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Obama is expected to campaign for Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a rare decision for a former president. The decision shows that Democrats appear helpless without Obama, hoping that he will help them recapture the magic.

Northam has tried to nationalize the race by positioning himself as an anti-Trump Democrat.

Ive been listening carefully to Donald Trump, and I think hes a narcissistic maniac, Northam saidin his campaign ads during the primaries.

Northam already has an eight-point polling lead over Republican candidate Ed Gillespie in the race, after the Republican nominee nearly lost his primary to challenger Corey Stewart.

A Quinnipiac University poll showsthat 47 percent supported Northam, while only 39 percent backed Gillespie.

The state is currently led by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee Chairman during Bill Clintons presidency.

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Barack Obama Plans Return to Campaign Trail to Save Democrats

The text of the Senate's 142-page Obamacare repeal bill had been public for just a few hours Thursday when the nation's most influential private citizen weighed in - Barack Obama.

The plan is "not a health care bill," Obama declared in a 939-word message to his nearly 53 million followers on Facebook. "It's a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America."

The 44th president did not mention his successor, Donald Trump, but his scathing criticism and urgent tone - imploring his supporters to speak out against the "fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation" - set up a direct public fight with the current White House occupant over the future of the nation's health care system.

"I am very supportive of the Senate #HealthcareBill," Trump wrote in a tweet a short while later. "Look forward to making it really special! Remember, ObamaCare is dead."

The high-stakes confrontation is virtually unprecedented in modern times between a former and current president, and it runs counter to Obama's own professed interest in receding from the limelight. Just days before departing the White House, he joked that he looked forward to not hearing himself "talk so darn much."

Beyond his self-deprecation, Obama explained that he wanted to afford respect to Trump to pursue his own agenda, citing the precedent set by George W. Bush's infrequent public statements after Obama took office in 2009. Instead, since Trump's inauguration, Obama has made clear that he does not intend to stay on the sidelines as Trump, with help from Republican lawmakers, seeks to dismantle his legacy.

Obama spoke out in January after Trump implemented a travel ban on citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations, declaring that "American values are at stake" and that he was "heartened" by protests across the country. This month, Obama criticized Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord that his administration signed in 2015, ruing "an absence of American leadership."

But it is on health care that Obama has perhaps the most to lose and, with his lengthy Facebook statement, has signaled his intention to have the most political influence. Though he opened his message with an attempt to elevate the debate - emphasizing the need to listen to those with opposing points of view - he quickly framed Republican motivations as purely partisan.

"I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party," Obama wrote, suggesting that the GOP is acting simply to undo "something that Democrats did." His mention of "meanness" in the Senate bill was a swipe at Trump having called the House version of the repeal legislation "mean" during a private meeting with Republican senators last week.

The fight over the Affordable Care Act, the former president's biggest legislative victory, has sharply divided the two major political parties from the start. The bill was approved by Congress without a single Republican vote, after which the GOP successfully used it as a campaign issue against Democrats in the 2010 midterms that led to Republicans taking control of the House.

Now the tables have turned as Republicans attempt to make good on their years-long pledge to overturn the law. House Republicans needed two attempts before they successfully crafted and approved their own repeal bill without bipartisan support.

In recent weeks, Trump has lambasted Democrats as standing in the way.

At a campaign-style rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday, Trump declared that "Obamacare is a disaster" and added that "if we went and got the single greatest health care plan in the history of the world, we would not get one Democrat vote because they're obstructionists."

Democrats defended Obama's decision to wade into the political fight by accusing Trump of leveling personal attacks against him on a regular basis. In March, Trump, with no evidence, erroneously accused Obama of ordering a wiretap on Trump Tower in New York - an Obama spokesman called the accusation "simply false."

And this week, Trump indirectly criticized Obama for not doing more to secure the release of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died in Cincinnati days after returning home after being detained 17 months in North Korea.

"Donald Trump has invited Barack Obama into the arena," said Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, a liberal think tank. "No president has trashed a former president more than Trump has trashed Obama - personally and in terms of his legacy. It's been direct, persistent and out of bounds."

Obama is "obligated" to weigh in, Rosenberg said. "I don't think he wanted to play a major role or to get intimately involved. But it's become very personal. There comes a point where you can't stand aside."

Obama's public influence remains undeniable. Within three hours, his Facebook message had garnered more than 300,000 "likes" and 97,000 shares.

At the same time, his prominence in the debate highlights a dilemma for Democrats who are undergoing a painful search for a galvanizing agenda and new party leader in the wake of Hillary Clinton's loss to Trump last November.

After Democrat Jon Ossoff's loss in the Georgia special election for a vacant House seat this week, Republicans, including Trump, gloated that they hoped House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would remain in their jobs, citing their unpopularity with some moderate voters.

