Ending his off-and-on-again speculation about a 2016 run for president, 72-year-old Vice President Joe Biden finally threw in the towel, citing lingering grief over his 46-year-old son Beau Biden’s May 30 death from brain cancer. Reaching a fever’s pitch over whether or not the VP would jump into the 2016 race, Joe remained coy up until the last minute when he began annoying Democratic Party faithful, tired of the endless speculation. “Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” said Joe, saving face, when in fact he lacked any possible path to the nomination. While speculation of Joe’s possible 2016 run grew, his polls dropped from 19% to 15%, well behind 67-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at 49% and 74-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 29%, all bad news for Joe.
Most pundits speculated that Biden would toss his had into the ring one more time, after two failed attempts to run in 2004 and 2008. With Hillary’s and Bernie’s campaign’s in full-swing and flush with cash, the handwriting was on the walls for Joe: No path to victory. Whatever lingering grief he had over his son’s death, the numbers didn’t add up for another presidential run. Biden’s announcement helps both Hillary and Bernie but especially Hillary because most Democrats don’t believe that the self-declared “Democratic Socialist” can win the nomination, let alone a general election. Adding to yesterday’s speculation were Biden’s public remarks about Hillary’s tongue-in-cheek comments about her biggest enemies in the Oct. 14, CNN debate moderated by Anderson Cooper. “I still have a lot of Republican friends,” Joe quipped. Joe doesn’t face the House Benghazi Select Committee Oct. 22.
Hillary’s long history of GOP persecution against her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is known to almost everyone. Biden hasn’t faced endless harassment by a GOP-backed House Select Committee designed to wreck her 2016 presidential ambitions. When word leaked out from multiple sources about the political nature of the Benghazi Select Committee, Hillary had every right to conclude she’s not on the GOP’s “good list.” “I don’t think my chief enemy is the Republican Party. This is a matter of making things work,” said Joe, fueling more speculation that he was leaning toward running. When he clarified his support for the May 2, 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottsbad, Pakistan compound, suggesting that Hillary sat on the fence, it added to more speculation that he was running. Announcing he wouldn’t run today, Biden reaffirmed his backing of Obama’s presidency.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden with his wife Jill at his side, Joe insisted he’d work toward continuing the Obama legacy. “While I will not be candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation,” throwing the Washington press corps for a loop. Based on yesterday’s remarks, especially the one about Hillary seeing the GOP as her enemy, Biden looked ready to roll-up-his-sleeves. Ending his bid automatically boosts Hillary’s path to the nomination, especially now that Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) Benghazi Select Committee has lost its credibility blaming Hillary for lax security in the remote Libyan U.S. outpost that cost Amb. Chris Stevens and three Americans their lives Sept. 11, 2012. When Hillary joked about her GOP “enemies,” she wasn’t kidding.
More convinced than ever that Hillary’s campaign has finally turned a corner out from the GOP attack machine, Biden realized he had no path to the nomination. Running for president only made sense as a backup if Hillary’s campaign continued to sputter. Now that Gowdy’s Select Committee faces its own scrutiny, it’s likely that Hillary will go unscathed from tomorrow’s testimony. “This is what I believe: I believe that President Obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery and we’re now on the cusp of resurgence. I’m proud to be a part of that,” Biden told the Rose Garden crowd. Biden hopes to influence Hillary’s agenda of continuing the Obama legacy. No president in modern history has faced so much criticism from the opposing party, largely because he single-handedly passed the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act March 23, 2010, AKA “Obamacare” by Republicans.
Biden’s decision to not run for president had to do with undeniable numbers that he had no path to the nomination. No doubt that Beau’s death impacted Joe’s decision. But with his poll number dropping to from 19% to 15% with just strong hint that he’d run, things were not looking good. Offering a rallying cry for 2016, Biden reminded Democrats that there’s more work to do. “This party [and] our nation would be making a tragic mistake if we walk away [from] or attempt to undo the Obama legacy. The American people have worked too hard and we’ve come too far for that. Democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record, they should run on the record,” Biden signaled to Hillary and Bernie to proudly speak about the administration’s accomplishments. Hillary stands to gain the most from Biden coming to his senses in deciding not to run.
