A Latter-Day Happy Warrior Tries to Energize Democrats

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Source: NYT

PITTSBURGH — Joseph R. Biden Jr., unyielding optimist, Democratic cheerleader and vice president of the United States, wants Americans to know that the midterm elections will not be a Republican rout. And after Democrats win in 2010, Mr. Biden says, he will be on the ticket with President Obama in 2012 — all that buzz about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton replacing him notwithstanding.

“I tell you what, there’s real trust, that’s why he’s asked me to run again,” Mr. Biden said Monday, dropping this tidbit at the end of a 40-minute conversation, just before he dashed off to his third fund-raiser of the day. “Look, he said, ‘We’re going to run together, are you going to run?’ I said, ‘Of course, you want me to run with you, I’m happy to run with you.’ ”

Mr. Biden never wanted to be anybody’s vice president. Now, at 67, in an election season when the party feels beaten down, when voters are angry and afraid, when the cool, cerebral detachment that seemed so appealing in Mr. Obama in 2008 is raising questions about whether he can “connect,” Mr. Biden is trying to fill the void — even as strategists in both parties see Democrats’ prospects dimming.

Mr. Biden has been zipping around the country to places like Columbia, S.C., and hard-hit Rust Belt cities like Akron, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, while Mr. Obama has been confining himself largely to friendlier settings like college campuses and big-dollar fund-raisers.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/us/politics/13biden.html

[Historic NY]

1. Go Joe go. we need you.

[kirby]

2. Latter-Day is more like a Day Late n/t

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3. I suspect the "Happy Warrior" comparison is no accident.

Al Smith and Hubert Humphrey are not the guys I'd want to be compared with, politically, but Americans don't know their own history, most of them.