"I certainly hope the Democrats do not force Nancy P out," Trump wrote in a tweet. "That would be very bad for the Republican Party - and please let Cryin' Chuck stay!"

The bad news for Trump is that his own job approval ratings have plunged below 40 percent in some recent polls in the wake of his struggles to move forward with his agenda and an ongoing FBI investigation into his campaign's contact with Russian operatives.

By comparison, Obama's approval ratings this month stood at 63 percent, according to Gallup. For that matter, George W. Bush, who left office with just 35 percent of the public supporting him, was at 59 percent approval in the same Gallup survey.

"My guess is that part of the urgency of him weighing in is that a vote is happening within a week," Rosenberg said of Obama. "Trump and the Republicans are drawing him in and it's to their own detriment in doing so. He's still arguably the most popular and potent political force in either party and he can have a big impact."

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'Meanness at the core': Obama jumps back into fray to slam ...

Former President Barack Obama defended his signature legislative achievement in a lengthy Facebook post on Thursday | Getty

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday denounced the Senate proposal to repeal and replace parts of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, calling the Republican bill a massive transfer of wealth to the richest people in America with a fundamental meanness at its core.

Obama, who has largely stayed out of the political fray and refrained from publicly criticizing President Donald Trump since leaving office, defended his signature legislative achievement in a lengthy Facebook post on Thursday, hours after Senate leaders unveiled the bill. And he accused Republicans of promoting legislation that will harm Americans.

Story Continued Below

The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill, Obama wrote. Its a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else.

Simply put, if theres a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family this bill will do you harm, he added. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.

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In the post, Obama acknowledged that Republicans have run on a platform of repealing Obamacare for years, but called on them to work with Democrats to offer fixes to the health care system rather than support the proposed overhaul.

He also argued, as he has previously, that his 2010 legislation is imperfect but has helped many people.

I still hope that there are enough Republicans in Congress who remember that public service is not about sport or notching a political win, that theres a reason we all chose to serve in the first place, and that hopefully, its to make peoples lives better, not worse, Obama wrote.

But right now, after eight years, the legislation rushed through the House and the Senate without public hearings or debate would do the opposite, he added.

Obama also called on his supporters to call lawmakers and voice their opposition to the proposal.

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Obama says Senate health care bill has 'fundamental meanness ...

The Obama administration is under fresh scrutiny for its response to Russian meddling in the election after new details emerged this week about how the White House weighed its actions against the 2016 political environment.

Then-President Obama was too cautious in the months leading up to the election, frustrated Democratic lawmakers and strategists say.

It was inadequate. I think they could have done a better job informing the American people of the extent of the attack, said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who co-chairs the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

And even after the election was over, they say, the penalties Obama levied were too mild to appropriately punish what by all accounts was an unprecedented attack on a U.S. election.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), another House Intelligence member, called the penalties barely a slap on the wrist. Sen. John McCainJohn McCainFrustrated Dems say Obama botched Russia response Coats: Trump seemed obsessed with Russia probe The Hill's Whip List: Senate ObamaCare repeal bill MORE (R-Ariz.), who supports tougher sanctions Russia, said in a statement Friday that the administration abjectly failed to deter Russian aggression and failed to impose any meaningful costs on Russia.

Some Republicans argue the Obama administration only started to take the Russia threat seriously after President Trump had won the election.

Trump has called the influence operation a hoax and dismissed the various inquiries into Russian interference in the election which include looking for possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow as a witch hunt.

By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them? Trump tweeted Thursday.

The Obama administration announced on Oct. 7 that the theft and release of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails was part of a widespread campaign intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.

But it was not until January that it issued a separate declassified intelligence report that assessed Moscow was attempting to tip the election in t Trumps favor and only in December did Obama approve a modest package of retaliatory sanctions and expel a compound of Russian diplomats.

Former Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday told lawmakers that the White House held back on responding to Russia because it didnt want to play into fears, propagated by then-candidate Trump, that the election would be rigged.

One of the candidates, as you'll recall, was predicting that the election was going to be rigged in some way, Johnson said. And so we were concerned that, by making the statement, we might in and of itself be challenging the integrity of the election process itself.

Trump had repeatedly claimed that the outcome of the election would be rigged against him, alleging widespread voter fraud and inaccurate polling. He provided no evidence to back up his claims, but critics feared that his rhetoric could undermine public trust in the outcome of the election.

On Friday, The Washington Post published a detailed post-mortem of the administrations decision-making process that showed the former president agonizing over how to prevent politicization of the threat and arguably failing, critics say.

While Democrats appreciated Obamas sensitivity to the potential appearance of partisanship, they say the Russian influence campaign should have been treated like any other national security threat, without respect to politics.

