With the US Presidential elections fast approaching, the Joe Biden camp is getting increasingly fraught at the prospect of facing a crushing defeat at the hands of Donald Trump. As a last-ditch manoeuvre, the Democrats have employed the services of former President Barack Obama to do the batting for an insipid and ‘forgetful’ Joe Biden. The Democrat nominee tried to use the ‘Black-Asian American’ card to sway voters to his side by projecting Kamala Harris as the Vice President candidate but so far, the results of the move have been minuscule. Consequently, it is being reported that for the last two weeks of the campaign, Obama will hit the trail, potentially adding joint appearances with both, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Obama will be attending “drive-in” rallies, which have become a Biden campaign pandemic favourite, letting voters see him from within the bubble of their own cars. Obama’s focus will be on states with early voting, hoping to get those cars to drive right to the polls, and promoting Democrats’ recent shift to emphasizing showing up in person early—rather than relying on the mail—to bank as many votes as possible before Election Day.
However, as charismatic as Obama might be or his ‘vociferous’ support for Joe Biden—if you dig around, you can easily find that it’s all superficial from the former President who is more interested in finishing his memoir scheduled to come a week or two after the elections rather than campaigning for his former Vice President.
Biden and Obama try to project a great deal of bonhomie and camaraderie in front of the camera but the truth is, the two leaders have a residual backlog of unresolved feelings that have only piled on since Obama’s first tenure as the President.
Biden was always a loyal supporter of Obama and had his backing on almost every single decision but the continuous cold-shoulder from Obama for Biden’s old, orthodox and at times redundant political methodology resulted in growing animosity between the two.
Despite the mainstream pro-Democrat media telling us a different story, officials during the Obama administration used to treat Biden dismissively. In his memoir, Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser wrote, “In the Situation Room, Biden could be something of an unguided missile.”
According to a Politico report, President Obama during this year’s Democrat primaries had privately admitted to an unnamed Democrat saying, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f–k things up,”
It is important to note that Obama chose not to endorse any candidate during the Primaries and has only recently endorsed Biden for his Presidential campaign. Obama’s major concern over Biden is that he feels that the Biden does not have an intimate connection with the electorate.
During the primary run, Obama confessed to another Democratic Party candidate, saying, “And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden,” clearly hinting at Biden’s lack of an intimate bond with the Iowa electorate.
The cracks between Obama and Biden have been there ever since Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 election. Almost the entire team of Obama joined Hillary in her failed campaign to become the first woman President in the history of America. Obama while endorsing Hillary in 2016 had said, “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.”
Obama knows Joe Biden better than anyone else thanks to their 8-year stint at the Oval Office. Perhaps that’s why Obama discouraged Biden from fighting the 2016 elections and is only half-heartedly endorsing him as he is left with no option.
Unlike Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton to an extent, Biden doesn’t have a dedicated following due to his lack of charisma and connect with the voters. The 77-year-old leader has serious health concerns as over the course of his campaign, Biden has committed various gaffes and appeared to lose his chain of thought midway through his address.
Reported by TFI earlier, Biden had even allowed leftist Bernie Sanders to hijack his campaign immediately after he won the Democratic Presidential nomination. After being defeated by Joe Biden in the nomination, Sanders’ staff immediately joined the former’s campaign and innocuously started injecting their own ‘liberal’ ideas which has brought a lot of flak for Biden.
The sensational report of New York Post about Joe Biden abusing his position to intervene with the Ukrainian government on his son’s behalf has also provided the poll fodder for Republicans to take on the Democrats. Trump has already started milking the report and in the remaining days ahead of the elections, the President will only increase the frequency of his attacks.
With Biden outsourcing his Presidential campaign to different leaders and refusing to do the heavy lifting, it is all but ascertained that even with an obsolete and redundant Obama coming into the fold, Biden’s fortunes aren’t taking any turn for the better. The Democrats have once again played their cards wrong and gifted a second term to Trump on a silver platter.