Barack Obama goes to sleep tomorrow night and wakes up January 21st, 2009.

[Don Vito Corleone]

With his knowledge of what happens in the next 8 years completely intact, what does he do differently?

[Kamala]

Become best friends with Donald Trump

[Ronnie]

For the love of God, don't make fun of Don at the correspondant's dinner.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Do not give SOS job to Clinton.

[Lord Admirale]

For the love of God, don't make fun of Don at the correspondant's dinner.

[Doimper]

Realize that the Republicans will never deal in good faith.

[Santander]

Send Martha Coakley to Gitmo.

[Kingpoleon]

Ask Hillary to retire early, replacing her with a name with potential such as Evan Bayh, William Joseph Burns, Stephanie Murphy, or Harold Ford Jr.

[Adam Griffin]

Some variation of "steamroll the Republicans for the good of the country" and make sure that reapportionment doesn't fall into their hands. Maybe not hollow out the party for his own benefit, either

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

He should ask Harry Reid to use the nuclear option to get single payer or at least some sort of multipayer healthcare passed.

[Virginiá]

These were all good answers:

1. Encourage Hillary to stay in the Senate (no emails/Benghazi)
2. Call Fox News out for the cult it is and don't hold back.
3. Appoint Susan Collins to the cabinet
4. Don't appoint Napolitano to the cabinet.
5. Get someone else to run for the MA-Sen special
6. Encourage RGB and Breyer to retire ASAP.

I would add using every bit of political capital he has to have Congress ram through gerrymandering reform for Congressional districts and a new Voting Rights Act posthaste. This would probably be one of the most important things he could do.

[Indy Texas]

1. Don't make fun of Donald Trump.

2. Rule requiring everyone use their work email account, no exceptions.

3. As soon as Hillary started buckraking after leaving State, designate Biden as your heir apparent.

[progressive85]

Pass two constitutional amendments, one to restrict racial and partisan gerrymandering, and another to enshrine and expand voting rights.

[GoTfan]

1) Do not make fun of Donald Trump

2) Encourage Hillary to remain a Senator

3) Go all out on healthcare; work with Sanders and Feingold to get Medicare for all passed

4) Push for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall

5) Avoid the TPP

[NewYorkExpress]

Resign and hand the keys over to Biden. The hatred for Obama proves that White America will never accept a minority as POTUS.

[Gass3268]

My two biggest things would be DC and Puerto Rican Statehood. Instantly 4 more Democratic Senators.

[BlueSwan]

1. Go all in on single payer healthcare.

2. Still hire Clinton as SoS but tell her to NOT use a private email server.

3. Immediately refer to Benghazi as a terrorist attack.

That alone should be plenty to avoid Trump.

[Kamala]

Wow, a "Zero Mistakes Obama" timeline could be really interesting, albeit hackish.

[Blue3]

Besides the above, the more human side....

-get Beau Biden and Ted Kennedy screened for cancer early

-get action taken against Gabby Giffords shooter, the Sandy Hook shooter, the Boston Marathon bombers, etc. based on existing evidence that wasn't acted on in-time plus "anonymous tips"

[dead0man]

I doubt we could possibly fathom the actual choices he would make, but for "smart" ones that would be fun for us....
do everything he can to get Trump convicted of one of his many misdeeds, shouldn't be too hard
do everything he can to make sure Hilary doesn't get the nomination
I'm sure there are some details of the ACA he'd make better, if not an entirely different system
hit ISIS a lot harder a lot sooner, or stay out of it altogether

[AN63093]

If he's smart, he'll do nothing.  Butterfly effect and all that.

For example, in an effort to prevent President Trump, perhaps he inadvertently causes President Cruz.

[BlueSwan]

Wow, a "Zero Mistakes Obama" timeline could be really interesting, albeit hackish.

Actually, the Obama era was remarkably scandal-free. I guess the american public got sick of having such an honorable squeeky clean president, since they elected the diametrically opposite Donald Trump. A man who can barely go an hour without creating a scandal.

[mvd10]

1) Do not make fun of Donald Trump

2) Encourage Hillary to remain a Senator

3) Go all out on healthcare; work with Sanders and Feingold to get Medicare for all passed

4) Push for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall

5) Avoid the TPP

Why 4)? Dodd-Frank is more far-reaching than Glass-Steagall ever was. And the main failures were pure investment banks or pure commercial banks, both of which wouldn't have been affected by Glass-Steagall. Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers (before it collapsed) couldn't care less about Glass-Steagall. And even if banks with both investment banking services and commercial banking services failed the problem isn't the fact that they combine both services, the problem is that they screwed up both services. It would be more logical to just regulate investment banking and commercial banking more if you want more financial regulation. Heck, commercial banks and investment banks were merged during the financial crisis to strengthen stability (wouldn't have been possible under Glass-Steagall) The amount of glorification Glass-Steagall gets is ridiculous. I understand why liberals want more financial regulation (though I'm not really sure about it myself) but Glass-Steagall wouldn't solve much.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether Obama would do a lot of things differently (butterfly effect like someone said). He definitely would have forced everyone to use their work email and he would have tried to stop Hillary from giving Wall Street speeches. He might have encouraged Biden to run.

[DFL]

God, imagine being stuck in a groundhog day that restarted as soon as your presidency ended. That has to be a special circle of hell.

[emailking]

Put out his long form birth certificate immediately.