I’ve got to say, it’s bizarre for Obama to be on the stump for Hillary. Doesn’t he have a job? That we are paying him to do? Isn’t that job to be everybody’s president?
Michelle is campaigning, that’s great. She doesn’t hold public office. But for Obama to be traveling the country to give stump speeches. . . doesn’t smell right.
Back in 1996, everybody in Russia thought that it was OK to flub a bit on electoral ethics for a very very good and important cause. And look how that turned out (see previous post).
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s not unusual for a President, especially a popular two term President to stump for the candidate from his own party. The current President is the nominal head of the party in a lot of respects. That’s why it’s notable that Shrub was completely absent during McCain’s campaign. Even if Jeb hadn’t been in the primary, I still think Shrub would’ve stayed away. Reagan endorsed H.W. Bush as well and it was considered a retrospective mistake for Al Gore not to have Bill Clinton stump for him.
What is unusual is the extent to which Obama is doing stump speeches:
<ahttp://www.npr.org/2016/07/05/484817706/looking-back-at-a-century-of-presidents-not-campaigning-for-their-successor”>Why President Obama Campaigning For Clinton Is Historic
He probably thinks that he’s so lame-ducked he’s not even going to get a SCOTUS nominee a hearing and McCain has said as much if say HRC wins the election that she won’t either. What governing is he going to do at this juncture?
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“What governing is he going to do at this juncture?”
This cannot possibly be his approach. He is still drawing a salary, I assume. I can’t just turn around and go do whatever I feel like in my job. And he shouldn’t either. He’s a public servant.
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Well it’s not illegal. And not much different than when first term presidents run for re-election/stump for themselves at the end of their first term.
We haven’t had it happen in recent electoral politics because a) GW Bush was deeply unpopular by the end of his second term and Republicans were separating themselves from him b) Before GWB, Clinton was in the midst of a cheating scandal, c) Before that, Bush I was only a one term president d) Before that, Reagan was too old and struggling with dementia and e) Before that, Carter was a one term president.
So Obama is unique in that he is a popular two term president. And people do want to hear what he has to say about Clinton.
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“And people do want to hear what he has to say about Clinton.”
Does he really need to go say it in person? Or could he record his statements in his personal time and distribute them digitally?
I’m also wondering who is paying for the Secret Service personnel that accompanies him on these trips.
I’m preoccupied because all this makes the accusation of a rigged election sound plausible. Are taxpayers made to invest in Hillary’s campaign? Is this doing enough good to counteract the fishy smell of impropriety?
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To me, it’s no different than when presidents campaign for themselves at the end of the first term–and that has been a long-accepted tradition.
And, if we assume that Obama believes the policies that he enacted are best for the American people (Obamacare, the Iran deal, etc etc), it follows that he has a vested interest in making sure Clinton is the next President. In this sense, he is acting on behalf of the American people by campaigning.
I think it would make sense in some ways if a law was passed that stipulates that sitting Presidents can’t campaign at all during their first or second terms. But that would radically change how Presidents run for a second term. My personal pipe dream is that the office of the President is a one term-limited office that lasts eight years. But, at any rate, that’s not the law or the system we have right now. So I think Obama is operating well within the bounds of the American campaign system. I don’t personally find this fishy.
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Jeb Bush rigged his brother’s election in 2000, so what’s the problem?
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