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Biden for vice president, yet again - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/07/14/biden-for-vice-president-yet-again/

Biden for vice president, yet again

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Cancer Moonshot Summit at Howard
University in Washington last month. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

In my circle, an expression I want to revive, Joe Biden is being mentioned
as a possible vice presidential candidate. Of course, Biden is already vice
president, and my circle is not exactly Hillary Clinton’s, but more than
any of the others mentioned, Biden would balance the ticket. He’s not
black, and he’s not Hispanic, and he’s not a woman, but he is an
open-handed, warm-hearted, old-fashioned pol. He’s the politician Clinton,
try as she might, simply cannot be.

Alas, Biden might already have taken himself out of consideration. “I’m not
interested in re-upping for VP,” he told
<https://gma.yahoo.com/biden-not-interested-upping-vp-says-clinton-proposals-110804168--abc-news-topstories.html>
George Stephanopoulos the other day. “I’ll do anything I can to help her
[Hillary] win. And I think she’s going to win, but I have been proud to
serve for eight years as vice president, and I think that’s enough.”

Statements such as this are the political equivalents of “the check is in
the mail.” An expression of non-interest is traditional in these matters,
politics being the last place where no does not mean no. Stay close to the
phone, Joe.

Let us now look over the field. They are, of course, marvelous people, but
this being presidential politics with ticket-balancing and all, they are
also categories.

Two of them are black males — Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) and former
Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (D). Three are Hispanics — Rep. Xavier
Becerra (D-Calif.), Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. They are good men all, even though all of
them could pass through an airport with no one asking for a selfie.

Clinton is also said to be considering Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen.
Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. They are the white
guys, some from battleground states, but none of them have vaunted
political organizations — not that anyone does anymore. Then comes former
NATO commander James Stavridis, an admiral. The lone woman being mentioned
is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the only one who has managed to attract a
national constituency of her own.

So, talking strictly categories, what do we have? The primaries showed
beyond a doubt that Clinton is beloved by African Americans. Putting a
black male on the ticket is not going to help any. Donald Trump, with his
lazy denunciation of David Duke, has already seen to it that he is not
going to draw more than half a dozen back votes.

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Hispanics: Here again, Trump has a problem. He has so alienated the
Hispanic community with his call for mass deportations and his
characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists, that if he gets more
than 100 votes out of an estimated 55 million, it will be prima facie case
of voter fraud.

A woman: There’s already one on the ticket, and Trump is glued to a passé,
Sinatra-style sexism. He just loves the broads.

White males: This is Trump’s supposed fan base, but none of the white males
being mentioned have what it takes to appeal to the Trump types. As for
Stavridis, Clinton does not need her foreign policy credentials augmented.
She’s a regular Bismarck. Besides, Stavridis is not a politician, and a
presidential campaign is not for amateurs. One bush-league comment and
there goes the news cycle.

So we come down to Biden. If anyone can appeal to Trump’s white voters,
it’s Biden. He’s a great campaigner, a regular pol, who got elected to the
Senate seven times. He is, in FDR’s phrase for Al Smith, a “happy warrior”
who could bring some joy to what could be a dour ticket. Even better, he
could be president in an instant, which is what the job is all about.

Reconsider, Joe. You won’t have to move (such a hassle), and Clinton could
use you, and although the wits in the media will call you Vice President
for Life, you’ll be out there taking on Trump. You were born for this
fight. Uncle Sam needs you.


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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