When Obama decided to turn his campaign into a permanent Super PAC, he was stabbing the Democratic Party in the back. But he was doing it to them before they did it to him.
Organizing for America gave him an independent source of power and influence at the expense of the Democratic Party. Obama was carelessly draining money and energy out of his own party because whatever common interests he had with a political party, that for all its leftward swing was still too conservative for his taste, were about to be fractured during his second term.
The Democratic Party might have been satisfied if he had retained his 2008 halo in 2015. But that was never going to happen. No matter how much the media slobbers over a politician, the voting public, at least those parts of it that don’t have Hope posters and Obama holograms hanging on their walls, eventually needs a break and someone to blame.
Even vice presidents turn on their own presidents once they begin running for office. Gore tried running as the antithesis of Bill Clinton at a time when everyone had grown sick of him and his scandals. Gore was just a less successful and even more hypocritical version of Bill Clinton; but the Democratic Party tried to build him an image as a stiff and serious fellow who spent a lot of time deep in thought and might be awkward at parties; but wouldn’t cheat on the entire country.
The Democratic Party already has an Anti-Obama in waiting. Hillary claims to be experienced where Obama was inexperienced and savvier about the practical details of getting things done.
The “Ready for Hillary” image is as phony as Gore’s serious ethical look; but it’s also a shot across Obama’s bow telling him that he’s going under the bus before the next election. With OFA, Obama, whose allegiance has always been to the left, not to anything as reactionary as an American political party, decided to throw them under the bus first.