On August 22nd, Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden arranged a last minute meeting with Democratic powerhouse, Elizabeth Warren. Throughout the past few weeks, the current Vice President, and continual Onion headline, has been reaching out to powerful donors and other prominent Democratic leaders. Clearly, Mr. Biden is laying the groundwork for entering the presidential election -- a proposition that he has been mulling over since the death of his son, Beau Biden.
To many observers, it would appear that Joe Biden would be too late to enter into a Democratic primary that is seemingly deadlocked between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. The Clinton campaign has already been at work for months lining up party leaders and donors behind the former Secretary of State, and Senator Sanders has seemingly absorbed all of the Clinton opposition within the Democratic Party. There would appear to be few remaining voters left for the aging Vice President to appeal to if he decided to run for the Presidency for the third time in his life. However, many political experts aren't so sure about Biden's run being dead upon arrival.
The biggest opposition to a potential run from Joe Biden would appear to be his lack of an established political campaign for the 2016 election. While it is true that the "Draft Biden" movement exists, the organization is dwarfed in comparison to the Clinton election juggernaut. Without a steady stream of donors, volunteers, and party support, the Biden candidacy would appear to be doomed before it begins. This is not an unreasonable summation of the troubles that a Biden run would face. Jay S. Jacobs, the former chairman of the New York Democratic Party, spoke in regards to Biden being able to sway Clinton donors, "Everybody thinks the world of Joe Biden. The difficulty that I think he'd face is that not only are almost all, or most, of the major donors lined up behind Hillary, but I believe they're enthusiastic in that."
However, some strategists believe that Biden has several advantages over Clinton that can't be overcome with donations. The first being that as the sitting Vice President, Biden is occupying a seat that has been a historic gateway to the presidency. The second, and more important, is that the Wall Street Journal, and Quinnipiac University polls are reporting that several key groups of constituents find Mr. Biden to be much less unfavorable than Mrs. Clinton, and is also viewed as "more honest". With a looming investigation into Mrs. Clinton's email server, her unfavorability ratings are -- rightly or wrongly -- unlikely to go recede. This appearance of honesty, and Biden's long history of public gaffes, lead many to view Biden as a candidate in who connects with the people, and can be considered trustworthy.
While Joe Biden may have a way to overcome the Clinton machine, policy opposition from the other Democratic frontrunner, Bernie Sanders, will still give the Vice President trouble in winning back the Liberal crowd of the Democratic party. In order to remain competitive with the beloved Vermont Senator, Joe Biden will have to firmly emphasize his history of LGBT advocacy, and his defense of abortive rights in the 2012 Vice Presidential debates. In order to win back voters who have already taken up Senator Sanders mantle, Biden would need to shift left on a number of issues - which does include debates such abortion funding, prison reform, and the banking industry. The only main advantages that Joe Biden maintains over Senator Sanders are experience in national politics, national name-recognition, and a long history of running political campaigns.
The competition facing a Joe Biden candidacy forces Biden to fight an uphill battle, especially the longer he waits to declare. However, Biden possesses the political acumen, and the ingenuity to become a major force in the 2016 election, being the only non-declared candidate with a viable chance of unseating either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Moment, a Biden Democratic nomination is far from impossible, so it would appear to be time for the Vice President to enter the primary.
Until Joe Biden does declare, please enjoy this photo of Joe Biden eating two ice cream cones by himself:
