Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has ideas that some consider utopian, but Vice President Joe Biden says his approach is preferable to that of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” Biden told the New York Times while on his routine train trip from Washington to his home in Delaware, a decades-long practice that has earned him the nickname “Amtrak Joe.”
“I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big – we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic,’” Biden added. “C’mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I’m not part of the party that says, ‘Well, we can’t do it.’”
The vice president particularly likes Sanders’ ambitious agenda, as it resonates with the philosophy that he himself has been espousing throughout President Obama’s term in office.
“Presidents have always been told by really smart people: ‘Don’t push something that you can’t succeed in – it diminishes your power,’” Biden said. “I completely disagree with that proposition.”
“Everything I’ve ever cared about – with the exception of the president’s brilliant passage of the Affordable Care Act – takes time,” he added. “The only way to get these big things done is talk about them.”
Sanders has been attacked by his rival for promoting his ideals, which call for the narrowing of income inequality, a war-free world, and tuition-free education, while Sanders has repeatedly characterized Clinton’s platform as tepid pragmatism.
In their heated presidential primary debates, Clinton has called Sanders’ policies impractical and unrealistic.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” she once said.
Neither Biden nor Obama have endorsed a Democratic candidate so far, but Biden has said that he “would like to see a woman elected,” Mic reported.
“This country’s ready for a woman. There’s no problem. We’re going to be able to elect a woman in this country,” Biden said.