Why Biden Won’t Find His Biden

He would be wise to remember that Barack Obama didn’t pick him simply because
they were “simpatico.”

When it comes to the vice presidency, Joe Biden has a perfect candidate in mind:
himself.

Well, if he were Josephine R. Biden Jr., of course.

In comments about his search for a running mate, Mr. Biden has made clear he wants
someone with the characteristics that he believes made him the perfect pick for
Barack Obama in 2008 — someone who is loyal, is ready to govern “on Day 1” and is,
as Mr. Biden has said, “simpatico with me, both in terms of personality as well as
substance.”

Of course, self-perception isn’t always accurate. Sure, Mr. Obama wanted someone he
could work alongside. And, as his strategist David Axelrod later recounted, early
chemistry between the two men helped finalize the selection of Mr. Biden.

But at the start, the Obama-Biden relationship was hardly the bromance
immortalized in the Democratic memes that followed. People close to Mr. Obama’s
2008 campaign have said they had real concerns about Mr. Biden, most centrally
about his ability to stay on message and his propensity for political gaffes.

As the race against John McCain tightened that August, the thinking of those in Mr.
Obama’s orbit was that they needed a white man on the ticket, preferably an “older
guy” who could reassure voters worried about taking a chance on a young, barrier-
breaking senator.
People involved in the process, The New York Times reported in the immediate
aftermath of the announcement, attributed Mr. Obama’s decision to Mr. Biden’s
appeal among white working-class voters and his compelling personal story. Another
plus: At Mr. Biden’s age, then a spry 65 years old, Obama advisers didn’t expect him
to run for the presidency (LOL).

“You are the pick of my heart, but Joe is the pick of my head,” Mr. Obama told Tim
Kaine, then the governor of Virginia, after he made his choice.
So Mr. Biden’s idealized version of his own vice-presidential process clearly involves a
bit of revisionist history.
He has already made at least one politically strategic choice by limiting the candidates
to women. Limiting the prospects by gender eliminates a lot of Mr. Biden’s most loyal
and presumably “simpatico” allies — a group that largely comprises white men.
As one racial justice activist politely put it: “Even his set of relationships, I’m quite
sure, are geared toward his world.”
Picking a woman isn’t about personal loyalty; it’s about energizing female voters and
recognizing the momentum that women — particularly Black women — have given
the Democratic Party during the Trump era.

Given his age, Mr. Biden also needs to reassure voters that there’s someone who can
take over if he can no longer serve as president — a reason there aren’t many older
women on the list.

I suppose this is a really long way of guiding you, dear readers, through the blizzard
of vice-presidential speculation blanketing the political conversation.

Mr. Biden said he would announce his pick in early August, so the forecast this week
is for more hot takes, rumors and backbiting. Because the field is all women, there
will probably be a touch of sexism in the mix as well, as we’ve already seen
in reports detailing largely anonymous concerns from donors who say Kamala
Harris is “too ambitious” for the job. (I’ve never met an unambitious politician, but
perhaps that’s a subject for a whole other column.)

Don’t get too caught up in the leaks and the counterleaks, the “close Biden allies” and
the chattering donors. Sure, picking a running mate is complicated. Sure, personal
relationships and trust matter. But you know who doesn’t care about chemistry?
Losing presidential candidates.

In the end, there’s one strategic imperative that outweighs all of the others.

Winning.