{"id":77120,"date":"2016-06-09T22:49:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T02:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=77120"},"modified":"2016-06-09T22:49:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T02:49:53","slug":"careful-staging-obama-backs-clinton-nudges-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/06\/09\/careful-staging-obama-backs-clinton-nudges-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"With careful staging, Obama backs Clinton, nudges Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cLook,<\/a>
\u201cLook, I know how hard this job can be. That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it,\u201d Obama said. \u201cI have seen her judgment. I have seen her toughness. I’ve seen her commitment to our values.\u201d (Photo by Marc Nozell\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014Testifying to Hillary Clinton’s grit and experience, President Barack Obama endorsed his former secretary of state’s bid to succeed him on Thursday and urged Democrats to line up behind her. It was all part of a carefully orchestrated pressure campaign aimed at easing Clinton rival Bernie Sanders toward the exit and turning fully to the fight against Republican Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Obama’s long-expected endorsement, delivered via an online video, included a forceful call for unity and for \u201cembracing\u201d Sanders’ economic message, which has fired up much of the liberal wing of his party. Obama sought to reassure Democrats that Clinton shares their values and is ready for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I know how hard this job can be. That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it,\u201d Obama said. \u201cI have seen her judgment. I have seen her toughness. I’ve seen her commitment to our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama’s testimonial came less than an hour after the president met privately with Sanders at the White House to discuss the future of the senator’s \u201cpolitical revolution\u201d\u2014one that will not include him taking up residence at the White House. Sanders emerged from the meeting subdued and indicated he had gotten the message.<\/p>\n

Although he stopped short of endorsing Clinton, the Vermont senator told reporters he planned to press for his \u201cissues\u201d\u2014rather than victory\u2014at the party’s July convention and would meet with Clinton \u201cin the near future\u201d to discuss ways to defeat Trump.<\/p>\n

At an evening campaign rally at Washington’s RFK Stadium, Sanders made no mention of Clinton, of trying to win over the party insiders known as superdelegates or of pressing his case at next month’s Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n

He barely mentioned next Tuesday’s primary election in the city, the last on the Democratic primary calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be extraordinary if the people of Washington, our nation’s capital, stood up and told the world that they are ready to lead this country into a political revolution,\u201d Sanders said in the final sentence of an hour-long address.<\/p>\n

In another sign of Democratic unification, Sen. Elizabeth Warren also endorsed Clinton. The Massachusetts senator had been the only holdout among the Senate’s Democratic women, and her endorsement sends a signal to Sanders’ progressive supporters that it’s time to unite around the party’s presumptive nominee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets anyplace close to the White House,\u201d Warren said on MSNBC’s \u201cThe Rachel Maddow Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton declared victory over Sanders on Tuesday, having captured the number of delegates needed to become the first female nominee from a major party. Her late and somewhat sputtering victory set off a fresh round of private phone calls and back-channel negotiations, all aimed at sussing out Sanders’ demands, easing him out of the race without angering his die-hard supporters and putting the full-court press on Trump.<\/p>\n

Obama’s endorsement and Sanders’ visit were the public culmination of that work.<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=S9W0F2mz1jc]<\/p>\n

The White House taped Obama’s endorsement video at the White House on Tuesday, before Clinton claimed victory in the primary, and had alerted Sanders earlier in the week that it was coming. Sanders came prepared with his statement.<\/p>\n

The careful choreography was part of the Democrats’ attempt to show some respect to the senator, even as they steered him toward the campaign off-ramp.<\/p>\n

Obama greeted Sanders and his wife in the residence and then strolled with the senator, smiling and laughing warmly, past the Rose Garden to the Oval Office, as cameras recorded the moment.<\/p>\n

The ceremony and scrutiny didn’t appear to faze Sanders. Ever the everyman, he started the day by stopping for a cup of coffee and a scone at the Peet’s coffee shop across from the White House, while dozens of reporters awaited his arrival.<\/p>\n

Sanders’ campaign spokesman Michael Briggs had little to say about the conversation with the president, saying the men discussed \u201chow we can all work together to create an economy that works for all people and not just the 1 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders on Capitol Hill underscored Obama’s message. After leaving the White House, Sanders met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and later with Vice-President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s not worn down, he’s not bitter, he’s not angry,\u201d Schumer said after meeting with Sanders. \u201cI told him I was proud of him and what he accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party’s delicate handling of the Vermont senator reflected Sanders supporters’ deep distrust of the Democratic establishment and its meddling in the primary.<\/p>\n

Obama made a point of staying publicly neutral through the sometimes-bitter race, mindful that his involvement could tarnish his standing with parts of his own loyal coalition, namely young people and progressives.<\/p>\n

Clinton is now counting on the president to help bring those voters on board. Obama has said he’s \u201cfired up\u201d and ready to get started.<\/p>\n

Obama has competition in courting Sanders supporters. Trump has said he welcomes Sanders’ voters \u201cwith open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he responded to Obama’s endorsement by tweeting: \u201cObama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama\u2014but nobody else does!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clinton campaign tweeted back, \u201cDelete Your Account.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014Testifying to Hillary Clinton’s grit and experience, President Barack Obama endorsed his former secretary of state’s bid to succeed him …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[503,10229,10022,11144,2000],"class_list":["post-77120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-barack-obama","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-democrats","tag-endorsement","tag-hillary-clinton","mauthors-kathleen-hennessey","mauthors-ken-thomas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}