Kate Andersen Brower
Vanity Fair, July 17, 2024
“Obama, where art thou?”
In the days after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, former president Barack Obama set aside time to do what Biden used to do for him as vice president: play devil’s advocate. Over the phone, Obama took on the tough-love advisory role, presenting different scenarios to Biden. Something in the conversation reportedly unsettled the current president, who has resisted calls to exit the race.
The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump only heightened the incredibly tense political environment, and that question. Obama sought to be a sounding board for Biden, not a pundit. At a private White House lunch last summer, he met with Biden to air his views, dropping his signature calm; even then, Obama believed in the very real possibility that Trump could win. But it is becoming more apparent that the values Obama cares most about—not to mention his own legacy—hang in the balance. He sees the presidency as a relay race, which begs the question of whether he privately thinks it’s time for Biden to pass the baton. The progress that he wants for the country can be accomplished only with a Democrat in office. That Democrat does not have to be Joe Biden.
And then came the debate. As this story was in the throes of closing, old Democratic hands who had been reluctant to speak emailed and called me to register their angst. “The blame lies with Joe and Jill Biden. They set up this administration to be insular,” said one insider. “The nightmare of yesterday was not that Joe Biden gave a bad performance,” this person added, “but the problem is that he made it clear that voters were right to care about his age.” “A dumpster fire,” declares a Democratic strategist with experience in a number of presidential campaigns, who had already confessed “my bed is wet” before the debacle. Obama posted a statement of support on X, “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” referring his own 2012 debate with GOP nominee Mitt Romney.