Joe Biden, will you or won't you?

Watching Joe Biden's anguished ruminations over whether to put his name forward as a 2020 presidential candidate is painful. On the whole the former vice-president is a good guy who comes off as a nice politician. His latest concerns are about money. Will he get enough donations to run a campaign. He doesn't want to put the cart before the horse. In other words, if he declares now that he will have a go at the presidency and then finds no one wants to back him financially, he will look pretty silly. When you try to become president of the United States, it is unfortunately a fact of life that you must spend millions and millions of dollars during the campaign to get your message across. Bernie Sanders, who is a sucker for punishment and has declared his candidacy despite losing out to Hillary Clinton the last time round, has already been offered $10 million and he has only just declared. That's pretty impressive although I seriously doubt he will win the Democratic nomination, let alone be the man to beat Trump. He's a good guy and tougher than Biden I suspect but there is something about him which puts me off. Biden can't make up his mind, not just because of the money side of things but because I don't know whether he really really wants to be pesident. He is in his seventies and life can be good without having the most stressful job in the world. Is it honestly his life ambition to be president, even in his advanced years, or is everyone egging him on, just as they did the last time when he backed off because of the tragedy of his son? Of course he has had a proper taste of the White House power and glory when he was vice-president under Barack Obama. He knows how the system works, he is respected by Congress although Congress has changed beyond recognition since he was a senator from Delaware between 1973 and 2009. But the world is a helluva lot tougher and being president these days is a pretty thankless task. Perhaps it always was. So, Joe, think carefully before you step into the ring. I suspect he will finally go for it but he will be outgunned by one of the other more thrusting Democratic candidates.