Opinion: Biden in 2016?
One of the worst contemplations of a President Barack Obama victory in the presidential election of 2012 is the notion that Vice President Joe Biden would think he had anything positive to do with the victory. Worse yet, Biden is likely delusional enough – as he has indicated in the recent past – to believe that he would have a prayer of becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2016.
Can anyone other than Vice President Joe Biden himself imagine Joe Biden as a presidential candidate after all we’ve learned about him in the past four years while he has sat one heartbeat away from the presidency?
While Dr. Jill Biden would make a splendid First Lady, with the “doctor” title as well as the incredible class she possesses, Joe Biden is a completely different person. Of course, Joe Biden isn’t the first politician whose wife has been viewed more positively than the politician himself.
If you think the Joe Biden can flip-flop on his religious beliefs for a vice presidential vote, one can’t imagine the horrendous flip-flopping we’d see when he is after a presidential vote!
A Biden vice presidency should have scared the hell out of anybody, even a liberal. Let’s face it – regardless of what one may think of President Barack Obama, Joe Biden makes Obama look quite good.
For one thing, Biden has been reportedly contemplating a presidential run again in 2016, as he has done in his younger days. The key word here is “younger”. Decades ago when Biden went after the White House, he was 50 years old. By 2016, whether Joe Biden has taken time to figure it out or not, he will be 74 years old which would make him 78 at the end of his first term and 82 at the end of an alleged second term.
Additionally, he has been the most prominent politician to make continued gaffes before the public during the campaign process in 2012. All of those gaffes, as well as his horrendous error in plagiarizing his political speeches in 1988, his past would be sure to haunt him from cradle to grave of the 2016 campaign trail. For those who may have forgotten, since the press has rarely brought it up, Vice President Joe Biden dropped out of the 1988 presidential contest when he was found to have ripped off speeches which he delivered during his failed presidential campaign.
As it was, Biden chose to use British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock’s powerful words to enhance a self-proclaimed “rags to riches” story – which Kinnock had used when he ran unsuccessfully against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. After being caught, Biden claimed he had just once forgotten to mention the source of his words while the New York Times easily found other times Biden had used Kinnock’s powerful words without giving proper credit. It was enough for the potential front-runner of the 1988 presidential race, Biden, to exit the race.
As Biden luck would have it, thanks to Barack Obama, he ended up being the vice president of the United States just 20 years later.
If Biden really thinks his luck is going to stretch to 2016, he better think again. Maybe his ethical improprieties of the past haven’t bothered Obama and Obama’s ilk, but it certainly would come up – along with his laundry list of political gaffes of 2012 – if he dares to try running for president again.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
