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Barack Obama emphasized his support for Vice President Kamala Harris in his speech to the DNC.
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Obama also praised President Joe Biden, who is reportedly angry about Obama’s recent actions.
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Obama previously ignored Biden, and it nearly destroyed his presidential legacy.
Barack Obama basked in the glow of his hometown convention. Amid all the applause, the nagging question is whether this handover will go more smoothly 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’s 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 to oust President Joe Biden. But it’s Obama’s alleged firing of his friend and former vice president that cuts deeper.
On Tuesday night, Obama attempted to heal what he said remains a wound. He praised Biden and said his decision to step aside was “selfless.” Delegates at the United Center responded with a brief “Thank you, Joe” chant.
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a time of great danger,” Obama said. “I’m proud to call him my president, but I’m even prouder to call him my friend.”
According to Politico, some people closest to Biden are still frustrated that Obama did not do more to quell the uprising against Biden after the president’s disastrous performance at the debate.
Obama endorsed Clinton in 2016
This isn’t the first time Obama has overlooked Biden. Then-President Obama played a key role in elevating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as his successor. Instead of watching Clinton cement his legacy, Obama and his allies watched President Donald Trump try to tear it down. There was a nagging question whether Biden could have done a better job.
Biden knows his legacy is at stake this time. In his speech Monday night, the president called his choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate “the best decision” of his long political career. If Harris wins, Biden will be rebranded as a modern-day Cincinnatus. If Trump returns to the White House, Biden will never be able to get over the fact that he only gave up his stubborn grip on power when it was too late for his party to change direction.
Despite the friendship bracelets and the memes, Biden and Obama have a more complicated relationship than a simple bromance. Biden underscored this when he detailed to special counsel Robert Hur how Obama favored Clinton.
“He just thought she had a better chance of winning the presidency than I did,” Biden told Hur.
According to Axios, Biden has at times privately bragged about his accomplishments, saying that “Obama would be jealous.”
Biden said he asked Obama not to endorse him early in his 2020 campaign. But the president likely would not have secured the nomination so easily if Obama had not helped push other presidential candidates to endorse Biden after his comeback victory in the South Carolina primary.
A return to the campaign
In a precursor to his return to the campaign trail, Obama spent most of his speech praising Harris, a longtime political ally.
“Kamala Harris is up to the job,” Obama said. “This is someone who has dedicated her life to fighting for people who need a voice and a champion.”
There’s no guarantee that the Democrats’ summer reorganization will pay off. As former first lady Michelle Obama pointed out, the party has renewed hope but now faces unprecedented time pressure.
Both Obamas warned that the final months of the campaign will be tough.
“Despite all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, this is still going to be a close race in a country that is deeply divided, a country where too many Americans are still struggling and don’t believe that government can help,” President Obama said.
The only question left is whether it will be enough this time to get Harris elected and erase the memory of the failed 2016 campaign.
Read the original article on Business Insider
