Say It Ain’t So, Joe

So Joe Biden has formally and finally entered the race for the Democratic nomination. While he may be the front runner today, I’m guessing that comes almost purely from name recognition. And, in the end, I think he will regret Biden for President 3.0. It’s not that Biden isn’t a good and decent guy and it’s not that he will be a bad candidate, although he is infamous for a deadly gaffe or two. It’s just that I think time has passed his brand of politics by.

Certainly, the video he released this morning to introduce his campaign was more than underwhelming. He spent most of the time declaring that not only was Trump unfit for office but that his presidency was an anomaly, Biden called it an “aberrant moment in time”, that could be erased by electing the right candidate, which, of course, he believes he is. The problem with this approach is that virtually every Democrat agrees that Trump is unfit but most Democrats disagree that he represents an anomaly.

Many Democrats, and certainly the majority of the current Democratic candidates, believe that Trump is far more a symptom of the problems facing our country rather than an anomaly that, once removed, will allow us to return to normal. The pre-Trump normal simply wasn’t working which is a big part of why Trump was elected. That is why virtually all the candidates, rather than focusing on Trump and his unfitness, are in one way or another focused on getting government and the economy to “work for all of us”, to use a phrase from Elizabeth Warren.

I know it’s just the first day of his campaign, but it looks like he is taking the worst approaches of Hillary Clinton and Bob Dole and combining them into his campaign. Like Clinton, he is acting like the presumptive nominee by going after Trump, lining up endorsements from the Democratic establishment, and probably getting big money from traditional Democratic donors. And like Dole in 1996, Biden wants to be the bridge to the past when, just as Bill Clinton declared in 1996, Democratic voters and at least a small segment of Republican ones, want a bridge to help confront the future, where climate change, inequality, and job loss are all nearly existential crises.

The past that Biden harkens to is gone for the foreseeable future, at least until there are major changes in the Republican party.. Even after all we have endured, even after being a documented criminal, Republicans still support the President overwhelmingly. His support among Congressional Republicans is virtually unanimous. The idea that Biden is going to be the one who can build a bipartisan consensus with these Republicans, especially in light of the eight years of total obstruction that he and Obama faced, is laughable on its face. And while it may win over those handful of voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan that cost Hillary the election, it is going to turn off the same voters who voted for a third party in 2016 as well as boatload of newly energized younger Democratic voters.

I like Biden and he is certainly welcome to join the race. But he has always been a better candidate on paper than when he actually runs. Like Hillary, perhaps the tug of Democratic base will pull him leftward as the campaign progresses and he has to confront the issue that Democratic voters actually care about. But, if his opening salvo is any indication, I think he will end up as disappointed as he has been the last two times he ran for President. And that’s a sad end for a guy who, whether you agree with all he has done or not, has given so much to the Democratic party.