No more halo pictures of the SCOAMF?
(Boy I miss saying that.)
While the article talks about Democrats being tired of Obama himself, most of the antagonism is directed at the old campaign managers and propagandists of Obama, who continue running Democrat campaigns -- and losing.
"I don't want a surgeon who keeps killing patients," one Democrat says.
Obama world loses its shine in a changing, hurting Democratic Party
Obama White House and campaign alumni have been setting the course of the Democratic Party for years. After 2024, more Democrats want to see that change.
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David Plouffe, long hailed as the brilliant architect of Obama's 2008 victory, served in a key role in Harris' campaign and is now among those tagged with a devastating defeat.
"The shine's off Plouffe now. He was the golden boy," Morgan said. "Now he's just an old broken-down boy, who lost. Big."
Messina did not comment on the exchange. Plouffe did not respond to a request for comment.
While many Democrats still admire Plouffe's successes, the harsh words punctuated a growing sentiment across a party searching for a path forward: Team Obama's bloom may be falling off the rose.
More Democrats are openly criticizing Obama strategists and consultants, who were long treated as the high priests of their party's politics.
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But even the former president's luster was showing signs of fading last fall, a phenomenon that threatens to persist as the next crop of young voters ages into adulthood. When the 2028 presidential election arrives, it will be 20 years since Obama's first victory. At that point, more voters will have come of age in the era of Donald Trump than in the era of Obama.
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Democrats point to myriad factors leading to Harris' defeat in 2024 -- with many focusing on a compressed timeline because Biden refused to step aside as the party's candidate until 107 days before the election. Plouffe pointedly blamed Biden, saying "He totally f---ed us" in a newly released book.
Plouffe's verbal affront opened him and fellow Obama alums to their own criticisms. DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge lashed out at Plouffe in an interview with NBC News last week, saying he and other Obama alums shared the blame, chiding them as the "so-called gurus."
"It's time to re-evaluate the use of consultants and bring in new forward-looking people," Korge also said in the interview. "The old Obama playbook no longer works."
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Chuck Rocha, who worked on Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential bid and consults on House and Senate campaigns, said that a small cluster of firms dominate the market for political operatives.
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He said the firms rise and fall, but the players who run them are the same -- a sort of regeneration cycle that keeps the same people in place. "They're all connected," he said.
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Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist with experience on past presidential campaigns, said it's time for the party to take a hard look at the same set of operatives, including Obama campaign alums, who have been running national Democratic campaigns.
"I'm sorry -- I don't want a surgeon who keeps killing patients," he said.
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[W]ith political operatives who cut their teeth in the Obama years still wielding power in the party, there's a disconnect between the leadership and younger electorates the party needs to win moving forward, Hogg added. Part of the issue is that those young voters barely have any memory of the nation's first Black president.
"I don't think they have one to be honest with you. That's part of the challenge," Hogg, 25, said, adding, "For many of these younger people who are under the age of 20, right now ... they don't remember much of what Obama talked about. They grew up in the political context of Donald Trump and him being normalized, because that was what politics was to them growing up."
Speaking of gay black rabble-rousers: Jussie Smollett has resolved a lawsuit lodged against him for misdirecting police resources by lying about a racial lynching he actually paid for.
Smollett donated $50,000 to a charity without admitting blame.
Embattled LGBTQ+ actor Jussie Smollett will pay $50,000 to an organization in Chicago to settle a lawsuit the city had filed against him over accusations of lying about a hate crime, media outlets noted.
Chicago police had wanted Smollett to pay $130,000 to cover the investigation costs; however, the donation will be made instead, per the BBC.
The money will go to the Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, which supports Chicago's underprivileged youth.
He should have been forced to donate to the MAGA Country Fund.
Smollett continues insisting that he really was lynched and then re-lynched by Chicago cops. He insists he told the truth and the Real Lynchers are still out there.