Warren was Obama's choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010.

Warren was Obama's choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. Susan Walsh/AP file photo

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What's With This 'Obama Is Backing Elizabeth Warren Over Hillary' Story?

New York Post suggests a secret plan, citing 'personal animosity.'

Adam Chandler,
The Wire

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By Adam Chandler
The Wire

The New York Post leads with a story today about a secret plan for President Obama to throw his support behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the 2016 Democratic nomination instead of Hillary Clinton. Let's have a look at this.

Edward Klein writes:

Publicly, Obama has remained noncommittal on the 2016 race, but privately he worries that Clinton would undo and undermine many of his policies. There’s also a personal animosity, especially with Bill Clinton, that dates from their tough race six years ago."

I would say the first red flag here is that Obama, despite having initially campaigned from the left, has governed (to the frustration of some) largely from the center. This is where Hillary perches. This idea that a Clinton presidency would "undo and undermine" the president's policies just seems silly. 

However, the first real red flag seems to be the author himself, who has taken some artistic license in writing about the Clintons before. Here's Paul Janensch on Klein's book The Truth About Hillary.

The most sensational allegation is that Bill Clinton raped Hillary when they were on vacation in Bermuda and that Hillary became pregnant with their daughter, Chelsea, as a result. The only evidence to support this is what two sources -- both unnamed -- claim Bill told them.

Klein also suggests that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. To support such a conclusion, he contends that Wellesley College, which Hillary attended, was a hotbed of lesbianism and says lesbians were among her best friends."

Media Matters also offers a handy guide to how Klein has been discredited over the years.

To boot, today's story has its share of laughable turns of phrase.

So why bother talking about it at all? Well, for starters, the New York Post has about 500,000 readers, placing it just outside the Top 5 American papers by circulation. A story like this is already being taken as the gospel from a breezy glance across social media.

Accompanying that, a stunning amount of nicknames about Elizabeth Warren's much debated Native American heritage:

2016. So close and so far away.

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