Who Is The Real Joe Biden?

Joe Biden wants to be President.  He likes being at the center of power.  I wonder if he has any chance at all.  Well, only if Obama wins a second term.  And if Obama doesn't dump him.  There is more to it than that, however.

The vice presidency is no longer merely looking after the boss's health and attending funerals.  It became so much more with Dick Cheney.  Biden himself was chosen for his purported strength on foreign policy; an area in which Obama was void.

He touts the party line like a good soldier even with his foot firmly planted in his mouth.  That in itself is a trait that will haunt him in any campaign.  But an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal entitled The Dumbing Down of Joe Biden makes me wonder how much such ambitions are worth.  The premise is that he is to take the heat in order to take the heat off his boss.  With Biden it's pretty easy since he is gaffe prone, but to do it willingly?  That's loyalty!  Or is he already dumbed down?

Wouldn't it be something if some time a Vice President backed out on his own because he didn't want to play jester in the Presidential court?  Or any member of the House or Senate would denounce bad policy of their own party?  Those days are gone forever if they ever existed.

Instead we get a daily regurgitation of talking points no matter how ludicrous.  We come to mistrust politicians because we wonder if they can possibly believe what they're saying.  If they even realize what they're saying.  Like Biden's diatribe yesterday about   Romney's business experience being no more qualification for the presidency than for being a plumber.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he seemed to sense another gaffe and apologized of sorts to plumbers and private equity "guys".  But did he really believe it?  Consider Obama's sum experience before being elected was as a State Senator, a U.S. Senator for less than one term and a community organizer.  Not exactly a strong pool of experience.  Especially when you compare it to the total of Romney's experience including a term as Governor of Massachusetts.

Regardless of what you think about any of the candidates, do you wonder if they've been so desensitized they're little more than robots with a singular goal?  To get elected.  It no longer seems to matter what the people want and need.  All that matters is being able to remain in the cocoon of power or to get there no matter how dishonest, mean spirited or just plain dumb you have to be.  It's troubling to me just how easy it comes to them.