I have a confession to make. I wasn’t sure Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Sure, I supported Clinton, wanted her to be our president and cried for about three days in the fetal position when she lost – but I wasn’t entirely shocked that Trump won.
For years I have seen my own Democratic Party support very intelligent candidates who seem a bit too highbrow for mainstream America.
John Kerry was a very eloquent, intelligent and polished speaker who I felt wiped the floor with George W. Bush in all three of their presidential candidate debates.
I also believed Hillary Clinton was more professional and had more political knowledge and intellect than Trump, and I concluded – as polls reported most people felt – that she won each presidential candidate debate hands down.
But the American people in both of those elections seemed to feel more comfortable voting for a guy they’d like to have a beer with. That was one of the reasons explaining the success of Bill Clinton – a Rhodes scholar who played the saxophone and spoke with an Arkansas twang.
Bill Clinton was likeable. For many voters, Trump was as well.
As a Democrat, I not only want a good strong candidate to run against President Trump. I want someone who’ll win. That someone, in my opinion, is former Vice President Joe Biden.
I know many Democrats – especially women like me – are sick of seeing the United States run by another old white guy. But Biden is the old white guy who I believe can make Donald Trump a one-term president.
I know many people believe Biden is too old to run. And the Democrats are constantly being told we need new and younger faces in our party. But although Biden is currently 75, that’s just three years older than the 72-year-old Trump.
Biden has experience, both as vice president and as a senator before that. He is highly respected on both sides of the aisle. He is smart. And, as we saw in the vice presidential debate in 2012, Biden schooled Republican vice presidential nominee (and current House speaker) Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., like he was a child.
Thinking back to the three presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Trump, it would have been an entirely different ball game if it we had seen a debate between Biden and Trump.
Trump wouldn’t have been able to physically stand over Biden as he did with Clinton – and he wouldn’t have dared, in my opinion.
For every insult, joke and one-liner Trump would have tossed, Biden would have hurled two back. Biden, much like Trump, is bold, brash and shoots from the hip. Or as he puts it, he believes in “no malarkey.”
But even more than Biden being able to beat Trump in a sparring match of words, the former vice president appeals to the very group of voters Hillary Clinton ignored and ultimately paved the path to victory for Trump: members of the white working-class.
Bill Clinton warned his wife not to forget the disenfranchised white working-class – but she ignored his advice.
Blue-collar workers for years largely identified with the Democratic Party. Biden appeals to that segment and could bring these voters back into the Democratic fold.
I feel strongly that if Biden ran he would win Rust Belt states that Democrats lost in 2016, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
I know many Democrats – especially women like me – are sick of seeing the United States run by another old white guy. But Biden is the old white guy who I believe can make Donald Trump a one-term president.