Joe Biden Made A Startling Announcement About His Potential Pick For VP But Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Be Too Worried
Now that we’re officially into 2020, the Presidential campaign is in full speed. As each Democratic candidate continues to drop out (RIP Beto O’Rourke and Julian Castro), the top dogs are bringing in the big bucks. And the more money they raise, the more they can put into advertising and campaign strategy. But for those candidates who seem to be falling through the cracks, they sometimes have no other choice but to make some drastic calls in order to get more momentum for their campaign. Case in point:
Joe Biden said he is considering picking a Republican as his Vice President running mate.
The former Vice President said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire last week that he is considering choosing a Republican to run alongside him in order to get that GOP vote.
“Our 21-year-old son said the other night, ‘I wonder if Joe Biden would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate,” a woman stated during the campaign stop, according to CNN.
Biden responded to the woman by saying, “The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now. Let me explain that. You know there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now … they’ve got to step up.”
While Biden was leading as a top contender in the presidential campaign, his status has fallen a bit. Sen. Bernie Sanders seems to be on the top now thanks to his hike in fundraising. So, perhaps choosing a Republican could give Biden an advantage.
Some political strategists say that Sen. Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (another strong contender) are far too much as a left-leaning liberal with socialist values, which could put them at a disadvantage when running against President Donald Trump.
However, Biden is a strong favorite among moderate Democrats and even Republicans. So, choosing a Republican running mate could sway voters into the Biden camp. While some were outraged that Biden even said the dreaded word (Republican), other political talking heads said there’s no way Biden would ever choose a Republican, but talking about the idea is indeed a positive way into uniting voters.
New York Times columnist David Leonhardt said that Biden’s words about choosing a GOP VP is a good way to show compromise, even though he would never actually pick a Republican. He also noted that “About 70 percent of Americans identify themselves as either politically conservative or moderate, polls show. A large number of Americans also consistently say that they want politicians to work together in a bipartisan way.”
Biden has previously said that he would be interested in choosing a person of color or a woman as a running mate.
“Whoever I would pick for vice president, and there’s a lot of qualified women, there’s a lot of qualified African-Americans,” he previously said last year, according to CNN. There really truly are. There’s a plethora of really qualified people. Whomever I would pick were I fortunate enough to be your nominee, I’d pick somebody who was simpatico with me, who knew what I, what my priorities were, and knew what I wanted to. We could disagree on tactic, but strategically we’d have to be in the exact same page.”
This again shows that Biden is stirring up an interesting dialogue of how he can stretch his net into other groups. If he were to say, choose a white male Democrat as a running mate, it would signal that he isn’t open to seeing a perspective outside of his own reality. That’s probably why President Barack Obama chose him as a running mate, to pull in moderate white voters. That’s what Biden is doing so now, trying to attract conservative voters that previously voted for Trump but would like to jump ship.
Either way, there’s no point in being outraged by what Biden says at this point.
Candidates are pulling out all the stops in order to get more people in their corner. Their main strategy is how to get Trump out of office, and they’re looking at all means necessary, even if that includes a person of another party.
But again, it’s too soon to tell what candidates will eventually do. Ezra Klein, founder and editor-at-large of Vox, explained it like this on Twitter: “He’s not going to choose a Republican VP. He thinks it’s good politics to signal that he’ll work with Republicans if they’ll meet him halfway. He’s probably right,” He added, “When Biden says stuff like this, it’s a low-cost way of trying to appeal to 1) the small group of GOP-leaning voters who are persuadable and 2) the much larger group of voters who hate how bitter and angry politics has become. Maybe it works, maybe not, but that’s the play.”
