On Monday after staying around to talk to reporters about a new bill about heath research that was dedicated to Joe Biden's late son, Beau, Joe Biden gave a few interesting remarks to a reporter.
"Are you going to run again?” a reporter asked.
“Yeah, I am,” Biden said. “I’m going to run in 2020.”
“For what?”
“For president,” he replied. “What the hell, man, anyway.”
He paused for several seconds, then replied, “I’m not committing not to
run. I’m not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a
strange way of intervening.”
The first two comments would have been great news to Democrats and Independents who didn't like Trump and/or Clinton.
He then however, affirmed that he wasn't declaring his candidacy while on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
I think there's doubt he would have ran for president if his son Beau hadn't died of brain cancer. He has said numerous times that he either could have beat Hillary or that he felt he was more qualified than Clinton and Trump to run for President. That's why he left the door open. He ran for President in 1988 and 2008. He clearly wants the nation's top office, but unfortunately him and his family are still hurting.
But it's possible that he might never recover. In 1972, just one week before Christmas, Joe's first wife and 13 month year old daughter were killed in a car crash. Joe Biden has had a very tough life, and I don't think anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, can find a way to not respect his decision to remain with his family instead of running for President.
If he can muster up the energy to run for President in 2020, he might actually have a pretty decent shot of winning.
Some of the big reasons why people liked Donald Trump was because he was "honest", straight forward, and "says it how it is". Joe Biden has a very similar personality. While he wouldn't go on twitter tirades at 2 in the morning, he would not be afraid to challenge Donald Trump on his philosophies and policies. One of Hillary Clinton's biggest problems was that she was too reserved against a candidate that had no filter. When she would attack Donald Trump, she seemed like she was being too calm and collected and it seemed like many of her attacks were per-rehearsed. Remember "Trumped Up- Trickle Down Economics"? That's not something you just come up with on the spot.
Biden will be 77, and would turn 78 right after the election, in 2020. Trump will be 74. Is that too old for a presidential candidate? Who knows? Who knows if Joe Biden will be able to find the energy in 2020. If he decides to run though, I don't see how he couldn't give Donald Trump some very tough competition.