What on Earth is Obama doing?

Ben Jealous needs the former president's help in Maryland, but instead he's helping a corrupt Illinois billionaire

Barack Obama.
(Image credit: Illustrated | sorrapong/iStock, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In his post-presidency, Barack Obama has mostly tried to stay out of politics, spending a lot of time goofing off with billionaire friends, writing a book, creating TV shows, and collecting vast sums in buckraking speeches. But he has finally started to dip his toes back into the political waters, recently releasing endorsements for the 2018 election and cutting his first ad spot of the election cycle for the billionaire Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker.

What's been most striking about this political re-entry is its profound worthlessness.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.