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Biden/Francis 2016.


On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 8:53 PM, Eric Schwerin <eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
> wrote:

>
> http://www.thenation.com/blog/178297/meet-happy-class-warrior-joe-biden-tries-out-2016-persona#
>
> Meet the Happy (Class) Warrior: Joe Biden Tries Out a 2016 Persona
> [image: Joe Biden]<http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/josephbiden_ap_img.jpg>
>
> *Then-vice presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden smiles after arriving
> at the Pepsi Center for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
> (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)*
>
> There are not enough prominent political figures, in either of this
> country's two major parties, who are willing to call rich guys out.
>
> And there are even fewer who do so with delight.
>
> But Vice President Joe Biden<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-biden>would like Democrats to know that he is up to the task.
>
> Biden earned the predictable headlines last week when he flipped the "on"
> switch with regard to a possible 2016 presidential run, telling CNN<http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/07/biden-says-presidential-decision-will-come-next-summer/>"There's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run."
>
> Never mind the polling<http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/01/30/National-Politics/Polling/release_290.xml>that gives former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a sixty-one-point lead
> in the race among the as-yet-unannounced contenders for the 2016 Democratic
> nomination, Biden's laying down his marker. That doesn't mean he will run.
> But Biden has read the polls that show the Democratic base is ready, very
> ready, for an economic populist appeal.
>
> And he is providing it--with a bow to Pope Francis.
>
> Speaking Wednesday at the United Auto Workers <http://www.uaw.org/>legislative conference in Washington, Biden noted that billionaire
> Ken Langone has been griping<http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-ken-langone-20140103,0,7204384.story#axzz2svhIkbPT>about Pope Francis. Fretting about the general difficulty of getting his
> fellow billionaires to make charitable donations, the business mogul
> complains that the pontiff's talk about income inequality is "one more
> hurdle I hope we don't have to deal with."
>
> "A couple weeks ago Ken Langone, who I don't know, a billionaire founder
> of Home Depot, predicted that the pope--Pope Francis's critique of income
> inequity--will be, quote, 'a hurdle' for very wealthy Catholic donors, who
> seem to think hurt feelings trump the teachings of the Bible," the vice
> president recalled<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/197534-biden-unions-keep-barbarians-at-gates>.
> "As a practicing Catholic, bless me, Father, for he has sinned."
>
> The UAW members reacted with wild applause.
>
> It wasn't just that Biden's observation was spot on.
>
> It was also that too few politicians--and even fewer prospective 2016
> presidential contenders--are so willing as the vice president to "go there."
> That is, to make an old-fashioned populist appeal that is all but certain
> to be decried<http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/330511/joe-biden-s-religion-catholicism-or-leftism-dennis-prager>by the right-wing punditocracy as "class warfare."
>
> Biden did not stop with his defense of Pope Francis, who the vice
> president says "shares a vision that all of us share, to reach out to the
> poor and the dispossessed<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/biden-jokes-soul-day-rome-article-1.1292117>
> ."
>
> He absolutely, unapologetically and energetically embraced the trade union
> movement.
>
> "You guys are the only guys keeping the barbarians at the gates, man," declared
> Biden <http://www.c-span.org/video/?317617-1/WLe>.
>
> "The truth of the matter is, you built the middle class. Labor built the
> middle class," the vice president continued. "You never leave anybody
> behind--even when it costs you politically and when it doesn't benefit you
> directly."
>
> Labor's commitment to economic justice, Biden said, explains why
> corporate-funded conservative groups, and their legislative minions, are
> attacking collective-bargaining rights<http://www.publiceye.org/economic_justice/labor/anti_labor/fundweb.html>.
> "These guys on the right--they know without you there--they call every shot,"
> he said. For that reason, he said, they have launched "a concerted,
> full-throated, well-organized, well-financed, well-thought-out effort
> waging war on labor's house."
>
> Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!<https://subscribe.thenation.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NAN&cds_page_id=122425&cds_response_key=I12SART1>
>
> The vice president did not deny that the right has had its successes, in
> Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states. That, he said, is why it is necessary
> to <http://www.c-span.org/video/?317617-1/WLe> "be vigilant and
> unrelenting in our fight to protect and expand collective bargaining."
>
> There is no subtlety with Biden.
>
> But there is a subtext.
>
> In a Democratic Party that is sick with compromisers and concessionists,
> the vice president is savvy enough to present himself as a happy class
> warrior. That doesn't mean he's better on the issues than Senator Elizabeth
> Warren or Senator Bernie Sanders or any other "dream" candidate. But if no
> prominent progressive populist runs, Biden is suggesting that he would be
> willing, make that delighted, to fill the void.
>
> Read Next: The Nation *launches "Project 45
> <http://www.thenation.com/article/178256/why-now-time-reform-how-we-elect-president>".*
>
>
> Eric D. Schwerin
> eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>


--

Alexander Snyder Mackler
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