The catastrophic fall of the Democratic Party

How Obama's hope wilted into Democratic despair

Who's to blame?
(Image credit: Pete Souza, courtesy The White House Flickr)

Over the past eight years, Democrats went from an ascendant majority to a marginalized party that has all but ceded enormous swathes of the country. The man who presided over that collapse, Barack Obama, now allows that he may have had a little something to do with that failure. You don't say.

Next week, President Obama will transition into retirement as one of the most personally popular presidents in modern times. In that sense, he follows in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who weathered storms of scandal in his second term to become a beloved fixture not just of his own party but eventually of the entire nation. Obama also follows Bill Clinton, whose personal affability saw him through personal scandals and impeachment in his second term, and who survived well enough to keep his wife politically viable until unexpectedly losing the election to succeed Obama.

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Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.