Former Vice President Joe Biden is supposed to be the 2020 Democratic field’s heavyweight. He’s a longtime fixture of D.C. and the Democratic Party establishment. He’s blue-collar, plain-spoken, and someone who could give Donald Trump trouble in 2020. But the party has changed. That was made explicitly clear during the first debate, which was a socialist goodie bag from hell. Forced Medicare, the destruction of private health insurance, health care for illegals, decriminalizing border crossings, and bashing federal immigration officers. Biden is a hardcore liberal, but he’s too right-leaning for this party. No matter who is nominated next year, they will have to adopt some very unpopular proposals, some of which are mind-numbingly stupid. For years, Democrats had run the table on health care. For years, they said the GOP tweaks to Obamacare would destroy your health insurance. And for years, it worked. Republicans have been appalling on the messaging front.

After ten years of promising to repeal Obamacare, the window closed. Now, we have Democrats literally debating not if they’ll destroy private health insurance to make way for Medicare for All, but when which is over 150+ million health care plans. In an unsurprising move, support for single-payer drops when voters are told their current plans will be trashed. Biden doesn’t support the Warren-Sanders single-payer plans, but this is the nonsense he has to contend with on the campaign trail—and he’s not handling it well. If he is the nominee, he’ll have to adopt some of the Left’s craziness on policy.

And so far, that’s the least of his problems. The man is a gaffe machine. He forgets which state he’s in campaigning, he lashed out at an Iowa voter, poking fun of the man’s weight and intelligence when he brought up Biden’s son Hunter and his arrangement at Burisma. This is one of the storylines running parallel to the Trump impeachment nonsense that’s engulfed the Hill. In fact, Hunter Biden’s Burisma arrangement has become a huge issue for the former VP’s campaign, as he’s failed to neutralize the story. Hunter has zero experience in energy but ended up on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, making $50,000/month and was there to allegedly sell access to top Obama officials at the time. He got this gig when daddy Biden was VP.

The Biden gaffes are long and they’re an issue. His inability to break from the pack is also an issue. His fundraising isn’t that solid for someone who is supposed to be a field-clearing candidate. It’s anemic, to say the least. So, why not Obama? The former president is the most popular Democrat in the country. he and Joe are close, but it’s not shocking that Obama isn’t weighing just yet. The field has whittled down some, but it’s still large. It’s too early for Obama to dole out an endorsement—we all get that. What about when it becomes clearer who the nominee will be? Well, apparently, Biden doesn’t need his former boss’s endorsement (via Politico):

Former Vice President Joe Biden … said he didn’t need Barack Obama’s endorsement in the Democratic primary, even if the field were down to three people. He also scoffed at the notion that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is building enthusiasm and accused Mayor Pete Buttigieg of stealing his plans. In a wide-ranging interview aboard his campaign bus during an eight-day, “No Malarkey“ tour through rural Iowa, a feisty Biden answered questions for 30 minutes, discussing his prospects in Iowa, the likely strength of his campaign going into Super Tuesday and his relationship with the former president. Biden reiterated that he asked Obama not to endorse him, and he stuck by that stance even when asked whether he’d want Obama’s backing if the field narrowed to three people. “No, because everyone knows I’m close with him,” Biden said. “I don’t need an Obama endorsement.” Biden went on to say that as Obama’s vice presidential pick, he provided crucial relationships with the base of the Democratic Party, including with African Americans, and with voters in places such as Pennsylvania, Colorado, Virginia and Florida.. “I was the one who was sent in,” he said. “And the reason was, because all the polling and data showed that I had those relationships with the base of the Democratic Party as well as African-Americans. And so I did as many African Americans events as Barack did.”

Right, Biden told Obama he didn’t want his help, endorsement, and pool of resources for his presidential election bid. I call BS on that. Are you kidding me? Of course, he wants it. The Obama coalition was unbeatable. And with Trump poised to get a second term thanks to Democrats wasting invaluable time on impeachment, he’s going to need everything he can get to cross the finish line. Maybe he knows he’s going to get it anyway since Obama is going to help out whoever the 2020 nominee is next year. Is Biden saying it’s going to be him based on this ‘screw Obama’s endorsement’ angle? Based on his campaign factors, which are not overwhelming or decisive with this field, that’s mighty cocky of him. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) was supposed to be a top-tier candidate and Andrew Yang has outlasted her.

Now, there are rumblings of discontent with Obama. In one Democratic debate in the Fall, the field sans Biden decided to trash Obama. In some pieces, who have some folks saying he was actually a conservative politician. Yeah, you cannot make this up. Still, even with some liberals now voicing how they felt how Obama was too right-wing (I’m chuckling inside), Obama still has value for whoever will be running against Trump in 2020. After Democrats waste their time on impeachment, complaining about how the field is now too old and too white, how Mayor Pete Buttigiegisn’t the right LGBT presidential candidate, and peddling abysmal public policy proposals, then maybe Obama can help right the ship. With a booming economy at the back of Trump, he’s the candidate who will look like the hope and change figure in D.C. A larger paycheck is what’s tangible. It’s one of the many positive tangible economic effects that has borne out of the Trump agenda.