How long? How much?

When Joe Biden announced last week he will not be running for president, he effectively told us all that in 24 years, America has gone from a place in which an unknown governor could announce a run for president in October of the previous year, and win, to a place where a seven-year vice president (and 30-year congressman) “can't win” in the same period of time.

In October 1991, Bill Clinton was a barely-known governor of Arkansas. In October 2015, every voter knows and has an opinion of Joe Biden.

So why would he need so much more time than Clinton?

Is it because, in our brand-new world of SuperPACs and run-for-president-for-two-years, these are the rules of the game?

If that's really true, it's an embarrassment to this country.

For a minute, assume it was false. Hasn't Bernie Sanders already proved you can fund a modern campaign on small donations? Hasn't Jeb Bush proved you could raise $200 million but can't help looking inept? Hasn't Hillary Clinton proved the same amount can't alleviate 50 percent of the electorate's enduring dislike of her and another 20 percent's discomfort with her?

Didn't the 2012 campaign make us wish it was over about eight months into the two-year process?

Who wants this to go on forever? We know who Joe Biden is. He practically wouldn't even need to campaign. If he just said, 'I'm still vice president, I'm needed at my job, I'll come see you when I can' – and pass around a Folger's coffee can to cover costs when he gets there, why is that so untenable?

Does all of this really require twice as much time and four times as much money as it did not so long ago?

Even if Biden absolutely was too late to vie for the Iowa primary Feb. 1, he could have just conceded it and started in for New Hampshire, its primary still 103 days away. It's more important anyhow, and there are still 46 primaries and caucuses after that.

Instead, ‘ol Joe “can't win,” so in this country of 320 million people, one of our two major parties gives us one viable choice for president – with a great sideshow along the way, courtesy of Sanders. The Republican party offered us 16 candidates to start, more than half of whom will complete a two-year-campaign if they make it to next November. Only two of them have drawn any significant interest yet from the electorate.

It was all too much for Joe, a candidate who might have made his case against Hillary in 18 words:

“They despise her. They only think I'm a buffoon. Who has the better chance to get something done?”

How long, and how much does it cost to say that?

Garth Meyer

Gazette Reporter