The White House has played an active role in clearing the field for Gillibrand, who was appointed earlier this year to fill the seat vacated when Obama tapped Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state. Obama asked Rep. Steve Israel not to challenge Gillibrand, a request he honored. Just days ago, Vice President Joe Biden called Maloney to discuss the race, a clear sign that the White House didn’t want a primary fight next year.

The Clinton-Obama relationship has always been strained, ever since Obama overtook Hillary in her bid for a history and a return to the White House. Obama appointed her as Secretary of State for his own political needs, not out of any sense of expertise on Hillary’s part for diplomacy. It took her almost no time to demonstrate that herself, with unforced errors like proclaiming her complete bemusement on multi-party democracy and the “reset” button she presented Sergei Lavrov that was mistranslated " and not in Cyrillic script, eith

If the politics between the two have stopped working, then Obama has no other need for Hillary. If Obama jettisons her, though, Hillary could turn into a formidable foe within the Democratic Party, and might wind up challenging an Obama re-election bid the way Ted Kennedy did to Jimmy Carter, which turned into a disaster for both men. How much defiance can Obama handle?

Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told reporters last week that the White House would help Gillibrand’s re-election bid.