The field of Democratic presidential candidates is in disarray. How bad is it? It's so bad that the encouraged and anticipated entry of Joe Biden couldn't make it any worse.
Joe Biden has been a perpetual punchline for the past seven years. He was put into his role as vice president by President Obama apparently to dispel, forever, the notion of white supremacy. But compared to Bernie Sanders and the untrustworthy Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden looks like he belongs on Mount Rushmore.
Ron HartBeing Joe Biden is an ongoing indignity. He is known to insist on swimming nude daily and making his Secret Service agents watch. If he leads our military and the free world, I guess he will be the commando in chief.
And he is known for always being wrong. Until their drubbing in the last election, Biden maintained that the Democrats would hold the Senate. In his book "Duty," former defense secretary Robert Gates boldly said, "I think [Biden] has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
But Biden touts his foreign affairs bona fides; this is puzzling, given what Gates said and Biden's implication that al-Qaida had been defeated. This is the same Biden/Obama team which traded five Taliban leaders for one U.S. deserter, Bowe Bergdahl. Obama tried to include Joe Biden in the deal; the terrorists said, "No way!"
There was one scary time when both Obama and Biden were out of the country, and we worried about who had our nuclear launch codes. It was comforting to know that, with Biden out of pocket, the nuclear codes were given to North Korea's envoy, Dennis Rodman.
On the bright side, Biden told a South Carolina Democratic fundraising event that, if he ran, he promised to serve only one term as president. Nothing makes you feel more confident and secure about a leader than a promise to get his presidency over as quickly as possible.
Uncle Joe has to make his decision to run pretty soon. He's just waiting to see if Hillary continues to slide in the polls or gets perp-walked. Even if arrested, Hillary may still succeed Obama; with Democrats, even in prison-jumpsuit orange, she's the new black.
However, she is losing to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, and her support is down by 33 percent in Iowa.
Obama and Biden control her fate in their decisions on selective prosecution.
The Obama Injustice Department must decide if it will prosecute Hillary over her nefarious use of a personal email server and destruction of evidence. Hillary was happy to see her campaign sign, "Ready for Hillary," displayed in D.C. Unfortunately, it was placed in front of the federal courthouse.
Next for Joe Biden is campaigning in Iowa. He has to be careful. The last time he was in Iowa, he got stuck in a corn maze for days. It was the oddest thing he'd ever done since whatever he did the day before.
Obama is encouraging Biden to run in order to extend his own legacy. Obama knows that his work is not complete: The racial divide is not wide enough, only 45 million Americans are on food stamps and only 93 million are out of the labor force. Obamacare, his energy policy, taxes and regulations have not yet put enough American companies out of business or forced them to move overseas.
With one survey finding that "liar" is the first word that comes to mind when Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned, things are shaping up well for a Joe Biden run. Until the past few months, the national joke that was Joe Biden's unserious nature made it impossible for him to run. But Donald Trump's success gives Biden encouragement that anything is possible.
The race could be Biden versus Trump: "Plugs versus Rugs." We live in a Kardashian-like world now. We no longer want political leaders who will lead us; we prefer, instead, that they entertain us.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Contact him at at Ron@RonaldHart.com.