After months of speculation, Vice President Joe Biden finally admitted it. He told the Democratic National Committee in a conference call that was supposed be about the Iran nuclear deal that he had given “a lot of thought” to running for president in 2016.
Up to that point, members of the redoubtable Draft Biden super political action committee were left pointing to the faintest signs — a call to an old friend and Democratic leader in South Carolina here, a failure to discourage the committee’s efforts there — that Biden might actually run.
That was before Hillary Clinton’s summer of discontent. The former secretary of state is still the heavy front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. She leads in the national polls by anywhere from 18 to 35 points. She raised $45 million in the first quarter alone. Clinton’s advantage in endorsements from Democratic elected officials is overwhelming.
But her main Democratic challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has bypassed her in New Hampshire and is catching up in Iowa. Clinton scores low marks for trustworthiness and is struggling in some swing state polls against leading Republican presidential candidates. There is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding her handling of classified information via a private email server while at the State Department.
All this has created an opening, however small, for the vice president to get in and he seems to be taking stock of the opportunity. But in addition to the logistical problems associated with building a campaign operation capable of competing with Clinton this late in the game, the Democrats’ happy warrior is contemplating a campaign at a sad time.
“If I were to announce to run,” Biden candidly told DNC members, “I have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul, and right now, both are pretty well banged up.”
Biden’s eldest son Beau died in May. Beau had encouraged his father to run. But after a political career spent overcoming personal tragedies, it would be understandable if the vice president decided to sit this one out.
On the other hand, Biden would be the first Democratic vice president not to at least win the presidential nomination since Alben Barkley in 1952. He’s wanted to be president since at least 1988. And he’ll likely never get another chance.
The Democratic establishment is still very much in Clinton’s corner, with DNC summer meeting attendees telling the Washington Examiner they thought the email scandal was phony. Biden can’t run to Clinton’s left as easily as Sanders.
It’s a tall challenge to take on for someone questioning whether he has the “emotional fuel” for a third presidential run.
This article appears in the Sept. 8 edition of the Washington Examiner magazine.
