BOB: From WNYC in New York this is On the Media, I’m Bob Garfield.
BROOKE: And I’m Brooke Gladstone. Sometimes, when the messiness of the world gets us down, we seek release in fiction. You know, the perfect politician, the ideal president. And yet, eventually, that bubble must burst. You know what I mean. And so, without further ado, we start the show with something of an Election 2016 requiem for a fictional candidate. Vice President Joe Biden.
BIDEN: Unfortunately, I believe we're out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination.
BROOKE: What a long, strange trip it's been for the sometimes-surging, sometimes-lagging, never-existing Biden campaign. It all began late this summer when the media breathlessly announced that the Vice President had not made a formal announcement that he was entering the ring.
FOX: Speculation is growing this morning that vice president joe biden could soon announce he’s running for president. This amid Hillary Clinton’s declining poll numbers…
BROOKE: That was August. Suddenly the possibilities seemed boundless! The polling, interminable.
NBC: In the political world tonight, all eyes on Vice President Joe Biden. New poll numbers show he’s riding a wave of popularity over Hillary Clinton.
CNN: ... the latest poll shows Joe Biden moving into second place, gaining ten points since august without even having entered the race.
ABC: ...as of this week, Joe Biden still polling very well in some key states and in some national match-ups.
BROOKE: And adding to the suspense, the all too brief fictional campaign of fellow former Vice President Al Gore, the non-comeback kid.
Well the race for the white house is heating up with rumors about former Vice President Al Gore throwing his hat into the ring [Al Gore 1]
Dramatic comeback? He won the popular vote 15 years ago, so could Al Gore be making a run in 2016?
BROOKE: The rest, of course, is not history: the months of Biden not campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire. The stump speeches he didn't give; the ads he didn't approve. And of course, the debate, which everyone agreed Vice President Biden soundly did not participate in -- although he certainly was invited. CNN:
Will he or won't he? Will the Air force 2 suddenly start flying this way, start flying westward toward Las Vegas on Tuesday night, a dramatic landing at Mccarran international airport, he speeding motorcade over to the Wynn Hotel, Biden with the aviator glasses put on as he walks into the... Will see some kind of dramatic political moment unlike any.. that we haven't seen in this campaign so far. That would be fascinating to watch John.
BROOKE: For about three months, unnamed sources assured reporters and pundits the announcement could be coming any day now. Conservative commentator Bill Kristol told ABC’s This Week that his Bidey-sense was tingling as late as last Sunday:
Joe Biden is going to get in. I’m quite confident. I think he’ll get in tomorrow or Tuesday. He’ll go to Delaware, presumably, and announce…
BROOKE: Instead, we had to wait until Wednesday for the other shoe not to drop.
Meanwhile, in more back-to-the-future news, this week Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama proposed the ahistorical impeachment of President...Hillary Clinton. On her first day in office.
