Joe Biden for America (as Veep)
Four More Years
@larry_ryan
Anyone, and that is pretty much everyone these days, who loves Joe Biden spent much of the last week or two welling up on seeing anything relating to the horrible news of the death of Joe’s son, Beau at the age of 46. (I just Googled him to check his age, clicked on a story about the funeral and got teary again).
In the coming weeks and months, as the US Vice President settles back into something resembling normal political life, commentators may recall that enormous wave of sympathy that washed in following the news of Beau’s death. They’ll point to Joe’s huge popularity with the public, the empathy, his ability to do a bit of that old ‘speaking human’, and perhaps some will suggest that maybe Joe should dust his hat off and throw the sucker into the presidential race. Heck, everyone’s desperate to make Hillary Clinton’s procession to the Democratic nomination, a little less so, for the sake of excitement above anything else. If Joe got in the ring, skin and hair might fly.
Or perhaps it wouldn’t.
Though I’m long-running Biden booster, I don’t want him to get into the race. The man’s a great politician but he’s shown himself to be a bit of a lousy presidential candidate: a little too ragged and error-prone. A fistfight with Hilary might ruin the memory of his glorious tenure as Vice President: joshing, shaking hands, making us laugh, making us cry, kicking ass and taking names when required to do some real political bidding. Joe’s a man for our times. No one wants to see that ruined by a bad stump speech outside a diner in Des Moines on a cold day in December..
So here’s the thing, folks. Let’s get Joe to stick to what he’s best at: being VP. America’s uncle, full of good cheer, good advice and sentiment. Joking and jabbing — sometimes taking a little too far but we don’t hold it against him. Now, cursory research suggests that there are no term limits for Vice Presidents, so why the hell not? Get him on the Hilary ticket and he brings all the benefits from eight years of being America’s favourite uncle to the shindig. Sure, it might seem like a somewhat elderly 1–2 punch at the top of the Democratic party. But there’s a paucity of up and coming talent for Hillary to draw on as a running mate — and Republicans will try to spin her as a relic of the partisan 90s anyway. So why not embrace the heck out of it. Get Joe in there, throwing punches with the best of them. Say it with me now, four more years, four more years, four more years.
