Ho hum, nothing to see here, just another cycle in which Barack Obama runs for president. What is this, five in a row now?

In this case, though, we may have to give Kamala Harris a pass. It's not as if she developed a team of campaign experts on her own. Or that they'd stick around for long if she did (via Memeorandum):

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris hired a battery of new senior advisers to her campaign this week, moving swiftly to replace lifetime loyalists of President Biden with Democratic campaign veterans, including multiple leaders of Barack Obama’s presidential bids, according to people briefed on the campaign shifts.

David Plouffe, a top strategist on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns, joins Harris as senior adviser for strategy and the states focused on winning the electoral college. Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager for Obama’s reelection who has been working in recent months with Harris, is the new senior adviser for strategy messaging. Mitch Stewart, a grass-roots organizing strategist behind both Obama wins, will become the senior adviser for battleground states. David Binder, who led Obama’s public opinion research operation and previously worked for Harris, will expand his role on the Harris campaign to lead the opinion research operation.

All of the new hires will report to campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, another veteran of Obama’s two campaigns. She managed Biden’s 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House before moving to Wilmington, Del., this year. Harris took control of Biden’s campaign as soon as Biden announced he would not seek reelection, an operation consisting of more than 1,300 employees and more than 130 offices. She asked O’Malley Dillon to remain in charge.

O'Malley Dillon tried gaslighting this right off the bat, although the Washington Post doesn't put it that way. "This team is a reflection of the vice president," she declared, but the Post's reporting makes it abundantly clear that it reflects Obama rather than Harris. Harris' existing staffers will remain in place, but the reporting strongly suggests that they will be eclipsed by people who [checks notes] know how to get to Iowa in a primary cycle.

On one hand, this is smart politics, especially given Harris' record of abysmal performance on the campaign trail. Until now, Harris has only faced one significant competitive election against a Republican, the AG race in California, which she almost lost while other Democrats won statewide races by double digits. Thanks to California's jungle-primary system, she won her Senate seat against a fellow Democrat in the general election. She then failed to get to a single primary contest in 2020 after entering that primary cycle as one of the favorites, melting down in two debate exchanges with Tulsi Gabbard and utterly failing to inspire Democrat primary voters. 

If anyone needs an Obama rescue, it's Kamala.

Still. During most of Biden's presidency, Obama's team largely drove policy, especially in foreign affairs, and Biden's clear cognitive decline made it appear that someone pulled the strings behind the scene -- and Obama was the most likely suspect. Then Biden got humiliated in a debate he demanded and suddenly Obama became even more of a public puppeteer in forcing Biden to withdraw. And now practically his entire political team has taken over Team Kamala even more than they had with Team Biden.

And not to be too conspiratorial about it, but how did we find out about this? In the oh-so-traditional Friday afternoon news dump. 

Will it work? His team helped pull Biden over the finish line, so they're three out of four. But Biden at least had some political chops. This team may be able to work wonders, but they can't turn a vapid, circular-speaking dilettante into a Gary Hart or a Bill Clinton. When campaigning forces Kamala Harris to open her mouth extemporaneously and defend the Biden record, the Obama rescue will only help cushion the inevitable blow.

Finally, we have term limits on the presidency for a reason. This singular executive office has grown too powerful for one person to control it for more than eight years. That's true when control is direct, and probably even more so when the control is indirect. This could be dangerous territory, which everyone would recognize in an instant if it were Donald Trump behind these activities rather than Obama.