Headlines
Obama not ready to endorse Hillary Clinton
Washington, April 14
US President Barack Obama
is not ready to formally endorse his ex-secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, in her bid for the presidency because it is possible that other
hopefuls for the post will appear, including other "friends" of the
chief executive, the White House.
A day after Clinton, who was
defeated by Obama in the Democratic primaries of 2008, announced her
intention to seek the party's presidential nomination in 2016, White
House spokesperson Josh Earnest on Monday scuttled rumors about any
immediate support she might get from the president, Efe news service
reported.
"The two of them Obama and Clinton have become friends,
but there are other people who are friends of the president who may
decide to enter the race. So the president has not offered up any sort
of endorsement at this point," Earnest told his daily press conference.
Though
the spokesperson did not identify exactly who those "friends" might be,
predictably among them will be Vice President Joe Biden if he finally
decides to compete for the Democratic nomination.
Earnest
emphasised that it will be "the responsibility of Democratic voters to
decide who should be the Democratic nominee for president" in 2016, and
once the process is concluded, whoever receives the party's nomination
"can be confident that they'll enjoy the support of President Obama in
their campaign."
Last Saturday, Obama called Hillary Clinton a
"friend" who would be "an excellent president," a statement interpreted
by some pundits as an implicit endorsement for his former secretary of
state (2009-2013), considered the frontrunner by a wide margin for the
Democratic presidential nomination.
According to Earnest, the
chief message of Clinton's campaign -- the idea that the US economy
favors the richest to the detriment of the middle class -- largely
coincides with the same concerns expressed by Obama over the past few
years.
In fact, the kickoff of Clinton's campaign coincides with a
week in which Obama will be focused on his economic ideas for aiding
the middle class, with events planned for Tuesday and Thursday in the
White House and on Wednesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
However,
Earnest explained that this focus on the economy "is something we have
long envisioned making around Tax Day," adding that the plan was decided
on "prior to the announcements of any of the candidates."