Opinion: Joe Biden makes a decision about his future
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Sen. Joe Biden, who was deemed certain to become the secretary of State in a John Kerry administration that was deemed a certainty for a few heady hours back on election day 2004, has decided he doesn’t want that job in a future Democratic administration.
The New York Observer has speculated about Biden in that Cabinet position. So has the New York Times.
But speaking on Bloomberg TV’s ‘Political Capital with Al Hunt,’ which will be broadcast at 11 P.M. tonight Eastern time and several other times over the weekend, the longtime Delaware senator and current Democratic presidential candidate said a secretary of State must have the president’s confidence.
‘I knew that Kerry would listen to me,’ says Biden, elected senator in 1972 at the age of 29, a Foreign Relations Committee member for 30 years and its chairman since January. ‘I don’t mean that I’d direct him, but I could get his ear. I could have an impact.’
Things have changed now though, notes Biden, who is trailing far behind in Democratic polls. ‘Based on the foreign policy assertions made by the other candidates so far,’ Biden adds, ‘I’m not sure I wouldn’t be sort of a Colin Powell in their administration. And so I think it’s highly, highly unlikely that I’d find that a worthwhile thing. What I wouldn’t want to be is secretary of State with no influence over a president.’
Biden, who is promoting his new book, ‘Promises to Keep,’ as well as running for president, as previously detailed here, also frankly admitted how hard...
it is to gain political traction in the current Democratic nomination race.
‘If 25 years ago,’ he said, ‘we were told there was going to be a leading woman and a leading African American as contenders for this presidency, we’d go, great. That’s a wonderful thing. And so, it really is a story all by itself. And it’s kind of hard to break through with anything else.’
Biden’s story involves the loss of his wife and child in a car crash shortly after his first election, five years as a single parent, a long Senate career in foreign relations, a previous unsuccessful presidential run and a brain aneurysm. ‘Success,’ he said, ‘is not measured by whether or not you get knocked down. It’s how quickly you get up.’
Asked about his own current campaign, Biden acknowledged he’s behind, but added: ‘The facts are that fewer than 10% of the Democrats have made up their mind at this point by any poll you take, and it’s still wide open. Now, whether or not Joe Biden emerges is another question. But it really is wide open.’
--Andrew Malcolm