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baltimoresun.com Don't count Biden out in 2016 All the attention is on
Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama's possible successor, but the vice
president is positioning himself well

By Jules Witcover

1:19 PM EST, January 28, 2013
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As the second Obama term gets underway, much is being said and written
about the president finally emerging as a tougher, stronger Democrat in the
liberal mold of past party greats. His second inaugural address pressed
Republicans in Congress to accept a broader, more aggressive package of
social programs and reforms than he embraced in his first term.

Standing at his side, even more visibly during the second inaugural
festivities than before, has been Vice President Joe Biden, not merely in
ceremonial roles but as a key supporting player in Mr. Obama's most
prominent second-term initiatives. Gone are past hide-the-veep exercises
that often marked the vice presidencies of so many previous occupants of
the office since its almost accidental creation by the founding fathers.

The first vice president, John Adams, got the job as a sort of booby prize
under the original constitutional plan giving the post to the runner up in
the presidential balloting. After that approach was scrapped to provide
separate voting for the two offices, a string of near-invisibles with names
like Daniel D. Tompkins, Richard Mentor Johnson, George Dallas and William
Wheeler served as vice presidents and vanished into obscurity.

Not until recent occupants, including Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Dick Cheney
and now Mr. Biden, has the vice president been seen as a truly active
participant in the administration in which each has served. Of these, Mr.
Cheney probably has been the most dominant if often portentous figure. Mr.
Biden, by contrast, has been more openly and publicly engaged in tackling
administration political and legislative tasks than any previous veep.

Mr. Cheney was deeply involved, often in "undisclosed locations," plotting
war strategy and ways to expand presidential power under George W. Bush.
Mr. Biden, by contrast, has more conspicuously carried the ball for Mr.
Obama as a negotiator in his fiscal battles on Capitol Hill. His
intercessions most recently with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in
avoiding the fiscal cliff earned him the nickname the "McConnell whisperer."

At the same time, Mr. Obama gave Mr. Biden the lead role in the task force
exploring the gun-control agenda that grew out of the Newtown tragedy, and
now in the just-unfolding effort to sell it with Mr. Obama through an
aggressive grass-roots campaign around the country.

All this has begun to give a more serious tilt to previously fanciful
notions that Mr. Biden, a two-time loser in the presidential sweepstakes in
1988 and 2008, might well despite his age at 70 and a nagging image of
flippancy and loquaciousness, make a third try in 2016.

For all the ridicule directed at him by partisan foes who would reduce him
to a political joke, Mr. Biden has continued to pile on credentials as an
effective politician adding to his already impressive record of 36 years in
the Senate that included chairmanships of the body's key Judiciary and
Foreign Relations Committees.

His abilities as a combative campaigner, demonstrated again in his October
debate with Republican running mate Paul Ryan, helped counter Mr. Obama's
disappointing showing in his first debate against Mitt Romney and put the
Democratic campaign back on track to re-election in November.

More substantively, Mr. Biden has been a primary Obama hand-holder in the
president's determination to wind down the American involvements in the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He notably urged the pivot from
counterinsurgency to counterterrorism as opposed to nation building in the
latter.

Right now, the chief potential barrier for Mr. Biden in 2016 may not be his
age — he would be 73 when embarking on a third presidential bid — but the
prospect of Hillary Clinton running herself for a second time, immensely
strengthened by four successful years as secretary of state.

Her tremendous support from women voters, and her demonstrated ability as a
national campaigner in 2008, would doubtless be a factor for Mr. Biden to
consider in embarking on such a course. However, his own progress in
building his stature as a serious public figure should not be
underestimated.

A major sideline drama over the next four years in the Democratic Party, as
Barack Obama strives to construct a lasting legacy for himself, may be the
performances and positioning of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the
lame-duck president's shadow.

*Jules Witcover is a syndicated columnist and former long-time writer for
The Baltimore Sun. His latest book is "Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and
Redemption" (William Morrow). His email is juleswitcover@comcast.net.*
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