Biden is supposed to announce his choice for VP in just a few days. I originally thought Biden was going to pick former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar, my home state Senator, as his running mate, but because of the George Floyd protests, she has decided to drop out of the running. I now think Biden is going to pick Susan Rice as his VP, which I think is an excellent choice.
As I see it, there are two primary considerations. First, whoever is his VP has to be able to take over and run the country if for some reason Joe Biden can't do it anymore. Biden will be 78 years old at the beginning of his term if he wins, and even though he seems to be pretty fit and healthy, that means he will be 82 years old by the end of his first term, which is pretty old to still be working at all, let alone at a high stress job like the presidency. With all of her foreign policy experience (including time as Obama's National Security Advisor), Rice can step in and take care of all the national security problems at a moment's notice, and Obama and Biden have built up a large talented team of economic advisors that can help her deal with any difficult domestic issues. Plus selecting a strong African-American women as his running mate would be truly historic and long overdue.
Second, Biden has to set up the next race for president to make sure a strong candidate emerges to run after he leaves office. The VP always has a huge leg up in running for office after the current president leaves, and whoever he picks for VP will likely be the next Democratic candidate for President. That is why I thought Senator Klobuchar was a good choice. She is a highly qualified, moderate candidate who I think would make an excellent president in the future, and since she dropped out and endorsed Biden at a critical time in the Democratic primary, I thought Biden was going to reward her for that important political gesture. I think Susan Rice makes an excellent choice in this regard as well. She is not a career politician, and likely does not want to run for President after Biden leaves office, so the field would be wide open to select whichever candidate the party members decided would be best. That lets voters choose between a liberal candidate like Warren or a moderate candidate like Klobuchar, and doesn't lock in the next choice by making her VP in 2021, ensuring the politician with the most political skill ends up getting picked to run next.
It is also important to point out that Biden might only serve for one term. He is getting old, though is only 3 years older than Trump, and serving until the end of a second term when he is reaching the age of 86 might be a bit too much. There was even a trial balloon sent out early on in his primary race that he was going to select Stacey Abrams as his VP at the beginning of his campaign, and that he was only going to serve one term. Both of those got a negative reaction so they didn't go anywhere, but I think it is possible that Biden will decide soon after the midterms in 2022, that he won't run for a second term, setting up a very vigorous debate over who should take his place in 2024. That seems to be the scenario that makes the most sense to me, and now we will just have to see if my predictions come true.
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