Is Vice President Joe Biden running for president?
Biden, who says he will make an announcement by the end of summer, so far merely is walking, but he is moving — defending the Obama administration's actions, skewering Republicans, pumping up enthusiasm for the U.S. economic recovery, smiling and cracking trademark jokes — but ducking the big question everyone is asking,
Politico says.
Speaking before a group of moderate business-heavy Democrats at the New Democrat Coalition PAC in Maryland, Biden said, "We’re on the cusp of a genuine, genuine resurgence" and added concerning GOP opposition to Obama administration economic actions, "They were wrong — you were right," Politico reported.
"Don’t forget it worked when all this garbage will come back about how all 'this is wasteful government spending.'"
Veering to the middle of the Democratic road, Biden told the group, "It’s time to restore the basic bargain. The basic bargain is that if you’re part of the growth, you’re entitled to some of the benefit.
"There are still things within our power as a nation to do by returning to basics. Not left-leaning, liberal ideas that are bordering on confiscation, but basic, basic things: build roads, bridges, technology, invest in research and development, generate more educational achievement," Politico said.
He spoke in support of the Iran nuclear agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but left nothing but speculation on the Biden political future.
Even William Pierce of the Draft Biden PAC admitted to Politico, "Some of our supporters are not 100 percent behind the vice president, but they believe the primaries should be as open as possible."
In a recent round-table discussion with reporters, Biden, asked his political intentions, said, "I haven't made up my mind on that. I have plenty of time to do that, in my view. If I am wrong, I'm dead wrong, but there's a lot the president and I care about that has to get done in the next two, three months. And when you run for president you've got to run for president, and I'm not ready to do that, if I am ever going to be ready to do that,"
the Detroit News reported.
He even joked, "I'm announcing today that [Florida Sen. Marco] Rubio and I are going to run together."
Should he seek the presidency, Biden would face the Clinton juggernaut, and a recent Monmouth University survey found that he polled 16 percent, versus Clinton's 60 percent,
The Guardian reported.
Jonathan Bernstein,
writing in the Salt Lake Tribune, suggested, "He's an excellent candidate for another term as vice president, the office he was born to fill."