“The report suggested that Mr. Obama had been more involved in thinking about his Senate successor than his public statements about the topic had indicated,” the New York Times reports.

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That’s been clearly established. The question is: Why? Why the phony feints, Barack? My hunch is that Obama did not want to appear to be acting like a political boss – even though that’s just what he was doing and it wouldn’t have been inappropriate in this case. But also, if Obama actually did choose his successor in the U.S. Senate, he couldn’t have helped but peeve off some of those who wouldn’t have gotten the job. Barack Obama is a political animal of the first kind, and he tried to navigate a potential minefield – helping to turn it into a real one.