Bye bye Biden
Political survival just got a lot easier for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, writes Jennifer Epstein.
Political survival just got a lot easier for Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton.
MANY people close to Hillary Clinton didn’t think that United States Vice-President Joe Biden was going to decide to run for president – or at least hoped he wouldn’t.
Still, the moment yesterday morning (NZ time) when he announced he wouldn’t be getting into the race was a victory for a campaign that has felt its momentum gaining in recent days.
Biden’s entry into the Democratic field would have shifted dynamics, creating new challenges – and adding new costs – for the Clinton campaign.
Instead, the Democratic frontrunner’s team can stay the course it set months ago, with no other establishment opponents, and needs to focus on only one major opponent in the primary, Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont senator has strength with certain constituencies but is struggling to build support among African Americans and Hispanics.
Sanders’ efforts to do so, and to solidify his support from union leaders – who like his populist rhetoric but have questions about his electability – will be complicated by the sense of gathering momentum for the candidate he has been unable to dislodge as front-runner.
After a tough July and August, Clinton got back on track in September and picked up more steam last week with a strong debate performance.
Former president Bill Clinton will speak at a pre-dinner rally for his wife, marking the first time this cycle that he’s delivered a speech at a Clinton campaign event, and Katy Perry will perform.
It’s not as if the field is cleared for Clinton. In the days before withdrawing from the race he never formally entered, Biden gave Clinton’s opponents plenty of ammunition, including suggesting that her characterisation of Republicans as ‘‘enemies’’ was ‘‘naive.’’
Clinton still faces challenges, for example, in solidifying union support, though Biden’s decision to stay out of the race removes an important obstacle.
While Clinton has made commitments to eliminate a tax on health plans opposed by unions and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, she came to the positions late and key unions have held off on endorsing her in part because of support for Sanders among union members.
And not all Biden backers are ready to jump on board: ‘‘I’m not inspired by the Clinton campaign,’’ Dick Harpootlian, a former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, said after Biden announced his decision. ‘‘I’m not inspired by her.’’
Still, Clinton’s method of handling what could have been a Biden crisis says much about how she might consolidate her recent gains: During two months of intense chatter about a possible challenge from the vice-president, Clinton stayed disciplined and measured, keeping to a script that erred on the side of generosity.
Whenever reporters asked about the vice-president’s flirtations with a campaign, Clinton repeated that Biden deserved space to mourn his son Beau and time to figure out whether he should run.
‘‘I think that Secretary Clinton was prepared one way or the other,’’ said Minyon Moore, a long-time Clinton adviser.
‘‘She has always maintained that she has a great deal of respect for the vice-president. I think she was one of the first out there to say, you know, this is a deeply personal decision and he needs to be able to have the space to make that decision.’’
On the stump in recent weeks, Clinton tested out some attack lines, but never directly mentioned Biden.
Her comments at town halls this month that she’d be able to make progress on tightening gun laws because she is ‘‘determined’’ to do it could be interpreted as a veiled criticism of President Barack Obama – and his point man on guns, Biden – for failing to do so in the wake of a series of mass shootings.
But Clinton never came close to directly criticising Biden, which added sincerity to the call she made to him after his Rose Garden speech yesterday, and the statement she issued afterwards, praising him as a ‘‘good man and a great vice-president.’’
‘‘I admire his devotion to family, his grace in grief, his grit and determination on behalf of the middle class, and his unyielding faith in America’s promise,’’ she said.