Why Obama Hasn't Endorsed Harris

[Amaryllis]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-obama-hasn-t-endorsed-114259092.html

“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Obama wrote in the post. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”

Republicans interpreted that as a snub. But people close to Obama, who has positioned himself as an impartial elder statesman above intraparty machinations, said not to read too much into it — and had no alternate candidate in mind when he made the decision not to immediately endorse Harris.

Obama adopted an identical stance four years ago when Biden’s aides pressured him to endorse early in the Democratic primaries before Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out. (Obama’s favored phrase back then was “I don’t want to thumb the scale.”) Endorsing too early now would also be a political mistake — fueling criticism that Harris’ nomination, should it come, was a coronation rather than the best possible consensus under rushed circumstances, they said.

Instead, Obama sees his role as helping to quickly “unite the party once we have a nominee,” a person familiar with his thinking said.