2020 Election: Stacey Abrams would be a great choice for Joe Biden's VP — but a better one for president

The apparent scoop du jour is that ex-VP Joe Biden is set to announce his bid with his running mate already picked out: former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Suggestions for his VP thus far have been a who’s-who of the current field of competition for the nomination, including Harris and O’Rourke. Abrams possibly becoming The Chosen One is somewhat surprising, because her star has only so recently begun its ascendency — but not too surprising, because of her fierce intellect, warm demeanor and popularity. Stacey Abrams exudes good sense and kindness, delivered with impeccable poise: that’s the impression most voters have of her.

Joe Biden indisputably has the longest resume and most experience out there. He’d been a senator for four decades when he became Vice President under Barack Obama, whose administration’s remarkable successes despite historic adversity and GOP obstruction have come much more sharply into focus with the relief of hindsight.

So it’s indisputable that Biden makes for a great presidential nominee — but personally, I think he’s even better utilized backing up a younger candidate. His gravitas acts like a safety guard to let voters know that no matter what, Uncle Joe is working in the background guiding, assisting and mentoring. We need this even more in 2020 than we did in 2008.

Like Barack Obama in 2008, many of the candidates running are pretty young. It’s hard to argue against Biden’s addition to any ticket: he injects massive comfort and appeal to voters desperate to right a listing ship after the foreign-policy-for-sale feeling that has defined the Trump era.

Joe Biden has spent decades building relationships with key allies and reviewing intelligence documents which are critical to understanding an international landscape of realpolitik fraught with the tension of a new Cold War. Under Trump, friends have been branded enemies, and enemies feted like kings. Many Americans feel our country has lain prostrate before people we shouldn’t have. We must reassure our allies — and our enemies — that this was a temporary blip. We’ll need to draw on that long experience to help repair what Trump has taken a wrecking ball to.

America’s course under President Obama was steady and sure; his former VP represents a return to those steady and sure ways. Most voters would welcome that.

But it’s also important to examine why many of the same exact qualities that make Joe Biden the ideal vice-presidential running mate might handicap him as the presidential nominee. The biggest factor: age. Taking office in your 79^th year of life, as Biden would be, is pretty tough, considering the cleanup job awaiting the next president. The same is true for Bernie Sanders, who turns 80 in 2021. The stress this next president will face will likely dwarf even Obama’s and FDR’s situational adversities.

Consider also that Biden did vote for the Iraq war. He’s also certainly said some boorish things over the years, as any determined digger through decades of publicly quoted life will likely dredge up, although nothing that compares to even mild Trumpisms. He also helped to enable the unjust draconian excesses of the “War On Drugs” as Senator.

Furthermore, the mood of this country is that we need to nominate and elect a woman. What was stolen from all women when the presidency was stolen from Hillary Clinton despite winning the popular vote by an historic margin must be righted, goes the thinking. Nominating Stacey Abrams as Biden’s running mate would certainly go far toward avenging both 2016 and Abrams’ own heartbreaking squeaker loss to the man who counted his own ballots to victory, the notorious Brian Kemp.

To nominate an old white man is a surrender to the notion that “America just isn’t ready for a woman president,” when in fact, we’ve done been ready. Joe Biden is not stuck in the 1950s, and I’m sure he’d agree lily-white-dude-ness is not what America needs after Trump.

To this, I speak directly to Uncle Joe, you, who were my horse in 2008 even before Obama was: if you don’t declare your candidacy to pursue the nomination for president, pledge your candidacy to run to be vice president again.

If that means you switch with Stacey Abrams and let her lead the ticket, that’s even better.