# Joe Biden? Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 26, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915 "2015-08-26T03:43:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/81 "2015-09-11T05:36:59Z")
I think Joe laid out the case for why he won’t run. Even though he just has to “get up” as he said after his son’s death, it was an introspective Joe Biden who knows that his grief is coming in waves that he can’t really control. Very cool though that he had this opportunity to just talk it out so the nation understands why. He’d be a helluva leader, and he has a civility about him that is sorely lacking in the political discourse these days. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/82 "2015-09-11T10:44:28Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > I think if Hillary’s email scandal continues to gain traction then we might see a Biden hat in the ring. If Hillary can put the thing to bed then I don’t see Joe in this late. JIMHO Well, then, he’s not getting in. Much as the GOP might like to get the latest Hillary “scandal” to catch fire, you can’t light a fire without oxygen, and there simply isn’t any available now that the Tribble-Scalped Bloviator has sucked it all out of the room. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/83 "2015-09-11T11:49:10Z")
Biden is a rarity among Presidential candidates, intelligent, good-spirited, and far far more candid and honest than typical for politicians. OP is just desperate and dismal partisan hackery. I don’t think Biden wants to run, but he feels obligated to “warm up in the bullpen” should the starting pitcher fade. I felt compelled to say this when the thread got bumped and I clicked, only to see I’d already given my views: > [@septimus](#): > > Of course. It’s silly to pretend a guy like that is dumb. OP’s biggest complaints were a few minor gaffes and the state of Delaware – I’d take that as a ringing endorsement from someone like our “Champion.” > > My biggest problem with Biden is the same I have with Clinton and Sanders – age. Wouldn’t we be better off with a young person my age, someone like Elizabeth Warren? 😉 > [@commasense](#): > > Perhaps I’m being whooshed, but Elizabeth Warren isn’t exactly a spring chicken. She’s 66, although I grant that she seems much younger than the others. Writing “young person my age” obviously I knew Warren’s age. 🙂 I wouldn’t call my post a “Whoosh”, but it did have tongue-in-cheekery. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/84 "2015-09-11T13:49:38Z")
[Another good analysis of that interview](http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/joe-biden-beau-colbert-president-1.3223776). I think there’s general agreement that Colbert handled it very well and that Biden was eloquent and emotional. What he was really saying about potentially running seems a bit ambiguous and I was probably unduly influenced by the absence of an outright denial, which is the typical answer you get from most politicians. I think in retrospect I’d have to agree that though he hasn’t made a final decision, he’s probably leaning towards “no”. Which I think is really unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/85 "2015-09-11T14:11:29Z")
I think he’s going to run and all of this introspection will lead him to be able to say “Yes, I can give my whole heart and soul to this campaign” and have people believe him. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/86 "2015-09-11T14:35:28Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > I can’t think of anyone worse for president…oh wait, yes I can. Hillary And I can think of someone just as bad as her or worst , Trump! ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/87 "2015-09-11T14:36:02Z")
If he does choose to run (and I hope he does), any bets on which of the Republican candidates and/or rightwing pundits will take a shot against him as being mentally unfit? (I’m not wagering on whether they _will_, because that much is an absolute certainty.) ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/88 "2015-09-11T16:08:35Z")
I think it’s no, regrettably. I think his heart wants to get in because that’s what Biden does, and he’s no doubt getting a lot of encouragement from POTUS and others, but he’s tired, really beaten down by this tragedy. But wow, what a measure of a man who has given so much service to his country ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/89 "2015-09-11T16:11:40Z")
> [@choie](#): > > If he does choose to run (and I hope he does), any bets on which of the Republican candidates and/or rightwing pundits will take a shot against him as being mentally unfit? (I’m not wagering on whether they _will_, because that much is an absolute certainty.) Republicans are shit. The whole boatload of them. They allowed the spouting garbage from Trump because they got some airtime, and now they can’t stop it. They like nothing I’ve ever seen have reduced the once noble career of politics to some kind of crap you kick down the street. In that respect I am glad that Joe was ambiguous, because at any moment that shitshow could be driven out by class. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/90 "2015-09-12T03:52:21Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I could add, he also has some extremely hardline “law-and-order” initiatives under his belt–expanding federal death penalty, mandatory minimums, police militarization. Stuff that might sell better _outside_ a Democratic primary in 2016, than in one. I like Joe Biden as a person, and I _hate_ mandatory minimums. I think he’d have a hard time in some ways, but I wonder. People said that W was the guy you’d want to have a beer with; I don’t know if that’s true. Biden comes across as the guy who might want to have a beer, or a coke, or a drag race, or a game of darts, whatever, with _you._ He’s personable to a striking degree. That doesn’t make him a good candidate for president, but it probably does make him more electable than he would be otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/91 "2015-09-12T05:26:54Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Yeahhhhhh… That’s not gonna work. But she’s free to give it a go. Democrats neutralized the crime and welfare issues in the 1990s thanks to Bubba. We’ll take those issues back to beat you over the head with, no problem. Barack Obama was elected POTUS twice. I know what “crime and welfare” means in US politics, and I don’t think it’s the winner you do. Oh, OK, it’s not exactly about race. It intersects in that it’s about class, and it’s about fear, but it’s not exactly the same. What do Americans fear now? Street crime or losing their homes and livelihoods? You were saying? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/92 "2015-09-12T05:53:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Reform mandatory minimums to apply only to violent crimes. > Decriminalize most drug offenses > Body cameras on police > Prison conditions need to be better. Prison rape is not a joking matter, nor is prison brutality in general, whether by guards or fellow prisoners. I don’t think your party is on board with the second and fourth items, and I wouldn’t entirely expect the first and third. > [@](#): > > Where we differ from many liberals: > > Broken windows policing. We support it. > Worrying too much about racial profiling. It’s an issue, but even if police are doing their jobs right, minorities are going to be disproportionately impacted. As are young men in general. > Sentencing. We still support three strikes law and mandatory minimums for frequent violators who have a history of violence. We should never return to the days where a person is murdered by someone with 10 or more felonies in their history. I don’t think “broken windows policing” is as much a _partisan_ issue as all that. Your stance on racial profiling smells like racial essentialism or something. And you’re trying to spin “three strikes” pretty hard, but “three strikes” is still stupid in practice. If it’s “three violent felonies,” one could easily ask why not two strikes? Or one? Who gets two free murders? If it’s “three felonies including theft,” then you get sad sacks going to prison for life for shoplifting socks. And of course, if punishments are to fit crimes, even three unprovoked aggravated assaults might not seem to require life in prison. Do you want to provoke jury nullification for sympathetic committers of manslaughter? Now, I admit the stupidity of a policy is not in itself enough for it to be unpopular. But “three strikes” is baseball language, and I suspect the present electorate grew up more on basketball, and its system of fouls. I think it’s an archaic platform. > [@adaher](#): > > Sentencing discrepancies based on race and social class is another issue we’re all concerned about as well. No, we are not all concerned about it. This is empty puffery. Look, right now the fight on “crime” is not even between Dems and Pubs. It’s between a conservative/authoritarian/white/zero-tolerance side and a reform/libertarian/black/rehabilitation side; the former includes a LOT of Democrat careerists, and the latter includes the Rand Paul types. I’m going to need cites that whatever program you’re talking about exists outside your head and this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915/93 "2015-10-21T16:57:10Z")
Joe decides not to make the run: [http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/joe-biden-not-running-2016-election/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/joe-biden-not-running-2016-election/index.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-really/728915.md?page=4)