An article in the New Yorker appears to go to extreme pains to explain why Barack Obama hasn't endorsed Joe Biden yet.  Tradition.  Respect for the other candidates.  Waiting a bit longer to see what happens.

The real reason, which will go unsaid, is that Obama doesn't want Biden popping off with some stupid comment that will embarrass not only Obama, but all of Demworld.  That sort of thing was manageable back in the halcyon days when Barack was in the saddle and thinking he was soaking up all the attention so that nobody would even notice old Joe.  Joe wasn't interesting then, and he's not interesting now, the thinking went, but now there's nobody running interference.

But not even Barack can believe he's still got everybody's attention now.  In fact, he may not even want the attention now that he might draw the curiosity of one Bill Barr.  Barr is Trump's A.G., and he doesn't play as Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch did.  Those two were real team players, almost as team-playerish as Susan Rice, who would fall on her sword for Barack today and then again tomorrow, and come back Sunday and do it five times in one day.  That chick was some kinda special.

But Barr's no fun at all.  When he sees crime, he flies straight to it like a hummingbird to a stamen.  He stands up to congressmen out to prove how tough they are.  He's been here before and knows exactly what's going on and how to defend against the war on law and order being waged by the Left and how to swat away Democrat mosquitoes.  Barr epitomizes something Washington doesn't see often these days: a pro who doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Back to old Joe.  He's been lying low recently to get a feel for which way the winds are blowing.  For a while there, they were blowing chaotically for the Left, with Joe saying something stupid and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying something impossible and Nancy saying something ludicrous and Tlaib saying something racist and Maxine saying something all tough guy and, and, and...  It's not easy playing elder statesman when you're surrounded by nincompoops whose nincompoopery might rub off on you.  No wonder Barack's keeping quiet.

Joe at least used to be the Joe Bidenest of all the Joe Bidens.  Now he's got fierce competition for that.