Biden Says Sayonara to the Presidential Race

Destiny Wiley-Yancy

Chronicle Reporter

Vice President Joe Biden announced earlier today, according to reports from The New York Times, that he will not be a candidate for the 2016 presidency, ending the country’s prolonged period of speculation.

After the loss of his son Beau from brain cancer, Biden cites the length of the family’s grief process–indicating there would not be enough time to make a “realistic campaign for president”–as his reason for not running.

The New York Times writers, Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman wrote in a news article that Biden concluded that window of opportunity for him to initiate his candidacy has in fact closed.

This news comes as a disappointment to many Biden supporters, who, according a recent poll performed by CNN/ORC, drew strong waves of support within the Democratic Party.

The possibility of Biden’s candidacy would have complicated the structure of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, easily drawing votes from her in key states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Biden, however, would have had little effect on the strides of Bernie Sanders campaign, whose supporters exist far away from the range of Biden’s sphere.

With Biden opting out of the race, the playing field is tilted heavily in the direction of Hillary Clinton, who now with notions of Biden’s apparent candidacy diminished, will begin to pick up speed.

Biden, whose choice to sit out removed any ambiguity of the Democratic Party’s potential nominee, asserts that he will remain active in government.

“I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as much as I can where [the Democratic Party] stand as a Party and where [America] stand as a nation.”

 

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