Experts predict a dismal showing for the party in November’s mid-term elections, and Biden has emerged as a prime candidate for the axe.
Enter Hillary Clinton. As Secretary of State, she has consistently struck the same tone as “Team No Drama Obama”, as opposed to Vice President Joe Biden, whom some politicos in town refer to as “the human gaffe machine”.
(Biden was caught on microphone whispering the f-word to Obama at the signing of US healthcare reforms. He also urged a wheelchair-bound man at a rally to ‘stand up’, and had to apologize after telling Americans not to fly after the swine flu outbreak.)
In lieu of Biden’s gaffes, Clinton has been a steadfast, hardworking, and reliable partner for Obama.
Some senior Democrats are now saying that the ‘dream ticket’ of Obama and Clinton would revive the party’s hopes at the polls.
The president is currently doing poorly in the polls, and some Washington observers believe that without a boost of voters and enthusiasm, Obama is looking like a one-termer.
To those who want Clinton on the ticket, she is the solution to his doldrums. They believe she could supply the manpower to eke out a second Obama term in 2012 while securing heir-apparent status for 2016.
John Fortier, a research fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, told reporters this week: “Obama is not disastrously unpopular, or even as unpopular as George W. Bush was for the final two or three years of his presidency, but he is still on the unpopular side and will be a drag on Democrats’ fortunes.”
Other observers say that having Clinton join the 2012 ticket would revive the Democratic Party and re-establish its working-class voters, who found her appealing during the 2012 primaries against Obama.
On the Washington Post website in June, Sally Quinn wrote that Clinton and Biden, who was the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, should switch jobs. Her argument is that Clinton has done “an incredible job” at State and, even in her late 60s, would be a strong candidate for president in 2016, while Biden, who is older, has no intention of seeking the White House. In the short-term, Obama and Clinton would be a “near-unbeatable team” in 2012, according to Quinn.
But insofar as a 2016 presidential candidacy is concerned, Hillary Clinton has already said her White House aspirations are history.
Biden, for his part, has emerged as a valuable foreign policy adviser to Obama, a roving ambassador, vigorous partisan campaigner and all-around good guy. Does he talk too much? Sometimes. But observers point out that this would be just as true at Foggy Bottom as it is in the vice president’s office.
This is not the first time that Clinton has been mentioned for the job. Obama considered her for vice president in 2008. Ultimately, he decided she was a better fit at the State Department.
