The Collapse of the Old Guard: How Obama, Pelosi, and the Press Finally Lost Control
David Manney
8–10 minutes
For more than a decade, the Democratic Party operated like a palace, ruled not by consensus but by decree. Its monarchs were familiar: President Barack Obama with his golden tongue and cool detachment, Nancy Pelosi with her iron gavel, and a press corps that never met a Democrat it couldn’t describe as “historic.”
Together, they built something. Not a movement but an illusion.
Now, in the wake of President Joe Biden’s implosion and Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the spell has broken. What was once ironclad unity has dissolved into whispered recriminations, panicked donor calls, and a leadership vacuum the size of Pennsylvania Avenue. The old guard, who orchestrated Biden’s rise and propped up his administration long after the engine failed, is learning what all empires do: illusions cannot govern forever.
Obama’s Aura FadesThere was a time when Barack Obama could end primary campaigns with a sentence and turn congressional tides with a smirk. His approval alone anointed candidates, even as his own policy legacy, Obamacare, Iran, and record-setting deficits, faded into dysfunction.
But in 2024, the man who once promised that oceans would stop rising could not even convince Joe Biden to step aside.
Reports now confirm Obama privately urged Biden not to run again. But he lacked either the courage or the leverage to say it publicly. He blinked. He defaulted to the back-channel whispering and careful leaks. And that hesitation was costly.
Biden stayed. The campaign withered. The debate disaster happened. Trump’s victory followed. Obama’s influence didn’t just wane; it evaporated.
This was no accident. It was the culmination of a post-presidency spent giving Netflix notes and convention speeches rather than confronting his party’s descent into elite detachment and Silicon Valley groupthink. His legacy now includes handing the White House to President Donald Trump. Twice.
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https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/05/27/the-collapse-of-the-old-guard-how-obama-pelosi-and-the-press-finally-lost-control-n4940192