After delivering a lecture this evening to a very interested audience about the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2012, one participant came up with an excellent idea regarding the likely rivalry that will develop between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 2016.
While certainly younger and newer faces will compete with both Clinton and Biden for the Presidency, the potential rivalry presents a real problem, not only to their friendship and admiration for each other, but also for their boss, President Obama, who owes a great deal to both of them, and would, most certainly, rather not have to pick between them, or look ungrateful to either of them.
The solution would be, as this person said, to select one of them for the first vacancy on the Supreme Court, most likely to replace Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in 2013 or 2014.
Either one could sit on the Court and do an excellent job, but probably Hillary Clinton would be the better choice overall for the Court, a job that is highly prestigious, but far less intense than being Secretary of State or President. And she could serve for as long as she wanted, and it would be likely to please her husband, President Bill Clinton, immensely, and save her the rigors of a Presidential campaign.
It would give Joe Biden the chance to be the nominee if he can overcome younger opponents in the primaries and caucuses, but his age of 74 in 2016 would not be a plus, although he does possess immense energy.
At worst, he could become Secretary of State under another Democratic President in 2017, or be the second choice for the Supreme Court, if a second vacancy developed during the second Obama term.
The point is that both Hillary and Joe are treasures, and they could serve in other less, but prestigious positions, and continue their contributions to American government in their older years!