@hawkeye10,
The President is certainly not going to win you over, but him standing on the stage saying how he inherited an economy spiraling down into ruin and brought back years of growth with
5x the job creation of the Bush years (and he's not done yet), put the US on the path to energy independence,
put US businesses on their best financial footing in a decades, and negotiated a historic deal with Iran that represents the first success for US diplomacy since Reagan (a deal so good that while Schumer had to vote against it, he is quietly encouraging all the other Senators to "vote their conscious" instead of whipping against it) could certainly resonate with young independents. I think it would play well to women as well (if Clinton needs help there), but if he wants to spice it up, he could mention he passed a health care bill resulting in record number of insured Americans, and his justices delivered on equal rights and healthcare, both of which would be at risk if the Republicans are allowed to nominate right wing judicial activist judges. He could make one of his moving speeches on race relations and remind the minority voters who's got their backs. The President can get out the minority vote and that will be a key in November, especially when Republican candidates are talking about deporting US citizens with the wrong skin color.
The President isn't going to be campaigning for your vote, he's going to be going after the center and the young. I think he has a good argument for them. The Democratic nominee would IMO be foolish to ignore the value of that. I think the Gore analogy is apt because President Obama represents the Democratic Party's approach to government. That is what the Democratic candidate should run on and if you look at the last two Democratic Presidents vs the last two Republican ones, there is no question which ones had the greatest overall success. You are picking at perceived individual Obama weaknesses while missing the overall picture. The country is in a lot better shape than inauguration day, 2009. No one is missing President Bush. You can dismiss the President's role in that but he gets to claim credit. You can be sure if it was the opposite, he would get the blame.