<p>When US President Barack Obama's chances of being re-elected appeared bleak in 2012, his top aides had considered replacing Vice President Joe Biden with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the campaign, according to a new book.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Obama's top aides even undertook extensive focus-group sessions about replacing Biden and polling in late 2011, when the President's re-election for a second term appeared uncertain.<br /><br />It was, however, concluded that while Clinton was more popular than Biden, who was known as the "gaffe-prone Uncle Joe", the step would not offer a significant enough political boost to Obama to justify such a radical move, journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann write in their new book "Double Down" about the 2012 presidential race.<br /><br />The idea of replacing Biden with Clinton was pushed by then Chief of Staff William Daley despite his close personal rapport with the Vice President, the book says.<br /><br />"When the research came back near the end of the year, it suggested that adding Clinton to the ticket wouldn't materially improve Obama"s odds," it says.<br /><br />"Biden had dodged a bullet he never saw coming — and never would know anything about, if the Obamans could keep a secret."<br /><br />Describing the plan to replace Biden with Clinton as "due diligence", Daley said he wanted to see what such a move would have meant for Obama, whose popularity in the fall of 2011 was at its lowest in his presidency to date.<br /><br />"I was vocal about looking into a whole bunch of things, and this was one of them," he told The New York Times.<br /><br />"You have to remember, at that point the President was in awful shape, so we were like, ‘Holy Christ, what do we do?’"<br /><br />The book also talks about the political equation between Obama and the Clintons, saying the President could barely endure spending much time with the often-exhausting Bill Clinton.<br /><br />On one occasion, the two of them golfed together in September 2011, an effort which aides hoped would bring them closer. But they did not even complete an entire game."I like him (Clinton)...in doses," Obama told one of his aides after returning from the golf course.<br /><br />Earlier in the year, "Clinton held Obama captive in the presidential limo" outside a fund-raiser in New York, grabbing Obama’s hand as he reached for the door, the book says.<br /><br />Instead of having a one-on-one meal together that night, as was planned, Obama, unable to "handle any more undiluted Clinton", invited aides from both their staffs to join the dinner and talked to them about their children, rather than talking about politics with his predecessor.</p>
<p>When US President Barack Obama's chances of being re-elected appeared bleak in 2012, his top aides had considered replacing Vice President Joe Biden with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the campaign, according to a new book.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Obama's top aides even undertook extensive focus-group sessions about replacing Biden and polling in late 2011, when the President's re-election for a second term appeared uncertain.<br /><br />It was, however, concluded that while Clinton was more popular than Biden, who was known as the "gaffe-prone Uncle Joe", the step would not offer a significant enough political boost to Obama to justify such a radical move, journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann write in their new book "Double Down" about the 2012 presidential race.<br /><br />The idea of replacing Biden with Clinton was pushed by then Chief of Staff William Daley despite his close personal rapport with the Vice President, the book says.<br /><br />"When the research came back near the end of the year, it suggested that adding Clinton to the ticket wouldn't materially improve Obama"s odds," it says.<br /><br />"Biden had dodged a bullet he never saw coming — and never would know anything about, if the Obamans could keep a secret."<br /><br />Describing the plan to replace Biden with Clinton as "due diligence", Daley said he wanted to see what such a move would have meant for Obama, whose popularity in the fall of 2011 was at its lowest in his presidency to date.<br /><br />"I was vocal about looking into a whole bunch of things, and this was one of them," he told The New York Times.<br /><br />"You have to remember, at that point the President was in awful shape, so we were like, ‘Holy Christ, what do we do?’"<br /><br />The book also talks about the political equation between Obama and the Clintons, saying the President could barely endure spending much time with the often-exhausting Bill Clinton.<br /><br />On one occasion, the two of them golfed together in September 2011, an effort which aides hoped would bring them closer. But they did not even complete an entire game."I like him (Clinton)...in doses," Obama told one of his aides after returning from the golf course.<br /><br />Earlier in the year, "Clinton held Obama captive in the presidential limo" outside a fund-raiser in New York, grabbing Obama’s hand as he reached for the door, the book says.<br /><br />Instead of having a one-on-one meal together that night, as was planned, Obama, unable to "handle any more undiluted Clinton", invited aides from both their staffs to join the dinner and talked to them about their children, rather than talking about politics with his predecessor.</p>