Obama and Biden’s Relationship Looks Rosy. It Wasn’t Always That Simple. (Published 2019)
Their partnership is the stuff of buddy-movie lore, but those who saw it up close described a more difficult, complicated dynamic.
www.nytimes.com
Barack Obama was riding his call for generational change to the Democratic presidential nomination in the spring of 2008 when he began musing about potential running mates with aides traveling with him on the trail.
"I want somebody with gray in his hair," Mr. Obama, then 46, told one of them. He was thinking about an "older guy," he told another.
At some point, Mr. Biden also told Obama aides that "Barack would never have to worry" about him positioning himself for another presidential run. He was too old, he told them, and he viewed his new job as a capstone, not a catapult.
Fast forward to his current campaign
The two men spoke at least a half dozen times before Mr. Biden decided to run, and Mr. Obama took pains to cast his doubts about the campaign in personal terms.
"You don't have to do this, Joe, you really don't," Mr. Obama told Mr. Biden earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
Mr. Biden — who thinks he could have defeated Donald Trump four years ago — responded by telling Mr. Obama he could never forgive himself if he turned down a second shot at Mr. Trump.
Mr. Obama has said he will not make an endorsement in the primary, and has offered every candidate his counsel. But he has taken an active interest in the inner workings of his friend's campaign, to an extent beyond anything offered to other candidates.
In his interactions with Mr. Biden — the pair had a quiet lunch in Washington last month — Mr. Obama has hammered away at the need for his campaign to expand his aging inner circle.
He has communicated his frustration that Mr. Biden's closest advisers are too old and out of touch with the current political climate — urging him to include more younger aides, according to three Democrats with direct knowledge of the discussion.
In March, Mr. Obama took the unusual step of summoning Mr. Biden's top campaign advisers, including the former White House communications director Anita Dunn and Mr. Biden's longtime spokeswoman, Kate Bedingfield, to his Washington office for a briefing on the campaign's digital and communications strategy with members of his own staff, including his senior adviser, Eric Schultz.
When they were done, Mr. Obama offered a pointed reminder, according to two people with knowledge of his comments:
Win or lose, they needed to make sure Mr. Biden did not "embarrass himself" or "damage his legacy" during the campaign.
This reminds me of this story from 2012.
In a meeting with Connaughton and some of his other advisers a few days after the election, Biden revealed that he had been upbraided by an angry Obama.
"Biden told us that Obama had called him and told him sharply that he didn't need public tutoring: 'I don't need you acting like you're my Henry Higgins,'" Connaughton writes. "Biden said his private reaction was, 'Whoa. Where did this come from? This is clearly a guy who could restrict my role to attending state funerals or just put me in a closet for four years."
Biden added: "I'm going to have to earn his trust, but I'm not going to grovel to this guy. My manhood is not negotiable."