A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. (Woo hoo hoo?)
If Joe Biden wants to make his mark on history, now is the time. He can be considered the most valiant man to ever hold the office of Vice President. He can be the guy they talk about in junior high history class as the man who put his legacy on the line for the American people. Heck, he could even be known as the 45th President of the United States of America. But to do it he has to save Social Security and Medicare from the avaricious Republican Guard® and inept fumblings of his boss.
Joe Biden has a singular opportunity to prove his 2008 campaign rhetoric was not just, well, rhetoric. No one, this side of John Edwards, sailed the seas of populism like Mr Biden. From tales of his father's financial struggles to his mother's efforts to age with dignity to his trademarked daily commute on AMTRAK, Joe was one of us. Hew was part of us. He was a regular Joe. Well, now is the time for him to prove it wasn't all just a campaign strategem.
Joe Biden needs to walk into President Obama's office and tell it to him straight out:
Either you stand up for these most basic Democratic principles, or I'm running against you in 2012.
And the campaign starts today. It may get him dumped from the ticket. It may have Obama demanding his resignation. It may be the end of his political career. But it will also be the end of Republican Guard® terrorism and the beginning of the canonization of Joe Biden.
If Obama discovers a backbone - even if it's because Biden is holding a gun to it, Social Security and Medicare are safe. Obama is a hero, and he owes it to Mr Biden for forcing him to make the choice. If Obama refuses, Joe steps up to the plate and says, quoting another great Democrat, "They are wrong and we are right and I'm going to prove it to you" (HST). If he gets forced out, Mr Biden has a couple decades of friendships in the House and Senate that Mr Obama never took the time to cultivate. Suddenly, he's no longer "shoot from the lip Biden," he's the new Teddy Kennedy, the Lion of the Democratic Party.
He will have to sharpen his focus and learn how to translate economic realities into 15-second sound bites. He'll need to prove Social Security and Medicare are not part of (bogus) debt ceiling arguments. He has to be ready with how many grandmother's won't get new hips for each private jet tax break, and how many retired steel workers benefits are being cut to pay for the chairman of Exxon's Bush tax cut. And how regular Joes are paying the cost of Republican "economic stimulus" while 90% of it will go to the top 1% - who don't pay anything.
Joe Biden will be ubiquitous on Cable news. He'll be on MSNBC more hours a day than Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan combined. Al Gore will do regular sit-downs with him personally on CurrentTV (The Vice Presidential Summits!). You won't be able to hear "Social Security" without "Joe Biden" in the same sentence. His middle name will be Medicare. He's Howard Dean's new best friend and the newest Democracy for America fellow. Dean got dissed so many times by Obama there's little he wouldn't do to help a viable Democratic candidate. Every time he shows up on Maddow, Countdown, or AC360 they'll tout him as the possible challenger to Obama and the "real" Democrats' favorite son. George Soros will mortgage his house to set up "independent" interest groups. By the time he declares he'll generate a single day "Money Bomb" that would make Obama's best day look like a bake sale.
And all he has to do is stand up for the things he's said are important. He gets to be the guy who really does walk the walk, and has the publicly witnessed bona fides to back it up. He's the champion of the middle class, the protector of senior citizens, the man who risked everything - for America. And if he does it right, he's untouchable. He's a freakin' superhero.
A month ago it would haven't even generated a snicker, but suddenly it's looking pretty good:
Biden 2012 He saved America