Former Vice President Joe Biden finally ended all the suspense today and announced his candidacy for president, so finally people can stop saying "but he's not even RUNNING" when the early polls put him in first place. Now it's time to switch to pointing out that in early 2003 polling, Joe Freakin' Lieberman was the front-runner. Biden announced he was running with a video taking a very direct shot at Donald Trump, noting that Charlottesville, Virginia, is where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, but that's not what anyone today thinks of when they hear the name:

Joe Biden For President: America Is An Ideawww.youtube.com

It's a pretty good video! As rhetorical contrasts go, you can't find many greater chasms than that between the idealism of "All men are created equal" -- and props to Biden's writers for including a note that Jefferson didn't live up to that ideal himself -- and "some very fine people on both sides" of the white supremacist march that left a young anti-fascist marcher dead. Biden says Trump's awful moral equivalence to Charlottesville crystalized his own determination to stop Trump from a second term: "In that moment, I knew the threat to our nation was unlike any I'd ever seen in my lifetime." Referencing an opinion piece he wrote for the Atlantic at the time, Biden says,

We are in the battle for the soul of this nation [...] I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.

Beyond that "We are all Americans and we don't stand for hate" messaging, the video doesn't go with specifics, because everyone knows who Joe Biden is by this point, and presumably the policy stuff will come later. And if it doesn't, Elizabeth Warren will release a policy proposal about THAT, and it will be brilliant.

Donald Trump, or in this case, someone tweeting on the "Donald Trump" account, was quick to share an insult that was at least Trumpian in its lameness:

Sick and demented ideas like providing people affordable healthcare and addressing climate change, o, the horror.

Yr Wonkette is still waiting for The Onion to weigh in on the 2020 run of the man it turned into a crazy old-fart slacker icon with its story about Biden washing a 1982 Trans Am in the White House driveway while blasting Night Ranger. (Fact Check: Biden owns a 1967 Corvette that he wasn't allowed to drive while veep.)

As for the guy who did the second most to make Biden a national figure, Barack Obama is carefully saying nice things about Biden, through a spokesperson, while not endorsing any of the 2020 Democratic candidates.

"President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made," said Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill. "He relied on the Vice President's knowledge, insight and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency. The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today."

Yr Wonkette hopes Old Handsome Joe has fun running, and that someone else gets the nomination, because it is 2019 and Biden's handling of Anita Hill's testimony in 1998 is still disqualifying, not to mention his not entirely serious response to women pointing out that unwanted hugs and hair-sniffing is just gross. Dude, joking about it is not how it's done. Then there's the crime bill, which he wrote, and the bankruptcy bill, and a host of others that are -- how shall we put this boringly -- "not where the energy of the Democratic base is at the moment." Maybe we could find him a job as permanent fun pretend VP somewhere. Or just permanent VP. That'd be fine! We love Old Handsome Joe. Just not for president, not now, not when there's Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris (OR BOTH!) on the stage.

Biden will appear on ABC's "The View" tomorrow for his first TV interview after announcing, and is scheduled to hold a campaign kickoff event Monday in Pittsburgh, emphasizing union themes. So that's all fine, that's nice, it's ... sigh, okay.

Now here's your T-shirt (and mug, and tote bag), for old times' sake!

https://wonkettebazaar.com/products/joe-biden-2020-mens-and-womens-tees

[CNN / WaPo / Joe Biden on YouTube]

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