Biden and Cuomo in 2016?
Vice President Joe Biden needs a partner to get him back to the White House in 2016. Photo: US Government
As Vice President Joe Biden and Governor Andrew Cuomo meet in Albany this morning to talk infrastructure, political junkies like myself can’t help but wonder about side conversations.
Most observers – including myself – think that both of these men would very much like to find a path to the White House in 2016.
Both face a huge obstacle in the form of former New York Senator, former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Is there a ticket that could give either a shot at the Democratic nomination? A chance to derail the Clinton Juggernaut.
Granted, it’s sort of like a game of Fantasy Baseball at this point — complete hokum, in other words — but surely one plausible team would be Biden-Cuomo.
Biden has obvious national name recognition and heft throughout the Democratic Party apparatus, not to mention access to Barack Obama’s coast-to-coast network of donors and activists.
He also holds a plausible claim to being “next in line” and that’s a strong tradition in American politics.
Meanwhile, if Cuomo were to help him capture New York’s prized delegates, and made a strong play for delegates from neighboring states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, it might sharply compromise Clinton’s path to the nomination.
The bottom line is that if someone plans to seriously challenge Clinton, they’ll have to put together some kind of political alchemy like this.
Remember that Barack Obama did just this in 2008, using strategic maneuvering to steadily erode Hillary Clinton’s mantle as the heir apparent. Can that work again?
It would be a brutally tough fight. And Cuomo has experience being on the wrong side of history. In 2002, he mounted a challenge to Democratic gubernatorial candidate H. Carl McCall. That was a serious misstep in an otherwise carefully orchestrated career.
It’s also an open question whether Cuomo would want to be in the middle of a dust-up with the Clintons.
He served in Bill Clinton’s administration and such a match-up would pit two of the nation’s Democratic dynasties against one-another.
On the other side of this calculation is the fact that if Hillary Clinton wins the White House and holds it for two terms, an ambitious guy like Cuomo would have to wait on the sidelines until 2024. He’d be 67 years old.
So let me nod again to the fact that this is all a bit of horse-race handicapping. We’re in the shallow end of the political pool here. But as those two men sit down in the Red Room in Albany, I bet I’m not the only one watching the body language.
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I like Joe Biden the issue will be for him a very unfair one, but a real one. It is very hard for a politician to overcome the perception that they are a joke, the crazy uncle, the goofball who says odd things. This is what he is straddled with, throw in a very ambitious and not spring chicken Andrew Cuomo, I am not sure Andrew would want the ticket. But as you say it is total guessing.
Cuomo-Biden might fair better!
It is next to impossible to guess about these things unless you have some idea of what ticket the Republicans might propose.
I will go out on a limb and say I don’t believe Hillary, Biden or Cuomo has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected president unless the Republicans pick a real idiot. I would vote for the big guy from New Jersey if he ran against any of those three.
Biden-Cuomo is probably what Christie dreams about. Clinton might be something else all together.
That strikes me as an “insider-NY liberal” ticket. I don’t think that would play very well across the country. However, they probably could suck in a lot of campaign donations, so who knows?
There may be “Hillary Fatigue” out there.
I don’t dislike Biden but I don’t see him as presidential material. Cuomo is a huckster pure and simple. Given the pathetic joke the GOP is likely to put up in 2016 (just because that’s the direction the party is headed), it’s scary to think that a Biden-Cuomo ticket would be favorites to win. It’s even scarier that it would be preferable to one headed by Mrs. Clinton.
OL: I’d be shocked if Christie is nominated in 2016. Normally, I’d put him as favorite over anyone in the Democratic camp (he’d be a toss up against Emperor Andrew but Cuomo won’t get the prez nod), but there’s no way the many and powerful extremists factions of the GOP let him get the nomination without a very damaging slash and burn campaign. This is a party where a large percentage of them think people like Mitch McConnell and Mike Enzi are too liberal… no way they hand the nomination to Christie without pounding him badly.
I heard they were making a sequel to ‘Dumb and Dumber’ but had no idea this was what they were talking about.
I would see a Ryan-Christi combo on the Republican side, with a far right challenge from someone like Rand Paul, Rubio or Cruz.
Also the currently unknown Republican gov’s that are always lurking ready to run.
Christie is attractive because he is seen as more of a “people’s governor” as opposed to a GOP ideologue. He has done well in NJ, always a Democratic stronghold, and he can win. That alone should be enough for the Republicans.
Christie is no more a “people’s governor” than Obama represented “hope and change.” But after 8 years of the worst President in history, followed by the most disappointing President in history, I suppose the voters can fall for that myth also.
Biden, Hillary, Cuomo? Sorry just can’t get excited. They all represent the corporatocracy and will be devoted to the interests of big banks, financial industry, NSA/CIA/military complex, etc. I am afraid anyone who truly put the interests and rights of average citizens first would not stand a chance against all the power and money from the corporate and special interests that control both parties.
Ask people in NJ and they will say of Christie that whatever his faults, and they are many, he always looks out for the people. True or not, that’s the perception.
I think that Mitt Romney should run again? Romney with perhaps a democrat as a running mate. Maybe Max Baucus or if he wants to stick with a republican maybe Olympia Snow or Kelly Ayotte from NH. Maybe that is too many people from HN, isn’t Romney from there these days? Of course in order to win this time he will have to show people that he is a really nice guy rather than hiding that fact.
i’m not from nj, but i have family there, and i think larry is right about the perception of christie there. however this emerging gw bridge lane closing scandal could really hurt him on the always-looks-out-for-people front.
