Ex-President Barack Obama is reported as having shared his doubts about his former Vice President Joe Biden’s chances of winning the 2020 election, writes POLITICO.
Although Obama publicly endorsed Joe Biden in April, within his close inner circle he is suggested as having vented his lingering misgivings whether Biden is fit to occupy the top job.
“Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f**k things up,” Obama warned, according to a Democratic source cited by the publication.
Joe Biden's lack of understanding for “much of the Democratic electorate” was reportedly deplored by Obama.
An ex-Democratic candidate is cited as revealing that Barack Obama pointed to how challenging it was for his former running mate to understand voters in states like Iowa.
“And you know who really doesn't have it? Joe Biden,” Obama is believed to have remarked.
Lingering Biden-Obama ‘Tension’
The report comes as Joe Biden, on the campaign trail in Iowa, referred to his time under Barack Obama’s tenure, intimating that the two had talked of Biden succeeding the 44th president in the White House.
In the current presidential candidate’s words, it was the tragic death of his son Beau that intervened with those plans.
Biden allies, however, are said to have lingering resentment hailing back to when Obama lined up Hillary Clinton instead of his own VP to be his successor via a 2016 presidential bid.
As he heads towards the November election, Joe Biden is seen as having a chance to right that perceived wrong, four years later.
Reflecting on the Obama-Biden tandem, Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's secretary of Defence, is quoted as acknowledging that the then vice-president might have been aware that Barack Obama had reservations about his governing style. Nonetheless, he states that Biden was staunchly loyal to him.
“He was loyal, I think, to Obama in every way in terms of defending and standing by him, even probably when he disagreed with what Obama was doing… To some extent, [he] oftentimes felt that that loyalty was not being rewarded,” says Panetta.
Young Obama aides are reported as having, on occasion, dismissed Joe Biden when he was office, “eye-rolling” when he spoke.
This is echoed in memoirs of former members of the Obama administration.
“In the Situation Room, Biden could be something of an unguided missile,” wrote Ben Rhodes, Obama's former deputy national security adviser, in “The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House”.
As he currently looks towards the looming November election with a degree of confidence buoyed by recent polls, Joe Biden is suggested by the publication as having railed against the fact that Obama didn't “lift a finger” to aid him in winning the primary in South Carolina, forcing him to engage the support of black voters in the state on his own.
“[Biden] did feel that he needed to go out and earn it himself, as opposed to having people see it as an extension of a third Obama term or having it be any kind of referendum directly on Obama,” Anita Dunn, an Obama administration aide and top adviser to Biden's presidential campaign, was quoted as saying.
Whatever the misgivings Barack Obama allegedly had regarding Joe Biden’s abilities to rise up to the challenges of a White House tenure, as he endorsed Joe Biden, Barack Obama said of his former VP:
“I believe Joe has all of the qualities we need in a president right now … and I know he will surround himself with good people.”
This comes as a spate of new polling favours the Democratic candidate by 8 points as of late Sunday, citing data from RealClearPolitics.
Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump among registered voters has significantly narrowed since June, though, states a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
...and back down to +8.0 after adding the new CNN poll.https://t.co/cy51vc5isJ pic.twitter.com/dGwrqBcgei
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 17, 2020
Ahead of the party conventions, overall, 50 percent of registered voters back the Biden-Harris ticket, while 46 percent support Trump and Pence.
