Achi news desk-
WASHINGTON: When President Joe Biden needs advice, there are two people he can turn to who know what it’s like to sit in his chair. Sometimes he will invite Barack Obama over to the White House for a meal or he will phone Bill Clinton.
The three men share decades of history at the pinnacle of American and Democratic leadership, making them an unusual trio in presidential history. Although there has sometimes been friction as their ambitions and agendas diverge, they have spent years building towards a similar vision for the country.
On Thursday, their partnership will be on display in what has been described as a one-of-a-kind fundraising extravaganza in New York City to help Biden build on his already significant financial advantage in this year’s presidential election. It is a dramatic show of force with the intention of rallying the faithful of the Democratic Party to secure a second term for Biden despite his stubbornly low polling numbers and his doubts due to his age (81).
“Everything is to be won by Joe Biden standing next to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama,” said Leon Panetta, who worked in the administrations of the two former presidents. “That picture is worth a hell of a lot in today’s politics.”
The show of unity is a stark contrast to Donald Trump’s isolation from other Republican leaders.
Although Trump has solidified his hold on his party en route to becoming the presumptive nominee, even his own former vice president, Mike Pence, is unwilling to endorse Trump’s bid for another term in the White House. The only other living Republican president, George W. Bush, is not a fan, either.
It’s a very different situation with Biden, Obama and Clinton. When they haven’t been campaigning against each other, they’ve been working together.
At one point, the three of them were on a collision course during the Democratic presidential primary in 2008. Both Biden and Obama sought the nomination, as did Clinton’s wife, Hillary. Obama came out on top, and chose Biden as his vice president and Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state.
As Obama’s two terms came to an end and the 2016 election approached, he pushed Hillary Clinton to the forefront as his preferred successor and qualified Biden to run after Biden’s eldest son died of cancer. Clinton lost to Trump, who lost to Biden in 2020. Obama privately helped clear a path for Biden to the Democratic nomination that year.
There have been notable divisions between the presidents on key issues. Biden was unsuccessful in persuading Obama not to send more troops to Afghanistan in 2009. US forces remained in the country until 2021, when Biden withdrew them during his first year in office.
The three presidents have often focused on the same goals in a sort of legislative relay. Clinton failed to significantly expand health care access during her presidency, which ran from 1993 to 2001. Obama picked up the baton when he took office in 2009 and signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010.
Biden called the law a “big deal…” — inserting a disparaging explanation in the middle of that thought — and built on it when he began his own term in 2021. He signed legislation that included financial incentives for states to expand Medicaid, prompting North. Carolina to take the late step last year, more than a decade after the Affordable Care Act made it possible.
Between Clinton, Obama and Biden, “they’ve seen the breadth of the Democrats’ history together in ways that not everyone has,” said Gene Sperling, a longtime economic adviser.
Sperling is among the administration officials who have served all three presidents. Another member of those ranks is John Podesta, currently Biden’s global climate ambassador who was Clinton’s chief of staff and Obama’s environmental adviser.
Podesta said all three tried to improve the lives of working Americans.
“All of them, when they close the door on the Oval Office, that was the most important thing to them,” he said.
But their styles are not the same. While Obama is more reserved, Biden and Clinton draw energy from chatting with people on tightrope lines and building deep personal relationships.
“Politics is their relaxation,” Podesta said.
Panetta suggested that Biden, who is generally unpopular in public polling, should try to pick up a few pointers from his Democratic predecessors, both of whom served two terms.
“The primary reason they were re-elected is that they were able to connect with the American people,” he said. “It’s clear that Joe Biden needs to do that.”
The only living Democratic president who will not be in New York for the fundraiser is 99-year-old Jimmy Carter. A spokesperson for Carter confirmed that he remains in hospice care at home and is not making any public statements.
Carter’s relationship with Biden goes back several decades. When Carter was running for president in 1976 as the unknown former governor of Georgia, Biden took a political risk by becoming the first sitting senator to endorse him.
Fundraisers, even with presidents, are usually small affairs. Dozens or sometimes hundreds of people gather in a wealthy person’s living room or backyard to hear a speech from the candidate and perhaps ask a few questions.
This one is in a different league. Thousands of people are expected at Radio City Music Hall to watch late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert moderate a conversation with the three presidents. Celebrity guests – Cynthia Erivo, Mindy Kaling, Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Lea Michele and Ben Platt – will provide more star power.
The cheapest tickets are $225, which makes it more accessible than most fundraisers. But that’s just the starting point. A picture with the three presidents is $100,000. Access to more intimate receptions will cost $250,000 or $500,000.
Campaign officials have not said how much they expect the event to raise. But they said a fundraiser featuring Biden and Obama in December raised nearly $3 million.
Meanwhile, Trump is also expected to be in the area on Thursday, attending Long Island in the wake of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens.
The Trump campaign, which has struggled to keep up with Biden’s fundraising, shrugged off the event on Thursday, dismissing it as a sign that the president needed to “trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama,” in the words of the spokesman Steven Cheung.
Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to Obama, said the former president “will do everything he can” to support Biden and “looks forward to helping Democrats up and down the ballot to do the case for voters this fall.”
“Our strategy will be based on driving impact, especially where and when his voice can help move the needle,” Schultz said.
The relationship between Obama and Biden has been personal as well as political. Obama offered to help Biden pay the family’s medical bills when Biden’s son, Beau, was struggling with cancer. After Beau’s death in 2015, Obama gave a eulogy at the funeral, where he described his vice president as “my brother.”
“They are like family to each other,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said recently.
___ Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Disclaimer: This post has been automatically published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
