Cool it on Joe Biden.
Vice President Joseph Biden’s team “is putting out the word that he is leaning in favor of joining the presidential race next month,” the Washington Times reports.
Said Democratic bundler Jon Cooper: “They have given increasingly strong signals that Biden is going to throw his hat in the ring. I’m as confident as I can be that he will be entering the race.”
There have been several pieces like that, in other publications, quoting one Democratic fundraiser or one staff member. And the sense I get when I read that is that, far from being a planned leak from the Biden camp or from the Vice President himself, it is an effort to nudge the Vice President into the race. Edward Issac-Dovere and Gabriel Debendetti at Politico agree:
Joe Biden’s trial balloon is being inflated without him.
Seriously, people who claim to be insiders say, he’s going to run. Probably going to run. Definitely thinking about running. They think. Or they want to think. It’s not that Biden’s done anything different since the last round of will he/won’t he stories.
It’s not that he’s put together a campaign staff or made any of the most preliminary of moves to show he’s interested in a 2016 White House run.
But even as the vice president has focused on healing himself and his family after the death of his son Beau last month, there’s a group of people who can’t stop talking to him about his prospects, encouraging him to run. And they can’t stop talking to reporters about what they’ve said and what they think they’ve heard back, either.
Look, if a sitting Vice President wanted to run for President, he of course wants to run as the incumbent President’s third term and natural successor, since obviously the President chose the Vice President to be his partner for the last eight years. It was what the elder Bush did. It was what Al Gore should have done (and if he did he would have won). But Vice President Biden has allowed Hillary Clinton to fill that role. Hillary Clinton is running as President Obama’s third term and natural successor. The role of the scrappy insurgent / challenger has already been filled twice over by Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. The role of the no-hope-vanity-project single issue candidate have been filled twice over by Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb, though we don’t know what specific issue they will be running on. So where is there room for Vice President Biden? Where is his constituency?
The answer is to be a Plan B should Hillary Clinton die or be unable to run. That’s his role. And my sense is running for President is the last thing on the Vice President’s mind right now, for obvious reasons.
But is not enough for the Biden backers who are so often quoted in stories like these on Biden’s potential candidacy. Ed Kilgore says that the untimely death of Beau Biden has now become a talking point for Biden backers.
While these folks clearly don’t need much oxygen to keep this hope alive, they are having to deal with the unseemly nature of such talk when the object of their ambitions and his family are still mourning the untimely death of Beau Biden. The most outspoken Biden booster, the South Carolina Democratic warhorse Dick Harpootlian, has gotten pretty close to the edge by working that tragedy into his talking points:
“That the VP was back in D.C. yesterday standing next to the president was a good sign for those of us that want him to do this,” said Dick Harpootlian, the former South Carolina Democratic chairman who’s always eager to boost Biden’s prospects — and told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that Beau Biden had wanted his dad to run.
Harpootlian is always the go-to guy for a quote on whether Joe Biden is going to run, as evidenced by the News Journal front page story last Sunday. This man is a true believer, but he needs to cool his jets. He is a professional politico, and he should realize the dynamics that I have laid out above: the only room for Biden is if Clinton bows out. Given that, he should shut the fuck up about what Beau Biden wanted. That’s just … unseemly is the word but it doesn’t convey how garish it is. The narrative of personal tragedy with respect to Joe and the late Beau Biden writes itself, and will be there waiting for Biden if he is the Plan B down the road, all without Dick Harpootlian forcing it down our throats.
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10-4 on the cool the jets, Biden should do other things besides politics at this point.
The only wrinkle is that he REALLY wants to be President, and it seems so close.
That sounds about right.
Someone is feeling the need for insurance against a Sanders nomination should Hillary be unable to run.
First if you want to consider the clinton-biden matchup, read jennifer rubin’s column that was reprinted in yesterday’s newsjournal. Thye only thing which is reflected in national polling that makes her the presumptive candidate is that she’s not running against anyone of substance. I actually think she fit the electorate better in 2008 before she became wealthy and .controversial. If you read bob woodward’s book Obamas War, clinton and Petraus were in favor of a surge of 100thosand while Biden and Tom Donlanthe National security advisor argued that we needed to start getting out. Fortunately Obama listened to Biden cut the surge to 30 thousand and started the process of withdrawl. Her poll numbers in New Hampshire against Sandars are alarming roughly 40%to 30%. reminds one of mccarthy and Lbj Her Iowa numbers would hardly discourage a substantive candidate from entering the race. Also Biden still has strong political supporters in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Also Hillary would not look forward to debating Biden. Biden has the ability to bring together blue collar more conservative voters,catholics and warren anti bank anti business populists. Hillary’s has a significant gender advantage, but it’s hardly dispositive
When you see the right wing [Rubin, Wash Times] urging Joe into the race, perspective is needed:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_07/bernie_hillaryand_joe056410.php
It was Bobby Kennedy and LBJ, not “mccarthy” Anyway, I like Bernie as much as anyone. He isn’t going to be the nominee and neither is Biden.
Jason, I don’t know how old you were in 1968. I was a politically very active adult with a very good memory. There is certainly an abundance of history to disprove your assertion. The easiest being Wikopedia which states ” In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first candidate to challenge the incumbent President Lyndon B Johnson, running on an anti Viet Nam war platform. The unexpected vote total that he achieved in the New Hampshire primary and his strong polling in the upcoming Wisconsin primary led Johnson to withdraw from the race and lured Robert Kennedy into the contest.” Anti war progressives rightly considered McCarthy a hero
I blame my public school education.
Joe should run for Delaware Gov instead because outside of DE he has little appeal.
“Little appeal”? He polls at about 13%, roughly even with Bernie Sanders, which is about what you’d expect of a sitting VP of his age.
Let Joe run, DD! But, your always on the pulse of the Biden’s.
Biden would do himself no favors with entering the race this late. He should form an exploratory committee and if Clinton falls under a criminal investigation jump in. As one person said, he has little appeal for the Presidency. A sitting V. P. should not be any less than 30% at this point.