Election 2020: Joe Biden for President?!

In case you were getting too comfortable, I’d like to remind you that the 2020 presidential election campaign season is right around the corner. My apologies.

Less than a day after being inaugurated in January 2017, President Trump filed for reelection with the Federal Elections Commission. Talk about wasting no time at all or lacking any confidence. Now, as we approach that season at breakneck speed, the opposition party is trying to figure out just what they’re going to do.

As you remember, Hillary Clinton, who possessed the Left’s perfect combination of background, gender, and name recognition, failed in her (second) quest for the presidency. After waiting in the wings while Barack Obama was on stage, she lost to the least likely GOP candidate of all.

With no Clinton in the Democrat arsenal of candidates, who does that leave? As of right now, the leader of the pack is none other than Joe Biden.

Joe Biden is leading the Democratic field in some early polls asking voters about the party’s prospective presidential candidates in 2020.

Many think Biden will run for president, and he would start out a race with a number of advantages.

Polls showing Biden at the top of Democratic wish lists likely reflect Biden’s high name identification and ties to former President Obama, a revered figure in the party.

But apparently, not everyone is excited about the prospect, including Democratic members of the United States Senate.

“It’s hard to see someone [winning] who voted for the Iraq War. People are looking to turn the page,” one senior Democratic aide said.

A second senior Democratic aide said “polls show that voters want someone who is new.”

A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment on Biden’s chances said “polls this early don’t mean anything” and argued a Politico/Morning Consult survey published Wednesday that showed Biden leading Trump 44 percent to 37 percent among registered voters doesn’t mean much since it didn’t poll other candidates against Trump.

Other Democrats noted Biden’s failed bids for the White House in 2008 and 1988 to argue that he might not be a strong candidate in 2020.

Ouch.

Will the Democrats pass Biden over in favor of Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, or even Bernie Sanders? Though this very early polling has him at the top of the list, all signs point elsewhere and away from Barack Obama’s odd, uncle-like wingman.

At this point, the Democrats will need to go back to the drawing board if they want to mount any sort of legitimate challenge to the president. His ardent supporters are too invested, the economy is doing too well, and the current prospects on the left side of the aisle are too extreme to entice any Republican or Right-leaning independent away from the majority. Those are just the cold, hard facts.

It is amusing, though, that Biden, an old, white man, is currently favored by a political party that loves to chide the GOP on their old, white male leadership. Personally, I don’t care about gender or race. When choosing a candidate, substance is what matters most to me. But then again, I’m no Leftist who is obsessed with intersectional feminism and defeating The Patriarchy.

“He’s basically a Democratic placeholder that has universal name recognition and is kind of stand-in for people. When they think Biden, they think Obama,” said Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy for America, a nationwide liberal grass-roots activist organization.

“The idea that you’re going to run in 2020 on a neo-centrist agenda is beyond ludicrous, especially in a big dynamic Democratic primary.”

The Democratic Party of today is vastly different than that of 2008 or even 2012. There has been a seismic shift toward Progressivism. Bill Clinton’s moderate Democratic leanings would look almost foreign when compared to those of Senator Warren or even Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist. Even the young candidate for New York’s 14th congressional district, and Sanders mentee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has been welcomed into a group who would have seen her as an extreme outsider only a decade ago.

Times are changing, and Joe Biden is standing still.

To defeat Donald Trump in 2020, the Democratic Party will need to look somewhere other than the past. As of right now, they’re not too sure where to turn their gaze.

That confusion suits President Trump and the GOP just fine.

Kimberly Ross is a senior contributor at RedState and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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