Tweet
Who has influence now?
If Vice President Joe Biden actually ran for President he would be 74 when he took office making him the oldest first term president ever. Despite his advanced age though Biden hasn’t shut the door on a possible run. In fact, he has taken several steps to hold this option open.
For example, Biden paid special attention to early primary states during inauguration events. He attended the Iowa Democrats’ pre-inauguration party and invited the New Hampshire governor to the private swearing in ceremony on Sunday.
While speculation about Biden’s plans four years from now might seem silly, if Biden is at least exploring the possibility there are real implications for activists right now. Since President Obama will never run again, grassroots groups have lost a huge amount of potential influence over this administration. During his first term Obama needed to keep his potential voters relatively engaged so that gave different groups electoral leverage to push him to take actions, such as delaying the Keystone XL pipeline decision or creating a system for DREAM kids.
Obama is no longer personally susceptible to that kind of raw electoral pressure, but if Biden is seriously considering running it means activists at least retain a tiny measure of this leverage with the administration. At least it means Biden could probably be pursued to lobby Obama against some action if it is seen as too damaging with the base.
If you want to try to influence policy you need to know every potential point of leverage that might be exploitable, regardless how small.
Ed Note: Case in Point
Photo by afagen under Creative Commons license
32 Comments
You hit the nail on the head. Biden is the guy towards pressure must be directed. Because he’s obviously running in ’16 unless health problems develop between now and them.
Jon, you are a treasure.
And we know this sort of pressure works because when Democratic presidents lie repeatedly and fail to make good on even the most basic promises, the base withholds their votes. Oh, wait . . .
I’m stupid. I don’t understand the point you are trying to make.
You have a problem with Joe running in ’16?
Just tell me. No prancing.
Joe Biden? Let’s revisit this after we know for certain that John Brennan has ruled out a run. Dems will fall in line behind him, even if reluctantly.
I assume you’re talking to me. I don’t have any problem with Joe Biden running in 2016. My problem is with pretending that the Obama administration cares what its “fucking retarded” base thinks. Was that prancing? I can’t tell.
Even if Hillary’s also running?
No. Wrong assumption. I was sending my reply to the author of the post, or I would have replied to hotflashcarol.
I hope you don’t think I’m retarded based. No. Wait. I don’t care.
You can prance if you want to.
My bad, sorry.
Nada problem.
It’s a challenge, ain’t it?
I’m busy making gumbo for dinner, so I can give anyone a pass. And, since you and I have already done the Things Be Okay thing, I’m good.
If Brennan runs, he would just take her out like he does a 4-year-old Pakistani Al-Qaida terrorist — faster than you can say Praise TBoww!.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Please don’t use 4 year old pakisani girls to make you tBoow point.
Or, go ahead and do that.
No gumbo for you, in that case.
Or vice versa. Hillary has some of the keys to the kingdom, too. I guess it will all depend on what sort of candidate the Republicans come up with. In the meantime, Biden has a rather unique campaign financing scheme underway.
Gawd, I’m so stupid. I’ll go away. Sorry, all.
My thought, as well. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. Maybe a daily dose of The Black Agenda Report, whose reporters have a long history of opposition to Obama and his ilk? (I loved it when someone there referred to the Obamas as “a pair of hack lawyers.” I think Michelle gets more of a pass then she deserves.)
Yes, BAR is a breath of fresh air. I loved the “hack lawyers” remark too. I fell for Michelle a little in the beginning but now I see her as just another mediocre tool of the oligarchy. I actually sort of have a soft spot for Biden, but I am under no misapprehension that he’s any different than the rest of them. He’s also had Obama’s ear this whole time and either hasn’t said anything or has no influence – or both.
One or two drone hits would do it.
The base? You mean Wall Street?
If Biden was seriously considering running I would expect him to start doing some hippie punching to keep the “base” happy.
Why not? He doesn’t mind, so neither should you. Request denied.
Well, I’ll care about what I choose to care about.
But, you can still share some of the soup.
It’s a tough nut.
Not the soup.
Biden is an unreconstructed drug warrior, a cheerleader for the Patriot Act, a toady for the banks and credit issuers, and he made a dog’s breakfast of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
The only positive thing I can say about him is that he isn’t Evan Bayh.
> Well, I’ll care about what I choose to care about.
Of course you will, but no one mentioned that subject so your comment is a complete non sequitur. And may I say preemptively that you are certainly free to non sequitur any old time you want to non sequitur.
Take a tour of Hunter Biden’s career. And wonder, as I do, what Ruth Ann Minner got in exchange for appointing Ted Kaufman to Biden’s unexpired senate seat. Kaufman turned out to be pretty good, far as I could tell. Better than his blue dog successor, Chris Coons, who is only an improvement on the execrable Christine O’Donnell–who might have been a great deal more entertaining than Coons and would certainly have given Michele Bachmann real competition for lead in the looney tunes revues.
