Obama loyalists bide time amid Biden’s bid
Many wait to see who ‘lights a fire’ as ex-VP seeks mantle
Only one of the 21 Democrats running for president wants voters to see him as the establishment choice best able to fulfill the promise of President Barack Obama’s third term. But former Vice President Joe Biden has yet to become a consensus pick of the White House and campaign advisers who made Obama’s two terms possible.
With some exceptions, the generation that brought to Washington an insurgent message they called “hope and change” is once again resisting pressure to get in line, as they scan the field for a possible heir to Obama’s transformational 2008 candidacy and worry about a repeat of the disastrous 2016 election.
Many others, however, speak of their continued hunger for a new generation of leadership and a fresh face who can transcend political divisions. They worry about siding with a lifelong Washington fixture. And they are eager for someone like Obama who can bring new voters to the polls.
Kathleen Sebelius, the former Kansas governor who served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration, spoke of Biden’s character and his service as vice president with admiration, but she nonetheless has not committed to any candidate.
“I want to see who lights a fire and who inspires folks to get engaged and involved,” she said.
The question of who deserves to inherit the mantle of Obama’s movement, which remains the most potent unifying force in an increasingly fractious party, has been the subject of constant debate among close-knit Obama alumni.
This account is based on interviews with 53 former Obama advisers, senior White House and Cabinet staff, and campaign professionals, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not ready to take a public position on Biden’s campaign.
In almost all of these conversations, the affection for Biden ran deep, as did the admiration for his campaign launch last month, which resulted in a bump in polls that now put his support at about 40% nationally among Democratic primary voters.
These former officials say they are committed to helping him in a general election if he secures the nomination, and they believe Obama feels much the same way, as his office signaled this past week when it did not object to Biden’s plan to use Obama’s voice from a White House event to narrate an online Biden campaign spot.
But concern about a Biden candidacy — and a demand that he prove himself on the campaign trail — is also a constant refrain.
“Where I am in this race is very similar to where a lot of Obama people are. The Biden loyalty is real,” said Rufus Gifford, Obama’s finance director in 2012, who has co-hosted a Biden fundraiser but not yet committed to his candidacy. “But this is a little bit bipolar. Obama people were all courted by the establishment candidate in ‘07 very aggressively and decided to go in a different direction.”
President Donald Trump proved a wily campaigner, able to spark real enthusiasm among his core voters. Several of Obama’s generation said they worried about how Biden would match up against Trump were he to win the nomination.
“I think the question that we all have in our minds from an electoral standpoint is what do two 75-year-olds fighting against each other look like,” said one former campaign and White House aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relations. “Does that scream the future? Does that scream contrast?”
The former aides split broadly into three groups. Only eight had committed or were leaning toward Biden. A second group of 11 have committed to other candidates. A group of 34 say they are still waiting to decide.
Among those who had not yet picked a favorite, there was remarkable unanimity of preferences: Almost all said they had limited their consideration to five candidates: Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
That list excluded several governors and senators who are likely to appear on the first Democratic debate stage in June, and the runner-up in the 2016 primary battle, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Views of Sanders, who has polled in second place nationally in early surveys, ranged from open hostility to praise for his contribution to the policy debate in the party, and a willingness to help him beat Trump should he secure the nomination.