Obama's Active Role for Clinton was Unprecedented in Modern Era

• 11.08.2016, 20:12
•  America,  World

No president of USA has campaigned strongly for his chosen successor in at least 100 years.

Sometimes they were unpopular, some candidates tried to distance, while some presidents were just in failing health.

But President Obama offered a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton's campaign, saying he was excited to hit the campaign trail in the months ahead.

"I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office," the president said when just launching the campaign,  "I'm with her. I'm fired up. And I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary."

He devoted at least one to two days each week in October to campaign for Clinton through rallies, targeted radio and television interviews, social media outreach and fundraising.

Clinton in turn had high praise for her once-rival, saying they have become "true friends" over the last eight years,  The CBS News reported.

"It just means so much to have a strong, substantive endorsement from the president. Obviously I value his opinion a great deal personally," Clinton said. "It's just such a treat because over the years of knowing each other, we've gone from fierce competitors to true friends."

However, for more than a century, it was considered bad form for presidents to actively campaign, even in their own elections. Here's a look back at the last 100 years of presidents to see just how rare it is:

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt pushed for the election of his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft.

Presidents with low approval ratings — like Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and George W. Bush in 2008 and — were liabilities for the party candidates seeking to succeed them (Hubert Humphrey and John McCain).

But, according to USA Today, the closest comparison to Obama may be Ronald Reagan, a popular incumbent who headlined at least 20 party rallies ahead of Vice President George H.W. Bush's election in 1988.

However, Democrats close to Obama confided more than a year before the election that he planned a more active role in the final stages of the election campaign than any recent president had attempted on behalf of a would-be successor. Obama and his aides believed that concentrating on the final months would be most helpful for bolstering voter turnout.

So now just a few hours are left to see whether the plan was really helpful and whether Obama's campaigning for Clinton worked at all.