Who can forget the embarrassing press conference in which Biden, flanked by Obama, announced that he wouldn’t run against Hillary?

It was a doubly awkward moment because the Veep had been unprecedentedly upstaged by the administration’s Secretary of State, and because Biden had lost the backing of the one man he needed so badly.

The man who left him at the altar and might leave him again.

Biden’s run is largely based on being Obama’s veep. His previous presidential ambitions never came to much. But what he offers these days is the ability to link up Obama’s base of black voters with working class white voters in the east.

It’s not clear that Biden can deliver either constituency. But without Obama, he’s got nothing. And yet Obama, who picked Biden, keeps talking to other candidates. Biden isn’t satisfying Barry. And that’s bad news.

What Obama wants is Obama II. It’s why he zoomed in on Robert Francis O’Rourke. And Andy, who took a beating in Florida. He’s an egomaniac and sees something of himself in their phony personas and naked ambition.

Biden can’t be Obama II. And much as he promises to carry on Obama’s legacy, he’s spent eight years around him, and Barry ain’t buying it. Not when Biden had to humiliate Obama by showboating on gay marriage. A betrayal that Obama never forgave him for.

President Biden would be his own man. He’s as egomaniacal in his own way. And wouldn’t remain in Obama’s shadow.

So Obama is once again hunting around for alternatives to Uncle Joe.