Former President Barack Obama is staying neutral in the Democratic presidential primary, but plenty of people are trying to read the tea leaves of his language, and a new report of what he’s saying behind the scenes is an interesting addition to his recent statement that “If you look at the world and look at the problems, it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way.”
Obama’s statement, in context, was about himself—he’d just been asked if he would consider going back into politics—but with his much older former vice president, Joe Biden, in the race, it was inevitable that people would wonder if he was talking about Joe. At the same time, Obama said that women would make better world leaders than men. And those statements roll right into things Obama has reportedly been telling Democratic donors behind the scenes.
Specifically, Obama has been defending Sen. Elizabeth Warren to wealthy donors worried about her positions on wealth and Wall Street. Obama “has vouched for her credentials, making it clear in these private sessions that he deems her a capable candidate and potential president,” The Hill reports sources say.
“He obviously thinks she’s very smart,” a Democratic donor said. “He thinks her policy ideas matter. And I think he sees her running the campaign with the most depth.”
Again, that’s not an endorsement, and Obama would doubtless tell donors they needed to be ready to rally around any Democratic nominee. But it’s striking that he has specifically gone to bat for Warren in this way—especially taken together with his statements about women’s leadership and “old men, not getting out of the way.”