Uncle Joe dusts off his cape

Editor's note: The original version of this column ran online-only on Wednesday.

Two notions suddenly grow stronger in American politics.

One is that Donald Trump may have staying power in the Republican presidential primary. The other is that Joe Biden conceivably might actually run against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

These notions are not altogether disparate.


Biden is a fine and genuine man with a rich and admirable, if tragic, biography. He has unparalleled experience and bona fides in progressive Democratic service to the working class and foreign affairs.

That credibility dates to his Pennsylvania Catholic roots and his election to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972 at the age of 29.

He chaired the Judiciary Committee hearings on Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He gained international credibility as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

None of that relates to Trump. But this much does: Biden's historic vulnerability is that he is an incorrigible motormouth and showoff who is so chronically deficient in rhetorical inhibition that he is apt to make an indelicate or absurd pronouncement at any moment.

As it happens on the Republican side, Trump is finding great currency at the moment in being a motormouth and showoff so chronically deficient in rhetorical inhibition that he is apt to make an indelicate or absurd pronouncement at any moment.

Trump wins by speaking recklessly because many people are fatigued by politicians speaking cautiously. They're thinking that, if you are afraid to say anything, then you similarly are afraid to do anything, and that somebody, by George, needs to do something.

To that extent, Biden, who does not speak cautiously, is a bit of a Democratic Trump.

Can you begin to fathom a Biden-Trump debate?

That hair against those blazing white teeth? A blowhard bellowing over a blowhard, and vice versa? A moderator giving up on any rules? A timekeeper throwing away his clock?

So here is what appears to be going on with Biden: He has wanted to be president for a period spanning five decades. He knows himself to hold the credentials and skills for the job. But he is 72 and his time seems to have passed.

But two things have happened: His beloved dying son, Beau, urged him to run, and Clinton ran into serious problems owing partly to her own missteps but mostly to a cynically contrived Republican assault and the media's complicity.

Hillary has done nothing actually wrong on those personal emails, so far as we know from revelations to date. But the issue won't go away.

And as it persists, it advances the pre-existing image of Hillary as secretive and unworthy of trust.

So Joe, ever the good guy, is going through a growingly serious contemplation of honoring his beloved son and seeking to rescue his beloved party.

Biden is said to believe--rightly--that, by his background and essence, he is more capable than Hillary of leading a Democratic war against growing income inequality.

That's the main theme of Democrats currently. And it's why Biden had that meeting the other day with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the leading voice of that theme.

But that has to do with a byproduct, not the real story.

The real story is that Biden would run predominantly for one reason, which is that Hillary would become so damaged that Joe's party would actually have a compelling need for him.

So Biden says he'll decide by the end of the summer, which is Sept. 23.

The drama between now and then is not his, but Hillary's.

Can she somehow slay this email dragon? Can she reverse her dreadful poll trend or at the least stop the hemorrhaging?

What Biden is doing is attending to the contingency. He's preparing his cape for a crusade to save the day, should it come to that.

The complication for Hillary, and for Joe, and for Democrats, is that the consequence of the email folderol may not be any more determined by Sept. 23 than it is now.

And Joe can't wait much longer to decide.

Meantime, the Democratic National Committee holds its national meeting this week in Minneapolis. Hillary is speaking. So is Bernie Sanders.

Biden? Well, that's interesting.

DNC members got notices Tuesday to dial a number Wednesday afternoon for a conference call during which Biden would brief them on the multinational nuclear agreement with Iran.

The Obama administration indeed needs to buck up Democrats on the Iran deal. For Joe to invite the committee to the phone was a clever parlay. It's appropriately his job.

And it's helpful to his current contemplation and cape preparation.

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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

Editorial on 08/27/2015

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