Joe Biden seems to be scratching that presidential itch

Joe Biden has had an itch for more than 30 years. Last week, he started scratching it again.

Since at least 1987 — almost certainly even longer — Biden has nursed dreams of the presidency. He ran for the office twice, both runs ending in profound disappointment, even in embarrassment. He left the races tarred as a plagiarist, as a blowhard, with the capital establishment — then at the height of its powers and prerogatives — dismissing him as a pleasant lightweight, fun to engage in but a little wearying in large doses.

But Biden, famously rooted in hardscrabble Scranton, Pennsylvania, had another side to go with the new-age profile that decades ago beguiled so many Washington Democrats who had thought that he could be another RFK. On paper — and in pollster Patrick J. Caddell’s surveys — he was the perfect candidate. On the stump, he didn’t measure up to the numbers, nor to the passions.

Even though Biden was a little like an old shoe, comfortable but worn, Barack Obama chose him as his 2008 running mate. The two men got along, and there was a whiff of the father figure to old Joe, then at 65 eligible for Medicare but like El Cid strapped to the Obama horse and sent into battle again. Biden was a modern vice president. He was everywhere, popular and — a skill much needed in 2016, but neglected as an attribute by Democrats choosing their nominee — a populist. He was of the people, and the people were enamored of him.

Now he is stoking those White House dreams again, perhaps not yet to a white-hot passion, but surely the embers are glistening.

Recently, he said, “I never thought (Hillary Clinton) was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate.” Then, he formed a political action committee, American Possibilities, clearly designed to suggest that a third presidential campaign was a possibility.

Not that he has been subtle about his hopes, if not his actual plans. Early last month he turned up at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum for the annual black-tie dinner and was not disappointed that a huge crowd assembled in a raucous line to have a picture taken with the once and maybe future candidate. At Cornell, he told graduates that “build(ing) a wall” or “keeping Muslims out” was no formula for national greatness. No one in the audience had to guess what he was talking about.

Then this: “It’s time to reach deep into the soul of this country and once again give everyone — and I mean everyone — the opportunity to achieve the impossible. It’s time to look beyond 24hour news cycles and 140-character arguments. It’s time to treat each other with dignity and respect. Not as opponents, but as fellow Americans. Because that’s what we are.”

This is the duck of 2017, walking and quacking like a presidential campaign speech. So what are we to make of Biden, who would be 21 years short of 100 on Inauguration Day 2021?

First, that he must be one energetic guy; only about one in seven Americans his age (74) are working now. Also that he is fired with passion; this man may be out, but he is not down. Plus, this: Donald J. Trump is almost certainly going to add years to Biden’s political life.

And one more thing: Who else do the Democrats have?

Someone should tell Biden that the black flies, those scourges of spring, are just out in New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary of 2020. Biden was in the state, speaking to a Democratic dinner in Manchester only five weeks ago, but he might contemplate a swift return.

Though the Walgreens at 258 Wallace Rd. in Bedford, New Hampshire, has Cortizone 10 Maximum Strength Hydrocortisone Anti-Itch Cream on the shelves at $9.49 with no sales tax, that may not matter to the former vice president.

Maybe he just wants to scratch that itch.