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February 10, 2014

Meet the Happy (Class) Warrior: Joe Biden Tries Out a 2016 Persona

By John Nichols

The vice president is savvy enough to present himself as a happy class warrior. That doesn't mean he's better on the issues than Senator Elizabeth Warren or Senator Bernie Sanders or any other "dream" candidate. But if no prominent progressive populist runs, Biden is suggesting that he would be willing, make that delighted, to fill the void.

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Source: The Nation

There are not enough prominent political figures, in either of this country's two major parties, who are willing to call rich guys out.

And there are even fewer who do so with delight.

But Vice President Joe Biden would like Democrats to know that he is up to the task.

Biden earned the predictable headlines last week when he flipped the "on" switch with regard to a possible 2016 presidential run, telling CNN "There's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run."

Never mind the polling that gives former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a 61-point lead in the race among the as-yet-unannounced contenders for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Biden's laying down his marker. That doesn't mean he will run. But Biden has read the polls that show the Democratic base is ready, very ready, for an economic populist appeal.

And he is providing it -- with a bow to Pope Francis.

Speaking Wednesday at the United Auto Workers legislative conference in Washington, Biden noted that billionaire Ken Langone has been griping about Pope Francis. Fretting about the general difficulty of getting his fellow billionaires to make charitable donations, the business mogul complains that the pontiff's talk about income inequality is "one more hurdle I hope we don't have to deal with."

"A couple weeks ago Ken Langone, who I don't know, a billionaire founder of Home Depot, predicted that the pope -- Pope Francis's critique of income inequity -- will be, quote, 'a hurdle' for very wealthy Catholic donors, who seem to think hurt feelings trump the teachings of the Bible," the vice president recalled. "As a practicing Catholic, bless me, Father, for he has sinned."

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The UAW members reacted with wild applause.

It wasn't just that Biden's observation was spot on.

It was also that too few politicians -- and even fewer prospective 2016 presidential contenders -- are so willing as the vice president to "go there." That is, to make an old-fashioned populist appeal that is all but certain to be decried by the right-wing punditocracy as "class warfare."

Biden did not stop with his defense of Pope Francis, who the vice president says "shares a vision that all of us share, to reach out to the poor and the dispossessed."

He absolutely, unapologetically and energetically embraced the trade union movement.

"You guys are the only guys keeping the barbarians at the gates, man," declared Biden.

"The truth of the matter is, you built the middle class. Labor built the middle class," the vice president continued. "You never leave anybody behind -- even when it costs you politically and when it doesn't benefit you directly."

Labor's commitment to economic justice, Biden said, explains why corporate-funded conservative groups, and their legislative minions, are attacking collective-bargaining rights. "These guys on the right -- they know without you there -- they call every shot," he said. For that reason, he said, they have launched "a concerted, full-throated, well-organized, well-financed, well-thought-out effort waging war on labor's house."

The vice president did not deny that the right has had its successes, in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states. That, he said, is why it is necessary to "be vigilant and unrelenting in our fight to protect and expand collective bargaining."

There is no subtlety with Biden.

But there is a subtext.

In a Democratic Party that is sick with compromisers and concessionists, the vice president is savvy enough to present himself as a happy class warrior. That doesn't mean he's better on the issues than Senator Elizabeth Warren or Senator Bernie Sanders or any other "dream" candidate. But if no prominent progressive populist runs, Biden is suggesting that he would be willing, make that delighted, to fill the void.

Read Next: The Nation launches "Project 45."

Authors Bio:

John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.

Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.

Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in his Grave." The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organizations.

Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic. He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."

With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.

Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."

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