Even people who despise all Obama stood for realize he will be remembered as the president who came between Bush and Trump. The contrast will be inevitable, and inescapable. They can only blame everything that goes wrong from now on him for so long.

Obama will be remembered as the new Clinton, the new Roosevelt. He will be the one bright spot in the early 21st century. His critics understand this deep down in their reptilian midbrains and they loathe him for it. Because of sympathetic magic, they also feel compelled to hate not only Obama, but everything about him, every characteristic and attribute: his family, his poise, his elegance, his intelligence, his class. And not to mention that he speaks better English than they do, and is better looking than they are.