the f-k could you let her link me with Barack Obama, saying he made me write the op-ed?" Clooney shouted.

There was a time when Clooney might have been proud to have been linked to "The One."

Now he wants to distance himself, yet another sign of Obama's waning influence.

Obama is trying to win back relevance by giving speeches urging anti-Trumpers to "sacrifice a little bit" in their opposition to the president.

What exactly does he mean? Commit hara kiri, break the law, go to jail, blow up their business? He suggested that "law firms being threatened … might have to say, okay, we will lose some business."

But whatever he meant, in his long-winded way, it didn't sound good, coming from an entitled rich guy with three or maybe four luxury houses and who has never sacrificed anything.

If Democrats are looking for people to help them out of the doldrums, the last person they should listen to is Obama. He helped give them Trump — not once, but twice.