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Why not Joe Biden? - The Boston Globe

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/04/04/why-not-joe-biden/KbT4ArZLHs4IvgFKR4pPJM/story.html

Why not Joe Biden?
*By James Pindell* Globe staff April 04, 2017
[image: Former Vice President Joe Biden greeted the crowd on Capitol Hill
last month.]

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Former Vice President Joe Biden greeted the crowd on Capitol Hill last
month.

*Get James Pindell’s analysis first via his newsletter, Ground Game. Sign
up here <http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp/>.*

Since the November election Democrats remain only united in what they
oppose (*Donald Trump*) and fractured over the party's way forward.

Because of this, the idea that *Joe Biden* might be flirting with yet
another presidential run might make some sense. On Monday the New Hampshire
Democratic Party announced
<http://bostonglobe.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7f8571831a3b4a600b88e7aab&id=58f31399ad&e=23f7f73ff4>
the
former vice president will speak at their annual fund-raiser later in the
month.

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Biden has spoken at this fund-raiser twice before. He knows that accepting
this invitation comes with speculation about his interest in another
presidential campaign. Indeed when he didn't accept an invitation to speak
at the dinner in 2015, it was seen as a sign
<http://bostonglobe.us10.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=7f8571831a3b4a600b88e7aab&id=089dbe69b2&e=23f7f73ff4>
that
he wasn't going to run in 2016.

The rationale for a Biden candidacy is straight-forward: without a plan for
the future of the Democratic Party, pick the person who was part of the
most recent winning coalition. What's more, Biden's blue collar appeal
could play well in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where economic
anxieties among white working class voters flipped these states to Trump.

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Miller.

The Democratic Party is in a moment without serious leadership. For the
first time in more than 20 years, the Clintons are not on the horizon and
there is no *Barack Obama. *

But there are also many reasons why another Biden run doesn't make sense.
If he runs and wins in 2020, he would be 78 years old when he assumes
office. He also has had a problem creating a national fundraising base in
his two previous runs for office.

Lastly, his party has moved to the left since he was on the ballot.
Democratic voters may have issues with Biden's past support for the credit
card industry in his home state of Delaware and for the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement. If he runs in a Democratic presidential
primary, he will have to play on defense on those issues.

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But other than a visit from *Bernie Sanders* in late November as part of
his book tour, Biden is the only potential Democratic presidential
candidate to make the trip recently to New Hampshire, a state that is
likely to have the nation's first presidential primary.
*James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com
<james.pindell@globe.com>. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell
<http://twitter.com/jamespindell> or subscribe to his Ground Game
newsletter on politics:http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp.
<http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp.>*


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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