A popular sitting president campaigning all-out for his party's nominee is actually rare
This is actually the first time in a long time that a sitting president will be going all-out to help elect his successor. Ronald Reagan endorsed George H. W. Bush, but he didn't campaign the way Obama plans to. Partly because Bush wanted to establish himself as his own man after eight years as number two. And also perhaps because Ronald Reagan was already suffering the early effects of Alzheimer's disease. The situation between Bill Clinton and Al Gore was more complicated. Clinton endorsed Gore but because of President Clinton's scandals, Gore didn't ask him to campaign for him until the very end - when it was probably too late to make a difference.
President Clinton, who had - at that time had the highest job approval rating of any sitting president in their final year - also was still dealing with the baggage of what had happened with the impeachment process. He ended up being an asset in the last few weeks of the campaign but there's always been that revisionism of what if - what if he had been out there earlier? Would that have made a difference?
George W. Bush didn't campaign for John McCain, says Republican strategist Scott Reed - partly because Bush's approval ratings were too low to help.
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/07/481137406/ready-to-hit-the-stump-obama-expected-to-endorse-clinton-this-week
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