Following the circus that unfolded in real-time on CNN at the Reagan Library last Wednesday, and considering that your choices on the Democratic ticket are essentially limited to an entrenched member of America’s political aristocracy who’s facing an FBI investigation and a radical socialist who wants to implement the largest peacetime increase in government spending in modern history, you’d be forgiven for suggesting that, as bad as things are now in Washington, they may get far worse starting January 1, 2017.
Over the past three months, we’ve documented the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, noting that their shockingly high poll numbers reflect the fact that Americans are fed up with business as usual inside the Beltway and are ready to see real (as opposed to Obama-brand) “change.”
That said, Sanders’ plan to turn big government into huge government and Trump’s rather haphazard, ad hoc platform have left some voters wondering if perhaps this isn’t exactly the type of “change” they want after all.
With the GOP field showing few signs of narrowing (Rick Perry’s exit notwithstanding) and even fewer signs of getting less crazy, and with Hillary Clinton polling worse now than at the same point in the cycle in 2008, calls for Joe Biden to enter the race have grown and a meeting between the Vice President and Democratic heavyweight Elizabeth Warren last month fueled speculation that Biden was preparing to announce. Now, as WSJ reports [10], it appears as though Biden will indeed make a run at The White House in 2016. Here’s more:
Vice President Joe Biden’s aides in recent days called Democratic donors and supporters to suggest he is more likely than not to enter the 2016 race, and their discussions have shifted toward the timing of an announcement, said people familiar with the matter.
While the Biden team is still debating the best time to jump in, the vice president met Monday with his political advisers and talked about the merits of an early entry that would assure him a place in the Democratic debate scheduled for Oct. 13. They also are honing his campaign message and moving ahead with plans to raise money and hire staff, the people said.
“It’s my sense that this is happening, unless they change their minds,” said one person who spoke to Biden aides last weekend.
Mr. Biden’s entry would coincide with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s ramped-up efforts to reassure her backers that the probes into her use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state won’t derail her candidacy. That controversy has produced a month of bad headlines for Mrs. Clinton and helped boost her chief rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in the polls. A Biden bid could make her road to the Democratic nomination even tougher.
The Democratic debate next month is one of two important events in October that are on the minds of Mr. Biden’s top advisers as they consider a campaign start date.
Democratic National Committee leaders have scheduled only four debates before the Iowa caucuses set for Feb. 1. Delaying a presidential announcement would mean passing on a chance to appear before a national TV audience and make the case that he would be a better nominee than Mrs. Clinton. Yet as a sitting vice president, Mr. Biden already has a platform that keeps him in the public eye.
Mrs. Clinton has declined to speculate about a Biden challenge. “I’m certainly not going to comment on my good friend and former colleague,” she said Thursday on CNN. “He has to make up his own mind about what’s best for him and his family as he wrestles with this choice.”
Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Sen. Sanders, said, “If the vice president decides to enter the race, Bernie looks forward to a serious discussion of the issues.”
Yes, Hillary is “certainly not going to speculate” and Bernie “looks forward to a serious discussion of the issues.”
Of course between Clinton’s e-mail scandal and Sanders’ radical plan to expand big government, it’s probably fair to say that should Biden enter, the Clinton campaign will need to “speculate” on how to word a concession speech while Sanders can “look forward” to dropping out altogether, and that’s certainly not a comment on how qualified Biden is for the job, but rather a realistic assessment of where things are likely to head given the current environment.
In any event, we’re sure we’ll find ourselves talking more about Joe in the weeks and months to come and so for now, we’ll simply close by noting that if you think it’s entertaining to watch Trump debate the GOP field, just wait until Trump and Biden take the stage together.
Or, summing up the above...
