Obama the ‘X’ factor of the 2016 cycle

After eight nights of two major party political conventions, the greatest political theatre in modern times is now complete.

So if you had to pick one person to emerge from the chaos, unpredictably, pomp and patriotism, who would that be? Who will ultimately decide an election currently at a dead heat between two flawed candidates in the polls? 

Not Donald Trump. Not Hillary Clinton. But President Obama.

{mosads}In my lifetime, sitting or past presidents haven’t been an asset for Republicans. Not even close. Gerald Ford wasn’t about to bring a disgraced Richard Nixon out of forced retirement to help him. Nor was Reagan going to turn to Ford in ’80. Reagan himself was too frail to do much for George H. W. Bush on the campaign trail in ’88.

In 2000, Bush 41 — a one-term president who only captured 38 percent of the vote in a three-way race in ’92 — wasn’t much of an asset for his son. In 2008, 2012 and 2016, George W. Bush didn’t even speak at his party’s own conventions, with the Bush brand no longer one anybody running for office wanting to remind anyone of.

So if almost 70 percent of Americans find Hillary Clinton not honest or trustworthy (July 25 CNN poll), and just 12 percent give Donald Trump high marks for temperament (June 1 NBC News poll), then who is the one outside person who can push them over the top to victory?

On Trump’s side, outside of his adult children, there really isn’t an effective cheerleader who can help him bring in crowds and attention and positive press on the campaign trail or in interviews on cable news or the Sunday talk shows.

But on Hillary’s team, there’s President Obama. He currently sits at 50 percent approval (Gallup) and is easily the best orator in the game. We witnessed this Wednesday night during his DNC performance that hit all the right notes. Shorter review: The guy really knows how to give a speech.

And with his legacy on the line and a chance to be the first Democratic president to hand over the reigns to another Democrat in forever, Obama will do what he does best: campaign. Not because he loves the Clintons, but because he knows a victory for her is a needed victory for him as his legacy begins to be written.

Meanwhile, Trump will try to win this thing pretty much on his own as his own party — at best — keeps him at arm’s length — and at worst — outright denounces him.

Tomorrow marks 100 days to go to Election Day.

Hillary has an army with a Commander-in-Chief in her arsenal.

Trump has Trump.

And Twitter.

Outside of a variable like an economic downturn we had in ’08, or another devastating Wikileaks email dump for the democrats, we may look back on this election not as one Hillary Clinton won, but one as Barack Obama winning it for her.

Concha is a media reporter for The Hill.

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.