Barack Obama has a powerful voice. He shouldn't use it for paid speeches.

Bernie Sanders is right that the Democrats need to become a grassroots party again and represent the interests of working people, not billionaires. He is right that the Obama administration’s failure to prosecute the major Wall Street figures responsible for the financial crash is a scandal. More buck-raking on Wall Street will make the lax enforcement seem even more suspect.

Obama needs to be the leader of the Democratic party right now. There is no one else. That’s why Sarah Kovner, a Clinton supporter and longtime Democratic activist, told the Times: “We’ve got to hear from him.”

Hillary Clinton has been discredited by her unexpected loss of the election, a political mortal wound. While the loser of an election is sometimes viewed as the leader of the out-of-power party, Clinton, at 69, is not positioned to make a third run for the White House and no longer sits atop a money-filled political organization.

Neither Nancy Pelosi nor Chuck Schumer, the congressional minority leaders, can fill the void. The new DNC chairman, Tom Perez, is almost a complete unknown.