Biden’s out: The world (and rivals) react

“By the time Joe, I mean the vice president, was getting comfortable with running, there just wasn’t enough time”.

Ending months of intense speculation, US Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he wouldn’t jump into the presidential race easing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s path to win the party nomination.

Vice President Biden was tipped to declare his candidacy earlier this year, but plans were stalled when his son Beau Biden passed away.

He said Obama and Vice President Biden, who announced on Wednesday that he will not run for president, were “not really” interested in creating a “political revolution” to overthrow the corporate interests he says have taken over Washington.

“While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent”, Biden told reporters. But he said he will continue to be vocal about where the Democrats stand as a party and in which direction the nation should go.

Biden also said the country needs “a moonshot” to cure cancer and vowed to spend his next 15 months in office fighting for increased funding for research and development. We can do this.

Biden made the announcement from the White House Rose Garden.

Biden has run twice before for president; he has a national and worldwide reputation for political and governmental expertise.

But that’s not true in New Hampshire, where Monday’s Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll showed Sanders’ 8-point lead actually grow to 10 points over Clinton when Biden is not factored in.

Biden’s decision is good news for Clinton, though she hardly has a lock on the nomination. They are opposition. They are not our enemies. Mrs. Clinton will testify about that issue today at a congressional hearing. Bernie Sanders, who has energized the party’s liberal base but lacks Clinton’s campaign infrastructure and support from party leaders.

“I supported him when he ran in 2008 and I didn’t have that personal connection initially. Democrats should not only protect this record, or defend this record – they should run on this record”.

“It is mean-spirited and petty and it has gone on for much too long”, he said.

Especially with Biden not in the race, Bullock predicted Democratic voters in the March 1 “SEC primary” – held in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee as part of Super Tuesday – will line up behind Clinton.

“I don’t think we should look at Republicans as our enemies”, he said, tweaking Clinton for a comment she made at the first Democratic debate.

“Democrats are now left with a socialist or a candidate under FBI investigation”.