Joe Biden, a two-term vice president, is now looking for his own understudy.
The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee had repeatedly said he wants a running mate who’s “simpatico” with him. But as he pivots from a relatively civil primary to the general election fight against President Trump, a combative and unpredictable candidate, he needs to decide whether he’d benefit from an equally pugnacious No. 2 who could lob political salvos Biden can’t or won’t.
Rutgers University’s David Greenberg said Biden would be helped by a vice presidential pick who was “strong on attack.” He based his reasoning on the fact that, apart from the nominating conventions, which this year are in doubt because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the understudy debate, the running mate “rarely” makes news or influences votes.
“One way to occasionally cut through the news is with well-formulated criticisms of the incumbent — not angry or mean-spirited, but pointed,” he said.
Yet, this cycle could buck the trend, with Biden, 77, quizzed during the primary about his vice presidential shortlist and whether he’d commit to being a one-term commander in chief if elected, given his age. He’s also vowed to choose a woman, who could be vulnerable to implicit or explicit gendered criticisms of how she tackles Trump like many of Biden’s former rivals experienced before they dropped out of the Democratic race for the White House.
Greenberg told the Washington Examiner there were a number of women who could effectively play the “attack dog” role, including ex-prosecutors-turned-Sens. Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. Instead, he said the biggest obstacle for the ticket to overcome would likely be the COVID-19 outbreak if the spread of the disease and the response to it were still dominating headlines in the fall.
For Republican strategist Alex Conant, the most important quality to bear in mind when considering a No. 2 was that voters believe the choice could step behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office at a moment’s notice. Conant, however, added that Biden would be boosted by a telegenic understudy.
“There might not be a lot of big rallies, bus tours, and fundraising events for any of the candidates to go to. In all likelihood, they’ll be spending a lot of time doing remote television interviews from their home studios,” he said.
There’s a long history of aggressive running mates being willing to say something the person at the top of the ticket wouldn’t, including Republicans Sarah Palin in 2008, Spiro Agnew in 1968 and 1972, and Richard Nixon twice in the 1950s.
Those kinds of responsibilities could be shared by the running mate and the slew of Democrats paid by the campaign or otherwise to support Biden vociferously before Election Day, according to Conant. But he underscored the significance of simultaneously pushing a positive message, especially as the country grapples with the public health and economic fallout from the coronavirus and after Hillary Clinton made Trump the defining feature of her 2016 bid.
“Obviously, there’s going to be a lot of debate about Trump’s handling of the pandemic. The Democrats are going to spend a lot of time arguing that this is all Trump’s fault, but they’ll also need to tell the American people what a Biden presidency would do differently,” he said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Spiro Agnew campaigned for vice president in 1982. That year has been corrected to 1972.
