Biden? Old News.

Speaking to the nation from the Rose Garden at the White House is one of the presidential privileges only the Head of the United States has when our coun­try experiences big moments and events.

But on October 21st, not following protocol, Vice President Joe Biden, one of the nation’s veteran politicians, spoke to the nation with the Oval Office as his backdrop because he realized he would never move into that office.

With President Barack Obama at his side, who is also the Head of the Dem­ocratic Party, Biden told the nation that he “was running out of the time neces­sary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” referring to his deci­sion to not run for his party’s nomina­tion for president. Biden’s decision not only ended a threat that would cause fierce fights within the Democratic Party, but also shifted the Party’s focus to the general election to make sure Barack Obama hands over his office to a fellow Democrat.

If Biden and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (who have both served as top members of the Obama Administration) ran against each other, the Democratic Party would lose a valu­able asset—the unity of which the Re­publican Party is lacking.

Biden, who is still grieving the loss of his eldest son, Beau, who died of can­cer this past May while running for Governor of Delaware, sees the picture clearly—the ship he hoped to catch has already left the port. Speaking to 60 Minutes on CBS during a post-an­nouncement interview, he admitted he just “couldn’t win” if he ran.

Only a united Democratic Party will overcome a divided Republican Party. On November 3rd, NBC News reported that in a new poll conducted by NBC News/The Wall Street Journal, ” 62% of Democrats chose Clinton as their top choice to win their party’s presidential nomination.” Without Biden as a com­petitor, this allows the Democratic Party to rally around Hillary Clinton. Her strong performances in the Demo­cratic candidates debate and in the GOP-run partisan Benghazi Committee have helped put her back in the top of the polls and restored her position as the most likely person to become the Democratic nominee.

Your opponents’ bad times are your good times and your opponents’ chaos is your chance to win. The silly GOP race for president reminds people of the how a great America could slip away if a self-promoter named Donald Trump or a Muslim-hater named Ben Carson were to become the leader of the country.

There are a lot of people around the country who say that both parties are exactly the same and an agenda that serves the best interest of the American People is not what both parties set or pursue. But we have to make a choice and we have to draw a picture together of what the country will look like. At least the Democratic Party doesn’t de­fine citizens by the way they love and the way they raise their own families, the Democratic Party doesn’t attempt to build a wall to block people from coming to America, and the Demo­cratic Party doesn’t send young people into battlegrounds overseas where they die for nothing.

In 2007, no matter how chaotic the Democratic field for president was due to the rising of an unknown senator named Barack Obama, it didn’t seem likely that a Republican would replace George W. Bush, who was a liability for that party. In 2015, almost seven years into the Obama presidency, the possibil­ity of Barack Obama getting replaced with a Democrat is higher than that of the GOP earning back the White House. On October 19th, 2015 ABC News re­ported that, “More than half of Ameri­cans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of Barack Obama’s job performance, a first in nearly two and a half years.” A president having a 51% approval rating places his own party in an advanced position where the party can effectively persuade Amer­icans why the party should have an­other four or even eight years at the White House.

As Clinton said in a statement upon Biden’s announcement, Biden is a “good man.” Biden didn’t just do one good thing for Clinton, he did it for the par­ty. Biden is a man who refuses to let his own ambition prevent the headway be­ing made by the Democratic Party.

If Obama is to be credited for the progress he has led the party to make in the last seven years, his deputy Biden should be credited for its survival.