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Over the past four years, Biden has never been totally reconciled with his choice. It's a decision that Obama and his key collaborators have helped him steer, knowing that Biden was distraught over the death of his son Beau and that Obama had already pledged his support for Clinton.
During a handful of conversations over the last few months, people close to both men said that Obama had heard Biden explain why he thought he was particularly well placed to try to get away with it. prevent the re-election of President Donald Trump. They spoke of family concerns, said people aware of the conversations, with Obama acting more like a close friend than a former president.
"He would never tell Joe not to run," said an Obama confidant, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. "Does he think Biden will win the primary? He does not know the answer more than the rest of us."
One of the challenges that Biden will have to face will be whether he is considered the rightful heir of Obama or whether this position belongs to a new party personality. It will only become clear once the primary Democratic fight has dissipated.
One thing Obama knows? Endorsements rarely work – even on the part of a former president who is one of the most popular personalities of the Democratic Party. And Biden did not ask directly, knowing full well that he had to win this first battle himself.
"I asked President Obama not to approve and he does not want to," Biden told reporters Thursday in Delaware. "Whoever wins this nomination should win it on his own merits."
While Obama and Biden maintain what their associates describe as an "exceptionally close" friendship, they actually only speak sporadically by phone and meet even less face-to-face.
Yet, even as former members of the Obama administration questioned aloud the wisdom of a Biden candidacy, Obama hesitated to criticize his former vice president even in his private conversations.
Obama has met almost all Democratic presidential candidates in recent months, but his discussions with Biden were much more personal, they said, because he knows Biden and his family well. But Obama was less a pollster for a potential bid for Biden, as he was for other candidates.
In fact, Obama has largely been kept abreast of Biden's projects through their respective collaborators, not least because their eight-year record at the White House will suddenly become a central element of the Democratic primary. . And Obama made it clear in a rare statement released Thursday by his office that he had a high regard for Biden.
"President Obama has long said that choosing Joe Biden as his vice-presidential candidate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he's ever made," said Katie Hill, a spokeswoman for the United States. # 39; Obama. "He relied on the Vice President's knowledge, insight and judgment throughout the two campaigns and the entire presidency, both of whom have made a special connection over the past 10 years. years and stay close today. "
Relations between the President and Vice President are inherently complicated.
Clearly, Obama and Biden have much stronger ties than any recent White House partnership, given the post-presidential tensions between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and the troubles between Bill Clinton and Al Gore during their last term.
While Biden described himself earlier this month as a "Obama-Biden Democrat," it was remarkable not to have mentioned Obama once in his announcement video on Thursday. Instead, he focused on the president currently in the Oval Office.
"If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally change the character of this nation, who we are and I can not stand there watching this happen," said Biden. "The fundamental values of this nation, our position in the world, our very democracy, all that has made America a major issue."
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