No successful two-term president has ever sought to control his party after leaving office as forcefully and deviously as Barack Obama has. Bill Clinton stayed high profile, but he handed the baton to Hillary Clinton and was content to bask in celebrity and make himself wealthy rather than keep his grip on the levers of power. Ronald Reagan remained a star into the 1990s but only from a proper and dignified retirement.

But Obama, with dwindling subtlety, has sought to command and control the Democrats ever since quitting the White House in 2017. There has been much reporting about his holdover staff steering President Joe Biden. The same people visit Obama’s grand home in the Kalorama district of Washington, D.C., presumably to receive their marching orders.