Iraq is Biden's ticket to the presidency

The Delaware Senator probably realizes that the time is now to showcase his foreign policy depth to the mass public if he has any shot of even competing for the presidency.

With John Murtha's (D-PA) crushing defeat last week in the race for House Majority Leader, the Congressman's reduced rhetorical stature opens the door for other Democrats with foreign policy credentials to compete for the role of party spokesperson on Iraq.  Many predict that Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) will fill that role. 

Throughout his entire legislative career, and particularly after the September 11th attacks, Senator Biden has been very well respected inside academic circles in terms of his wide-ranging knowledge about foreign policy issues.  Immediately following Osama bin Laden's escape into the mountains of Tora Bora in 2002, Biden called for more of a multi-lateral force presence in Afghanistan.  Instead, troops were drawn down.  Today, with poppy production up 50% in 2006 amid a continued Taliban resurgence, many might conclude that Biden's advice should have been followed.  From Iraq to nuclear non-proliferation, to our detention policies, to how the United States can win the war against terrorism, Biden has led by offering realistic alternatives to Bush's policies, while most other Democrats have done little more than merely oppose the Administration.  Biden's message to Democrats is clear: if you oppose something, at least offer a thoughtful solution.

Biden, who is mulling over a run for the presidency in 2008, has something going for him.  Since the Democrats took back Senate majority, he can now showcase his depth of knowledge as the new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.  Even more so than Carl Levin, who will Chair the Armed Services Committee, Democrats are expecting Biden to take the lead role.  If he takes advantage of this opportunity and sets out specific policy objectives for Iraq and the war on terror that the Democrats can unite around, he will have made a huge case to become the next commander-in-chief.

However, it is unlikely that President Bush will follow Biden's advice.  So what the Delaware Senator can do is play the 2008 role of "I told you so."  So how does that work?  As it has been highly publicized over the last few days, John McCain, the potential Republican presidential front-runner, is calling for more U.S. troops in Iraq.  The current political climate points toward President Bush following a policy path similar to the one McCain laid out.  If such policy decision backfires by not resulting in a stabilized Iraq, then Joe Biden can say in a head-to-head match-up against John McCain that the Arizona Senator and Mr. Bush were wrong about Iraq, and our country cannot afford to have that kind of misguided leadership for the next eight years.  From a political strategy standpoint, it is as simple as that.  Biden, assuming he will elaborate on his Iraq solution soon, is in an excellent position to best John McCain on foreign affairs, should the two meet in the 2008 general election.

In the coming months, look for Joe Biden to strategically assert himself as a strong Democrat by offering a clear alternative to the McCain proposal of adding more troops -- which President Bush is almost sure to enact.  Biden probably realizes as well as most pundits that in order to beat people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Evan Bayh, or John Edwards in the Democratic primaries, he will need to immediately go full speed ahead and define himself to the mass public as a smart, decisive leader on foreign affairs with a clear idea of how to take the country in a different direction.

Comments

[John Morgan]

Biden is definitely running. I saw him at an event he did outside Scranton for Chris Carney and he most definitely said he's running for President.

Joe was my Senator for the 18 years I lived in Delaware and he's a very good man. He'd make a very good President.