The phrase “Joe Biden is an idiot” is a fairly common one. Especially in more conservative circles, old uncle Joe is a steady source of comedy material. His gaffe-prone personality allows us to constantly dismiss him as a serious contender for the White House.
Yet, I think that he has the best chance of any Democrat nominee to dethrone Hillary from her perch where she assumingly resides until her all-but-promised coronation. It really doesn’t seem that there is a strong Democrat nominee running for President this time around, but Joe Biden would be the strongest.
This says a great deal about the state of the Democrat party. Hillary is a weak frontrunner trailing more baggage than my family’s fleet headed to South Carolina for vacation. No one trusts her. The word most closely associated with her at this point is “liar.”
She has no real record of accomplishment and a seemingly endless record of failure: from Benghazi to the disastrous foreign policy that she promulgated as Secretary of State under President Obama to her failed attempt to implement Universal Health Care as a Senator in the 90’s. The recent email scandal just tops it all off.
There is not currently a serious competitor with the name recognition and the money to challenge her for the nomination, but even Bernie Sanders is head-to-head with her in the polls. It’s a problem when a declared socialist is not just gaining ground on you in an American political campaign, but starting to pass you.
This is where old uncle Joe comes to the rescue: he has the name recognition. He has the political connections to bring in the money.
The hard-line progressives who rejected Hillary in 2008 and elected Obama to the white House are looking for a new standard bearer. Biden is a far safer bet than Saunders on this count. And the Obama administration has indicated that it would be friendly to a Biden run. It really isn’t a secret that Obama dislikes Hillary and has a great deal of affection for Biden. A large part of that is that Biden is loyal to the Democratic cause and the Obama administration while still connecting himself to blue-collar voters and progressives. Biden is the only nominee who would defend the Obama administration’s agenda. He recognizes that this election is going to be colored by a large degree by the last eight years of President Obama as much as 2008 was impacted by George Bush.
Obama’s eight years are a massive liability, but the damage is not going to be minimized by running away from it. To the contrary, the Democrats hope is to galvanize a high turnout and that means going on the offense, not playing defense and trying to distance one’s self from the administration which Hillary has been trying and failing to do. It just doesn’t work.
At least Biden would embrace the liberal and progressive agenda with both arms and passionately advocate for greater adherence to the Democrat agenda. Biden is very well liked among both democrats and independents according to recent Quinnipiac University Polling, registering at 83 percent favorability rating among Democrats and 48 percent favorability rating overall. These numbers are seven and nine points above Clinton, respectively. According to the same research, he beats the leading Republican candidates by a much more significant margin than Hillary does. It’s because Biden is likable. He is trusted.
Biden doesn’t need any Republican voters to come his way, anyway. The biggest issue Biden faces is his age, an issue that Hillary faces as well. At 72, he would be the oldest President ever to assume office by five years.
The very gaffes we find so imbecilic democrats often find endearing. Independents seem to find them unscripted and genuine. Democrats thought the same thing about Bush, who then went on to prove that just because the other party’s voters think you are a moron means that the rest of the country does.
