The list of 2020 Democratic candidates for president is getting so long, it’s about to start looking like a CVS receipt.
Not only is Washington Governor Jay Inslee running for president, but former Vice President Joe Biden apparently has his organization all ready to go. All he has to do, per The Hill, is announce his candidacy.
In recent weeks, the former vice president’s longtime advisers Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon have led a string of meetings with potential aides to fill out the campaign if Biden makes a decision to enter the race, sources tell The Hill.
Many of the positions would be filled by long-running Biden aides, a number of whom worked in the White House during the Obama administration and are acutely familiar with his style.
“Whenever the VP makes a decision, we’ll be ready to go,” said one source with direct knowledge of the planning.
Greg Schultz, who has run Biden’s PAC American Possibilities and served as his political director in the White House, is expected to be campaign manager, sources say.
Donilon is expected to play the role of chief strategist, while Ricchetti, Biden’s chief of staff in the White House, is set to help oversee much of the campaign in the same capacity.
Kate Bedingfield, who was Biden’s communications director in the White House, is also expected to run his communications shop and longtime advisers have been talking to other Biden alumni for other press jobs.
Tony Blinken, Biden’s longtime foreign policy adviser who accompanied the former vice president on his recent trip to Munich, is also expected to take on a senior role. Sources say he is more than likely to be surrounded by old policy hands in Bidenworld including Sarah Bianchi and Stef Feldman.
The curious question about a Biden run will be whether he’s four years too late. He probably would have beaten both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in 2016 and could have given Trump a run for his money in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan – you know – the places Clinton decided to not really mount any sort of campaign.
Biden – for all of his creepiness – has a weird sort of charisma where he’s that crazy uncle everyone tolerates at family gatherings, but still figures out how to get a laugh out of everyone by the end of the night. This is not an endorsement of Biden – as his big government policies run counter to my own small, weak government beliefs – but just noting there is a likeability factor for certain Democrats. Which is odd considering he’s never won a Democratic presidential primary, nor has he really been a factor in any of them. Yet, he still could be the kind of candidate who can get most factions of the Democratic Party together – if his campaign isn’t swept away with some kind of new Candidate-mania.
There are currently 17(!?!) Democrats who are 2020 presidential candidates – not counting Biden. Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and ex-Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke are expected to throw their hats into the ring soon, too. Would anyone be shocked if the ghosts of FDR and Hubert Humphery Jr. decided to run for president in 2020 as Democrats? Odin knows I sure wouldn’t.
2020’s gonna be lit, y’all. To quote Terrell Owens, “Get your popcorn ready.”
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