It is basically official. Biden will be the straight-talking, blue collar, non-Clinton alternative to Ms. Clinton. So what if he is polling at 12% to Clinton’s 72%? He has always wanted to be the President of the United States and you have 0% chance of making the shots you don’t take.
Would he be a good President? Well, what’s your criteria? He would be better than any of the Republican alternatives, to be sure. Would he be better than Hillary Clinton? I guess we’ll be able to hear him make the case for why he would. In the process I only hope that he doesn’t load up the GOP with a lot of ammunition to use against her if (when?) he falls short.
Over the Christmas holidays, Biden convened a series of meetings at his secluded two-story house in Wilmington to discuss his strategy for the next two years, surrounded by his sister, son Hunter, Kaufman, Klain, Ricchetti, Murray and Mike Donilon. The basic plan entails hitting the road as much as possible to campaign for candidates in this year’s congressional elections and to tout infrastructure improvements around the country. Klain, according to several sources, has drafted another one of his famous memos outlining the narrowest of paths for positioning Biden in the 2016 race: either as a progressive alternative to Clinton or as an heir apparent, ready to pounce if she decides not to run. Klain predicted there was a “significant” chance Clinton would take a pass, due to illness or a reluctance to endure the personal trials of another presidential run. The others at the Biden retreat also came away feeling that Clinton would ultimately decide not to run—an indication of stunning prescience or group delusion.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/joe-biden-profile-103667_Page5.html#ixzz2vNXFxV5F
Just based on that I don’t see a problem. If he is running as the progressive alternative to Clinton, that doesn’t open up a bunch of lines of attack for the GOP, and if he is just going to hang around in case she stumbles, quits or begs off, then what’s the harm?