Harry Siegel: Joe Biden’s not running for President, so let’s move on

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Several months after dropping out of the race, President Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. Here, Obama formally introduces Biden as his running mate along with their wives at an event at the Old State Capitol on Aug. 23, 2008. Biden and Obama worked together to secure the presidential spot, defeating Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin on Nov. 2, 2008.
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In 1972, Biden decided to run for the U.S. State Senate position in Delaware and ended up coming out victorious. However, a week before Christmas in 1972, Biden's wife Neilia and his three children were involved in a car accident that killed his wife and daughter Naomi. Despite the tragedy, Biden continued to honor his commitment to represent the people of Delaware in the Senate. Seen here, he was sworn in as the U.S. Senator from Delaware by his son Beau's hospital bedside on Jan. 5, 1973.
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Biden arrives with his wife, Jill, and Obama to announce he will not seek the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden.
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Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Renaissance High School on Monday, March 9, 2020, in Detroit, Mich. On March 13, the Democratic presidential nomination contest winnowed to a two-person race; Biden lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the delegate count.
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In his announcement, Vice President Biden lambasted the "mean-spirited," "petty," "divisive partisan politics" of those unnamed Democrats who see Republicans as the enemy.
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The duo decided to run for re-election in 2012 against challenger Mitt Romney and his vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan. Once again, Biden and Obama came out victorious, earning a second term as president and vice president. Here, the two share a moment on stage at their election night party on Nov. 7, 2012.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden officially announced on April 25, 2019, via a YouTube video, that he is running for the White House in the 2020 election. Biden is photographed during his first campaign event as a candidate for U.S. President at Teamsters Local 249 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 29, 2019.
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During his 15th year in the Senate, Biden sought the Democratic presidential nomination, an endeavor which he formally declared at the Wilmington train station on June 9, 1987. The campaign was derailed when Biden was accused of plagiarizing a speech from British politician Neil Kinnock, but the incident soon faded as Biden continued his Senate career.
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Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2021, in Washington, DC.
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After establishing himself as one of Washington's most prominent lawmakers, Biden decided to once again run for the U.S. presidency in 2007. Despite his popularity in the Senate, Biden's campaign failed to generate much attention and he decided to drop out after receiving less than one percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Here, Biden speaks to law students at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa on April 3, 2007.
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Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., arrive to speak at a news conference at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del. on Aug. 12, 2020. Harris, who was previously running to become the nominee, became Biden's VP choice on Aug. 11, 2020.
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Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Del. on Aug. 13, 2020.
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Over his 35-year career in Washington, Biden has developed a reputation as a collegial figure even when he's competitive. Someone who can spin flowery praise one moment and biting fulmination the next. Here, Biden points angrily at Clarence Thomas during comments at the end of hearings on Thomas' 1991 nomination to the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill.
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Following a decades-long political career, former Vice President Joe Biden was nominated as the 46th President of the United States following the 2020 election. As President-elect Biden prepares to move into the White House, take a look back at Biden's political career, from the Senate to the White House.
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Joe Biden served as senator from 1973 to 2009, conquering many obstacles along the way. Here, Biden speaks at a Washington press conference in Oct. 1979, backing up the importance of the SALT II treaty to American security. By this time, Biden was also a chairman of the Foreign Subcommittee on Europe Affairs.
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Joe Biden moved to Delaware as a child where he would later go on to obtain a degree in history and political science at the University of Delaware. It was there he met his first wife Neilia Hunter (c), who encouraged him to continue into law school. By 1970, Biden was an active member of the Democratic Party. He stands here with his two sons (r) Joseph and Robert during the Democratic state convention in the summer of 1972.
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During Biden's presidential campaign, he was suffering from severe headaches before discovering that he had two life-threatening brain aneurysms. Biden spent nearly seven months in and out of surgery before finally returning to office in Sept. 1988. Here, Biden is warmly welcomed back by his staff during a press conference at his Capitol Hill office.
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President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen Theater on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del.
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Biden has also developed significant foreign policy bona fides during his long tenure on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In this April 9, 1993 photo, Biden stands in front of a Danish armored personnel carrier at the UN-controlled Sarajevo Airport, making a statement about his trip to the besieged Bosnian capital.
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Biden has continued to play a pivotal role in U.S. foreign policy, meeting with foreign leaders like South Korean President Kim Dae-jung (r), among others. Biden, along with three other U.S. senators, arrived in South Korea on Aug. 11, 2001, to discuss security concerns, including North Korea's long-range missile program with the country's top leaders.
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President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden wave to the crowd after Biden's address to the nation from the Chase Center Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. After four days of counting the high volume of mail-in ballots in key battleground states due to the coronavirus pandemic, the race was called for Biden after a contentious election battle against incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.

PUBLISHED: October 21, 2015 at 2:41 p.m. | UPDATED: April 9, 2018 at 7:30 a.m.

So long, Uncle Joe. It’s not that we hardly knew you, but that we hardly cared.

Less than three months after he shook up the Democratic presidential contest by putting out word he might run to honor his son Beau’s dying wish, Vice President Joe Biden again used his son Wednesday, this time to explain why he wasn’t running.

He declared that the “grieving process” didn’t give him time to assemble a campaign.

TRANSCRIPT: BIDEN ANNOUNCES HE WON’T RUN FOR PRESIDENT

In an off-kilter Rose Garden announcement, with his wife, Jill, and President Obama beside him, Biden delivered a long, not terribly impressive stump speech from the campaign he’d just announced he wouldn’t launch.

Freed from electoral politics after four decades, Biden’s first move was to electioneer.

Some of that was surely muscle memory from a politician who has professionally played an ordinary guy throughout his long Washington career, and wasn’t going to walk away from what may be the largest audience he has left without a performance.

Biden’s peroration was also a warning to Hillary Clinton that he would come after her if she ran too hard against Obama’s record on, say, the well-being of America’s working and middle classes.

He made his attack dog intentions plain by lambasting the “mean-spirited,” “petty,” “divisive partisan politics” of those unnamed Democrats who see Republicans as the enemy.

That, of course, is how Clinton — who’s actually running for President — described them last week at her party’s first debate, where her strong performance effectively closed the door on the vice president’s hopes of moving up to the big seat.

Biden arrives with his wife, Jill, and Obama to announce he will not seek the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden.

But Biden’s potency as a Democratic critic or cheerleader will be far weaker than he may imagine.

Having bowed out, he is yesterday’s news. Finally, though, Biden’s move clarifies the choice facing Democrats, including those who can’t stomach Clinton and those yearning for a plan B if she implodes.

Republicans seem determined to self-destruct, what with clown-car riders Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina leading the field.

So, Democrats can risk it all on a love affair with socialist Bernie Sanders or they can settle down with Clinton and start dreaming of her, not Biden, talking to them from the Rose Garden.