Joe Biden wants the Presidency badly. You could feel a physical tension in every cell of his body and a fierce determination in what he intends to accomplish as he made his announcement. The vice president stood at the podium on the White House steps with President Obama on one side and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, on the other while he said that he and his family had finally reached a point where they could think of their loved one with a smile before a tear. He was referring to their son, Beau, who died in May. The vice president said that if he:
“Could have done anything, I would have wanted to be the president who ended cancer.”
So why didn’t Biden decide to run? He is a union favorite, well-liked across the country, and beloved in the West Wing. Biden is a middle-class kind of guy, completely loyal to our president. It is abundantly clear Biden would have run for us, not for his own ego. I wasn’t sure which choice the vice president would make even as he began to speak. After all, this was his final opportunity to run and his dying son’s last wish.
Ironically, Biden gave the speech he would have given if he had decided to run. The vice president said that he is going to spend the next 15 months of his term fighting for the things that are important to him. These are the issues he mentioned in the live MSNBC News report:
1. End Cancer: Like A “Moonshot”
Biden wants to end cancer, especially since his son died of cancer. Comparing it to President Kennedy’s great race to the moon, Biden said:
“It’s personal…we need to increase funding. Things are just about to happen. I’m going to be pushing this as hard as I can.”
2. Support The Middle Class
“This is where my wife and I both started. Increase the child care tax credit three times what it is…and provide 16 years of free education.”
3. Return To A More Equitable Economy
“Limit deductions to 28 percent. The wealthy will pay a little more.”
4. Use Military Power More Carefully
“Lead by the power of example. No country better positioned to lead the world.”
“ We need to stop trying to solve all the world’s problems militarily. When bad people do something, that is not a good enough reason to send our children to war.”
5. Move Back To A Functioning Government
“Bring back consensus. How can we function without consensus? Hate and division do not represent the heart of this country… just some fraction of the politically elites.”
“End divisive partisan politics, which are mean-spirited and petty”
6. Bring Justice To LGBT, Equal Pay, Institutional Racism
“It’s about equality, fairness, and respect – every single person deserves dignity.”
7. Instill Hope In People Again
“To be able to be anything we want. It’s real. I grew up believing in it. If we lose that, we lose the very soul of the country.”
“My father said, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.’ In tough times, we need to be able to say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.’ And mean it.”
8. Raise Expectations
“What sets America apart is that we believe in unlimited possibilities. That’s our responsibility. I believe it is totally within our party.’
“We need to be one America again. We are capable of extraordinary things. We won’t just win the future, we will own the future. We can do so much more.”
9. Find Purpose In Public Life
“Our whole family has found purpose in public life. We will spend the next 15 months fighting for what we’ve always cared about alongside the president.”
What Biden did not do was give an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. The subtext was: Don’t mess with our legacy. Back to the real question, why did Biden decide against running? He went through the process, doing his final gut check. As this well-respected vice president said:
“Unfortunately, I believe we are out of time. The time has run out.”
The bottom line is that Vice President Biden came to the painful decision that he couldn’t win. He wasn’t going to let that stop him from hurdling over a powerful list of goals. However, should Clinton hit a bad speed bump, don’t rule out Biden stepping up to take her place.
