Posted on 08/24/2015 4:36:34 AM PDT by Din Maker
For all of the talk of spectacle and sideshow surrounding the 143 or so Republican candidates running for President — much of it deserved — there’s even better drama over on the other side. Hidden beneath video footage of helicopter rides and fried butter at the Iowa State Fair is this stark reality: The Democratic party is in deep trouble.
Sure, the GOP has Donald Trump to contend with, for who knows how long, but if he crashes and burns there’s a field of credible contenders as big as a Trump golf course, ready to carry on with the serious business of running for President.
Over on the left, however, concerns are mounting that Hillary Clinton — the only candidate the Democratic Party and the White House have really invested in — is in serious peril. The email scandal she insists is the invention of Republicans with nothing better to do has somehow piqued the interest of President Obama’s Justice Department, State Department, his FBI director, and a kooky, paranoid, rightwing upstart called the New York Times.
In a new Fox News poll, Clinton is losing to Republicans Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio in a general election matchup. Socialist Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders has also closed in on her lead in recent weeks.
All this, plus the reasonable expectation that Sanders would lose in a general election, has the party scrambling to come up with a Plan B in case Hillary’s headaches keep worsening — B as in Biden.
I understand the temptation, but Democrats shouldn’t get too excited about the idea that Joe will swoop down and save the day.
Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale, in a seeming dig at Clinton, recently told the website Florida Politics, “the vice president understands the challenges of middle class families because for him, that is the only life he’s ever had.”
Kevin Franck, former communications director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, told the Boston Herald that “if the vice president announced that he was running for president tomorrow . . . he would soon find himself at least comfortably in second place in polls in New Hampshire.” A Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll has almost half of likely New Hampshire Democrats saying they want Biden to enter the race.
And in South Carolina, state Rep. James Smith Jr. says he’s been talking to Biden and his aides, and promises that “as soon as he announces, he’ll immediately have the most formidable organization in the state.”
The enthusiasm, however, is not shared at the White House. President Obama doesn’t want to have to pick sides between his current veep and former secretary of state. A Democratic source told CNN, “I’m not getting any sense of a Joe Biden caucus inside the White House.”
On first blush, why not Biden? He’s a sitting vice president with massive name recognition, is beloved among Democrats and, as a vetted entity, has the experience to slip seamlessly into a presidential election.
But on the other hand, how bad must things be for Clinton if Democrats are trying to get a guy who just lost his son to brain cancer to re-enter what will undoubtedly be a brutal and exhausting campaign season? Further, how thin is the Democratic bench that a guy who has twice run for President unsuccessfully, who would be 74 when sworn into the White House, who has zero campaign money and no campaign infrastructure, is your next best hope?
The short term optics of Biden swooping in — either to rescue Hillary or to usurp her — are pretty terrible for a party insisting it alone owns the women’s empowerment mantle. Not to mention, how “fresh” will Democratic ideas look when the top candidates touting them are 67 (Clinton), 72 (Sanders) and 73 years old?
In the long term, if Hillary’s supporters feel she’s no longer viable, it’s likely they divide between Biden and Sanders, leaving the party even more fractured and weakened than before.
It’s an unenviable dilemma for Democrats, but one they should have seen coming a mile away. Hillary Clinton not only brings old baggage wherever she goes, she picks up new baggage when she gets there.
Will the mounting pile sink her and the party? Or will Biden attempt an intervention? It’s a distinction without a differen
So true.
The party has no one to blame but themselves for allowing Obama to drive them over the cliff.
Perhaps the pending demise of the Democrat Party is the only silver lining in the dark clouds of the last seven years.
I remember twelve years back when Biden showed up at my local July 4th parade here in NH. It was the year Kerry took the democrat nomination. Biden was there all by himself. No followers, supporters, etc. All the other candidates had bus loads of supporters. Even people running for lower offices had more supporters than Joe. It was like he was running for dog catcher.
I felt kind of sorry for him. At that point, I actually kind of liked the guy because for years I had listened to him call in on the Imus radio show. Imus would taunt him and get him to say stuff that normal politicians would never say. I actually liked because of some of his off the cuff remarks.
Despite the all knowing punditry, that have long predicted her inevitable coronation, I have believed the Right Conservative candidate could melt the witch.
If the Witch melts too quickly, it is hard to predict what the dems might do. If our candidate is polling ahead of HRC, dems will not be bound by tradition, ethics or law in finding a replacement.
I predict a Joe Biden promise of one term, with an implied promise of letting his hand picked “Latino Female, maybe Gay” VP running mate, handle the levers of power during his tenure.
Anyone who tries to predict this presidential contest by traditional analysis will likely miss the real surprise ending.
Ya gotta be lovin' this too:
Hillary Clinton not only brings old baggage wherever she goes, she picks up new baggage when she gets there.
This kills Bush’s shot at the R nomination.
If Dems have to vote in their own primaries, he’s toast.
Run! Creepy Joe! Run!
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