Biden should run. Now

[teflepi]

..
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden tosses a stuffed animal to children in Villa Nueva on the outskirts of Guatemala …
It’s doubtful that many voters care as much about Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails as reporters do. They’re probably not too wound up over the foreign contributions flowing into her family foundation, either.
Cumulatively, though, these latest headlines about Clinton, along with other stories sure to come, reinforce her vulnerabilities as a candidate. Democratic primary voters are about to be reminded on a semiweekly basis of what left a lot of them so ambivalent about Hillary in 2008 — namely, the perception that the Clintons are like an unregulated industry within the party, impervious to scrutiny and contemptuous of anyone who would get in their way.

And this is why, if I were Joe Biden, and if I still harbored designs on the Oval Office down the hall, I’d be inclined to ignore what the insiders were saying. I’d run, and I’d run now.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the concerted effort to make Clinton her party’s nominee by acclamation and why I found it disturbing. As I said then, she might well be a good president, and possibly even an inspiring one, but there’s just something unseemly about the liberal reformers of the ’60s generation, men and women who fought to create a more democratic nominating process back in the day, now trying to back down anyone who would challenge the establishment’s candidate.

The question you hear most often from skeptics, though, is who that would be. There’s Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, who apparently went after Clinton with a jab at “triangulation” last week, but who hasn’t yet introduced himself to most voters or offered any real argument of his own. There’s Jim Webb, who would probably have a better shot running as an independent. There’s Bernie Sanders, who’s an avowed socialist, and Elizabeth Warren, who sounds more like a Jacobin.

And then there’s the 72-year-old Biden, who is mostly left out of this conversation — not because he hasn’t repeatedly signaled an interest in running, but because the handicapping crowd has never taken him all that seriously as a foil to Hillary. Biden has a well-known tendency to get caught up in the moment and say things that are impolitic or even partly untrue, which in Washington tends to make you a figure of ridicule, though in most other places it’s known as having a pulse.

The accepted wisdom where Biden is concerned is that you can’t have two establishment candidates representing continuity from the same administration, so the best he can do is to wait on the sidelines, keep his options open and hope that maybe Hillary decides to do something else in the twilight of her life, like bring a football team to Los Angeles, or anchor the “Nightly News” on NBC.

Biden’s instincts have to tell him something different, though. After 40-plus years in Washington, he has to know that no one ever really gets plucked off the sidelines when the opening arrives; you have to create the opening yourself. He has to know, too, that the insiders are almost always wrong, and the further out from an actual election you are, the more wrong they tend to be.

Biden is a better candidate than most pundits have ever given him credit for. Yeah, he’s sloppy and meandering and says some nutty stuff. But that’s all part of being genuine and three-dimensional, which may be the most valuable trait in modern politics and not a bad contrast to Clinton’s robotic discipline.

Not incidentally, Biden is especially popular in Iowa, where he first campaigned for president in 1988, and where he retains unusually strong ties. (The Clintons, you may recall, have never met with great affection there.) I remember being struck, in 2008, by the regularity with which Iowa Democrats told me that Biden was their second choice and would have been first if they thought he could actually win.

Biden’s a middle-class champion who makes the case for economic fairness with more conviction than Clinton and less vitriol than Warren. He’s a serious thinker on foreign policy who opposes rampant interventionism without sounding like a pacifist. He more than holds his own as a debater.

And Biden has nothing to lose by making one last run before riding the Amtrak back to Delaware for good. He’s already been through the unthinkable death of his first wife and infant daughter in a car crash in 1972; a trumped-up plagiarism scandal that very nearly ruined his political career in 1988; brain surgery that threatened his life later that same year. There’s nothing the Clinton machine can do to the guy that hasn’t already been done.

But the main reason I’d tell Biden to run now is that you can’t actually know the shape of the Democratic field unless and until you jump into it. And that’s because very few people on the planet — possibly only people named Clinton — know what’s really in Hillary’s mind, and in her stomach.

We know this about Clinton: She wants to be president and is building a formidable organization to make it happen. She doesn’t see any adversary who would be a serious obstacle to the nomination, and the insiders pushing her to run insist she won’t have to worry about one.

Of course she seems 100 percent determined to run. If you’d offered that same deal to Al Gore in 2004, or John Kerry in 2008, or Mitt Romney last month, any of them would have grabbed it in a heartbeat.

But if a Biden gets in the race, suddenly that calculus is slightly different. Now, if you’re Clinton, you have to ask yourself: Are you really up for slugging it out in all those primaries all over again, with the nonstop debating and parrying and standing in the bitter cold at 5 a.m., all with the very real chance that you could lose? Do you really want to risk your hard-won standing as a stateswoman on a bruising campaign against the only politician who has a stronger claim to Obama’s legacy among liberal voters?

The answer is probably yes, that Clinton’s a candidate, serious opponent or not. But there’s no way for Biden to be sure of that unless he forces her to make the choice. Just as important, there’s probably no way for Clinton herself to know until the gut check is real.

“I’m in it to win it” was Hillary’s garish bumper sticker when she entered the 2008 race. Her party deserves to know that she isn’t running again just because her path is clear. And Joe Biden has more than earned the right to stand in it.

[teflepi]

news.yahoo.com/biden-should-run--now-221648790.html;_ylt=A0LEV0xuevhUyeMAJSDBGOd_

[heyjude]

I think Biden is the only old white dude that could have a chance. But.... Yawn.

[jillboston]

I think he would be great and would probably win. But I also think the HRC email stuff will ultimately blow over and I would rather see her with the nomination

[pixy0stix]

I like him, but......

[ESF]

No.

