Just Lunch Or To Discuss 2016 Presidential Ambition?!: Hillary Clinton And Obama Meet For ‘Friendship’ Lunch With A Side Of Intrigue
Here’s a chummy pair: former secretary of state Hillary Clinton dropped by the White House on Monday to have lunch with President Barack Obama and to discuss … what? Presumably her 2016 presidential run, as yet undeclared.
Not to be outdone, vice-president Joe Biden plans to have breakfast with Clinton on Tuesday, his office announced. Biden’s 2016 presidential run is likewise undeclared. Maybe if they keep sharing meals they can come to an agreement and save primary voters the trouble of choosing between them.
Clinton and Obama look happily at ease at ease in an official White House photograph of the meeting. And the photograph is all there is. Asked Monday about the lunch, presidential spokesman Josh Earnest declined substantive comment. “It’s largely friendship that is on the agenda for lunch today,” he said.
There’s a notion that a Clinton presidential run could put Obama in a tight spot, forcing him to choose between her and Biden, who also may run. However Obama could simply withhold an endorsement in the race until it becomes clear which ally is winning. No one could resent him for it because everyone understands that for him to do otherwise would invite melodrama and possibly hurt the eventual Democratic ticket.
Clinton was Obama’s first secretary of state. Since leaving that post on 1 February she has been working on a second memoir and spending time with her family.
Before her turn in the cabinet, Clinton ran hard against Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, which she almost won. The fight left scars. When Clinton conceded, a group of her most stalwart supporters refused. They called themselves PUMAs, for Party Unity My Ass. That’s how it was.
But that was a long time ago. Obama and Clinton were last spotted side-by-side in a joint 60 Minutes
interview at the start of his second term.
“I just wanted to have a chance to publicly say thank you,” Obama said. “It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I’m going to miss her.”
Maybe that’s why they got together. He missed her.
By Tom McCarthy
GUARDIAN(UK)
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