President Obama on Wednesday began stumping hard for a Democratic successor in the White House, even though he doesn’t quite know who he’s stumping for.
And although conventional wisdom holds that a prolonged primary battle hurts the eventual nominee, Obama so far seems unfazed by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ threat to take his bid all the way to July’s national convention.
“What I’ve tried to do is to make sure that voters, rather than me big-footing the situation, are deciding the outcome,” Obama said Wednesday during a town hall in Elkhart, Ind., about his unwillingness to coronate the next Democratic standard-bearer.
“I think both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are good people,” Obama continued. “There are some tactical differences within the Democratic Party about how do you get stuff done. But there’s going to be plenty of time for me to step in and campaign,” he assured the party faithful.
In a sense, Sanders’ ability to delay Clinton’s nomination has kept Obama on the sidelines, and prevented him from offering a full-throated endorsement of a single candidate. It’s also led to endless questions about who he supports, and whether he has a favorite in the race.
But it may also be a bit of a break for Obama, who in all likelihood will soon have to start promoting Clinton, a former lieutenant who’s distancing herself from some of Obama’s policies, and maybe Obama himself once the general election phase sets in.
Clinton has notably parted with Obama on the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a brass ring he still hopes to clasp, among other key issues. And she likely will grow weary of appearing too often or too close to Obama, lest voters view her candidacy as a bid for a third Obama term.
Exacerbating the unease is the long-running tension between the 2008 primary rivals. Recently, former President Bill Clinton has trashed Obama’s economic record on his wife’s campaign trail just as Obama’s ramped up his legacy-building tour.
At a Hillary Clinton event in North Carolina in March, Bill Clinton said: “Millions and millions and millions and millions of people look at that pretty picture of America [Obama] painted and they cannot find themselves in it to save their lives.”
In the meantime, Obama has filled the void by defending his legacy from anyone who happens to be attacking it, Republicans or Democrats. The outgoing president has sought in earnest for almost a year to change Americans’ perception that the economy has gotten worse during his presidency.
By “almost every metric, the country is significantly better off than we were when I came into office,” Obama said last July at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in California. After ticking off a litany of accomplishments Obama famously compared Republicans to YouTube star “Grumpy Cat” for their pessimistic assessment of his tenure at an October Democratic National Committee fundraiser.
During his victory lap in Elkhart on Wednesday, Obama spent plenty of time criticizing presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s ideas and rhetoric, and threw in a defense of his record for good measure.
“America’s economy is not just better than it was eight years ago, it is the strongest, most durable economy in the world,” Obama said. “That’s point number one.”
