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Vice President Joe Biden called the night a bittersweet moment for him and his family after the death of their son Beau during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Vice President Joe Biden poses for a portrait at McGillin's Olde Ale House in Philadelphia, Pa. after meeting with Delaware's delegation to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday morning.(Photo: Kyle Grantham,The News Journal)
PHILADELPHIA — When Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination at the party's national convention on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Thursday, Vice President Biden could be forgiven for wondering, “Could it have been me?”
The tragedy of his son Beau’s death from cancer in May 2015 kept Biden out of the presidential race. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be sitting out the 2016 campaign. In fact, Clinton's campaign sees Biden as an asset<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Rust Belt states, where his gift for connecting with working-class voters could make a difference in the battle against GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Mercer, Pa., is the type of town where Biden could be highly effective as a Clinton surrogate, Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, reflected while driving through<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the area recently.
"He speaks the language of these people that I’m seeing on the street,” Murray said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“There’s a guy here on the street corner with a T-shirt that says ‘Trust no one,’ smoking a cigarette. You get the sense that these are towns that have seen better times. These are Biden’s roots.”
Biden will speak at the convention, along with President Obama, on Wednesday night. He already has<span style="color: Red;">*</span>appeared at fundraisers for eight Senate candidates and plans to do more.
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Polls show Biden could be a strong asset for Clinton. His favorability ratings average 51% — nearly as high as Clinton’s unfavorables, according to HuffPost Pollster averages.
“The way to become really popular is announce you're not running for president,” Biden said Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“It's amazing what it does for you.”
Jesse Ferguson, Clinton’s deputy national press secretary, said Biden speaks from the heart when he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>talks about sharing a commitment with Clinton “to making an economy that works for every American, not just those at the top."
"Voters know he’s genuinely speaking for them and it’s a powerful endorsement,” he said.
In this April 2, 2013, file photo, Vice President Biden and Hillary Clinton appear onstage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)
Donna Brazile, interim chairwoman of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Democratic National Committee, noted that Biden, like Obama, has high approval and favorability ratings with strong support in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
"Besides, he's regular Joe. Not celebrity Joe," Brazile wrote in an email.
Biden has acknowledged that Trump is connecting with white, working-class voters in a way Clinton is not, which explains his pledge to be “living” in Ohio, Michigan, and his native Pennsylvania in the lead-up to the election.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Democrats have done right by those voters<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but haven't communicated with them<span style="color: Red;">*</span>enough, he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Wednesday.
“I think there has been in both parties not enough ... respect shown ... to ordinary people busting their necks,” he said.
The Clinton campaign is counting on Biden’s appeal to resonate with voters<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Rust Belt states and in the swing state of Pennsylvania. He was scheduled to campaign with Clinton in Scranton, Pa., earlier this month, but the event was canceled because of the July 7 shooting deaths of five police officers in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dallas.
The son of a car salesman, Biden grew up in working-class neighborhoods in Scranton and Claymont, Del., before winning a Delaware Senate seat in 1972 that he held 36 years. He often speaks on the campaign trail of the hard economic times that forced his father to move the family to Claymont in search of a job.
Biden also could be useful to Clinton in places such as West Virginia and Michigan, states she lost to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont during their primary battle, said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. Clinton is liked in Pennsylvania, he said, but Biden is considered a “favorite son” and a “third senator” to the neighboring state.
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Winning back Democratic control of the Senate is a top priority for Biden, a self-described “Senate man.” Rep. Patrick Murphy, running for the Democratic nomination in the race for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sen. Marco Rubio's seat in Florida, is among the candidates Biden has endorsed. Biden has helped introduced Murphy to voters around the state, including Miami and Orlando, with another event coming up in in Tallahassee in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>August, said Murphy’s campaign manager Josh Wolf.
“There’s no voter in this state that isn’t excited to see Patrick Murphy and Joe Biden standing side by side,” Wolf said.
In January, Biden told an NBC affiliate in Connecticut that “every day” he regretted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>not running for president. But he told MSNBC Wednesday that rejecting a White House bid "was really just the right decision, I mean, for my family."
“And I, I plan on staying involved," he said. "I'm not going away.”
Biden’s close friend, former Sen. Ted Kaufman of Delaware, said he’s never heard Biden say, “Oh my, I feel bad that I didn’t run.”
Vice President Biden arrives for a walk-through before day two of the Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016, in Philadelphia.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Jessica Kourkounis, Getty Images)
“Joe Biden has demonstrated time and again that when something bad happens that he has the character to move on,” said Kaufman, Biden’s former chief of staff.
Biden, who has been focused on efforts to eradicate cancer,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal on Friday that he intends to stay involved in all the same issues he’s working on now. He said he'll continue advocating for women’s rights, criminal justice reform, and quality education. And he doesn't out running for office.
“If something happens and it’s appropriate for me to be engaged ...” he said, letting the sentence trail off.
If Clinton wins the November election,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Carper said, Clinton will need him as a surrogate and emissary around the world.
“If (Clinton) is smart, and she is smart, she’ll find plenty of ways for him to contribute to the good of this country and the world,” he said.
Follow @ngaudiano on Twitter.
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