A vice-presidential pick who could show that Joe Biden is serious about winning, and then governing
By Jonathan Rauch | Contributing writer at The Atlantic
Amid the chatter about Joe Biden’s having lost a step or two, has anyone paused to notice that, in the 2020 campaign, he has not put a foot wrong?
He bet everything on using South Carolina as a firewall, banking on support from African American and moderate voters, and then on riding that victory to success on Super Tuesday; the gamble paid off spectacularly. He managed to stay on good terms with the prickly Senator Bernie Sanders and edged him tactfully out of the race, winning Sanders’s firm endorsement in the process. He brought early and exceptional unity to his normally fractious party. In the pandemic, he has played a weak hand well: Instead of trying to compete with President Donald Trump for airtime, he is displaying decency and statesmanship and letting the obvious contrast speak for itself.
In short, Biden has shown consistently impressive strategic skill in his third presidential outing. We will see how convincingly he deals with recent charges of sexual misconduct dating from 1993, but Trump is right to be worried about facing him.
Still, Biden’s most important strategic test is yet to come. Given his age, everyone needs to assume that his running mate may succeed him, either by election in 2024 or by succession before then. Never in my lifetime has the choice of a running mate mattered so much.
