(Politico)
HOLLY OTTERBEIN and MARC CAPUTO 03/18/2019 05:01 AM
“Middle-Class Joe” Biden has a $2.7 million vacation home. He charges more than $100,000 per speaking gig and has inked a book deal likely worth seven figures.
Since leaving office in 2017, the 76-year-old former vice president has watched his bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular, