--- title: Barack Obama Endorsement: Why Presidents Wait to Endorse description: There’s a political calculation behind this decision that historians say goes back for years. canonical: https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-09T18:22:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:06.205Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Presidents Wait to Endorse Their Successors og:description: Historians say the trend goes back years. og:url: https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c2c7df16d13b1fe/698897263c1639074f45d94e/obama-clinton-endorsement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: U.S. President Obama attends a comedy show celebrating Military Appreciation Month as well as the 5th anniversary of Joining Forces and the 75th anniversary of the USO at Joint Base Andrews in Clinton, Maryland og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Presidents Wait to Endorse Their Successors twitter:description: Historians say the trend goes back years. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c2c7df16d13b1fe/698897263c1639074f45d94e/obama-clinton-endorsement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Presidents Wait to Endorse Their Successors > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 9, 2016 6:22 PM UTC  President Barack Obama attends a comedy show celebrating Military Appreciation Month as well as the 5th anniversary of Joining Forces and the 75th anniversary of the USO at Joint Base Andrews in Clinton, Maryland, U.S. May 5, 2016\. REUTERS/Carlos Barria President Barack Obama attends a comedy show celebrating Military Appreciation Month as well as the 5th anniversary of Joining Forces and the 75th anniversary of the USO at Joint Base Andrews in Clinton, Maryland, U.S. May 5, 2016\. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Carlos Barria—Reuters by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 9, 2016 6:22 PM UTC Washington’s worst-kept secret is out. President Obama [officially endorsed Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4362633/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement/) in her bid for the White House with a social media blitz on Thursday, in keeping with a recent tradition of presidential endorsements coming until after the end of the primary process. There’s a political calculation behind this decision that historians say goes back decades. That’s because the question of endorsements was not relevant until late in the 20th century, said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. This is partly due to the creation of primaries and caucuses, which gave voters more say on the nominee. Presidents hold off on endorsing a candidate in an effort to stay above the day-to-day politics of the primaries. “We view presidents as head of their parties,” Perry said. “That may not mean very much anymore, but it’s at the very least symbolic.” Presidents may also wait now to avoid backing the wrong horse in a contested primary, in order to stay in the good graces of the eventual nominee. But once they do endorse, they are more active campaigners when they have a personal investment in their successor. “Presidents typically get involved when they think their legacy is on the line. Barack Obama has good reason to think the Affordable Care Act is at risk should Donald Trump be elected; you can bet he will be working hard for Hillary Clinton,” wrote historian H.W. Brands via email. Sometimes a president may be so controversial that a candidate from their own party may not want an endorsement too early because it could potentially hurt instead of help them. For example, Vice President Al Gore did not use President Bill Clinton in his campaign due to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. George W. Bush endorsed his 2000 rival John McCain begrudgingly eight years later. But by then, Bush was so toxic that he did not attend McCain’s nominating convention and appeared only by satellite. But when an endorsement is seen as a positive, there’s a benefit to waiting, since it gives the President the chance to tie things up after a contentious primary. “A president wants to play the role of unifier for his party,” said Larry Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics, pointing out there’s only a couple of months until the election. “It just made sense for Obama to try to bring people back together quickly. Every day matters.” President Obama’s endorsement, which came two days after the Associated Press declared Clinton the presumptive nominee, should help begin that process, added John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. “It sends a very positive message to the president’s supporters,” he said, but he noted there’s a downside that Clinton will also inherit Obama’s critics. “The flip side is also true.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/"},"headline":"Why Presidents Wait to Endorse Their Successors","datePublished":"2016-06-09T18:22:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:06.205Z","description":"There’s a political calculation behind this decision that historians say goes back for years.","url":"https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c2c7df16d13b1fe/698897263c1639074f45d94e/obama-clinton-endorsement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c2c7df16d13b1fe/698897263c1639074f45d94e/obama-clinton-endorsement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Obama attends a comedy show celebrating Military Appreciation Month as well as the 5th anniversary of Joining Forces and the 75th anniversary of the USO at Joint Base Andrews in Clinton, Maryland","caption":"U.S. President Obama attends a comedy show celebrating Military Appreciation Month as well as the 5th anniversary of Joining Forces and the 75th anniversary of the USO at Joint Base Andrews in Clinton, Maryland","creditText":"Carlos Barria—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4362727/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-endorsement-analysis/","name":"Why Presidents Wait to Endorse Their Successors"}}]}] ```