Obama admits failure to leave behind strong Democratic Party

Published December 16, 2016 8:37pm ET



President Obama on Friday conceded that he failed as the leader of the Democratic Party to transfer his success down-ticket.

Obama was the first Democrat to win more than 50 percent of the vote in consecutive presidential elections since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But other than the coattails that lifted down-ballot Democrats in his first campaign, in 2008, the president’s party generally suffered under his leadership, and sits at a historic low point as he readies to exit the White House.

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