Barack Obama basked in the glow of his hometown convention. Underneath all the applause, the nagging question is whether this handoff will be smoother than the last attempt.
Once a young renegade, Obama is now a party elder and the Democratic Party’s most beloved figure. Behind the scenes, he is still finding his way as a modern-day Windy City political boss.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will likely be remembered for leading the push for President Joe Biden to step aside. But its Obama’s perceived dismissal of his friend and former vice president that cuts deeper.
On Tuesday night, Obama tried to mend what reportedly remains a wound. He praised Biden, saying his decision to step aside was “selfless.” Delegates in the United Center responded with a brief “Thank you, Joe” chant.
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,” Obama said. “I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend.”
According to Politico, some of the people closest to Biden remain frustrated that Obama didn’t do more to quell the uprising against Biden in the wake of the president’s disastrous debate performance.
This isn’t the first time Obama has overlooked Biden. Then-president Obama was instrumental in elevating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as his successor. Instead of watching Clinton cement his legacy, Obama and his allies saw President Donald Trump try to tear it down. There was the nagging question of whether Biden would have fared better.
Biden knows it’s his legacy that is on the line this time. In his speech on Monday night, the president framed his selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate as “the best decision” of his lengthy political career. If Harris wins, Biden will be recast as a modern-day Cincinnatus. If Trump returns to the White House, Biden will never be able to live down how he only relinquished his defiant hold on power when it was too late for his party to move in a different direction.
Despite the friendship bracelets and the memes, Biden and Obama have a more complicated relationship than a simple bromance. Biden underlined this when he emphasized to special counsel Robert Hur how Obama favored Clinton.
“He just thought that she had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did,” Biden told Hur.
According to Axios, Biden has sometimes privately boasted of some of his accomplishments that “Obama would be jealous.”
Biden said he asked Obama not to endorse him at the start of his 2020 run. But the president likely wouldn’t have been able to catapult to the nomination as easily had it not been for Obama’s help pushing other presidential hopefuls to endorse Biden after his comeback win in the South Carolina primary.
In a foreshadowing of his return to the campaign trail, Obama spent most of his speech elevating Harris, a longtime political ally.
“Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” Obama said. “This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion.”
There’s no guarantee Democrats’ summer shake-up will pay off. As former first lady Michelle Obama pointed out, the party has renewed hope but now faces an unprecedented time crunch.
Both Obamas warned that the final months of campaigning will get tough.
“For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country – a country where too many Americans are still struggling, and don’t believe government can help,” President Obama said.
The only remaining question is will it will be enough this time to get Harris elected and erase the memory of the botched 2016 campaign.
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