LETTER TO JOE BIDEN

By Edwin Cooney

DEAR JOE,

I understand you’re considering running for president in 2020. I think it’s an excellent idea since, at least on paper, you’re the most qualified potential candidate to hold that office with the possible exception (remember Joe I said possible) of Donald J. Trump whose held that office for two years now.

I can’t recall an unelected presidential candidate since James A. Garfield in 1880 who was as well qualified as are you to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His reputation, like yours, was considerable among his peers. Like your reputation, Garfield’s bore some scratches, but also like yours, his was sprinkled with just a dash of diamond dust. It was also said of Garfield that he was sufficiently capable and qualified to hold every cabinet post in his administration. Even if no one can legitimately make the same claim for you, I can’t recall that we ever elected a president who, like you, has been the chair of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

As for your age, pick a vice presidential candidate who is sufficiently young and capable. Then, at least imply that you’ll serve only one term and you’ll need only wings and an engine to take off. It’s my guess that Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar would be your strongest running-mate.

Should you imply that you’ll serve only a single term, that would entice support from a broad spectrum of independent voters and thus strengthen the Democratic Party’s appeal. It would also stabilize the quality of its policy proposals for healthcare reform, climate change, and other desirable social and economic alterations. Even more attractive would be the likelihood that you’d be succeeded by your female vice president be it Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, or Kamala Harris.

You have two outstanding advantages which are of vital political significance. First, there is your considerable experience of 37 years in the United States Senate which enabled you to cope with a vast variety of public issues. Like any other public servant, you’ve had more than your share of misjudgments and mistakes. As for your achievements, because your work, or perhaps a better way to put it would be to say your vote, is only a fraction of any wise Senate decision, such a wise vote can only be accrued to the whole of the Senate body politic rather than to yourself. Still, as stated above, the fact that you’ve been elected to two major Senate chairs (of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee) are at least two testimonies to the respect you compelled from your Senate colleagues. These two vital positions were highly prestigious and thus sought by other senators. They were neither honors, nor were they mere trophies for your personal gratification.

Your second advantage is that you served eight years as the second highest political officer in the land. You’ve been that proverbial “heartbeat away” from the presidency. (Note: only two living Americans in this land of over three-hundred million people, Al Gore and Dick Cheney, possess comparable experience to yours.) Since the illness of Woodrow Wilson, almost a hundred years ago, the vice presidential office has been critical to the process of government. Thomas R. Marshall, Wilson’s Vice President, was too frightened to try and assume any responsibility during Wilson’s recovery from his severe stroke, but he certainly both could and should have! Since the death of FDR and the accession of Harry Truman, the Vice President has been seen as a vital part of our national continuity, especially those who have served for eight years.

Here’s another asset you possess. Although both your conduct and performance are shy of perfection, you not only know that, you actually acknowledge that. President Trump openly considers himself second only to “possibly Abraham Lincoln” in his conduct of the presidency which is an open testament to his self-indulging arrogance. Finally, as I see it, you offer yourself to the public knowing the worth of your Democratic opponents. I’m confident that both a Biden candidacy and a Biden presidency will be not about Biden, but about the country.

Writing in the New York Times a few days ago, Roger Cohen urges you, for two reasons, not to run. In the first place he believes that the political center of the Democratic Party is too far to the left to accommodate the mistakes and sins of an old white male. Consequently, he’s convinced the charges leveled against you from both the left and the right are likely to overwhelm, destroy and hurt you. I think Mr. Cohen, who insists he likes you (and I have no doubt that he truly does), believes that you lack the wherewithal to stand up to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that are about to fall upon you. Perhaps you and Mr. Cohen know each other, but even if such is the case, I think he’s wrong. Your trek through personal disappointment and tragedy, I believe, prepares you to make this run as did Lincoln’s despair and FDR’s polio strengthen and energize them.

Thus, Mr. former Vice President, I endorse you. Should some other Democrat prevail, I’ll endorse that candidate as I’m sure you will. In the meantime, don’t apologize for the party’s liberal past and above all, meet all the forthcoming charges as directly and forthrightly as you can.

Be off to the races. With the right strategy you can both take and deserve this prize.

Oh, one more thing. Should the President get too nasty during the fall campaign, you can always get in his personal space!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY