V.P. Biden May Run for President to Honor Son’s Wishes, Sources Say
The executive branch’s second-in-command and Senate president has previously said he will make a final decision by the end of the summer. If he enters the race, it would be Biden’s third attempt at the White House.
The death of Biden’s son, Beau, has also reportedly been a rallying point — as insiders say the 46-year-old former Delaware attorney general aspired to see his father in the White House.
“He was so close to Beau and it was so heartbreaking that, frankly, I thought initially he wouldn’t have the heart [to run],” supporter Michael Thornton said. “But I have had indications that maybe he does want to — and [perhaps Biden believes] that is what Beau would’ve wanted.”
Biden has run for the presidency twice before — in 1988 and 2008, ultimately losing the Democratic nomination to Michael Dukakis and Obama, respectively. This time, though, it doesn’t appear that his path would be any easier.
A campaign would almost assuredly place Biden at the top of a hotly contested race with present frontrunner Hillary Clinton — a Democrat with substantial support and more youth. Biden would be 74 years old upon entering the White House, if he got elected.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in May that Beau and Biden’s surviving son, Hunter, both wanted their father to run. The Wall Street Journal published a similar story in June.
“The reality is it’s going to be a tough, even-steven kind of race, and there’s that moment when a lot of party establishment would start exactly this kind of rumble, ‘Is there anybody else?’ ” Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said in the Times report.
Despite Clinton’s favorable lead in the Democratic race, some analysts believe party leaders and voters could easily switch their allegiance to Biden.
“It’s not that we dislike Hillary. It’s that we want to win the White House,” South Carolina Democratic supporter Richard A. Harpootlian said. “We have a better chance of doing that with somebody who is not going to have all the distractions of a Clinton campaign.”
