Almost a decade after the end of his presidency, the Democrats still longing for former President Barack Obama’s voicewhich highlights the clear gap of leadership as Trump defines politics and culture.

“Democrats, we always long for our former president,” said Terry Macolif, a former Virginia ruler, who spoke with Obama on Friday. “And today it is overwhelmed by the chaos of the Trump government. It’s just a strong contrast. “

This longing, however, is also a product of problems within the Democratic Party: from the Democrats who took a step back when they set Joe Biden in 2020, to the younger democratic leaders struggling to emerge in a prominent position in a party that is overly based on nostalgia.

Therefore, it is perhaps a conviction for the Democrats that Obama, so long after he left the White House, is still the person who wants most of the party.

This thirst for an Obama type personality that can resist Trump – on immigration, attacks on the social security network, the position of America in the world and others – appeared this week, after Trump sent the ethnicity and later the marines to the marines. While the Democrats, led by Newsom, reacted dynamically, the daily attack has led some to the party to wish Obama.

These hopes come in a moment of chaos for the Democratic National Committee, which is flooded with a dispute between President Ken Martin and Vice President David Hog, who evolved into a new round of open conflict over the weekend, as Trump.

Hours later, the Atlantic newspaper published an article that was aptly asked: “Where is Barack Obama?” “No matter how frustrated Trump is, the most effective communicationist in the Democratic Party continues to choose minimal communication,” Mark Libovic wrote. “His presidency with the” courage of hope “has given way to the wild lethargy of semi-retirement.”

Those who are closer to the former president say it may be time to look elsewhere.

‘In order to rebuild the Democratic Party, The next generation of leaders should take action“, Said Eric Schultz, a former president’s spokesman. “President Obama speaks when he thinks he may have an impact, but when he does, the last thing he wants to do is make it difficult for others to establish and develop their own profile.”

Obama has emphasized this point from his presidency. In 2017, in his speech in front of a young audience he said that while he cares about “all kinds of issues”, the “only and most important thing I can do is to help, in every way where I can, to prepare the next generation of leadership to take over the baton and try its own opportunity.”

Following Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, the Democrats hoped that the party leadership cloak would pass on to the winner of the 2020 qualifiers, a harsh match that tested a series of party ideas, focused on questions about the age. The Democrats then chose Biden, the Vice President of Obama and a man for almost two decades older than the former president.

“Normally, in politics, you don’t even take a single step back genealogically when choosing your next leader,” said Tommy Vieter, a long -term democratic agent who worked for Obama. “This confused things a little bit.”

Biden’s departure from the political scene – which was forced to abandon his candidacy during the election campaign and just a few months before the election in November 2024 amid concerns about his age – essentially removed him from his 20s leader. This makes the Democratic qualifiers for the chair of 2028 as the right time for to highlight another personality, Even if the intermediate years are embarrassed.

Ben Lambolt, a former White House Communications Director under Obama, said that while the former president’s voice “still has significant weight”, the future of the party “will not eventually come from him, nor will it be a faithful copy of his strategy or vision”. On the contrary, Lambolt predicts that the future of the Democrats will emerge from a “New, Progressive Voice” that the party should hug.

It is a point that many democrats emphasized in interviews. In 2004, the Democrats felt that they had reached the bottom, defeated by President George Bush and relatively without a leader. In the elections of that year, Obama also went up to the Senate on his way to the White House. “The party was attacked by himself and dissolved,” Vieter said. “And I don’t think anyone believed that Barack Obama would be the next to go up then.”

They would not have done so, said the then chairman of the Democratic Committee Maccolif, who remembers that he had spoken a central speech at a 2002 party event when a Illinois state senator gave his assistant a business card and set up as Barack Obama.

“Who would have imagined that the candidate would be soon after?” Macolif asked. “We don’t know who will fill this gap today.”

*Dan Merika is a co-presenter of Post’s main political newsletter, Early Brief. He joined the Post in 2025. Previously he covered campaigns, politics and all power levers in Washington for CNN, The Messenger and the Associated Press.

*Matthew Choi is a co-presenter of the political newsletter Early Brief. Works in the post by 2025. Previously covered Washington issues For The Texas Tribune newspaper and energy issues for Politico.