When the White House announced that Joe Biden would be making an announcement in the Rose Garden with the President at his side it was pretty clear Biden was a no. The only other possibility was that Obama had moved to a level of Not Giving a F*ck mode beyond anything we’ve seen before. Obama: Okay, folks, I’ve watched both these two work on the great issues of our time. And you want Joe. Trust me. Joe’s the guy.
No, that didn’t happen.
To me, this seemed inevitable. I’m glad he decided not to run. And I say this as someone who, if I were able to choose the next President, would quite likely choose Joe Biden. I really like Joe Biden.
I like Hillary Clinton too. And that’s one of the problems here. A lot of Democrats like them both and they didn’t want to have to choose or see them fight.
The problem is that there was simply no rationale, no time and no strategy that made this a viable effort. Biden wasn’t going to out democratic socialism Bernie Sanders. He might have some luck dislodging some center-left support from Hillary Clinton. But she’s got a huge personal constituency, the Clinton legacy and a mandate of history as a possible first female president. Those are the two poles that define the Democratic party – and there are two people currently in the race with strong holds on them.
Absent a catastrophic collapse of the Clinton campaign, it was hard for me to see where a Biden campaign wasn’t a high teens, low twenties run, running respectably but never able to move into a dominant position. And rather than collapsing, Hillary appears to be rebounding.
That’s a ‘what the hell’ run. At his age, with his recent family losses and with the respect and admiration he’s built in seven years of the vice presidency, as the President’s most loyal and sage advisor, a ‘what the hell’ run does not make sense. I’m bummed not to see him run. And I’m bummed Joe Biden will never be President. But this was the right decision.
