Analysis: Biden is leaning in on a run for the White House. There are reasons why.
By Dan Balz Dan Balz Chief correspondent covering national politics, the presidency and Congress Email Bio Follow March 2 at 10:15 AM There are many reasons to be cautious about the presidential prospects of former vice president Joe Biden. The obstacles in his path and doubts about him as a candidate are well-known, including to those in his inner circle.
This time, as one decision deadline after another has slipped away, some people have speculated that the same thing could be happening. But this time is different. Four years ago, it would have been a surprise if had he challenged Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and a rising Sen. Bernie Sanders for the party’s nomination. This time, especially now that he has the blessing of his family to run and no less desire to be president, the surprise would be if he were to say no.
Sanders, who raised a bucketful of money after announcing his candidacy, is hitting the trail this weekend with rallies in Brooklyn and Chicago. Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who captured imaginations of Democrats across the country during his race last year against Sen. Ted Cruz , could say soon if he will run. Others will decide soon, in part based on Biden’s thinking. So far, nothing has happened to dissuade Biden that waiting will cost him.
The early weeks of the 2020 contest have been dominated by issues, by a democratic socialist agenda first championed by Sanders in 2016 that has been adopted at least rhetorically by many of the others. It has highlighted the power of the liberal wing of the party — to the enthusiasm of some and the concern of others.
Biden has spoken publicly about his concern that, under Trump, the guardrails of democracy are being threatened, “sanded down, little by little, each small step designed to curb institutional safeguards and concentrate power in the hands of individual leaders,” as he put it in a speech in Copenhagen last year. At the Munich Security Conference last month, he spoke of this moment as a “struggle for America’s soul . . . [that] goes to who we are, what we stand for.
There are many hurdles that could trip him up. His long record as a senator will be scrutinized and evaluated in the context of today’s America, of greater multiculturalism and the #MeToo moment. His handling of Anita Hill’s testimony during the heated confirmation battle over Justice Clarence Thomas will be an issue. Questions about his record on abortion will come into play, as will things he said about school busing when it was a divisive issue in the 1970s.
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