I link the following 3 posts from 2005:
Biden (D-MBNA)
Holding them accountable
2008: Biden to run for president (of MBNA?)
I heartily agreed with all 3 posts then. I fully agree with them now, particularly this all too accurate observation:
But alas, Biden has been part of the problem -- a class of Democrats so comfortable with the (still considerable) perks and benefits of being in the minority that anything that threatens their little world is met with contempt, fear and anger. People like Biden don't care about winning, about being in the majority. They care only about the status quo.
I further note that, in 2018, when it was “all hands on deck” in the House, the former VP helped re-elect Fred Upton in a tight MI race:
Mr. Biden stunned Democrats and elated Republicans by praising Mr. Upton while the lawmaker looked on from the audience. Alluding to Mr. Upton’s support for a landmark medical-research law, Mr. Biden called him a champion in the fight against cancer — and “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks, coming amid a wide-ranging discourse on American politics, quickly appeared in Republican advertising. The local Democratic Party pleaded with Mr. Biden to repair what it saw as a damaging error, to no avail. On Nov. 6, Mr. Upton defeated his Democratic challenger by four and a half percentage points.
In December, he said that we need the GOP:
Describing his plan to “work things out” with Senator Lindsey Graham to pass legislation if elected, Biden shared his worry that the Republican Party could suffer too great a loss in 2020, wondering what would happen if the GOP got “clobbered” in November and Democrats were able to genuinely wield power for the first time in a decade.
Finally, I note that the former VP bestowed a Liberty Medal upon George W. and Laura Bush in 2018:
Biden underscored the importance of democratic values and patriotism in his remarks, praising Bush for his support for service members and their families.
“We share a belief that those values which undergird our democracy are precious, and they exist way above party, and they have to be defended,” Biden said. “That’s the duty of patriots.”
I have nothing personal against Joe Biden. On my office wall, I still have a picture taken of him with my daughter during a campaign visit to Grinnell (IA) College in the fall of 2012 . She was a junior at the time. It’s not every day that your child has her picture taken with an incumbent VP.
I met him myself while I was stumping for Paul Simon at the FL Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in the summer of 1987. He was shaking hands with passers-by in the hotel lobby a few hours before the dinner, so I stuck my hand out and shook his as he passed by. Selfies were decades away then.
Vice President Biden is, by all appearances, a devoted husband and father. President Obama was highly complimentary of his tenure as VP. As someone who wants to clobber the GOP this year, however, it totally escapes me why the party is rushing to make him its standard bearer in the most consequential election of my 61 years on this planet. Do people not take him at his word about the likes of Lindsey Graham, George W. Bush, Fred Upton, and the purported “need” for their party full of nihilists? While I understand that many others do not share my enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders, I really think that the party needs to step back and take a deep breath about a decision of this consequence.
EDIT: So that there is no confusion, this diary does not imply any collusion or conspiracy in the nomination process. It merely links to relevant points about the front-runner in a still ongoing nomination process.