In my dream scenario, Biden runs against Hillary. They knock each other out and Elizabeth Warren squeaks through with the nomination.
Thanks. :)
Shall do. But, no offense was meant, btw.
Given the number of times frontpagers and owners of FDL asserted (threatened?), during the campaign, that we regular folk were wrong to read a Democratic bias into the essays they were consistently highlighting, that elections don’t matter and that the real work would begin after the assassin-in-chief was re-elected, it seems odd that you are already campaigning for the Democrats… again.
Oh, wait… it’s the third parties who themselves are to blame for their ineffectiveness because they just didn’t do the work necessary to be noticed.
Meanwhile the criminal Obama administration that you helped re-elect expands and doubles down on its criminality.
But you won’t do a thing to help alternative parties/candidates. No, 4 years before the next POTUS charade, you’ve already made it clear where your attention will remain.
Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Hillary Clinton. Fuck Barack Obama. And Fuck the Democratic Party.
One of the things I like about Firedoglake is that it occupies the part of the political spectrum encompassing the leftish part of the Democratic Party (what Paul Wellstone would call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party) and whatever lies to its left.
Sadly, what lies to the left of the Dems is a hodgepodge of well-intentioned splinter groups: the Green Party…Rocky Anderson’s Justice Party (for which/whom I voted)…Peace and Freedom…and God knows who else. The inability of the left to unite is a source of exasperation to me and consolation to the predatory plutocrats.
Because the Democratic Party is only 90 percent Plutocrat friendly, there’s a natural tendency for some here and elsewhere to focus their energy and hopes there. I, like many FDL people, am not one of them. In some ways, I think the Democrats are actually more baleful than the Republicans, as they take all the hope and energy many Americans have for progress and harmlessly smother it (harmlessly from the point of view of the plutocrats, of course).
As mentioned above, my dream scenario is for a genuine reformer such as Elizabeth Warren to somehow wind up in the White House, which would be about as flukey as — say Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.
So talk about which corporate Democrat will run irritates me on one hand, but on the other hand, I see it as entertaining stovepipe-league mulling, and don’t get too upset about it.
… c’mon bigchin—don’t be mincing words now … :-)
I liked this comment so will give it a X 2 just for it’s candor … 2016 is already here and Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are placing markers…..a “yippee?!” moment then? … uhmmm…….. no.
B.H.Obama likely already is talking with W.J.Clinton on how to really succeed at winning and pulling in the posh and plush life as a ex-(D) (DLC) POTUS.
Too bad the Ds will likely be put in play by Uni-Party politics in 2016 with a well scripted,super financed/super managed Jeb Bush (BUSH)(R) WH run which will by definition not be a Mitt Romney WH Gag Run being the Bush family does Win Big/ Win No Matter What/How App R politics very well.
Poor Hillary will likely be feeling the second Clinton/first woman POTUS run WH moment slip away again — in 2008 it was taken by ObamaBush and in 2016 will be taken by a Real Bush.
Since Hillary Clinton has signed off on B.H.Obama’s war crimes and killing of innocents/ ObamaBush GWOT as Obama’s SoS Hillary has a big political/WH run defeat #2 coming just on the demerit(s) of some genuine Wheel Of Life and what goes around/comes around come abouts.
As for VPOTUS Joe Biden becoming POTUS in 2016? … just not seeing it …Obama WH bad baggage drag will do Biden no good. See Al Gore 2000 WH run.
Jon is making a different point.
I think it’s more like 99.9% and, in any event, the remaining percent, be it 10% or .001%, is powerless.
What have been the results in the last 30 years of focusing energy on anyone in the Democratic Party?
I seem to be the only one who thinks Jon wrote about the influence Biden might have on Obama between 2013 and 2016.
As to what I thought Jon’s post was about: Politics is no longer a cottage industry, if it ever was. The hierarchy and power center of the Democratic Party, like those of the Republican Party, are far beyond any one person or any two people. Policy is made at that level, not between Biden and Obama.
Yes, Biden, and now Obama, are both part of the hierarchy, but only a small part. So, in terms of setting White House policy, I don’t think it matters all that much whether Biden wants to run in 2016 or not.
And, isn’t it disgusting that we believe, without question or criticism, that a Vice President of the United States will base policy on whether he plans to run in four years or not, as opposed to right and wrong, or what is best for the nation?
That is how far we have advanced (regressed?) into sheepleness.
Finally, Democrats may have already written off the Oval Office in 2017. With the exception of Poppy Bush, the pattern seems to be to take turns at the Presidency.
Two things:
A) Our pressure doesn’t mean shit either way
and
B) I don’t want a 74 y/o president. Don’t start. I’m 58.