Barack Obama sent Joe Biden out to do some fundraising, with predictable results. Oh, Biden showed up and made his sales pitch on Obama’s behalf, but as it turns out, the President wasn’t Biden’s only client. To the surprise of some attendees, Biden asked the donors to keep some money aside for 2016, too:
Vice President Joe Biden surprised a gathering of donors in Cincinnati last week when he floated the prospect of his succeeding President Barack Obama in the White House.
Biden, who started in the Senate young and would be just 70 in 2012, raised the possibility unprompted during a wide-ranging conversation at the May 19 dinner with major Democratic Party donors, a source in the room said.
He’ll be “just 70 in 2012.” That will make him 74 in 2016, which isn’t exactly spring-chicken territory, even if Biden’s performance as VP made a case for him as a presidential candidate at that point. Small wonder that Biden’s comment “caught the attention” of the donors, especially since no one asked him about his plans after Obama’s presidency.
Biden hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as a VP, however. He’s been put in charge of the Porkulus program, which turned into an expensive flop. Does anyone know what the unemployment rate should be now, according to the administration’s estimate if the stimulus package passed? 6.7%. Thanks to his months-long blather last year about “Recovery Summer,” no one takes Biden seriously any longer on economic matters. And if his non-presence on major foreign-affairs issues like Pakistan, Israel, and Iraq are any indication, no one at the White House takes him seriously on what was supposed to be his one area of expertise.
Besides, the donors aren’t worrying about 2016 for a Democratic successor to Obama. They’re more worried about losing in 2012, and they have to be wondering what the color of the sky is in Biden’s world if he’s starting to feel them up for a 2016 run.
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