The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Ramona's picture

    Please, Joe, Don't Run

    By Ramona on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 4:49pm | Politics

    For years now I've been pushing for a Joe Biden run for the presidency.  Whenever I say Joe would make a better president than any candidate running, even people I like a lot have laughed at the idea.  They scoffed.  I kept pushing. 

    I've written before about how much I love Joe Biden, even when he's at his most cringe-worthy.  I've inserted him into pieces that aren't about him, making them much longer than they need to be or should be, simply because I wanted him there.  He fits.

    He is as flawed as any of us, but the presidency doesn't require perfection.  It's not an application for sainthood.  It requires a big heart--a HUGE heart--along with enough political savvy to never lose sight of goals or of enemies.  Joe has that.

    But yesterday, during a speech at an Atlanta synagogue, he was asked about a possible run for president.  He said this:
     
    "Unless I can go to my party and the American people and say that I'm able to devote my whole heart and my whole soul to this endeavor, it would not be appropriate," Biden said. "And everybody talks about a lot of other factors: The other people in the race and whether I can raise the money and whether I can get an organization. That's not the factor. The factor is can I do it? Can my family? 
    "...I will be straightforward with you. The most relevant factor in my decision is whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run," Biden told the crowd. "The honest to God answer is I just don't know." 
     It was as much how he said it as what he said. (I'm fogging up again, just writing about it.) Joe Biden's family means everything to him.  He lost his first wife and baby daughter in a terrible car crash in 1972, a little more than a month after he was elected senator in Delaware.  His two sons, Beau and Hunter, spent weeks in the hospital, Joe by their side every day.
     
    On May 30 of this year, Joe's son Beau died at just 46 after a heroic battle with brain cancer.  Beau, Delaware's Attorney General before his illness took him out of public life, showed signs of following in his father's footsteps.   His reputation as a "good guy" pleased Joe no end.  There might have been a Biden dynasty and the people would have benefited.  But it wasn't to be, and now Joe the family man is tired and grieving.   
     
     A presidential run is grueling, it's exhausting, it's rife with cruelty. The presidency itself is a thankless job, made even more so by factions intent on not just weakening it but destroying it altogether.  The perks--a long-term stay in the nation's mansion, limousines and a veritable airliner as modes of transportation, aides and servants at your beck and call--can't make up for the endless demands for Solomon-like decisions, the gnawing, nightmarish responsibilities as a world leader, the constant opposition to the obligations of serving the peoples' needs.  A person like Joe would take the office of the presidency seriously.  Those decisions would haunt him.  I need to stop asking him to do it.

    So give it up, Joe.  Please.  You don't need to be president to be one of the great ones.  You can step into Jimmy Carter's shoes and become our favorite uncle.  The one who speaks to us in quiet tones, reminding us that we have to work at doing the right thing--it doesn't always come naturally.The one who shows us, even if our hearts are breaking, how it can be done.
    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    I don't think he should either.  He would be a great statesman after he retires. I just don't think he has it in him for another run and will be surprised if he announces. 


    by trkingmomoe on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 5:44pm

    I'd be surprised, too, Momoe.  I'm going to stop pushing for it.  


    by Ramona on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 7:55pm

     

    I don't think he should run either. The GOP has him pegged as a goofus, and even though it is untrue and absurd, they have made that assessment stick. Why else did Darth Cheney say that he wanted Joe to run?  He (Joe, not Cheney) is very smart, and unlike most, has the ability to befriend those from both sides of the aisle. However, every verbal gaffe, all the hugs (so inappropriately labeled as creepy) would dog him by the GOP MUCK Machine. They fear HILLARY. They don't fear Joe because they see him (unjustifiably) as a joke, and they have gotten,that message out just like they are trying to do with HRC's email and BENGHAZI! (But with less success.)

    I would love to see him in an important position as a trusted advisor, but I think the poisonous ability of the GOP would make his election very difficult (not that they aren't trying equally as hard against Hillary) but somehow, I think that most thinking people see the attacks against her as a witch hunt.

    At TPM Amanda Marcotte wrote a disgusting article in which she described him as a creepy perv, and Josh thinks she is WONDERFUL !  With friends like that we don't need enemies.  If I see that she has written something I don't click on it because she writes like a high school kid and has the depth of a piece of gum under a car tire!  (Sorry, I just had to add that dig against Amanda ever since she wrote that shitty article about Biden.)  

     


    by CVille Dem on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 6:25pm

    From recent comments, his heart doesn't seem to be in it. He probably asked Warren if she would consider the VP slot if he did decide to run.


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 6:49pm

    Thanks Ramona.  Great post.  I think you're spot on with respect to what is best for Joe Biden and his family given his speech at the Atlanta synagogue.


    by HSG on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 8:15pm

    Hal, that speech just broke my heart.  I want that man to live a life that gives him comfort.  He deserves it.  He may decide that going after the presidency is what he has to do, but I sincerely hope he has the courage to just say no.


    by Ramona on Fri, 09/04/2015 - 9:08pm

    I agree.  I hope that he will retire with peace and dignity.  I don't want to see him to through the mess and come out weakened by it.


    by synchronicity on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 12:38am

    Great post, Ramona.

    I've never seen the logic of Biden running. He's not meaningfully different politically from the other quasi-incumbent, Hillary.

    And more personally, I like him and hope, as you do, that he can find some private time for mourning with his family.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 3:36pm

    I just watched his speech repeated today.

    HOW CAN ANYONE NOT LOVE JOE BIDEN?

    I have written about this American Hero so many times.

    He is really really hurt.

    But he has a wonderful wife; God I love this woman.

    He still has one wonderful son and wonderful daughter.

    I just don't think he can do it right now.

    And his wife and his daughter and his son are not ever ever going to push him.

    Joe is a good man, hell he is a great man.


    by Richard Day on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 4:17pm