Report: Joe Biden ‘Intoxicated’ By 2016 Run

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joe-bidenJoe Biden summoned more than 200 Democratic insiders to the vice presidential residence Sunday night to chat about the 2012 triumph – but many walked away convinced his rising 2016 ambitions were the real intent of the long, intimate night.

“I took a look at who was there,” said longtime New Hampshire state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, “and said to myself, ‘There’s no question he’s thinking about the future.’ ”

He’s right. Biden, according to a number of advisers and Democrats who have spoken to him in recent months, wants to run, or at least be well positioned to run, if and when he decides to pull the trigger. Biden has expressed a clear sense of urgency, convinced the Democratic field will be defined quickly – and that it might very well come down to a private chat with Hillary Clinton about who should finish what Barack Obama started.

“He’s intoxicated by the idea, and it’s impossible not to be intoxicated by the idea,” said a Democrat close to the White House. And the intoxication is hardly new. Officials working on the Obama-Biden campaign last year were struck by how the vice president always seemed to have one eye on a run, including aggressively courting the president’s donors. Obama aides at times had to actively steer Biden to places where he was needed – like Pennsylvania – because he kept asking to be deployed to Iowa, New Hampshire and other early states.

“He wasn’t just doing fundraising the campaign assigned to him,” said a campaign adviser. “He was inviting people to the mansion to hang out and have dinner.” Biden was way more into the donors than Obama was. “He embraced it with a tirelessness and a gusto that even the president didn’t,” another campaign official said.

There are a number of reasons Biden might take a pass. To be blunt, he’s old. Biden is 70 now and would be 74 if he ran and won. He’s also old news in politics. The guy has been in Washington for almost two generations and hardly signals freshness or political vitality. He’s also run for president twice before and didn’t miss by inches either time; he bombed.

More importantly, Joe Biden is not Hillary. She is a rock star with higher favorable ratings and the capacity to clear the field if she goes all-in. She is also a she – and Democrats are eager to elect the first women after electing the first African-American.

“Things are frozen in place until she makes a decision,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky of Clinton. Dvorsky spent time with Biden this past weekend and praised his personal touch.

A Democrat close to both Biden and Clinton said it is extremely unlikely that they would challenge each other. “They’re both going to build up teams and see how it goes,” the Democrat said. “One of them will fade away, as it becomes more obvious which one of them should be the standard-bearer for the Obama legacy. I can’t see them both announcing for president. But both of them will have teams that try to get to that.”

Read more at POLITICO.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Joe Biden is intoxicated with himself!Heaven help our country if there are enough people who would vote him into the highest office in the land. Isn’t it enough that there are already enough people who voted in Obama without knowing why they voted for him?

  2. Opponents of the city’s limit on the size of sugary drinks are raising questions of racial fairness alongside other complaints as the novel restriction faces a court test.

    The NAACP’s New York state branch and the Hispanic Federation have joined beverage makers and sellers in trying to stop the rule from taking effect March 12.

    With a hearing set Wednesday, critics are attacking what they call an inconsistent and undemocratic regulation, while city officials and health experts defend it as a pioneering and proper move to fight obesity.

    The issue is complex for the minority advocates, especially given obesity rates that are higher than average among blacks and Hispanics, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. The groups say in court papers they’re concerned about the discrepancy, but the soda rule will unduly harm minority businesses and “freedom of choice in low-income communities.”

    The city Board of Health approved the measure in September.

    The new regulation puts a 16-ounce limit on sugary drinks sold at city restaurants, movie theaters, sports venues and street carts and applies to both bottled and fountain drinks.

    It does not include grocery or convenience stores that don’t serve prepared food and would not apply to diet soda, other calorie-free drinks or anything that has at least 50 percent milk or milk substitute.

    Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called it a reasonable, promising way to curb obesity.

    “This has nothing to do with banning your ability to buy as many sugary drinks as you want, simply the size of the cup that can be used, it cannot be greater than 16 ounces under this regulation,” Bloomberg said last year.

    Violations could bring $200 fines; the city doesn’t plan to start imposing those until June.

    Officials cited the city’s rising obesity rate – about 24 percent of adults, up from 18 percent in 2002 – and pointed to studies linking sugary drinks to weight gain. Care for obesity-related illnesses costs more than $4.7 billion a year citywide, with government programs paying about 60 percent of that, according to city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.

    “It would be irresponsible for (the health board) not to act in the face of an epidemic of this proportion,” the city says in court papers. The National Association of Local Boards of Health and several public health scholars have backed the city’s position in filings of their own.

    Opponents portray the regulation as government nagging that turns sugary drinks into a scapegoat when many factors are at play in the nation’s growing girth.

    The American Beverage Association and other groups, including movie theater owners and Korean grocers, sued. They argue that the first-of-its-kind restriction should have gone before the elected City Council instead of being approved by the Bloomberg-appointed health board.

    Five City Council members echo that view in a court filing, saying the Council is “the proper forum for balancing the city’s myriad interests in matters of public health.”

    According to New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, more than 500,000 people have signed petitions opposing the plan.

    The Bloomberg administration counters that the health board, made up of doctors and other health professionals, has the “specialized expertise” needed to make the call on limiting cola sizes.

    The suit also argues the rule is too narrow to be fair. Alcohol, unsweetened juice and milk-based drinks are excluded, as are supermarkets and many convenience stores – including 7-Eleven, home of the Big Gulp – that aren’t subject to city health regulations.

    The NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, a network of 100 northeastern groups, say minority-owned delis and corner stores will end up at a disadvantage compared to grocery chains.

    “This sweeping regulation will no doubt burden and disproportionately impact minority-owned businesses at a time when these businesses can least afford it,” they said in court papers. They say the city should focus instead on increasing physical education in schools.

    During Bloomberg’s 11-year tenure, the city also has made chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menus and barred artificial trans fats in french fries and other restaurant food.

    In general, state and local governments have considerable authority to enact laws intended to protect people’s health and safety, but it remains to be seen how a court will view a portion-size restriction, said Neal Fortin, director, Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at Michigan State University.

    (AP)

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  3. Mrs. Clinton will be 69 at the next elections; Biden will be even older, 73.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden steps down mid-term to provide exposure for the next Democrat nominee.

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