Joe Biden has some regrets about not running for president, and the prolonged primary season has likely aggravated that I-coulda-been-a-contender feeling. But Joe isn’t letting that keep him from doing something that is by many measures more important than tossing another name on the Democratic ballot.
Not long after putting a final pin in his presidential plans in the Rose Garden last October, Vice President Joe Biden started talking to staff about a different mission for 2016: helping put his beloved Senate back into Democratic hands. ...
While most of the public attention has been on the presidential race — and President Barack Obama has so far been holding off on campaigning other than endorsing select candidates with statements and fundraising for party committees — the vice president has quietly embarked on a year-long legacy project for a little political poetic justice.
The 2016 race sees just 10 Democrats defending their seats while 24 Republicans are facing re-election. These races include no fewer than five where Republican senators are up for election in states that Obama carried in 2012. In the latest Daily Kos Elections 2016 Race Ratings, one current Republican seat is now in the Lean-D category and of the four seats in the Tossup category, only one is currently a Democratic seat. This is the year.
While all the press attention has been on the fireworks at the presidential level, Biden has been working steadily. He’s helped line up strong candidates, arranged events, made connections.
If you really wish that Joe Biden was in this election—he is. He’s supporting the Senate, the institution that he loves. And Republicans who think they can run against Obama and Biden as they did in 2010, could be in for a surprise.
“You’ve seen just in the last few months, the approval ratings are coming back. A lot of people looking at their accomplishments are starting to get a slight historical context,” Murphy predicted. “Give it another six, eight months, and people are going to see it even more differently.”