“Oh, oh, your nostalgia file.”
By 
Finally, some fresh new blood!
Former Secretary of State John Kerry is considering a second run for president in 2020 to take on President Trump, according to comments reported by the Israel newspaper Maariv.
According to the report, Kerry told Palestinian officials that he was strongly considering a run in 2020 and hinted that Trump will likely not be in office much longer in strongly worded conversation Wednesday.
“Hold on and be strong,” Kerry told the interviewer, a close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, adding that he should tell Abbas “that he should stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he will not break and will not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.”
I don’t actually think this will happen, and nor do I think he has any chance if he does run. I have nothing against Kerry. You see people argue he ran a bad campaign in 2004, but I’ve never seen any version of the argument that isn’t a pure “all losing campaigns are by definition bad” tautology — he outperformed the fundamentals, won the debates, and did a better job than Clinton (admittedly in a context that left him no choice) of focusing on tipping point states. He was a very good Secretary of State. But that was his shot; it’s over. The party doesn’t need a retread in 2020.
Biden is more likely to run, but that’s a problem that will take care of itself, although a third try might finally allow him to clear the zero delegate bar. I recently re-read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s superb essay “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” and…
Joe Biden, then the junior senator from Delaware, quickly became the point man for showing that Democrats would not go soft on criminals. “One of my objectives, quite frankly,” he said, “is to lock Willie Horton up in jail.” Biden cast Democrats as the true party without mercy. “Let me define the liberal wing of the Democratic Party,” he said in 1994. “The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties … The liberal wing of the Democratic Party has 70 enhanced penalties … The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state prison cells.”
I dunno, I’m pretty sure that Cory Booker or Kamala Harris will bring that up. It seems likely that Gillibrand will have some pointed observations about his handling of Anita Hill. Every potential nominee will have things to say about the relationship of the senator from MNBA with the financial sector. And who knows what other ammunition he’d hand his opponents. As Coates says, Biden’s record was hardly atypical for a moderate liberal of his time, but that’s it — it’s not his time. He would have to be an incredible candidate to survive all this baggage and history has pretty clearly indicated that he’s not. I hope for his sake he’ll realize this and doesn’t end his career getting humiliated in Iowa, but he won’t be the nominee.
I can’t wait for reports about the astonishing return of Bill Richardson! And surely Mike Dukakis is rested and ready if not tanned.