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American Weirdness, American Democracy
// What's In It for Joseph Biden?
Joseph Biden cannot fail to understand that he has no chance of becoming the candidate from the Democratic Party in the 2008 elections. The opinion polls show that the uncontested favorites in the race for the spot on the Democratic ticket in the upcoming elections are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and it will be practically impossible to catch them, meaning that Senator Biden may as well just kiss his presidential ambitions goodbye. It turns out that the third man is the odd man out, the spare. Just like the fourth runner-up, and the fifth. But then what is driving Joseph Biden to take a running leap into the campaign arena and run himself ragged just so that the race for next year's party nomination doesn't turn into the "Hillary and Barack tango"? What's in it for him personally, and for the Democratic Party, and for the rest of America, anyway?
In the story of Senator Biden's bid for the nomination, this is a key question. The whole world loves to talk about US elections because they're such a great show. And a show should be colorful and varied as possible. The greater the number of personages and topics in circulation, all of them creating intrigue or at least the appearance thereof, the better. The commentaries in Russia are full of condescending discussions of the US elections. They say here that American weirdness is the flip side of American democracy. For its part, the Russian Central Elections Committee is having a good laugh at the Americans, who leave the question of the next president hanging in midair because they can't seem to count some little holes in a ballot. And the whole problem is that they can't just have an election – they have to have sideshow entertainment while they're at it.
Mr. Biden, who has already taken part in many other presidential campaigns, is not allowing his actions to be dictated either by the desire to amuse or by the desire to participate in the elections just to keep up appearances, to provide one more figure on the stage. Joseph Biden is a real politician, not a puppet in the capitol. He knows just one iron rule: in order to make it in politics, you have to live it and breathe it; you have to stay on the voters' horizons and not ever allow yourself to fade away into the background. You have no chance today, just like you had no chance yesterday, but you never know – maybe you'll have a shot in the next campaign. That's all that Mr. Biden needs right now. Yes, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are the clear favorites, but that also means that they are prime targets for their political opponents. And today's favorites can easily fall by the wayside tomorrow: just look at the defeat of the Democratic team of Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman in the 2000 elections, after which Mr. Gore withdrew from politics almost completely, and Mr. Lieberman – who would have thought? – had a nasty falling-out with his fellow party members. But that didn't cause the Democrats any shortage of candidates. In general, by having a sufficient number of "spares" like Joseph Biden, the party can insure itself against many unpleasantries, particularly the necessity of answering a question that arises every so often: whence the leaders? And finally, with regard to what's in it for America, the answer is this: in order to not forget the most important thing, which is that besides live beer and live music, there is also live politics.
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 02, 2007
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