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Joe Biden says he will not run for president
Vice President Joe Biden's decision to not enter the 2016 presidential race has made things easier for a Republican to win next November. Whether the party whose current front-runner is a blowhard businessman can take advantage remains to be seen.
By associating himself so closely with an unpopular president, with his two previous failed runs, with his past deceit (his speech plagiarism during the 1988 run), with his age (72) and with his gaffe-prone remarks, the vice president wouldn't have been a shoo-in for the office. But his main competition for the office is a scandal-ridden former secretary of state in the same unpopular administration as the vice president.
Hillary Clinton's solid performance in last week's Democratic debate against an arm-waving, grumpy Sen. Bernie Sanders and three also-rans put to rest any speculation that Biden may have had that Clinton would fall apart because of her plethora of scandals. Her organization and money may have had a tad to do with it, too.
But the vice president always was - and still could be - the party's insurance policy should Clinton stumble. He didn't endorse her candidacy during his Rose Garden speech. And he also used the occasion to utter several thinly disguised swipes at the former first lady and New York senator, referring to a brand of "divisive" politics where Republicans are the "enemies," a term she used in the debate.
If she were to slip further in the polls, with no love lost between the Clintons and the Obamas, the president might be only too happy to tap Ol' Joe on the shoulder if he feels his legacy is at stake.