NOW THAT BIDEN’S BOWED OUT, CLINTON STRENGTHENS GRIP Heidi M Przybyla
She can reinforce her status as Dem front-runner
It may be remembered as the moment when Hillary Clinton’s grip on the Democratic nomination became firm.
Vice President Biden’s decision not to challenge her front-runner status clears the way for Clinton to shore up support from 2016 primary voters who viewed him as a better alternative — but who are unlikely to support Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described Democratic socialist from Vermont.
In a statement after Biden’s announcement, Clinton credited Biden with helping to save the auto industry and pulling the economy back from the brink of depression: “It’s a record to be proud of, defend and build on. And I am confident that history isn’t finished with Joe Biden.”
Clinton called Biden a “good man and a great vice president.”
“And if I know Joe, he will always be on the front lines, always fighting for all of us,” she said.
In his speech, Biden did not endorse Clinton.
That’s unlikely to stop Biden’s would-be voters from lining up behind Clinton, said Julian Zelizer, a U.S. politics expert at Princeton University.
“She’s been waiting for the all-systems go. Without Biden running, she can now concentrate all her firepower on co-opting Bernie Sanders’ message and focusing voter attention on the fact that she’s the one who can defeat the Republican nominee,’’ Zelizer said.
In the immediate aftermath of Biden’s announcement, Clinton supporters, led by some of the top
‘I will not be silent’, Biden says
Ending months of speculation about his political future, Vice President Biden announced Wednesday he won’t run for president, saying the window for entering the race has closed.
“Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” said Biden, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. “But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”
Biden, 72, a former U.S. senator, has been grieving and weighing family needs since his 46-year-old son, Beau, Delaware’s former attorney general, died of brain cancer May 30. Biden said the grieving process “doesn’t respect or much care about things like filing deadlines or debates and primaries and caucuses.” He said he and his family have reached the point where thinking of Beau “brings a smile” before tears. “Beau is our inspiration,” he said.
Biden spoke from the Rose Garden as his wife, Jill, and President Obama looked on. He urged Democrats to build on the successes of the Obama administration in the coming presidential campaign.
“This party, our nation, will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy,” he said. “Democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record, they should run on the record.”
Biden listed priorities that include “giving the middle class a fighting chance,” changing immigration policies and campaign-finance laws and rooting out institutional racism.
“We need, as the president has proposed, to triple the child care tax credit,” he said.
Biden said the country needs “a moonshot” to cure cancer and vowed to spend his next 15 months in office fighting for increased funding for research and development.
“If I could be anything, I would have wanted to be the president that ended cancer, because it’s possible,” he said, calling the issue “personal.”
Biden joined the call for debtfree college, saying, “We need to commit to 16 years of free public education for all of our children.
“We can pay for all of this with one simple step, by limiting the deductions in the tax code to 28% of income,” he said.
He called for an end to “divisive partisan politics,” saying, “For the sake of the country, we have to work together.”
“If I could be anything, I would have wanted to be the president that ended cancer, because it’s possible.”
Vice President Biden