What a Night! Why We Love Obama

This is a repost of a May 2020 essay I wrote here on Medium. In light of an incredibly electric night at the Democratic National Convention last night, I think re-posting is in order.

Okay, let’s get real. President Obama didn’t do everything “right.” Or, at least, he didn’t do everything the way that you would have done, had you been the president. He launched covert drone attacks in too many a foreign land, killing innocent people. His signature healthcare initiative was a half-measure (my words, not yours), a strange compromise that made no one really happy. And with him in office, Democrats outside the White House suffered the largest losses in power in decades. Through the lens of policy and party, the Obama presidency remains a 50/50 proposition for most of us. Well, maybe 60/40 or 70/30. And yet, we love him. Why?

His presidency beautifully illuminated the dual role of the office that the nation rarely considers in public conversation — a duality we must consider in this election year and beyond.

When the founders set out to design our democracy, remember, they were framing a structure in direct response to the one they had just left, opposed in outward rebellion, and won a revolution against. As the founders wrote the Constitution, defining our new government and its head, King George III was fresh in the minds of all the new…