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| Vice President Joe Biden is contemplating a run for the presidency |
Los Angeles, CA - In the halls of the New York Campaign Headquarters of Hillary Clinton, there is trouble brewing. Two days ago, a poll was released showing that 61% of Americans feel that the former first lady is untrustworthy. In key battleground states, Clinton is losing support of far left-wing socialist Bernie Sanders, and Mrs. Clinton is beginning to elicit lower and lower favorability ratings. As if all that were not bad enough, now she is being investigated by the FBI for possible illegal activities involved her email scandal.
The Democratic Party is already in trouble across the nation as they are beginning to feel a lack of young talent springing up across the country due to the fact that Republicans control so many state houses, thus denying the upper echelons of the party new faces and names which are so pivotal to remaining the ruling party. With Clinton in trouble, with Sanders not even a registered Democrat and the establishment of the Democratic Party needing someone to represent them, especially if the current FBI investigation into Clinton turns up damaging things, the party is looking around for someone with high name recognition, high favorability ratings, and someone who comes across as all around nice guy. To that they need look no further than the vice president, former six time senator and career Washington insider Joe Biden.
In recent weeks it has been reported that Biden, who son Beau tragically passed away recently, and as a death bed wish begged his father to run for president, has been meeting with staff and possible donors trying to gage the possibilities of a run for the Democratic Nomination. There is a “Draft Biden” campaign going on at elite levels across the country in attempts create excitement and ultimately convince the number two man in the country to add to Clinton’s problems by throwing his hat into the ring.
Were Biden to run, he would certainly be getting into the race late, and thus have the problems and advantages that come with that. The minuses would be things like he’s starting late, a lot of people are already committed. The cons would be that he’s starting late, and has less time to make the famous Biden gaffes.
But whether or not Biden, who is past seventy years old, and does not have the fire of a Trump or a Cruz, ether of whom could win the GOP nomination, wins, he could be an important piece for the Democratic Establishment, simply as a liberal voice in the media and in the public sphere for the next year as they seek to rush new faces to the forefront, such as the Castro brothers and others.
And he would be an especially good man to be there to pick up the pieces were Hillary’s already weakening campaign to topple over and implode.
The idea of an insurance policy in case the front runner falls apart is not new. Indeed we look no further than the same year, in 1988, as Biden himself once ran, although this insurance plan was on the Republican side. Some higher ups were concerned that the then vice president George Bush Sr. might fall apart on the campaign trail, and so pressured Donald Rumsfeld, a Washington insider, into running. Of course, as things turned out, Bush waltzed to victory, but had he not, the GOP had a man ready just in case.
The argument might be made by some that the Democrats already have insurance policies, if not in Sanders, who certainly does not speak for the establishment, but perhaps in Lincoln Chafee, O’Malley, or Jim Webb, both longtime public servants who are also running for the nomination.
To that I would respond that those are insurance policies on which the deductible is so high they aren’t worth the premium. Nobody knows who any of them are, and O’Malley is the man who charged the people of his state a tax when it rained. One of those men winning the nomination would be a dream come true for Republicans, and even Chris Christie would be hard pressed as the GOP nominee not to win at least 49 states under those circumstances.
And even if Clinton does not fall apart, Biden getting in could mean yet another blow to her. He certainly will give her a run for her money, and what better evidence that Clinton is in real trouble than that she is suddenly running against the Vice President of the United States? Biden is only likely to get into the race if he feels Mrs. Clinton is in trouble. And him getting in could paradoxically spell even more trouble for the frontrunner. If it all goes down, as it very well might, and the good ship Clinton finally sinks, Biden could act as a life preserver of hope to a boatload of Democrats.
Andrew C. Abbott
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