Inside Obama's internal debate over who to endorse in 2020

Former President Barack Obama has the endorsement every 2020 Democrat wants.

Unfortunately for them, Obama isn't handing out any hints about who he'll give it to — or if he'll even endorse a primary candidate at all. Instead, "Obama and his aides have carefully guarded when and how to deploy him," and are even prepared for him to step in and use his endorsement if there's a chance of a contested convention, The Atlantic reports.

The most obvious 2020 endorsement for Obama would be his former Vice President Joe Biden. And judging by the nostalgia-heavy campaign Biden is running, one would think he's already earned it. But no, Biden has claimed he asked Obama not to endorse him so early in the race — "despite firm statements from Obama's orbit making it clear that he'd decided himself not to endorse," The Atlantic writes.

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That leaves the option of Obama endorsing someone else — Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for one, made it clear to The Atlantic that she campaigned for Obama in 2007 when Biden was still running against him. But Obama is apparently more concerned with finishing his book, which was supposed to be released this year but is reportedly taking longer than the former president expected. But given the usual pre-holiday release of blockbuster books like Michelle Obama's Becoming, dropping it next year just after Election Day could make Obama "the voice of a party in despair after another defeat, or poised to grab the spotlight from a freshly elected Democratic president," The Atlantic writes.

Obama's spokesperson summed up this political distance in a cautious statement, saying "big, bold ideas are a sign of the Democratic Party's strength, and President Obama urges everyone running to be transparent with voters about how these ideas will work." Read more at The Atlantic.