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Opinion: Joe Biden update: The guy’s getting old, bless him

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Saturday was Joe Biden‘s birthday. He completed his 68th year.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice President.

That makes Biden fully 19 years older than his boss again.

By the time Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, rolls around, JB will be about to start Year 71, almost the advanced age that so totally disqualified John McCain from being in position to become the nation’s chief executive. But, of course, being a Republican, different rules apply there.

Joe, as we call him, says that Barack, as he calls the president of the United States, has already asked him to be on the Democratic ticket next time. And that’s probably true -- today. Today is also about 20 months before the party’s convention in Scranton or somewhere.

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So there’s a lot of time for Barack to change Joe’s mind.

Tomorrow Joe is taking Barack with him to Kokomo to talk more economy at an automotive transmission plant belonging to Chrysler, which hopes next year to pull the same kind of IPO on investors as GM just did.

It’s Thanksgiving week and more than 40 million Americans will....

...be going somewhere to see someone if they don’t drive and don’t mind some strange security person groping them. No one will be touching the Obama and Biden junk before Kokomo. You may have heard that neither one of them is happy with the economic recovery that both promised would be so much farther along by now.

Just by his lonesome this fall, Joe talked about the economy at more than 100 campaign events, mainly races for House seats whose candidates would rather have the voluble, backslapping VPOTUS than the less popular aloof POTUS.

All that campaign talk about the economy worked so well for Democrats that Republicans picked up more House seats on Nov. 2 than anyone has since four years before Joe was born in Scranton.

So, having learned that lesson, J and B are doubling down and doubleteaming Kokomo tomorrow.

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Kokomo is in north central Indiana, an important battleground state that the Obama-Biden ticket won by just 28,300 votes two years ago out of about 2.7 million. Indiana is run by 61-year-old Harley-riding Mitch Daniels, another one of those non-charismatic Republican governors who promise to cut public payrolls, create jobs and balance budgets without new taxes -- and then just goes and does it. But come 2012, what chance could such doers stand against a Real Good Talker?

Indiana is also the home state of Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who’s decided to leave Washington come January to do something else the next couple of years. He says Washington has gotten so partisan and rancorous and badly needs change.

Bayh, by the way, is only 54.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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