Vice President Joe Biden is giving me heartburn.
Will he run for president in 2016 … or not?
I’ll stipulate up front that I’m not going to predict what he’ll do. I didn’t think Democrat Hillary Clinton would run for the U.S. Senate in 2000 after she and her husband left the White House; she did. I thought Republican Colin Powell might run for president in 1996; he didn’t.
I’ve waffled on the vice president’s immediate political future so much I’m giving myself motion sickness.
Part of me wants him to run. I happen to like the vice president and admire his long record of public service — gaffes and all.
He’s experienced immense personal tragedy, with the deaths in 1972 of his wife and daughter in a car crash that injured his two sons; then came the death of his older son, Beau, of brain cancer just a few months ago.
Biden has shown courage and grace in the face of these tragic events.
Another part of me, though, wants him to avoid being labeled for the rest of his life as a “loser” if he fails to win the Democratic nomination. Clinton is the frontrunner, although she’s been damaged by controversy involving e-mails and Benghazi. Biden has run twice already, in 1988 and again in 2008.
Joe Biden isn’t the perfect alternative to Clinton, but he’ more perfect than, say, socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s polling quite well these days head to head against Clinton.
Only the vice president and his family know what he’ll decide. He’s expected to announce his plans within the next 10 days or so.
As tempting as it is in this forum to try to guess out loud what he’ll do, I’ll remain quiet. It’s Joe Biden’s call to make all by himself.
It’s clear that Biden wants to be president. It’s not at all clear whether he believes he’s got what it takes to derail the frontrunner.
I’m trying to imagine the immense pressure that accompanies a decision like the one facing the vice president. I can’t comprehend it.
You do what your heart tells you to do, Mr. Vice President.