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"I think I could have won."

Joe Biden has regrets about not running for President - with good reason

By Robert Laurie ——--March 27, 2017

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I may not agree with his positions, I'm glad he's not President, and he may be an inveterate gaffe-machine but, unlike many Democrat lifer-politicians, Joe Biden isn't a bad person. Sure, we make a lot of jokes at his expense (and he does get a bit "gropey") but at the end of the day he's just Joe. Nobody really has anything too terrible to say about him - a rarity in modern American politics. He isn't someone I want in the oval office, but he's certainly not the monster Hillary Clinton is. That's why, when he said the following this weekend, I was forced to agree.
"I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won. I don't know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won. I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party's nominee, I had a better than even chance of being president."
Biden went on to say...
“But do I regret not being president? Yes. I was the best qualified."
I'm not 100% sold on the "qualified" part, but I get it. As VP for an inexplicably popular President, "Crazy Uncle Joe" was in the catbird seat. He's never lost an election and had the unique advantage of being well-respected by his own party while not being despised by his opponents. No other viable candidate (save possibly Rand Paul) could make the same claim. So, yes. I think Biden could have won. In fact, I thought so at the time, and was surprised when he declined. Then, we began hearing his reasoning, and it all made sense. Yesterday, at Colgate University, he reminded everyone why he "just couldn't do it."
“I had a lot of data,” Biden said. “I was fairly confident that if I was the Democratic Party nominee, I had a better-than-even chance of being president.” “But, um.” Biden looked at his hand, flexing it back and forth. I lost part of my soul, my, uh.” He cleared his throat. “Excuse me.” He then recounted how the sudden illness and death of his son Beau Biden in the run-up to the Democratic primaries weighed on his decision to contest in the 2016 race. “The press began to think I was playing a game, but I couldn’t tell them about my boy,” Biden said. “He wanted me to run. … My son Hunter, my daughter Ashley, my wife, all thought I should.” “I didn’t,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just couldn’t do it.”

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Joe Biden is, without question, authentic whenever he's speaking about his family. If you know his history, you know he's seen way more than his share of misery in that regard. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, who seems to have shed her humanity sometime in the early 90's, Biden is still a person with genuine emotions that exist separately from his political career. As a father, I can't imagine going through the wringer he's been through - not once, but twice. Over on Twitter, I've seen a few people making snide comments about Biden this weekend - including the accusation that he's "using" the death of his son as cover. The argument goes that Biden was either told to stay out of Hillary's way, or he's just an incompetent boob who didn't think he could win, so leaning on his son's death is a convenient way to hide his own failings. If you're trying to make that point, may God have mercy on your soul. If you can't see that he's being honest about this - if you can't summon some compassion for Joe Biden simply because he's on the other side of the aisle? I pity you. You're everything wrong with politics in this country.
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Robert Laurie——

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

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