Romney? He’s probably what all Democrats dream about. He was a poor candidate.
OL, 47 percent of the popular vote?
The platform is the problem not the candidate.
Who do you like? Remember the winning candidate will attract the independent voter, the ones who decide elections. Like the ones that were attracted to Obama and why he won.
Oh come on, be serious. If Biden were to be the presidential candidate -which he wont, his time has come and gone – Cuomo would certainly not be the VP candidate since NY is already in the bag for Democrats. Besides, Andrew does not bring enough ethnicity or femininity to balance the ticket in these modern times. Two white guys is a losing ticket.
The real question is, when will Gillibrand make her run for president? 2020 or 2024? Probably too soon for VP candidate in ’16 and she might not settle for second place.
Hey, if Biden can topple Hillary, I’m all for it.
RCP has Christie over Biden by 14 points, and Ryan over Biden by 3.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_presidential_race.html
Christie also has a reputation in NJ as being a mean and nasty bully… a guy with power who holds grudges and exacts political revenge. That Tony Soprano persona might go over well in Jersey, but I am not sure how it will be viewed elsewhere. This stupid bridge thing plays right into that and I think the Dems will have an easy time characterizing him in this way.
Don’t think it matters though. The GOP base will view him as a RINO. Which is outrageous, but in the extreme modern GOP he is just about a commie.
Hillary doesn’t excite me either. But I’ll take experience and efficiency over excitement these days.
The thing about Hillary is that people are sick of political dynasties. But after being pushed aside for Obama and then working very hard as Secretary of State, along with her stint in the Senate, many millions of people believe she is due her shot. She is smart and capable and has an unmatched resume. And she is a woman; it is hard to imagine women in this country accepting second class status any longer.
Knuck, Gillibrand is good but I don’t think she has enough experience at this point. I have met her a few times, she is quite impressive. She is going places but staying in the senate (and fighting for for more science research funding) is where I would like to see her stay for a while.
I don’t pay much attention to this horse race stuff, although amusing it is mostly, well, silly. My thought is more historical than political: Brian said about Biden: “being “next in line” and that’s a strong tradition in American politics”. I’m not so sure about that – when was the last time a sitting VP won the Presidency?…GHW Bush, and then he wasn’t re-elected – before that?…Nixon, after an 8 year absence except for a losing run for Governor of California – and before that?…Johnson, kind of, but that was under very unusual circumstances (inheriting it at the death of Kennedy and then running from the presidency) and he chose to not run again…before that?…Truman – also following the death of a very popular president and the end of WW2 and actually running after he had been in the presidency awhile. Before that?…Coolidge, also at the death of the sitting president (Harding) Before that?…Roosevelt, at the death of McKinley. Actually, GHW Bush is the only sitting VP to be elected on his own (not inheriting the presidency after the death of the president) in the past 100+ years…oh wait! – there is that election in 2000…but that is separate discussion. Sitting VPs have run often but recently, presidents tend to come from governorships or the senate.
Besides, it is hard to imagine Cuomo taking second spot after being governor of NYS.
So now not only does he appear like he is a bully who exacts political revenge… it turns out he is also one of those politicians who blames his staff when he gets caught. Y’ouch. This thing is going to get way more play than I thought it would when I first heard about it. Even Drudge is jumping on the pile.
The buck stops, er, right over there!
Cuomo/Clinton?
Am I the only one who prefers Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich?
From the Democrats I like Hillary. However you know I think she is too liberal but I do actually like some of what Elizabeth Warren says. She has some good ideas which will help middle class people, I think her own party will not accept her though as she will take on the credit card companies and banks, both of which are supporters of the Democratic party.
Everything I read from NJ says Christie is a self-aggrandizing, thin-skinned, bully. Dems put up a weak candidate and then failed to support her out of fear of retribution from Christie. And this bridge episode is a perfect example. The mayor of the community most affected, Fort Lee, is a Democrat who refused to endorse Christie. Emails now prove the lane closures on the bridge were directly related retribution to the mayor and Fort Lee. The traffic backups had a major impact on that area, including responders to four medical emergencies.
Conservatives seem to think elections are a winner-take-all proposition, where they are entitled to ignore other points of view or even punish those who didn’t support them. Christie and politicians like him are unfit to hold public office at any level.
http://nypost.com/2014/01/08/e-mails-reveal-christie-aide-appeared-to-order-gwb-closures/
Oh I forgot. Christie is the “people’s governor.” Yeah right – only if you are one of his people.
scratchy – How about a Sanders/Warren ticket? Now we’re talking. That might shake up the status quo.
myown, the other thing you forgot was to read my comments as written.
Larry, thanks. Yes I realize you were simply stating that many people hold that perception of Christie. My comment was responding to the inaccuracy of that perception.
Larry, I see nothing to suggest that myown was responding to your comment from two days ago. You’re hardly the first person to call Christie the “people’s governor,” and in fact you didn’t use that phrase. Talk about thin skinned!
myown, no harm done. In fact, I don’t disagree much in terms of Christie’s reality vs. perception, but we all know that frequently, it is perceotion that gets votes.
myown says:
January 9, 2014 at 10:21 am
scratchy – How about a Sanders/Warren ticket? Now we’re talking. That might shake up the status quo.
Warren is another great choice, though I’m a bit disappointed that she voted for the recent defense appropriations bill. My two top choices would be Robert Reich and Joseph Stiglitz, though I doubt either one runs.