Joe Biden has never come anywhere close to the Democrat nomination for President of the United States. But, as a sitting Vice President, he thinks he has the inside track for the 2016 nomination and he’s already lining up his ducks to make that happen.
As a Senator, Biden tried running for the Democrat nomination two other times–1988 and 2008–and made noises about running during nearly every other election cycle in between. Each time he was a dark horse candidate, one least expected to get far in the hunt. He easily realized those low odds, too.
But now that he is the Vice President Biden assumes he could be next. After all, there is always an expectation that a sitting Vice President should be the next man in line after his president finishes his time in office. Pursuant to that, Joe has already begun making arrangements for 2016.
One sign of the Biden’s machinations was his interesting guest list for his swearing in ceremony. Biden invited Iowa Governor Maggie Hassan. Iowa is home to America’s first caucus contest.
Biden later gave some attention to Iowa’s visitors to the capitol at one of the evenings festivities. He also looked up the delegations from South Carolina and New Hampshire, both early voting states.
The Vice President also took time to party with Latino voters at a ball at the Kennedy Center as well as the environmentalists of the National Wildlife Federation.
“There’s a whole lot of reasons why I wouldn’t run,” said Biden to the media. “I don’t have to make that decision for awhile. In the meantime, there’s one thing I know I have to do, no matter what I do. I have to help this president move this country to the next stage.”
One of those reason might just be his age. If Biden were to win the presidency in his own right he’d be the oldest president in history. Biden would be almost 74-years-old on inauguration day 2016 were he to win. Currently the oldest man to first take the White House was Ronald Reagan (only a few weeks shy of 70). The next oldest was William Henry Harrison who turned 68 a month before inauguration day, though he didn’t make it but one month into his term before sickness took him to his reward.
There’s no guarantee that a VP will succeed with his grab for the top slot, though. Most Vice Presidents became President because of the calamity of a president dying as opposed to winning an election of their own. Several ran and lost, too.
Joe Biden, though, is a survivor. One should not underestimate him.
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