Columnist Jack Davies assesses the current vice president’s chance of winning the upcoming election.
Go out into the streets and listen. People wait with baited breath, the tension is palpable. Hushed whispers reveal only minutia. What is it? Aliens? Bacon and egg ice cream at Witts? Hordes from the East? All you can eat shrimp for $4.99? No, it’s about the meaning of the single empty podium left open at the Democratic Debate and the decision of its intended occupant. Everyone knows who he is, America’s creepy uncle. It’s Silver Steed, Joe Biden. The decision that has us on the edge of our seats — whether he’s running for president. What will he answer? Well I cannot possibly say.
What I can say, however, is that if he’s going, he couldn’t have picked a better time to go. If he announces his candidacy, he will enter the race one week before the current leader of the pack, Hillary Clinton, goes before the House commission charged with investigating the Benghazi attacks three years ago.
The Washington Post, living up to sensationalist journalism’s irritating propensity to jump the gun, announced his candidacy last night. It did it before withdrawing the story stating that the “file had been inadvertently published.” It seems, therefore, that he will be announcing something in the next few days. For the rest of the column, I’m assuming that he will decide to run and try and assess his chances of success.
Now Biden is an establishment candidate. He’s been at the center of government for the last eight years. That is not a positive characteristic given the current climate of the election. Most of the popular candidates are anti-establishment figures who have never held political office and who consistently rail against the Washington establishment like pissed off alley cats.
Biden has one advantage, however, his honesty. His reputations for gaffs and terribly timed outbursts can be marketed as a form of honesty. Let’s also be honest here, he’s a colorful figure and can use his eccentric charm to counter the rather manufactured sounding statements of some of the other candidates, especially Clinton. He also has the tragedy of his family history, especially the death of his son Beau Biden who, before his death, encouraged his father to run. He can legitimately construct a narrative of perseverance in the face of adversity that none of the other candidates can legitimately claim. If he runs, it should be interesting.
Jack Davies is a sophomore studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator on Student Senate. Do you think Joe Biden will announce his candidacy? Email him at jd814213@ohio.edu.
