Perhaps the president’s promised second volume will explore the breadth of the friendship.ĭuring the 2008 Democratic primary contest, Biden stumbled into a racially charged blunder when he told a reporter that his then-rival Obama was “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Obama dispenses with the incident in a single sentence, noting that the phrase was “surely meant as a compliment, but interpreted by some as suggesting that such characteristics in a Black man were noteworthy.” His reason for mentioning it at all is to observe that Biden’s “lack of a filter periodically got him in trouble.” In this, Obama resorts to the obvious rather than risking the incisive. This first volume of the president’s memoirs ends in 2011, before the relationship hit its emotional peak amid the illness and death of Biden’s son Beau, and Obama’s awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Biden days before the inauguration of Donald Trump. Don’t look here for deep introspection on our 46th president or even a recognition of the so-called bromance that enthralled a large swath of the American public. The book stops short of revealing how Obama really feels about his former partner. But you won’t find much enlightenment on Biden as presidential buddy, or as incoming Oval Office occupant, in the pages of Obama’s memoir. If anyone could provide special insight into our new president-elect, Obama surely would be that person. Over eight years, he and Biden forged a historic White House friendship: No president and vice president had ever grown so close and demonstrated such affection for each other.
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