Endorsement of the Last Man Standing
This may come across as petty, but so be it. Former President Obama’s endorsement yesterday of Joe Biden not only rang hollow, but seemed somewhat disingenuous.
The former president did say he was going to remain neutral during the Democrat nomination process, and to a large degree, that made sense. He also always made it clear that he was going to support whoever ran against President Trump.
Which is really my point…why bother with a so-called formal endorsement, on video, at this time?
A cynical person would say it’s because there was a fair amount of back chatter about another candidate riding in and taking the convention by storm, denying Biden the nomination but giving the Democrats a chance to win in November…so to blunt that, Obama issued the endorsement as opposed to it being presumed.
Of course, in another time, Bernie Sanders would have appeared with Biden for his endorsement, as opposed to a virtual town hall…and Obama would have appeared on the stump with his former vice-president to pass the torch…if you can do that when the pass is to someone a couple decades older than you.
These are obviously not those times, but I’m not sure a recorded message that too often resembled a hostage video was the way to go, either. So many are telling us Biden’s a wonderful nominee… it’s almost as if they’re trying too hard, perhaps to convince themselves.
As I said, this may be petty, and will really not matter in a general election campaign that truly won’t get going until mid-August. But for someone as concerned about legacy and image as Obama…I still wonder, why now?
