Not a huge surprise, I shouldn’t think; I’d have been astonished if Obama had decided to endorse in the primaries. But over the past months I’ve had at least a handful of discussions with fellow Kossacks who were convinced that he’d do it, and likely before the Iowa caucuses.
With his chief of staff stating that he won’t make an endorsement in the primaries, though, any real doubt seems to have been settled. It’s not impossible for the White House to walk it back — it’s never impossible to say, “Well, we changed our minds” — but a statement this clear would make it awkward, and is at minimum a signal that they don’t have any inclination toward making that endorsement as things stand, or as they see the future unfolding.
Oh, and that supposed threat to refuse to campaign for Bernie Sanders if he’s the nominee over his alleged weakness on gun control doesn’t seem to actually be in play. Politico reports:
McDonough said Obama won't endorse in the presidential primary, despite his recent signal that he'll weigh in on down-ballot races over gun control issues.
"That's not our job. That's the job of the party to make those decisions and then they'll take a look at the agendas and the positions of those candidates," he said. "Then we'll make some final decisions. ... Well, we'll do exactly what has been done in the past, which is when the nominee will be set, then the President will be out there."
As I said, not exactly shocking news, but since I hadn’t seen it reported here, it struck me as being of (just, marginally) sufficient interest to be worth a quick note.