From the day Barack Obama announced his candidacy in February of 2007 I jumped on board and never regretted my support for a moment. A key reason was the man himself.

I don’t think I’ll ever see a politician with a better temperament, more emotional intelligence, more empathy for all people including his opponents and more generosity of spirit. I don’t think I’ll ever see a politician who was more comfortable in his own skin. He was an anomaly; he never needed to grow a thick skin which can lead to cynicism and world-weariness because his understanding of what truly mattered kept all the darkness out.

At the same time, I think fetishiizing the Obama presidency is silly. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Obama himself agrees. He was in power for eight years, not everything he did looks pristine four years later and candidates should feel free to point out what they would do differently without being treated as apostates, so long as the criticisms are reasonable.

I get that criticizing Obama is bad politics in a Democratic primary, but so is using him as a mute button. If your worried about his legacy, I don’t think anyone is doing his presidency any favors by using it as a shield, turning reverence into paralysis, or just to score a political point or two. I think he’d agree.