{"id":11216,"date":"2015-10-04T17:42:55","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T17:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11216"},"modified":"2015-10-04T17:42:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-04T17:42:55","slug":"vp-teeters-on-brink-of-huge-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11216","title":{"rendered":"VP teeters on brink of huge decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"biden\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vice President Joe Biden is giving me heartburn.<\/p>\n

Will he run for president in 2016 … or not?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I’ve waffled on the vice president’s immediate political future so much I’m giving myself motion sickness.<\/p>\n

Biden ponders run<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Biden has shown courage and grace in the face of these tragic events.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It’s clear\u00a0that Biden\u00a0wants<\/em> to be president. It’s not at all clear whether he believes he’s got what it takes to derail the frontrunner.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to imagine the immense pressure that accompanies a decision like the one facing the vice president. I can’t comprehend it.<\/p>\n

You do what your heart tells you to do, Mr. Vice President.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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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 … Continue reading VP teeters on brink of huge decision<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[73,589,1056,2139,2505,4980,5246],"class_list":["post-11216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-2016-campaign","tag-benghazi","tag-colin-powell","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-joe-biden","tag-u-s-senate","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11218,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11216\/revisions\/11218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}