I understand the analysis, but look where we are right now. This was the worst mess our democracy has been in since the Civil War, Swalwell said.

Other onlookers point to then-ongoing and extremely delicate negotiations with Russia over a ceasefire in Syria. The Obama administration publicly levied blame on Russia for the DNC hack and the wider interference campaign just a few days after former Secretary of State John KerryJohn KerryFrustrated Dems say Obama botched Russia response Budowsky: Dems madder than hell Tillerson: 'My view didnt change' on Paris climate agreement MORE officially suspended those talks.

I think the Obama administration figured, we have to deal with the Russians in the Middle East and they didnt want the stuff with the hacking to interfere with that, said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. But I think that was a mistake because if voters dont trust the integrity of the electoral system, weve got nothing left.

Johnson defended the White Houses response, arguing the administration repeatedly banged the drum on election cybersecurity throughout the summer and fall but was appropriately leery of undermining trust in the integrity of the election.

The Oct. 7 statement, Johnson said, was one in a series of public statements but it was overshadowed in the media by the leak of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump spoke of grabbing women by the genitals.

Other former officials are less confident that Obama went far enough in his response.

It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend, a former senior official involved in the deliberations on Russia told The Post. I feel like we sort of choked.

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Frustrated Dems say Obama botched Russia response

Rather than let nature take its course and gently glide into revered ex-president status, former president Barack Obama has launched a two-front war on President Trump. And frankly, it could help Republican leadership in Congress just when it needs it.

By becoming such a pointed and vocal criticof the GOP health-care bill, Obama is forcing Republicans to choose whether they will vote against the bill and save Obamacare or evolve with Trump and fix a broken system that has only gotten worse with time. Trumps America First policies threaten Obamas legacy. Trump has already rolled back several burdensome regulations from the Obama years, but what worries Obama most is Trumps commitment to repealing and replacing the national disaster that is Obamacare.

At this point, the worst thing that could happen for Trump and congressional Republicans would be for Obama to sit silently on the sideline. Obama may think hes helping his cause, but forcing Republicans to choose between him and Trump is misguided.

President Trump held a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on June 21 and discusses his plan for health-care. (The Washington Post)

Oh, and by the way, lets not forget that Obamas recent foray into the health-care conversation comes at a time when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is struggling to survive after going 0-4 in the special elections for seats vacated by Republicans since November. She has discredited herself and the entire Democratic Party. A lot of Democrats understand the extent of her failure, hence their gravitation to every word that comes out of Obamas mouth. They are desperate for leadership but have no one in office to look to.

And as if gratuitously weighing in on health care was not enough, Obama wants to retell the story of his management of Russias meddling into the 2016 election. He is working with the mainstream media to concoct a narrative so wildly inconsistent with the facts that only the most gullible Obama apologist would believe his latest version of the truth.

For one, Democrats would have you believe that Obama did all he could to sound the alarm and call attention to Russian hacking during the election. But that is far from the case. As I wrotein December, the administration failed to take effective action for two reasons. It did not think Trump was going to win and it wasincompetent. As the New York Times reported, the Obama Justice Department via the FBI first tried to warn the Democratic National Committee of hacks on its systems in September 2015. The result was a comedy of complacency, neglect and stupidity that let the problem linger on until October 2016 over a full year later when the administration confirmed the hacks.

Obama says he acted decisively, but telling Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut it outwas about as useful as his red line in Syria.

And for good measure, the liberal mainstream media seems to be pushing the idea that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is somehow to blame for allowing the Russian hacking to go on unaddressed. Citing anonymous officials, the media went so far as to suggestMcConnell voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence. But the narrative does not end there. As if to insinuate McConnells remarks had some sort of effect in swaying the administrations handling of the hacking, reports claimhe voic[ed] skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White Houses claims. Really? Since when did the Obama administration ever listen to McConnell?

Anyway, Obama and Co. did not think Trump had a chance. They did not properly call attention to the hacking and they are only now baselessly alleging some sort of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. If they had this great intelligence that Putin was to blame, wouldnt that same intelligence have uncovered collusion? Of course it would have. And if Obama had any credible evidence of such activity, he would have been the first person to make sure the news leaked.

But that did not happen. Obama had no hint of collusion then, and he surely has no proof of it now. If Obama wants to be truly helpful and honest, he would confirm that immediately.

The Democrats are desperate and the Obama-Pelosi tag team is thrashing around the ring, unable to land any blows. They have no momentum, no ideas and no leadership. Trump and the entire GOP could not be any luckier to have such a weak opponent fighting to take them down.

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Obama launches a two-front war on President Trump - Washington Post (blog)