Former vice president and 2020 Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden says he has not sought former President Barack Obama’s endorsement because he wants to campaign in 2020 on his own merits.
Yet, at the same time, Biden cannot shut up about the fact that he used to work with Obama, who polls favorably with American voters. Late-night hosts, many of whom are more than ready to serve Democratic officials, are starting to take notice of the Biden’s efforts to have it both ways.
The former vice president at a recent campaign event complained that President Trump is rude and mean, unlike Obama.
“Donald Trump, the president of the United States, just spent Saturday night attacking private citizens, using language like ‘Little Donny Deutsch’ and ‘total loser.’ Barack Obama wouldn’t do that. No president would do that. Most teenagers wouldn’t do that,” Biden said.
Biden also told a campaign audience, “My granddaughter, who is graduating from high school, and her best friend is Sasha Obama. Afterward — no, they’ve been in school together the whole time. So, Barack and I and Jill and the whole family, we got together afterward to have a little light lunch and dinner for the families that all these girls grew up together with.”
That latter quote apparently did it for CBS’ Stephen Colbert, who joked Wednesday that the 2020 front-runner talks more about Obama than he does the current sitting president.
“We get it. You know Barack Obama,” Colbert said to applause and laughter. “We understand. We concede that. At this point, you should change your slogan to ‘Biden 2020: Obama 2012!'”
It would be easy to write this off as just a joke from Colbert. But Colbert does not just do comedy. His show exists so that he, ever the faithful foot soldier, can advance the Democratic Party’s interests. So, if he is making fun of Biden, it is possible the former vice president may actually have a problem regarding how he is being perceived now in the news and entertainment industries, two classic bastions of unquestioning Democratic support.
Moreover, Biden needs to avoid running afoul of the news and entertainment industries. If he is being mocked now by someone as slavishly devoted to supporting Democratic candidates as is Colbert, that could mean Biden may actually have to rely on his own experience and smarts to whip support from Democratic primary voters. Considering he is 76 years old and has not run a winning campaign in more than a decade, this would be no small task, especially as he is battling approximately 25 other Democratic candidates for the party’s nomination.
Then again, as Trump showed in 2016, a candidate can still win handily despite what the news and entertainment industries say about him. Colbert and the rest of the woke late-night Democratic boosters can make fun of Biden all they want, and it may not matter one bit.
