A.B. Stoddard: Farewell, Joe, but not goodbye

So for Joe, it couldn’t be so. 

The long, strange trip of the final presidential campaign for Joe Biden has come to an end. And while the decision-making process about a bid for commander in chief at age 72 by a grieving father can never be clear, there is nothing murky about the vice president’s yearning to serve and be heard, to work for more change and to keep on talking.

As soon as he said the timing was too late for a run, Biden insisted: “I will not be silent.” There was no endorsement of Hillary Clinton, nothing said about the Democratic Party, just a pledge to help change the country for the better, as he has tried to do since he was 25 years old.

{mosads}Biden has kept the Clinton campaign on edge for months. He leaked his considerations in August and has been publicly pondering a campaign, or conducting one, ever since. It has gone up and down and all around. 

Draft Biden, a group including close friends and associates, created an emotional advertisement about the vice president to air during the Democratic debate he didn’t participate in. Then Biden reportedly vetoed the ad, which noted the deaths of his wife and daughter just following his election to the Senate at age 29, because the ad treaded on “sacred ground.”

Everyone seemed sure Biden was about to become a candidate this week when he tweaked Clinton for calling Republicans enemies she was proud to have during the Democratic debate. He said Republicans are his friends who he works with, not enemies. Then he surprised many on Tuesday with comments on the death of Osama bin Laden, reversing what he had previously described as his opposition to the raid in Abbottabad by claiming he privately told President Obama he supported the decision to go ahead.

Those comments didn’t presage a campaign after all, but they indicate his desire to draw differences with Clinton, and his lengthy, aggressive trial balloon showed how much he wanted the Clinton campaign to respect his ability to threaten her nomination. After all, as a sitting vice president he had to endure stories in 2011 about Obama possibly replacing him with Clinton on his 2012 ticket for reelection. Then, shortly after the start of his second term, the president gave a joint interview with Clinton on “60 Minutes” in which he all but endorsed her all-but-announced campaign for the White House.

Torrents of relief rippled through the political world Wednesday, from the Clinton campaign, to the Democratic National Committee, to all those congressional Democrats who have endorsed the former secretary of State, to Donald Trump, who hopes to be the GOP nominee, to perhaps Obama, who will no longer be forced to break the allegiance to Clinton and her 2016 presidential run that he established years ago.

But should Clinton collapse, Biden sounds like he will be ready for a rescue effort. There is nothing inevitable about a candidate in a general election in the middle of a self-inflicted scandal under investigation by the FBI. Should the Benghazi probe land her in legal jeopardy or political peril that endangers her in a general election, party stalwarts would beg Biden to run, because most do not believe the nomination should go to a self-declared socialist, no matter how popular Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among the grass roots.

But even if Clinton survives, Biden isn’t going anywhere. He said his family will stay in public life, fighting to solve America’s problems. “We can do this, and when we do, America won’t just win the future, we will own the finish line,” he said, before pumping his fists in the air for emphasis.

And with that, the authentic, happy, optimistic candidate called it off.

Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.