Dropping Biden?

There have been several news stories over the past few weeks either critical or showing skepticism in Vice President Biden. These may be nothing, but it is possible that they may be building towards a decision to drop Mr. Biden from the Democratic ticket.

Political lineages have been relatively stable for quite a while now. The last time a siting Vice President was removed in favor of someone else (and not by his own request) was when Henry Wallace was dropped in favor of Harry Truman in 1944. Wallace had originally replaced John Garner in 1940, when Garner opposed Roosevelt for the Presidential nomination.

In more recent times, the closest we've had to this is the resignation of Spiro Agnew and his replacement with Gerald Ford in 1973. However, Agnew was re-elected with Nixon in 1972 and it was only after he was hit with a bribery scandal that he was forced out of office.

Now, all of these stories might just be grousing about Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama may have no intention of replacing him. The big question is who would replace him on the ticket should Mr. Biden be dropped. Most stories focus heavily on Mrs. Clinton, but I'm not really buying that one. Mr. Obama wouldn't allow Bill Clinton to overshadow him in his first term and I see no reason he would allow that to happen in his second term.

Once you get past Mrs. Clinton, who are you left with? I can't think of anyone in the cabinet that would be notable enough and there aren't a lot of prominent Democratic politicians in states that Mr. Obama needs to add to the ticket. Most of the battleground states have Republican governors and the only two that I can think of off the top of my head that have Democratic governors(Colorado and North Carolina), won't help him (John Hickenlooper just became governor in 2011 and Bev Purdue is not running for reelection amid dismal approval numbers). If he had kept more in the limelight, I would have suggested Ted Strickland (former governor of Ohio) but I'm also not sure that he has even been forgiven for his public support of Mrs. Clinton in 2008.

Even sitting Senators don't really stand out at the moment. Most are either prominent liberals from states that Mr. Obama will have no trouble winning (such as California) or they are engaged in hard fights to retain their seats in purple and red states. Bill Nelson of Florida might have been a good pick, but he's up for re-election this year and is expected to have a hard fight on his hands. Of course, he could take someone from a solid blue state as before, but no one is jumping out at me as a real game-changer that would justify dropping Mr. Biden who, warts and all, is highly seasoned and familiar with the job.