For a long time, I’ve thought that Joe Biden is privately jealous of Barack Obama, and despite trying to portray them as BFFs, he harbors a lot of resentment for his former boss. Recent events have suggested that this is indeed so.
For example, we learned from the transcript of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur that Biden, apropos of nothing, brought up the humiliating experience of Obama thinking that Hillary would be a stronger candidate in 2016.
"Remember, in this timeframe, my son is — either been deployed or is dying, and, and so it was — and by the way, there were still a lot of people at the time when I got out of the Senate that were encouraging me to run in this period, except the President,” Biden said. "I'm not — and not a mean thing to say. He just thought that [Hillary Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did. And so I hadn't, I hadn't, at this point — even though I'm at Penn, I hadn't walked away from the idea that I may run for office again. But if I ran again, I'd be running for President."
It sounds like he resents Obama for that. But Biden’s complex with Obama goes much deeper. According to a report from Axios, Joe Biden frequently measures himself against Obama, fancying that his accomplishments eclipse those of his former boss.
"Biden often measures himself against the man he served as vice president, current and former aides say,” the report claims. "It's a complex relationship in which there is a rivalry — particularly on Biden's side."
Biden aides report that he would say "Obama would be jealous,” of various things he’s achieved in office. According to the report, Biden’s competitiveness with Obama informs his approach to several issues, "including how he's dealt with Afghanistan, Israel, and Congress.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the White House denies all this, but is there any reason to believe this isn’t true?
Related: Report: Biden ‘Angry and Anxious’ About Faltering Campaign
Imagine for a moment that you’re Joe Biden in 2008. You’re running for president and have decades of experience as a senator, yet you can’t even get out of the single digits in the primary polls. Imagine what it must be like to drop out of the race after getting 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses watching as some guy who nobody had even heard of just four years earlier coasts his way to the Democratic Party nomination, albeit in a contentious battle with Hillary Clinton.
Can you tell me that it wouldn’t sting a little?
It’s easy to believe that Biden harbored a sense of frustration or jealousy toward Obama's meteoric rise even though Obama picked him as his running mate — leaning on Biden’s decades of experience to balance his own painfully blank resume. Why? Because Obama got all the glory. Sure, Biden publicly demonstrated loyalty and played the role he was asked to play, but does anyone believe he didn’t harbor resentment and jealousy for playing second fiddle to a newbie elected because of the color of his skin?
Even Axios notes that many longtime Biden aides "have long felt that Obama and his team did not fully appreciate Biden's experience with foreign policy, Congress, and grip-and-grin politicking — and were disrespectful."
"The Obama people thought Biden would suck as president," a Biden aide told Axios. "They didn't think he'd be organized enough to execute."
Well, give them some credit for being right.
Despite this, Biden has loaded up his administration with Obama administration retreads and has spent years pandering to minorities with affirmative action appointments to boast of a more historic presidency than that of the "first black president."
Meanwhile, Biden, who campaigned on the idea he was a moderate who would listen to both sides, has basically restored the Obama-era status quo and often gone further to the left than even Obama did.
When you consider all the radical policies Biden pushes, it's clear that he's trying to position himself as an even bigger hero to the progressive left than Obama is.
