Former president Obama is still withholding that Obama endorsement that all Democrats covet, and that some, such as his former vice president, Joe Biden, see themselves as probably holding a claim to.

Obama's never been one for tradition, though, and after making a big dig on "old men" running for president, which could have only meant old Joe, and twisting the knife a second time to claim that if women ran the world, the world would be a better place — something that at the time was seen as an endorsement of his wife Michelle, we now learn that he's been bucking for Elizabeth Warren all along.

According to a sharp and interesting analysis by Hot Air's Ed Morrissey:

The former president will not endorse anyone in the primary, but that doesn't mean Obama will remain studiously non-interventionist either. While Warren tries to score populist points with her class-warfare schtick, Obama has been working the big-ticket donor rolls to ready them for a Warren nomination, according to The Hill:

He's on.  He's rooting for Warren.  And that's weird stuff, because Warren and Obama have clashed on policy in the past and never really ever got along with one another.  There's a reason Obama refused to allow Warren into his Cabinet as anything other than a temporary adviser — in and out — create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and get out, much to Warren's chagrin, because she really wanted to run the thing, too.  Obama wasn't having that.

But politics makes weird bedfellows, and it could make sense, given that Warren and Hillary Clinton, who also never got along well, were also in some kind of undercover advisory relationship, reported earlier.  Clinton and Obama are bound together by their political crimes like lips and teeth.  They cover for each other, just as Hillary also covers for Bill.  This would mean that Warren might be in tight not just with Hillary, but Obama, too.  One hand washes the other.

But it's not just raw political advantage that ties this.  Most of Obama's actual views are close to Warren's; he is a left-wing extremist, same as she is, both Ivy League variety, both outsiders of sorts who made it in.  They would relate on that level.  (I was once an Ivy Leaguer, too, and recall how I related best to the non-traditional types in my class, the people who somehow made it in, rather than the legacy "Biff" types.)

Meanwhile, ideologically, Obama and Warren are twins.  Obama governed within some constraints and limits of his power, but his heart was in extremism, remaking America in some new image other than what it was.  "Transforming," he said.  Recall how he wanted to foist single-payer onto the American public but political realities forced him to settle for Obamacare.  Joe Biden may have liked it, but Obama himself wanted a full socialist bill of fare if it were up to solely him.

Here's another weird one: Obama seems to be trying to boost Warren now that her campaign is sliding.  He's getting louder and more obvious about being for her now that Warren has slipped to at least third place in the Democratic polls, Bernie Sanders holds steady, and Joe Biden's lead is strengthening.  And it's important to note that his early favorite, Kamala Harris, an easy roundheels for any Democratic power behind the throne to manipulate, crashed out, leaving just Warren for Obama. 

Morrissey notes how stinging the whole rejection must be for Old Joe, who faithfully served him for eight long years.

Speaking of old partners, isn't this a bit of a no-confidence vote by Obama in Joe Biden? Biden has led polling wire to wire; Warren did come closest to pushing him out of the lead for about a hot second, but she's not even a cold second at the moment. At one point in the last couple of weeks, Warren had come into close proximity of fourth place, but Pete Buttigieg's brief flirtation with the top tier appears to have begun to wane now, too. This is a race between Biden and Bernie Sanders, which makes one wonder why Obama's concerned about clearing a path for Warren — and not his old partner.

As this election goes on, it gets more and more obvious that Obama is playing footsie with Joe, and not the ordinary kind.  In this Obama endorsement game, Joe's the soccer ball, not the other player's foot.  Obama won't endorse this guy unless he's absolutely forced to, and in the meantime, based on his sneaky actions to boost Warren, he's doing his darnedest to make the candidate he endorses a candidate of his own picking.

Image credit: Caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.