My friend, bobswern, left a comment with this link in my post on the Bernie movement. I thought it deserved a post of its own. So with a hat tip to bobswern, here it is:
President Obama is likely to sit out the entire presidential primary season amid concerns about the damage he could do by stepping too soon into a contentious Democratic contest running far longer than he expected.
Prominent fault lines have emerged in recent days in the Democratic race that threaten to permanently damage the party. But seeing no clear way for Obama to unify Democrats without alienating key voters, White House aides are gambling that the president will still have enough time to rally the party before the November general election even if both Democratic candidates stay in the race until the final primary votes are cast in June.
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“As the leader of the party and as the incumbent two-term president who also happens to have among Democrats and independents the highest favorable and approval ratings of any national elected official, unity is important,” said David Simas, the White House political director. “So that’s guided the way we’ve thought about this.”
snip
“The president and vice president have been very fair to Bernie,” said Tad Devine, a top Sanders campaign strategist. “We understand that Secretary Clinton served in the administration. They know each other much better. But we don’t have any complaints about anything the president has said or done.”
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“There are millions of people in states coming up – California’s the most conspicuous example of this – who have been part of our campaign,” he said. “We want to give those people a chance to vote now.”
Los Angeles Times
I thought he might endorse when he voted in Illinois, but I was wrong.
I agree with his choice to let the voters decide without any endorsement from the President.