By Ronald Baygents
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (KUNA) -- The big political question hanging over the 2016 US presidential election contest is no longer whether New York business mogul Donald Trump can sustain his surprising rise to the top of the crowded Republican Party field, but whether Vice President Joe Biden will challenge Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Biden has said he would make a decision by the end of summer, and political insiders close to Biden have said the question will not be answered until next month.
A Biden vs. Clinton contest would be awkward, since the two are friends and share a very similar political ideology. Clinton served four years as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, while Biden has served nearly seven years as Obama's vice president.
While Clinton had an aura of inevitably about her path to the Democratic nomination when she announced her candidacy in June, her approval rating in the polls has since dropped sharply amid an FBI investigation into whether sensitive information was compromised by her use of a private e-mail server while she was Secretary of State.
Her supporters have grown nervous about the e-mail problem, and her socialist challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, has drawn bigger and more excited crowds along the campaign trail in recent weeks.
Sanders even holds a slight lead in the latest polls from New Hampshire, the early nominating state that Clinton captured in 2008 in the presidential contest ultimately won by Obama.
In the past week or so, Biden was reported to be sounding out mega-donors to Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns who have been hesitant to sign on with Clinton.
But Biden is apparently conflicted over whether to make what would be his third try for the White House, having run unsuccessfully in 1988 and 2008. In a conference call with Democratic activists a few days ago that was recorded by CNN, Biden alluded to the effects of him losing his son, 46-year-old Beau Biden, to brain cancer in May.
"If I were to announce to run, I have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul, and right now, both are pretty well banged up," the Vice President said.
Beau Biden had been a big booster of the idea that his father should run again for President.
An additional problem for Biden is the fact that Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, who remains one of the most popular politicians in America, holds a commanding position among Democratic voters, especially women. If elected, Clinton would become the first female US president.
If Clinton, 68, were to win in 2016, she would be the second-oldest president in American history after Ronald Reagan, who assumed the presidency in 1981 at the age of 69. If Biden, 72, were to win the election, he would be the oldest US president ever elected. (end) rm.gta