“As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along, what I’ve said time and again to others, that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get thru it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president… that it might close. I’ve concluded that it has closed.”
This is how Joe Biden, the current vice president, finally answered the question both democrats and the country have been waiting for on October 21st. Biden has officially decided to not run for the democratic presidential nomination.
As more and more candidates started announcing their intentions to run starting in March, the media started a frenzy over whether or not Biden would continue the Obama legacy.
Then, on May 30th, the news came that his eldest son “Beau” Biden had unfortunately passed away from a reemergence of brain cancer. Biden let the country now that his family and their grieving process came first. But, as time passed, it was still a very real possibility that Biden would nonetheless enter the race.
According to CNN, he “asked advisors to consider likely scenarios should he get into the race as well as to make contact with operatives who would be prepared to staff up a campaign.” There was even an open seat for him at the first Democratic debate at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas on October 13th.
Because of these reports and media speculations, reporters were shocked at the vice president’s announcement this past Wednesday at the White House Rose Garden.
What does this action mean for the Democratic Party? Does his move strengthen the position of Hillary Clinton? Either way, Joe Biden promises the following: “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”