Joe Biden may not be running, but the Dem. debate sure could have used him

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When I found out that CNN was so vehemently set on having Joe Biden appear on last night’s Democratic debate that they announced they left a podium open and waiting for him — I instantly thought of CNN as the thirsty dude in the club trying to woo a beautiful woman with free drinks, before even asking whether or not she’s even single.

Basically, CNN was acting like Jerome from Martin.

And while it may have been easy for folks like Trevor Noah to rip them for openly courting Biden with such an obvious degree of desperation, after watching the debate, I can clearly see why Biden’s presence was so sought after.

As much as I don’t usually agree with Donald Trump on anything, I completely co-signed his belief that the debate was boring and generally uninspiring. And while there are many legit critiques one can make of Biden, boring and uninspiring are definitely not applicable to him, and that’s a sentiment many of us felt midway through the debate.

Truthfully, this isn’t even about how “great” I, or anyone else, believe Joe Biden would be, but it’s more of an indictment on how “ehhh” the actual Democratic candidates were.

Jim Webb and Lincoln Chaffe couldn’t play a believable POTUS on Scandal.

Inspiration is not Martin O’Malley’s thing. His inability to galvanize people is similar to his inability to outright say #BlackLivesMatter, because you can sense the line of discomfort that he drew in the sand for himself. As a candidate, he’s that dude that you go on a first date with, have a fine time, but never call him again because who the hell wants just a fine time on a date?

If we’re being honest, the Democratic race right now is between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who both looked great in spurts last night. At times, both Sanders and Clinton were fiery, direct and impassioned, which drew the crowd in, but there was still something missing. There was a noticeable gap in relate-ability between those two candidates and the audience/viewing public. While they appeared to be solid candidates, neither excited or invigorated the voting public in a meaningful way.

Whether it was Clinton’s forced, “I’m only here so I don’t get fined” smile or Bernie’s constant referral to himself in the third person, I feel both candidates failed to solidify themselves as the unquestioned front runner.

Some people may attribute that to the tightness of the race and/or the quality of the lead candidates, but I think it’s something far simpler than that.

Neither candidate has the immediate presidential appeal of Joe Biden. Throughout the course of my 30 years on this planet, I have only seen two Democrats get elected as president: Bill Clinton in ’92 and Barack Obama in ’08. Two giants in terms of character, personality, policy position and intelligence.

The two Democratic presidents in my lifetime have brought more than Cheshire cat-smiles and gruff, angry words to the podiums they stood in front of. They were smart and cool, and that’s what made them so exciting — and that’s also what makes Joe Biden so damn attractive.

Joe Biden has more than the requisite experience to be just as effective as Clinton, and he also has challenged the GOP in many of the ways that Sanders said he’ll do if he gets elected.

He’s funny, intelligent, impassioned and, well, to be honest, naturally comfortable around black people and advocating for our collective interests. He has constantly courted African-American voters, and he’s done so without coming off as being fake or negatively unyielding.

I won’t pretend that Biden isn’t prone to gaffes, but I think the voting public would be able to put up with that to have a candidate who actually motivated people to not only go out and vote but to keep believing in the beauty of the nation’s future, despite the problems America is currently facing.

While Joe Biden wasn’t at the debate, the mediocrity of it all may have helped Biden above anyone else — and his campaign hasn’t even started yet.