Ending months of speculation, Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will not run for president. The decision is a relief not only to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, but also to many of Mr. Biden’s fans, who feared a late start by an ambivalent candidate would be unsuccessful and unnecessarily divide the party.
Although it was a difficult decision for Mr. Biden to make, it was the right one, sparing Democrats a protracted intra-party brawl and preserving the vice president’s image as a genial and accomplished statesman whose character was shaped by multiple family tragedies.
In a speech from the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Biden made clear that the death of his son, Beau, figured heavily in the decision. Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in May at age 46, had reportedly encouraged his father to run. Becoming president was a lifelong dream of Mr. Biden, who unsuccessfully sought the office in 1988 and 2008.
But Mr. Biden said Wednesday that as the family worked through its grief, the window of opportunity closed. He promised, however, that “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent.”
In 2008, Beau Biden introduced his father at the Democratic National Convention, calling him a great man who “always sounded like the kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, that he is.” A scrappy and loquacious public servant first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, Mr. Biden will leave the national stage in the No. 2 position — not bad for a once-stuttering kid from coal country. Although Delaware claims Mr. Biden now, he made Pennsylvania proud, too.
First Published: October 22, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
