Joe Biden opted not to run for president in 2016 as he mourned the loss of his of son and said just last month that he ‘probably’ won’t pursue the Democratic nomination when Donald Trump comes up for reelection in 2020.
The former vice president’s daughter thinks her father could change his mind, though, telling Women’s Wear Daily in an interview that ran Thursday that he is ‘not there’ but ‘I think he is considering it.’
A former pollster for the Clintons said today in The Hill that has his eye on another candidate whom he believes has a much better chance of beating Trump than any other national Democrat: Michelle Obama.
Joe Biden says he ‘probably’ wont run. The former vice president’s daughter thinks her father could change his mind, though, saying he is ‘not there’ but ‘I think he is considering it’
Joe Biden opted not to run for president in 2016 as he mourned the loss of his of son and said just last month that he ‘probably’ won’t pursue the Democratic ticket in 2020. He’s seen here in 2008 with Barack and Michelle Obama just after he was elected vice president
Former First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a discussion with former White House chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy Sam Kass (R) during the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit May 12, 2017 in Washington, DC
The former first lady declined to run for the U.S. Senate in 2016, despite pressure from within the Democratic Party to put herself on the ballot.
She campaigned for Hillary Clinton, instead. Mrs. Obama became one of Clinton’s top surrogates in an unlikely alliance that brought them together on the stump in a bid to take down Trump.
Pollster Doug Schoen said in a Friday column that he believes Michelle Obama is the Democratic Party’s best hope to take back the White House from the Republicans.
Schoen has been fiercely critical of the way that Barack Obama did the job.
He raked his party leader over the coals in a piece for Fox News ten days before left office.
‘Obama remains more than anything else a symbol for Democrats disheartened by the stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton, rather than a truly successful president leaving behind a legacy of accomplishment,’ Schoen said.
Among his many problems with Obama was the Democrat’s promise that he would unite the country only to leave it ‘more divided and partisan.’
Another one of his claims was that ‘America is weaker, both at home and overseas.’
‘Put another way, Obama’s presidency was a disappointment, and he leaves behind a broken, unimpressive legacy,’ Schoen curtly assessed. ‘He always prioritized the symbolism and theater of the presidency over concrete policy accomplishments that benefitted Americans.’
In a piece that ran today in The Hill on Michelle Obama as a potential 2020 candidate, Schoen doesn’t back away from those criticisms.
‘Let me be clear: This is not an endorsement,’ he explains. ‘Michelle Obama would not be my candidate, and I do not agree with many of the positions I believe she would advance. But as an analyst, Michelle Obama is clearly the Democrats’ best chance to reunite the party and win back the White House in 2020.’
LIVING LARGE: Former First Lady Michelle Obama is seen out and about in Mallorca, Spain on Sept. 1
Schoen says he arrived at that conclusion based on polling when she left the White House that gave her a 68 percent favorability rating. Obama is seen as well-qualified, and she is well-liked, he posits.
Compare that to Clinton, who had a 58 percent favorability rating when she sought a New York Senate seat as her husband was vacating office.
‘Further, in plain terms, Michelle Obama would be a far superior candidate to Hillary Clinton,’ he says.
Schoen worked for Bill Clinton in the ’90s and Hillary Clinton in her first race for president. He yanked his support for her the second time around after he concluded that her email crisis was too great a scandal to overcome.
‘I opposed Hillary Clinton because she faced ethical issues that could very well have initiated a constitutional crisis had she been elected. Michelle Obama does not face such controversy,’ he explained in his column on Friday.
The Democratic pollster and Fox News analyst does not make a case against Biden himself.
In fact, he notes that the former senator and vice president had a 61 percent approval rating in the same Gallup poll that gave Michelle Obama a score of 68 percent at the end of their time in office.
It is merely his belief that Michelle Obama is the only Democrat who can unite his fractured party.
‘Michelle Obama stands a cut above the rest as the only prospective candidate who can bring the party together, rebuild the Obama coalition, win back the Midwest and, thus, win the presidency,’ he ends.
Pollster Doug Schoen is pushing Michelle Obama based on a survey when she left the White House that gave her a 68 percent favorability rating
Democrats have spent the better part of the last year playing the blame game in the wake in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s spectacular loss to Trump.
Biden has chimed in from time to time to say he thinks the issue was the candidate.
‘I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate,’ Biden is said to have told hedge fund managers attending the annual SALT conference.
TheStreet’s Ronald Orol says Biden left the door open to another bid for the White House when he spoke to conference goers in August. The former VP reportedly said he’s still working to put his family back together two year’s after his son Beau’s death.
‘If I get those things done, and I’m healthy and viable, and it looks like I’m the best man to do it, I may very well do it,’ Biden reportedly said. ‘But my family comes first.’
Biden remarked at the time, ‘Could I? Yes.’ Adding, ‘Would I? Probably not.’
His daughter Ashley said in the Women’s Wear Daily interview that her father is ‘taking it day by day.’
‘I hope so,’ Ashely said of a future run. ‘He’s busier truly than ever. Right now his focus is on the [Biden] Foundation and Cancer Moonshot, as well as getting other Democrats elected.’
Ashley said, ‘He’s not there….He’ll make a decision when that time comes.
‘It’s a little ways away. A lot can happen in four years and we know this as a family,’ she said. ‘If he is in good health, knock on wood, and seeing what the landscape is at the time, yeah, I think he is considering it.’