Joseph R. Biden of course…..
But?
Barack Obama’s ghost was ALL over Joe B Biden’s win of the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination race….
Joe Biden made sure that in the most important contest?
South Carolina …
The most important voters saw his former boss in him….
Despite the media noise in the first several states?
South Carolina IS the place to earn the Democratic nomination…
Has been every time since 1992, crept for once…
So ex-President Obama …
(Who is still YUGLY popular with Democrats and some others)
Who made sure he stood on the sidelines…(except for once, the he quietly expressed his displeasure with Bernie Sanders left sided policies)….
And Can say , in his professor mode, he didn’t affect the nomination outcome?
OF COURSE HE DID…..
In the end, the most influential politician of 2020 might be the one who has been the most silent.
With Bernie Sanders exiting the race and Joe Biden taking on the mantle of presumptive nominee, the man who hovered quietly over the race for more than a year, Barack Obama, will soon return to the political fray.
Obama wanted Sanders to have the day to himself, so he refrained from speaking (or tweeting) publicly on Wednesday. But Obama had always said his role in the primaries would be to unite the party when it’s over, and he’s been in close contact with both campaigns as the pandemic both froze the race without a clear victor and also made it more obvious that Biden would eventually prevail.
“Over the last few weeks, he’s had multiple conversations with candidates, including Sen. Sanders, about how to best position the Democratic Party to win in November,” said a source familiar with those calls. “While the content of those conversations remain private, there was always agreement that winning in the fall was paramount.”
“A very good day!” one Obama adviser wrote when I asked about Sanders dropping out….
…
… Obama has had a fairly consistent strategy of husbanding his political capital and only speaking publicly when he was sure it would have some impact (as it seemed to in November) and laying back from pure electoral politics until the final stretch of the campaign (as in 2018)….
image…Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Funny. Just 2 months ago when Biden’s campaign was in trouble there were similar thinkpieces asking if the Democratic Party has moved past Obama.
Gotta write something I guess.