Aug 15, 2015 3 min read

Eyebrows shot skyward in the Beltway and beyond last week when a poll conducted by Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire found Bernie Sanders vaulting ahead of Hillary Clinton as the preferred candidate of that state’s Democratic voters in next February’s first-in-the-nation primary election.

Granted, it is just one poll, there are still six months to go, flirtations with insurgents are known to fizzle and Clinton possesses formidable organizational and fundraising advantages. The smart money still has the former first lady and secretary of state winning the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

Nevertheless, the poll had to give some party bigwigs pause, particularly one of the biggest of them all – Joseph R. Biden, the vice president of the United States.

As the 2016 narrative has unfolded, few have given Biden a major role in it. The conventional wisdom has it that, despite having been vice president and serving in the U.S. Senate for three decades before that, Biden’s time passed. His two previous campaigns for the presidency ran aground, he would be celebrating his 74th birthday just a few weeks after the 2016 general election, and Biden would not want his legacy to be capped by yet another denial of his party’s presidential nomination.

No, Biden would head quietly into retirement, most observers confidently predicted.

However, over the last couple of weeks, there were signals Biden is thinking about jumping into the contest at the last minute – if you want to define a half-year before the first ballots are cast as “last minute.” Perhaps sensing Clinton’s vulnerability, and maybe not willing yet to surrender the dream of the presidency, Biden is reportedly conferring with allies and considering his options.

And despite a reputation for oddball gaffes and being an undisciplined motormouth, Biden should be taken seriously. After having been a player in Washington, D.C., politics since 1973, he certainly understands the intricacies of both foreign and domestic policy. He’s no Spiro Agnew or Dan Quayle who’s kept on a short leash and trotted out occasionally to rouse the true believers.

Biden is also not encumbered by the serial soap operas of Clintonworld, and has a regular-guy appeal. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out Thursday, “… Biden may also attract a broader constituency (than Clinton) in a general election, including rust-belt Democrats, Catholics and white, working-class men, with whom he has some cultural affinity.”

Above all, Biden’s presence in the Democratic race would give that party’s voters a serious choice. Despite the excitement Sanders has generated, an independent who described himself as a democratic socialist is unlikely to get the Democratic nomination. The other declared candidates – former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former U.S. Sen. James Webb of Virginia, and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee – have barely caused a ripple and, so far, would be able to stroll through almost any public space in the United States without a single soul recognizing them.

There’s every likelihood that a Biden candidacy would come a cropper. Still, his presence would enliven and invigorate the Democratic Party’s presidential contest. We hope he gets in.