Washington insiders are all abuzz over former President Barack Obama’s seeming slight of his former Vice President, Joe Biden. Though he didn’t name Biden, Obama’s call for “new blood” in politics makes it hard to miss who he doesn’t want to run in 2020.
Speaking last week at a private Obama Foundation reception, the former president told the audience there is a “deficit” in political leadership and then said what Washington needs is “new blood.”
The Hill reported the next day that Obama’s comments were disconcerting for Biden given his longtime loyalty to Obama and the way his ex-boss sided with eventual Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It has been reported that Obama discouraged his former running mate from running in 2016.
The Hill’s story has merit seeing that Vanity Fair reported last month that Biden took offense that his former boss had a meeting with other potential Democratic 2020 presidential candidates, most notably star ex-Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
An Obama alley pointed out that, “The president loves this guy, loves Joe, thinks the world of him. He would go in a battle ditch with Joe, but that’s different than giving his brand to him. He has an incredible soft spot for him. And I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to make Joe feel good, but he won’t come out and make Joe his candidate. And I think that hurts Joe.”
A former aide added, “There’s always been a fragility to their relationship.” Only those who haven’t followed the relationship between Obama and Biden could call it anything else but fragile.
In 2007, when Obama and Biden were running against each other in the Democratic presidential primary, Biden made one of his notorious gaffes. A reporter for the New York Observer recorded him saying: “I mean, you’ve got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a story-book, man.”
Biden would call Obama later and then tell reporters during a conference call that then-Senator Obama understood what he meant. “This is a guy,” he said, “who’s come along in a way, that’s captured the imagination of the country in a way that no one else has. That was the point of everything I was saying.”
Biden also released a statement saying, “I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent, and I expressed that to Senator Obama.”
Fast forward to 2016, and conventional wisdom pointed to Obama endorsing his former running mate to take his place. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had their differences, but the Gipper endorsed Bush in 2008. For whatever reason, Obama bucked that tradition and endorsed his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, instead of his former Vice President.
Obama’s allies rushed to quell the storm caused by his lack of visible support for Biden. Former White House advisor to President Obama, Eric Schultz, said the former president “thinks the world” of Biden and “they remain genuinely good friends today.” Schultz then emphasized that Obama had told him several times that his choice to select Biden as his running mate was the “best decision he made in his career.”
For over two years, Biden has told “anyone who would listen” that he hoped Obama realized he could have beaten Trump.
Sources say that Biden understands if Obama doesn’t come out and endorse him, but still is annoyed by the matter because he was so loyal to his first in command.
Obama and Biden had a much-publicized reunion at a Georgetown bakery last week but sources familiar with the dynamic duo’s plans said it “didn’t come out of the blue.” A week earlier new reports had revealed that Obama had met with potential 2020 candidates including Senators Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
With the Democrat 2020 run for nomination looking to be as crowded as the Republican primaries of 2016, it appears Obama is ensuring Joe Biden doesn’t join the ever expanding field of candidates. It seems Biden may believe himself when he claims to be the “most qualified person in the country to be president” but even his old boss is saying, “not so fast.”
