Does anybody truly believe that Kamala Harris has the “vision, the character and the strength that this critical moment demands?” A few people might, I suppose, but they are unlikely to include the Obamas, who dragged their feet for the best part of a week before finally endorsing the vice president in her run for the top job today
Yet those very words were taken from the Obamas’ statement. You could almost hear the crack of gritted teeth. “There is no doubt in our minds that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people,” the couple insisted, trying to persuade themselves as much as anyone else.
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In recent days, rumours have swirled in Democrat circles that the former president was the “conductor leading the orchestra that convinced Biden to step aside,” in the words of Rod Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois who branded Obama a “threat to democracy” in the Wall Street Journal this week.
Obama is “running the Democratic Party like a Chicago ward boss, from the shadows in the back room,” Blagojevich added, sniping: “In this case, it’s a big back room because he has a lot of big houses.”To be fair to the Obamas, Blagojevich is hardly a disinterested observer. In 2008, Obama sacked the Chicago native from his position as senator; a year later, he was impeached for trying to sell the then-president’s vacant senate seat. He was convicted of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in a federal prison. This punishment was commuted by Donald Trump in 2020, after Blagojevich had been behind bars for almost eight years. The man has an axe to grind.
But more voices than that of a disgraced former Illinois senator are alleging that the Obamas have their hands on the tiller of the Democratic Party – or that they did until their plan for deposing and replacing Joe Biden went badly awry.
Back in 2016, Barack Obama was reportedly instrumental in persuading Biden – then a mere stripling at 73 – to step aside in favour of Hillary Clinton, whom he believed had a better chance of beating Trump. “He was not encouraging,” Biden remarked stingingly to the New York Times.
We all know how that decision worked out. But it seems that Obama has not developed any greater confidence in his former vice president, who even before his apparent senility had a reputation for tiresome loquaciousness and muddled decision-making.
The New York Times column written by George Clooney two weeks ago, which asked Biden to throw in the towel before it was too late (“I Love Joe Biden But We Need a New Nominee”), was reportedly sent out into the world in coordination with Obama and other Democratic grandees as part of a plan that included the staged humiliation of Biden in the form of that early debate.
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The intention, however, was to install the Arizona senator Mark Kelly – who, as if American politics couldn’t get any weirder, is a former astronaut – as a replacement, according to the New York Post. But Biden struck back, endorsing Harris and tipping a Zimmer Frame into Obama’s carefully-constructed works.
Hell hath no fury like a doddering octogenarian president scorned. Was the Harris endorsement the revenge of the Biden? Was he manipulated to buoy Harris to the top of the ticket? Did he have any idea what he was doing?
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Nobody knows the answers to those questions. In fact, we are never likely to know. But one thing seems certain: It will be Harris who will go head-to-head at the next debate on September 10, Harris who will lead the Democrats to the polls in November, and – in all likelihood – Harris who will fold like a pack of cards before the juggernaut of Donald Trump.
