In a piece entitled “The Biden Agenda” for next week’s edition of The New Yorker, writer Evan Osnos quotes President Obama as predicting that Vice President Joe Biden would make a “superb president.”
The article spotlights the vice president and his accomplishments, particularly zeroing in on the possibility of Biden making a run for the presidency in 2016.
Osnos interviewed President Obama before writing the article and questioned the president on Biden’s viability as a presidential candidate in the next election.
“I think Joe would be a superb President,” replied Obama. “He has seen the job up close, he knows what the job entails. He understands how to separate what’s really important from what’s less important.”
Obama also cited Biden’s “great people skills” as highly useful should he decide to make a run for the Oval Office. Undoubtedly, Obama was referring to Biden’s ability to comfortably embrace old women, take selfies with pop stars, snuggle up to bikers and — most recently — awkwardly speak a group of progressives.
“He enjoys politics, and he’s got important relationships up on the Hill that would serve him well,” added the president.
However, Obama did admit that both Biden and potential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton must decide whether or not a presidential campaign would be the right thing at this “phase in their lives.”
“I think that, for both Joe and for Hillary, they’ve already accomplished an awful lot in their lives,” he explained. “The question is, do they, at this phase in their lives, want to go through the pretty undignifying process of running all over again.”
Of course, The New Yorker reporter also interviewed Biden for the piece and described the vice president as “excited” during their conversation about 2016, especially when it came to discussing issues our country faces and income inequality in particular.
“We’re not talking enough about income inequality,” Biden asserted. “We’re not talking enough about how in God’s name could you talk about a $5.7-trillion additional tax cut, for Christ’s sake. How can we continue to say a twenty-per-cent tax on carried interest is fair? Why the hell aren’t we talking about earned income versus unearned income?”
Though Biden didn’t give anything away about his potential run, saying that he could “die a happy man not being president,” it seems he has Obama’s endorsement. Unfortunately for Biden, the majority of Americans do not approve of President Obama and likely won’t listen to any endorsement that he makes.
