Speculation swirls over whom 77-year-old former Vice President presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden (D-Del.) will pick as his running mate. Not much else intrigues anyone about the 2020 presidential race, while the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 crisis sucks oxygen out of the presidential campaign. Since Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out April 8, speculation has been about how Biden would get “Bernie’s Bros,” those loyal followers, to jump on the Biden bandwagon. Bernie did everything short of jumping-up-and-down to back Biden April 14, hoping his following would follow his lead. Interviews from Bernie supporters show that about 85% would support the Democrat ticket, about the same percentage that showed up on Election Day in 2016 to vote for 72-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary, of course, lost.
Biden hopes that a VP pick would energize what looks like a pretty ho-hum ticket, with the elderly former VP not exciting too many crowds. If anything, Covid-19 helps Joe’s chances, if there is one, in 2020, because voters tend to vote their pocketbooks, something that could be pretty bad by Election Day. All things point to a punishing high unemployment and recession for the remainder of 2020, heading into 2021. But the real help Biden gets from the coronvirus pandemic is that social-distancing requirements prevent Joe from getting in front font of crowds, something that’s proved harmful to his election efforts. Manufacturing Biden’s image through carefully prepared campaign ads makes Joe look heroic, compared to his extemporaneous displays. If his campaign strategists are thoughtful, they’ll have Joe avoid any presidential debates with Trump before the Nov. 3 presidential vote.
Covid-19 gives Joe’s campaign the perfect excuse to package everything just like 78-year-old former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, running his campaign primarily on $1 billion-plus worth of campaign ads. While Biden won’t have that kind of cash, he’ll have enough to present his case to American voters. Look how Bloomberg’s media consultants packaged him until his disastrous in-person appearance in the Democrat presidential debates. Once 70-eyar-old Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) got her hands on Mike Feb. 19 in their first face-to-face debate, she quickly deflated Bloomberg’s puffed up image based off his heroic campaign ads. Warren’s performance in Las Vegas ended Bloomberg’s billion-dollar campaign, opened up the possibility of Warren attracting Joe Biden. Biden stood near Warren and watched her prick Bloomberg’s hot-air balloon.
Biden saw all he needed to see with Warren taking down Bloomberg in Las Vegas. While Warren kept sinking in the polls, Democrat voters, even after Biden’s crushing losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, knew there was no one left but Joe in the 2020 race to compete with Trump. Bernie did far better running against Hillary but only because things were different then. No one knew what to expect with Trump in 2016. Now that the Democrat Party and mainstream media are running against Trump, Biden just needed to wait until Bernie through in the towel. When Democrat voters decided that Joe was the last man standing, it was all over for Bernie. Now comes Joe’s biggest decision by far in his campaign. Picking a running mate becomes a big deal for Joe who insists he’s only in the early stages of finding a running mate. But Joe’s recent remarks give some hints.
Reading between the lines, Joe decided to use some good old fashioned diversion talking about 56-year-old former First Lady Michelle Obama on glowing terms. “I’d take her in a heartbeat,” Biden told CBS Pittsburgh affiliate KDKA TV. “She’s brilliant. She knows her way around. She is really a fine woman. The Obamas are great friends,” Joe said, but really saying nothing, other than heaping praise on Michelle “I don’t think she has any desire to live near the White House again,” Biden said, showing he’s playing with the press. Biden gave his best clue Monday, saying he’s committed to picking a women but not necessarily a person of color. Saying he’s not committed as, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) asked, to pick a person of color, Warren jumps to the top of Joe’s list, now that he’s said he’ll pick a woman, just not a person of color. No one doubts Warrens’ feistiness in a bruising political campaign.
Biden elaborated more on what his criteria are for picking a running mate. “I ‘ll commit to that be a woman because it is very important that my administration look like the public, look like the nation,” Joe said. “And there will be [I’m] committed that there will be a woman of color on the Supreme Court. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a vice president as well,” Joe said, clearly trying to stir interest in his eventual pick. But if you look down the short-list of potentials, including, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Amy Klobushar (D-Minn.), Sen. Catheirine Cortez Mastro (D-Nev.), Gov. Grethen Whitmer (D-Mich.), Stacy Abrams (D-Ga.), and Rep. Val Demings (D-Fl.), only Warren has the ties to the progressives to shift more of Bernie’s supporters to vote for Biden. Biden knows he doesn’t need a person of color to win the black vote. He needs a fighter, like Warren, to take on Trump.
