I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like our vice-president doesn’t always get the kind of respect he deserves.
[Barbara] Boxer, who was a colleague of Biden’s during his long years in the Senate, told Politico on Wednesday that there was no reason for him to run. She was speaking after a televised debate on Tuesday among the Democrats who have announced they are running.
“I just don’t think there’s a rationale for his campaign,” the California senator said. “I think he should endorse Hillary and go out that way.”
When I see stuff like that it makes me want to explain possible rationales for a Biden campaign for the presidency.
I’ve been meaning to get to that, but it’s been one thing or another getting in my way and it just hasn’t happened.
While I’m dithering, I keep seeing shots across Biden’s bow. I mean, if you have to bring up Anita Hill to bash the man, I think you’re living in amber.
I don’t know if Clinton disingenuously came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership to differentiate herself from Sanders or from Biden (as the BBC suggests), but everyone knows who was in charge of pushing that agreement in Obama’s first term, and it wasn’t the vice-president.
All I know is that it looks at least as likely that he will get in than that he will not, and the window is closing so we’ll hear soon enough.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t carved out enough time to thoroughly explain a rationale for Biden’s candidacy, but I will give you three things to research and discuss:
1. Character matters- politicians accumulate voting records that reflect their unique constituencies. Sanders represents a state that is skeptical of gun control. Clinton represented Wall Street. Biden represented that corporate tax haven of Delaware. You want to hold these things against them, go ahead. But they don’t mean shit, really. No matter who wins they Democratic nomination, they will face implacable congressional opposition to anything they want to do legislatively. We choose parties by ideology, but we ought to pick presidents by character. I like Biden’s character and I have more trust in his heart than I do the hearts of his most likely opponents.
2. Foreign Policy matters- whenever Biden and Clinton have disagreed on foreign policy in the last decade, I’ve found myself in Biden’s camp, or closer to it anyway.
3. Electability matters- it’s just my opinion and my opinion can certainly be wrong, but I think that between Biden, Clinton, and Sanders, it’s Biden who is acceptable to the greatest number of people. It could be that he’s too undisciplined, too much of a gaffe-machine, to take advantage of the good will people have towards him, but almost no one hates Joe Biden and even fewer people fear him.
I’m not going to tell you that Biden is head and shoulders above Clinton and Sanders or that he’d magically be able to get things done in DC just because he gets along better with the Republicans. I just think he has the best character, better foreign policy instincts than Clinton, and a better chance to avoid blowing a winnable election than the others.
That’s the Cliff Notes.
That’s why I hope he gets in.