Does anyone remember when Obama and Biden made their big announcement? And Obama announced his name, and Biden started to jog across the stage and lost his stamina and had to slow down?

That's what a Biden Campaign would be like. "OH!!!! Joe Biden! ! Look at him go! Oh, wait...errrr...uhhh... well. this is boring."

[teflepi]

The secondary title was "it's the only way to see what Hillary is willing to risk." I think it would be interesting.

[Deleted]

Oh no.  I mean, if it came down to it, I'd vote for him.  But he has a Dukakis problem.

[pixy0stix]

I do want to see him debate again, though. The vice pres debate last year was amazing.

[ESF]

Mar 5, 2015 11:12:04 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I do want to see him debate again, though. The vice pres debate last year was amazing.

YES

The absolute best debate performance ever.

[heyjude]

He's also got that whole groping problem.

[onomatopoeia]

Biden is 72? Huh. I like him but not for president. VP for Hilary, maybe.

[Velar Fricative]

I like Crazy Uncle Joe and originally I thought he was the only other D who'd seriously vie for the nomination but I'm starting to think he won't throw his name in. And I'm not sure I'd want him to anyway. He's had a pretty formidable political career and it's probably best for him to not end it with losing the primary or POTUS election. Go out a champion, Joe. And stop groping people.

[pixy0stix]

lol, I just realized I typed last year. I meant last election. sigh...

[Velar Fricative]

Mar 5, 2015 11:34:38 GMT -5 onomatopoeia said:

Biden is 72? Huh. I like him but not for president. VP for Hilary, maybe.

Yup, and he'll be 74 in November 2016.

[chedifuen]

I also like him but I don't think he could win it. A lot of people don't take him seriously as a leader. Plus, he's too old and too established.

I'd vote for him if I had to but I'm very unlikely to support him in the primary.

[mrspez07]

This articulates some things about HRC better than I was doing when explaining my lack of love for her and why I don't think she's a good D option. Personality is a big one here.

[heyjude]

The democrats mock the GOP bench (as they should). But the democrats have NO BENCH. If Email Gate gets bigger, we have no one to replace HRC. Say hello to President Walker!!!

Lesson: no more 4 year in advance coronations!!!!! We have really shot ourself in the foot here.

AND SHE HASN'T EVEN ANNOUNCED!!!!!!!!!!!!

*kicks things*

[StrawberryBlondie]

I like Joe. I think he'd be a good president. I also think he's a little too old and a little too Crazy Uncle Joe.

[downtoearth]

Biden isn't bad, but he's another old white dude (who is very chipper) and I think he'd act like this if left in charge...

[msmerymac]

I pink puffy heart Joe Biden. But I think he has a slight image problem. Crazy Uncle Joe. He's always one for the gaffs! LOLZ.

I think he would be decent, but I think he would have obstacles in the general election, and I think he's a touch old, though he has a daughter close to my age and is certainly of sound mind.

I don't even know if I see him with a cabinet position. More likely retiring after 2016? But he does act fairly young, really. Compared to most Oldz.

[mcfelix]

I would rather have Biden as president than O'Malley. But I'd prefer Hilary over either of them.

Maryland resident checking in, so O'Malley has been my mayor and governor. Liked him as mayor, not so much as governor.

[summer]

No shade, but Dems can't do better?

[andrealynn]

I wish Hickenlooper would run.

[jeaniebueller]

He's old. And I don't like how handsy he is with everyone.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 5, 2015 15:16:00 GMT -5 andrealynn said:

I wish Hickenlooper would run.

You bite your tongue.

[downtoearth]

Mar 5, 2015 15:00:40 GMT -5 summer said:

No shade, but Dems can't do better?

I think there are actually a lot of governor or gov-level people who would be good except they don't have a ton of national experience/exposure. 

Cuomo, O'Malley, Hickenlooper, Schweitzer, and I'm sure there are others that I'm not familiar with.

Just the other night I heard/read about Kamal Harris from CA - she's the CA attorney general and running for Senate next year, but after reading about her, I think she'd be great to skip the Senate step and go into the White House, but I doubt others would see that.

Also, the Atlanta mayor, Reed is well liked and starting to get more involved in National politics, right?

We talked about Julian Castro from TX as a smart option and we've talked Cory Booker.

I'd go for Nancy Pelosi also, but she and Warren have said they won't.

Oh and doesn't Biden have a son in politics... Beau? We could go Biden only younger.

[Velar Fricative]

Cuomo is overrated. If it came down to him and Walker, the heads of all teachers would explode.

I see Castro as a VP possibility, not POTUS.

I see a lot of skeletons coming out of Booker's closet if he runs.

[heyjude]

The problem is the Rs have been preparing for 2016 since 2008 and 2012. They have people (dudes, mostly white) making waves (for being bat shit crazy) on the national stage. Meanwhile the democrats can't do anything until HRC makes up her mind (officially). No one can saber rattle because she's in the way. Kamala is amazing but can't run for president! Not yet anyway. No one knows her. All the other names listed: who, who, who, who? This would have all worked (and may still) if the Clintons would quit being so damn Clintonian all the time.

[teflepi]

Mar 5, 2015 11:43:23 GMT -5 heyjude said:

The democrats mock the GOP bench (as they should). But the democrats have NO BENCH. If Email Gate gets bigger, we have no one to replace HRC. Say hello to President Walker!!!

Lesson: no more 4 year in advance coronations!!!!! We have really shot ourself in the foot here.

AND SHE HASN'T EVEN ANNOUNCED!!!!!!!!!!!!

*kicks things*

I think Jeb Bush is the front runner. I'd be really surprised if Walker makes it far at all.