Why Would Anyone Think Career-Long Corporate Shill Joe Biden Would Be Any Better Than Hillary?

Corporate goofball almost makes Hillary look good

Inevitably, there's been some speculation that, with Hillary stumbling a bit, Biden might be more electable. Few people remember what a corporate shill Biden was for his entire, long senatorial career. He may be a lovably goofy vice president but he's not even remotely part of the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party. He's always been a DLC hack and an outrageous corporate shill and, first and foremost, a Beltway careerist.

Josh Kraushaar posits that Hillary's strength was her inevitability and electability. First woman president inspires a lot of people. "As an older white man," he wrote, Biden "would probably face challenges exciting the core of nonwhite voters who make up the base of Obama's support."

But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation. Throughout the summer, Clinton has been hammered over using a secret, personal email server as secretary of State-- one that government officials believe may have compromised the country's national security and allowed her to conceal (and delete) email correspondence. Meanwhile, as she faces energetic opposition from her party's progressive base, she's decided to tack to the left, offering little to disaffected swing voters dissatisfied with Obama. Her campaign operatives believe it's worth mobilizing the Democratic Party's ascendant constituencies without offering much to the (shrinking) number of voters in the middle.

In the process, however, her favorable ratings have hit all-time lows, with clear majorities of Americans saying they don't like her and have trouble believing she's trustworthy. In the critical swing states of New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado, and Virginia, reputable new polls show her favorability ratings not much better than Donald Trump's-- with unfavorable ratings nearing 60 percent. Quinnipiac's swing-state polling found her losing in Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia to all three leading GOP candidates (Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker), while NBC News/Marist polling found her favorability ratings to be just as dismal in Iowa and New Hampshire. National polling doesn't put her in much better shape, with her favorability still upside-down in CNN/ORC's new poll (45/48, among all adults). Gallup found her overall favorability at 43/46, her worst net showing since their November 2007 survey. Her numbers aren't any better than Obama's, and many polls are finding them in worse shape.

Suddenly, if you're Joe Biden, running for president makes a lot more political sense.

...[A]t a time when authenticity is a highly valued asset-- for better or worse--Biden boasts the natural political skill set that Clinton clearly lacks. He's a happy warrior who enjoys campaigning and isn't constrained by talking points or rope lines. He's able to ham it up with union rank-and-file, while also giving a stem-winding speech blasting Republicans in Congress. His all-too-frequent malapropisms are endearing at a time when voters are cynical about scripted politicians.

Sounds like President Hubert Humphrey-- exactly like so, in fact. Except Humphrey, unlike Biden, was a genuine liberal. Biden has a long record as a corporate phony, who knows how to make the right noises for a base he often betrayed. Policy-wise, he's probably as bad as Clinton, nothing whatsoever like Bernie Sanders. More like his old ally, Joe Lieberman. From a post I did in 2007:

When one thinks of "Senator Joe Biden" and "bankruptcy," the first thing that comes to mind is his slavish support for corporate contributors like the big banking and credit card industries. Biden took the Republican position that has destroyed American families and he did it for his big campaign contributors. (Interestingly, Biden is also the only Democrat who is getting the kind of relative support between corrupt insiders and the grassroots that Republicans get.)

That said, Joe Biden is not a serious candidate for president. He's a quintessential Inside-the-Beltway windbag who is auditioning to be Hillary's Secretary of State. Like Richardson, that's why he's running for president and wasting people's time and money. Would he make a good Secretary of State. No, he'd be as terrible as Condoleeza Rice. Early in tonight's debate Biden was asked which Republican he would consider for VP if he had to. He picked Chuck Hagel-- and then he gratuitously threw in that he thought Dick Lugar would be a good Secretary of State, presumably whether he had to appoint a Republican or not.

Meanwhile, if you want to help the one candidate running for president who both can win and can make a substantive difference for the country, here's the page for you.