Happy Birthday, Barack Obama. God, Do I Miss You.

Today marks the 59th birthday of former president Barack Obama, and while normally, we’d just wish the former president a happy day, in 2020 it feels like we should also beg him to save us. Do you ever think about the Obama era and its problems and just … wish that was our current level of bad? That time was in no way ideal, but it’d be a reprieve compared to the hellscape that has been the Trump administration.

So today, many have given their love to the former president and shared tweets celebrating him while … also remembering how good we seemed to have it back then without knowing what was to come. To set the tone, let us listen to “Come Back, Barack” from Saturday Night Live.

Twitter has been sharing their love for Barack Obama and, for one brief moment, it felt like the days when we didn’t have to fear going online and seeing what fresh hell awaited us all.

From 2008–2016, we lived in a time when I didn’t fear logging on to Twitter to see that World War III had started. Yes, he was (of course) imperfect, and there are politics from the Obama era that we shouldn’t glorify, but it was just so much simpler to comprehend everything happening back then. Obama didn’t yell at people on Twitter or cry because no one liked him. We didn’t live in a constant state of fear and upset about what new horrors the president unleashed daily like these last few years have been (IT HAS NOT EVEN BEEN FOUR YEARS)—well, unless you really hate tan suits and dijon mustard.

So, hopefully, Barack Obama gets to have a great day. Hopefully, he can safely celebrate with Michelle, Sasha, and Malia. May he take Bo and Sunny for a walk and do whatever he wants. But please, Mr. President, know that if you wanted to step up and take over until this is all settled, I’d gladly let you do it.

(BBC)

(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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