Mike Theiler/Pool via BloombergJoe Biden finally put an end to the most drummed-up hype in Washington today—he is not running for president in 2016.
It seemed highly unlikely the that current vice president was going to announce otherwise: While you'd think 13 months would be enough time to devote to a campaign, his potential rivals have been on the trail for months; President Barack Obama had already said a lot of nice things about still-pretty-in-front-runner Hillary Clinton; and the pain of losing son Beau Biden is just still too palpable, understandably.
While pundits are widely saying that this was his best and probably last chance to ever mount a competitive run for the presidency...
You just can't fight a perfect storm of adverse circumstances. And though less than 24 hours ago, some reports sounded pretty convinced that Biden would throw his derby into the ring, it's hard to believe that anyone who follows politics for a living thought, at this point, that would be the case.
Hillary has already raised millions, Sen. Bernie Sanders has all the grass-roots momentum for the time being, we're one debate down...
The idea of running hasn't made sense for months. And hasn't Joe Biden been through enough?
Donald Trump had his usual rationale for approving of Biden's decision (he'd rather face Hillary Clinton because she's the worst), and presumably Hillary and Sen. Bernie Sanders are pretty cool with his choice, too, because that's one less wrench in their respective battle plans.
The reactions on Twitter were a mixed bag of gracious (fellow Democratic politicians), disappointed (people in general), funny (comedians and witty political junkies like Ronan Farrow), jerky (conservative pundits and those who listen to them), self-serving (see above) and those who just want Uncle Joe to be happy. And of course there are some on a certain side of the partisan divide who think this is all a big Democratic scheme and those on both sides of the aisle who feel that Hillary has been doing a happy dance all morning...
Or he's a pawn...?
Or was steam-rolled...
Perhaps it took approximately 249 days too many for Biden to announce that he was not running, but perhaps he was the only one throughout the entire process who realized that decisions such as that should take time to make. It's not his fault that the who's-running-in-2016 chatter started in 2014.
And that, even if his mind was more or less made up months ago, he's the vice president of a still-chugging administration that is trying to get things done, fight wars, preserve a legacy and not make it all about 2016 while it's still 2015. Maybe Biden was busy doing his job, not to mention mourning his son, an ongoing process he understandably and responsibly did not want to bring into the Oval Office.