There are famous people none of us will ever meet, but we all probably wonder what it would be like. We see them on the news, in movies or sports stadiums and think, “What are they like in person?” Most times we’d like to imagine they are down-to-earth enough that anyone could get along with them. Joe Biden, our 47th Vice President, is one of those people, at least for me.

Joe Biden’s appeal to me probably has something to do with his close connections to upstate New York. He was born a little more than an hour away in Scranton, the son of a car salesman. His first wife, Neilia, was from the Skaneateles/Auburn area, which is where many of my mother’s side of the family has roots and, he graduated from law school at Syracuse University.

Some of the public’s penchant for Joe Biden might be a collective empathy because of the hardship he’s endured; the accidental loss of a wife and daughter while traveling to buy a Christmas tree, or the recent loss of a same-named, soldier-son to brain cancer at the age of 46. Maybe it’s his foot in mouth errors he is known to utter at the worst possible times – we know they weren’t mean spirited; it’s just that he’s a little mindless at times. Whatever it is, it seems most of us could get along with Joe over a beer and some pretzels.

In 2016, I voted for the better of the two choices by casting a ballot for Donald Trump, knowing I would never vote for Hillary Clinton (someone I have met). However, had Vice President Biden been in the race, I’m not so sure how I would have voted; the party line, my conscience or my sympathy. A few months later, in March of 2017, I made a short trip to Colgate University to see former Vice President Biden speak and answer questions on all sorts of topics. He sat only feet away and I found him articulate, deeply intellectual, witty and just as expected – down to Earth.

For those reasons, I wish Joe Biden had not entered the 2020 presidential race.

In the upcoming campaign, we know what to expect from candidate Trump while he’s running against Joe Biden and he won’t be polite. Neither is the Democratic Party members who are planning to prevent Joe Biden from being their party’s chosen candidate. Here are a few examples of the name calling; Biden’s a molester, a groper, a conspirer with the Ukrainians, in bed with insurance companies and millionaire donors. But none of that compares to what the Progressives on the way-to-left of the Democratic Party have planned to eviscerate Uncle Joe.

Right now we are about 18 months away from anyone casting a ballot for the next President of the United States. With almost certainty, the Republican candidate will be Donald Trump. The Democratic Party will do its best to eat their young as they whittle down their current wide and varied rainbow list of twenty candidates. A list which right now, ironically, looks like the front-runners are two balding, white guys who are both older than Donald Trump; Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

Mr. Biden, I think your time to be President has come and gone. This current campaign which you have started is going to cheapen you and your stature in the eyes of millions. Had you been elected President in 2016, I probably would not have liked your policies, but that doesn’t mean I would not have liked and respected you. If we were friends, having a beer, I’d probably try to persuade you from continuing your campaign. Very soon you, your family and your past are going to get dragged through the mud and back. It would be so much nicer if recollections of you were from that time in 2017 when you spoke at Colgate. That’s how I’d like to remember you.