Obama's problem was he believed he could shame the Right into behaving by taking the high road, constantly compromising with them and getting nothing in return. When he left the White House his advice to the Democrats was "When they go low, we go high."

Which was incredibly out of touch and ignored the fact that the Right had adopted a policy of "You go high, we'll go low, low gets results."

It also showed he learned nothing. You cannot shame fascists into behaving by accumulating enough "Good Boy Points"