Run, Biden, Run
Ross K. Baker – USA Today
The explanation could be the simple concern that some Democrats have about the other shoe that they fear will drop about private servers or classified emails, the Clinton foundation, or even Benghazi. Whatever it is, interest is heating up about one of the most familiar and appealing faces in American politics, Vice President Biden.
There is no prominent figure in American politics whose image has improved so dramatically in recent years. From being the butt of unjustified criticism that he was the clown prince of American politics, Biden is increasingly looking like the only adult in the room….
An illustration of Biden’s political skill can be shown in the deal he pulled off in 2012 with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell to avert what was called “the fiscal cliff.” It didn’t sit well with other big-name Democrats, but it showed him to be a tough and creative negotiator. His personal closeness to President Obama and the president’s willingness to delegate important jobs to Biden raise him to the level of the most effective — and consequential — vice presidents.
Joe Biden in 2016: What Would Beau Do? http://t.co/x0fKBpmsdK
— Maureen Dowd (@NYTimesDowd) August 1, 2015
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on July 1, 2015. (AP)
The Myth of Joe Biden’s Appeal
Andrew Prokop – Vox
If the rumors hold true and Joe Biden actually does run for president, he’d seem to make a formidable candidate on paper…. Yet evidence for Biden’s political appeal in the real world — among the Democratic electorate, the party, and the American public more broadly — is distinctly lacking.
During his 2008 presidential run, Biden performed abysmally, dropping out after getting less than 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Since becoming veep, he has never been particularly well-liked among the public, with whom he is viewed more unfavorably than favorably. He’s performed worse than Clinton in most polls testing both of them against major Republicans. And the party elites and interest groups that play an important role in the primary process have shown no great desire for a Biden bid, rushing to endorse Hillary Clinton rather than waiting for the veep to make up his mind.
Is Biden Too Old to Run for President?
Richard Cohen – The Washington Post
By now we know of Hillary Clinton what we have always known about Hillary Clinton: She’s a poor politician. By now we know also what we have always known about Joe Biden: He’s a gifted politician….
He cannot be the candidate of youth, the fresh new face the Democratic Party so sorely needs. Compared with some of the Republicans, he’s an old man. Jeb Bush is 62, Scott Walker is 47, and Marco Rubio is a mere 44. These are the ages of most presidents. (Kennedy remains the youngest elected president at 43; Obama was 47.)
Moreover, Biden is burdened by his past — the lamentable (but pardonable) plagiarism of a speech given by the British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock as well as the even more lamentable and still troubling alteration of his family history to fit the speech. More pertinently, Biden cannot be the Democratic left’s idea of the anti-Hillary. As a senator, he voted for the war in Iraq — a cardinal sin — although to his credit he soon had second thoughts.