President Barack Obama discusses the presidential campaign with “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday. | Getty Obama nudges for Hillary, hopes for unity The president stops short of a full-blown endorsement. But there's little question about where he stands.

NEW YORK — Still not a Hillary Clinton endorsement — but edging closer and closer.

And literally laughing about running against Donald Trump.


Obama didn’t leave much question, telling “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon that Clinton “is whip smart, she is tough, and she deeply cares about working people and putting kids through school and making sure we’re growing our economy.”

Then, asked by Fallon whether he thinks Republicans are happy with their nominee, Obama said, “We are, but I don’t know how they’re feeling.”

Obama, who’s seen as nudging Bernie Sanders toward an end for his active run against Clinton, also praised the Vermont senator for bringing “enormous energy” and “new ideas” through his campaign, adding that he thinks the primary process “made Hillary a better candidate.”

And ahead of his Oval Office meeting with Sanders scheduled for 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, Obama said he’s trying for, but not yet fully confident in Democratic unity.

“My hope is that over the next couple of weeks is we’re able to pull things together,” Obama said.

Obama’s support for Clinton is hardly a secret. Repeatedly through the race, he spoke warmly about her and said she had the right résumé to do the job, though he always stopped short of an outright endorsement. Tuesday night, he called her to congratulate her on securing the nomination. Wednesday morning, he reflected on Clinton’s becoming the first female major party nominee with aides aboard Marine One on his way to Andrews Air Force Base.

“We were talking on the helicopter about the powerful speech that Secretary Clinton delivered last night. It was a historic moment,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One traveling to New York. “The president was struck by the historic nature of last night’s speech.”

Obama didn’t stay up to watch Sanders’ speech, which started close to 1:30 a.m. Washington time.

In phone calls in recent days with both Clinton and Sanders, Obama has been making ever clearer that he’s getting tired of the dance. Less than 24 hours after the last big primaries (though a week before the Washington, D.C., primary) and Sanders’ last major gambit to shake up the race by pulling out a win in California, Obama came as close as he has to fully signing on.

While Clinton was also here in New York, Obama didn’t appear in person with her, or make the surprise stop by her Brooklyn headquarters that some had speculated would be on his schedule. A joint event is expected soon, as Clinton begins her general election campaign in earnest. Next week, she’ll do events in Ohio and Pennsylvania, both states that Donald Trump is hoping to edge her out in as he tries to create a competitive electoral map.

Earnest said Obama wouldn’t make a “formal” endorsement until at least after Obama’s meeting with Sanders. The Vermont senator is scheduled to do a rally in Washington later Thursday evening.

White House aides had expected the Democratic race to be wrapped up months ago, and had rough plans for Obama to be hitting the campaign trail by April. As the fight between Sanders wore on and the president’s poll numbers continued to rise, inside and outside the Oval Office there was a growing hunger to get him out on the trail.

Earnest said he wouldn’t rule out Obama hitting the trail ahead of the Democratic convention in late July, but declined any further detail.

Republicans seem just as eager to make Obama an issue to rev up their own base, where hatred of the president runs high. For months, they’ve been attacking the Obama-Clinton agenda, and Trump attacked the president again in his victory speech on Tuesday night. He’s also warned that he feels Obama is fair game to attack personally if the president campaigns against him.

Meanwhile, aides have for months predicted that Obama will be campaigning extensively for Clinton and for House and Senate candidates. Wednesday, in addition to his appearance on “Tonight,” he was in town for fundraisers for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee.

From the Clinton campaign on down, the eagerness to have Obama on the trail is an almost complete turnaround from the midterms two years ago, when Democrats nearly disavowed any association with him and were specifically not putting in requests for him to appear with them on the trail. Plans are underway for how and where to deploy him, since the president is immensely popular with Democratic donors and with the Democratic base — including among African-Americans, Latinos, younger voters and city residents, as all White House employees love to point out.

“It is an objective fact that in states all across the country that President Obama’s approval rating among Democrats is higher than anybody else’s. The same applies to independents by the way,” Earnest said. “That means the president is a particularly influential advocate for the Democratic nominee in the general election.”

