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Carlson: Democrats should see Biden as viable candidate

The Columbian
Published: June 14, 2015, 12:00am

At Beau Biden’s recent funeral, President Barack Obama said his own family had become part of the Biden clan, playing by “Biden rules.”

“We’re always here for you,” Obama said looking at Vice President Joe Biden and his family, giving them his “word as a Biden.”

The president’s poignant words brought comfort to a family suffering the grievous loss of a son, a brother and a husband at the age of 46. But the moment was also a reminder of how politicians sometimes view even those they purport to love as expendable. After all, Obama has treated his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as his successor, even if he didn’t squeeze her shoulders in the Biden style.

It’s possible that before anointing Clinton, Obama and his vice president had The Talk, in which Biden confided he wasn’t going to run, even though the official word is that Biden will decide this summer. It’s to his credit that he didn’t build his vice presidency around becoming president, but that doesn’t mean Obama shouldn’t have given him first crack at it. Still, Biden hasn’t faltered in supporting the president. When he pledged his loyalty, he gave his word as a Biden.

It’s understandable that Obama, the Washington power crowd and the Democratic base would pick Hillary over Joe — the money, the machine and the early polls pointed to a strife-free coronation.

Yet there’s a long way left to go in the 2016 presidential campaign. Even as Hillary’s performance puzzles, her poll numbers soften, and the public’s perception of her honesty and trustworthiness sink below 50 percent, people still anxiously cling to her as the only viable candidate. It’s hard to see how they could look at Biden and not see one.

Obama saw an asset in Biden’s experience as two-time chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and needed the political capital from his 40 years in Congress. The president leaned heavily on his wingman in managing the U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, coping with the crisis in Ukraine after the failure of Clinton’s reset with Vladimir Putin, and overseeing the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Biden is often the “last person” in the room when a big decision is being made.

In some ways, Biden is the anti-Obama, and maybe his perfect complement. The vice president has an ample gift for the kind of politics Obama can’t stomach — the shooting the breeze, the backslapping and, yes, the shoulder squeezing.

It’s true, Biden does sometimes come off as impulsive as a Saint Bernard, blurting out things you can bet he wished he hadn’t. But a few more blunders as the price for more of him could be a fair trade. Not one Republican presidential candidate has his experience or his heart — nor, for that matter, does Hillary Clinton.

The priceless value of Biden has long been in plain sight. Obama was finally moved to emulate him. He didn’t just hug the weeping vice president. He kissed him.


Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist.

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