Joe Biden Not Running for President in 2016, But Looks Like He is Still the Democrat’s Insurance Policy

BIDEN NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT FOR 2016 …

Yesterday Vice President Joe Biden announced that he was not going to run for the Democrat nomination to be president of the United States. Biden made his announcement in the Rose Garden with his wife, Jill, and Obama standing beside him. The continued delay in a decision by Biden all but sealed his final decision. To be honest, it never seemed like Biden ever wanted to run but was more a less just a fallback insurance policy if candidate Hillary Clinton crashed and burned. That could still happen. There is two things here that are glaring for Democrats. One, are you telling me that there is no one in the Democrat party of any substance to run for President? Look at the field, basically there is Clinton and a self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders. That’s it! Second, did any one think that 72 year old crazy Uncle Joe was the answer? Joe Biden is a walking gaffe and would represent an Obama third term.

I was this close to saying yes …

It says a lot about US politics that it was lack of time that apparently convinced Joe Biden against launching a White House bid. His announcement came 101 days before the Iowa caucus — the first contest in America’s primary calendar — and more than a year before the presidential election. Mr Biden conveyed his decision a few hours after Canada finished its longest ever general election, which took all of 78 days.

Yet in the US context, Mr Biden’s decision is entirely rational. Raising money — particularly enough to compete with a machine as well-oiled as Hillary Clinton’s — takes time. So does grieving (Mr Biden’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May). So too does finding good operatives to build ground games in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and beyond. It also takes energy. At 72, would Mr Biden have had the vim to race around the country raising money while carrying out his vice-presidential duties? In other circumstances, perhaps. But the prospect looks exhausting if Mrs Clinton is your full-time opponent.

Yet it is also hard to believe Mr Biden was not swayed by Mrs Clinton’s robust performance in the Democratic debate last week. The vice-president set himself up as an insurance policy against the implosion of Mrs Clinton’s campaign. As her numbers fell during the summer amid the drip-drip of leaks and allegations about her private email account, the Biden option looked ever more enticing to senior Democrats. A bad first debate would have reinforced doubts about Mrs Clinton’s lacklustre showing on the campaign trail.

How convenient for Barack Obama that he now does not have to make a choice for an endorsement between Biden and Clinton. I will say it again, what a lack of talent that Democrats have on their bench for voters to choose from.