Former Vice President Joe Biden ended months of speculation and formally announced his candidacy for president Thursday via video. He joins an extremely crowded field of Democrat candidates that includes: seven senators, six representatives, two governors, two mayors, one former cabinet secretary, one author and one businessman.

Biden enjoys a significant advantage in most national polls. But as we noted recently, he is struggling to compete with Senator Bernie Sanders in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Biden is laying claim to the Obama mantle, saying he’s proud to be an “Obama/Biden Democrat.” But if Biden thought he was going to get an assist from his former boss, President Barack Obama, he was sorely disappointed. An Obama spokeswoman issued a statement praising Biden’s service as vice president but there was no formal 2020 endorsement.

Biden is claiming that he asked Obama not to endorse him. Call me skeptical. There’s no way Biden would have turned down Obama’s endorsement. If there is any truth to that story, it is most likely that Biden asked Obama not to endorse anyone at all, like Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg or Beto O'Rourke — all of whom are angling to be “the next Obama.”

But here’s a consolation prize: Biden did pick up the “enthusiastic” endorsement of Michael Avenatti!

Meanwhile, a left-wing group allied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly made it clear that Biden is in for a fight. Justice Democrats denounced Biden as an “old-guard centrist” who’s unable to energize liberal voters. A recent online poll of progressive activists found Biden in fourth place with just 8%. 

This is going to get messy. Biden is very close to the big labor unions, many of which oppose the Green New Deal, a litmus test for the progressive left.

Biden is likely to make electability the central pillar of his campaign. After all, he’s not a socialist like Bernie. He’s “Lunch Bucket Joe” from Scranton who can appeal to blue collar Trump voters. Then again, that may be a hard sell after he echoed Hillary’s “deplorable” comment by calling many Trump supporters “the dregs of society." 

But Biden’s announcement video did make an attempt to appeal to the radical base of his party by portraying Trump as a racist. It centered around the 2017 Charlottesville riot, and Biden repeated the debunked lie that Trump referred to neo-Nazis as "fine people.” (The president explicitly condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists.)

There was nothing positive or uplifting in Biden’s message. But in his defense, it is hard to run against a president who is:

• Cutting taxes and growing the economy.

• Renegotiating failed trade deals.

• Bringing manufacturing jobs back to America.

• Increasing wages.

• Producing record low unemployment for minorities.

• Rebuilding our military.

• Restoring balance to our federal courts. 

Deep State In Deep Trouble

Former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova raised plenty of eyebrows during his appearance on Fox News Wednesday night. In an interview with Mike Huckabee, diGenova made a number of claims, which, if true, indicate that the deep state is in deep trouble. For example:

• diGenova said that the FISA court has already sent a report to Attorney General William Barr outlining illegal spying by four FBI contractors.

• diGenova alleged that this illegal spying dates back to 2012, well before Trump was on the political radar.

• He said a separate report focusing only on James Comey is coming out in two weeks and will be “a bombshell” containing criminal referrals.

I REALLY hope diGenova is right. 

The Clinton email investigation was a sham and the Russia collusion investigation was a scam. The deep state’s partisan abuse of our national intelligence apparatus must be exposed, and those responsible must be held accountable. 

The government bureaucracy is not supposed to serve the interest of any political party. It is supposed to serve the best interests of the American people, and that does not mean orchestrating “resistance” and “soft coups” against a duly-elected president.

Romney’s Resistance

I’m still seething about Senator Mitt Romney’s reaction to the Mueller report. After the special counsel cleared the president of collusion with Russia (and you can’t have obstruction if there’s no crime), Romney lashed out at President Trump!

Let me remind you of what the left did to Mitt Romney in 2012. 

The left accused him of bullying a gay student.

The left accused him of tax evasion. 

The left accused him of animal abuse. 

The left accused him of being an elitist who “wrote off half the country.”

The left accused him of being a “vulture capitalist” who delighted in “firing people." 

The left accused him of being a warmonger.

The left, and Joe Biden specifically, accused him of being a racist who wanted black people "back in chains.”

The left accused him of being anti-woman.

The left even accused him of killing a woman. Two women actually. 

Romney failed to effectively fight back, and it’s no wonder he lost to the president with the worst economic record since Jimmy Carter!

Fast forward to 2016. We finally nominated a candidate who knows not only how to take a punch, but how to throw a punch. And Mitt Romney repaid Trump’s 2012 support by becoming a leading figure of the #NeverTrump movement that tried to elect Hillary Clinton president of the United States. 

If the #NeverTrump crowd had succeeded, Hillary would have filled the Scalia and Kennedy seats. The Supreme Court would be 6-to-3 against us and lost for a generation or more, and the country with it.

Now the same people who smeared Mitt Romney are trying to smear Donald Trump. And Mitt Romney throws in with that gang! That tells you all you need to know about the GOP establishment.

The establishment is still playing a “gentleman’s game.” It is utterly clueless about the very real war we are fighting for the heart and soul of America. 

Thank God we have a president who is determined to make America great again and proud to put America first!