Obama returns to the world stage to boost Biden and reassure leaders
At least when it comes to fighting climate change. And at least when you judge the country as a whole and not just what’s going on in Washington, where the President’s climate agenda just took a major cut in Congress.
It’s an extremely unusual appearance by a former president at a world leaders event, but Obama aides and friends tell CNN the former President wants to help Biden win back world faith in American leadership on this issue, and get the global alliance back on track after four years of Trump.
Obama “has a global following,” said John Podesta, who worked on climate issues in the Obama White House and remains in touch with the former President. “Poll after poll show young people in particular are despairing of whether democracy can work, whether politicians are up to the task. They see Obama as inspirational and who tells it like it is.”
Obama’s presence at the COP26 began with suggestions from climate activists. But it really took shape in conversation with John Kerry, his former secretary of state and Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, people familiar with the conversations tell CNN.
The White House was eager for the help, officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes conversations.
Still, Obama’s trip does not just reflect an acknowledgment in the Biden White House and beyond of how much international faith in America declined during the Trump years. It also reflects an awareness of how much more Obama connects with people globally, even now as a former President, than Biden does as the president actually in the Oval Office.
Even when Obama was at his most popular in America, he was always much more popular overseas, with his election seeming symbolic of the world’s superpower embracing internationalism and a new, forward-looking generation. Obama remains the inspiring figure around the globe, particularly with the younger people to which he will dedicate much of his time while in Scotland. In coordination with his own foundation and Columbia University’s Climate School, he will host a roundtable with youth activists (including many who are alumni of his global fellowship programs) and urge business leaders to accelerate their own clean energy investments.
A State Department official called Obama “among our strongest global advocates for action,” adding that he’ll be “a welcome voice,” in describing the rare tag-team approach for two Presidents.
‘Can you walk the talk?’
Biden is hoping to come across as more than aspirational talk and empty promises. Obama is hoping to come across as more than a geopolitical celebrity, and instead there throwing his credibility and popularity into backing Biden up. That’s especially the case with the President trying to convince the country and the world to see the $500 billion in funding that survived congressional infrastructure negotiations as a success, and not a failure because of how short it is of his original goal.
Plenty of people think it could work….
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