Many people have read Alex Thompson’s Politico story that contains the most truthful quote that Barack Obama may have ever given to anyone about Joe Biden.
Obama, you will recall, spoke with a Democrat, expressing his private doubts about Biden becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2020.
The former president famously said: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”
Who would want to read that article again? We’ve all become experts on the subject. But it’s worth a careful, second read-though. Really.
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The author reminds us that Biden’s last 2008 presidential campaign had barely made a mark and fizzled after he won less than 1% in Iowa. Of course, he did not win any of the early primaries in the 2020 race until the field was cleared of competition in his victory in South Carolina.
He also reminds us of Biden’s unimpressive academic career – repeating the third grade, earning all C’s and D’s in his first three semesters at the University of Delaware except for A’s in P.E., a B in “Great English Writers” and an F in ROTC, and graduated 76th in his Syracuse Law School class of 85 students. He’s the first Democratic nominee since Walter Mondale in 1984 not to have an Ivy League degree.
He also reminds us of Biden’s tendency to blurt out whatever was on his mind, which rankled Obama, who wasn’t afraid to needle him for it. In his first press conference in 2009, the young president quipped, “I don’t remember exactly what Joe was referring to – not surprisingly.”
Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir that likely “the single most important piece of advice I got in my career” came from the late Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) who told him, “Your job here is to find the good things in your colleagues – the things their state saw – and not focus on the bad.” Mansfield added: “And, Joe, never attack another man’s motive, because you don’t know his motive.”
That was obviously not advice Biden took seriously – at least not lately.
And listen to this! On Jan. 5, 2015, Biden and Obama privately discussed a White House run at their weekly lunch. Obama “had been subtly weighing in against,” Biden recalled in “Promise Me, Dad,” his 2017 book.
“I also believe he had concluded that Hillary Clinton was almost certain to be the nominee, which was good by him,” Biden wrote. But a campaign spokesperson added that in the meeting, Obama also said, “If I could appoint anyone to be president over the next eight years, Joe, it would be you.”
In other words, Obama knew Biden couldn’t win. So, he “appointed” him. That’s what he called it, anyway. He appointed him to tally more votes than Obama ever got – and more than at least 74 million votes Donald Trump got in the Big Steal.
“A more direct kind of brushback occurred that fall,” notes the Politico article. “David Plouffe – the Obama strategist who had been quietly advising Clinton since 2013 – met with Biden and told him not to end his career in embarrassment with a third place finish in Iowa, according to multiple accounts of the meeting.”
A more stinging rebuke, however, came when Ron Klain – Biden’s former chief of staff who went back decades with him to when he was chief counsel on Biden’s Judiciary Committee in 1989 – defected to Clinton.
“It’s been a little hard for me to play such a role in the Biden demise,” Klain wrote to Obama adviser John Podesta in October 2015, a week before Biden gave in and announced he would not run. “I am definitely dead to them – but I’m glad to be on Team HRC.”
According to the email, which was released by WikiLeaks in what American intelligence officials have concluded was a Russian-backed effort to hurt the Clinton campaign, Klain added: “Thanks for inviting me into the campaign, and for sticking with me during the Biden anxiety.”
Klain just left Biden’s administration, after the first two years. I guess he still had Biden anxiety.
Obama was absolutely right about Biden. We’ve all seen it in spades. He had it exactly right.
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.” Words that all Americans are increasingly comprehending on a daily basis.
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