WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama hasn’t endorsed a Democratic successor, but he’s now revealed some personal pros and cons in the fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Clinton has reason to smile.
In an interview published Monday, Obama casts his former secretary of state as a “wicked smart,” progressive pragmatist and Sanders as a “bright, shiny object” fueled by Democrats’ long-standing frustrations. He defends Clinton as burdened by her perceived front-runner status while Sanders benefits from “the luxury of being a complete long shot.”
“Her strengths can be her weaknesses,” Obama said in the interview with Politico’s “Off Message” podcast. “Her strengths, which are the fact that she’s extraordinarily experienced — and, you know, wicked smart and knows every policy inside and out — sometimes could make her more cautious and her campaign more prose than poetry. But those are also her strengths. It means that she can govern and she can start here, day one, more experienced than any non-vice president has ever been who aspires to this office.”
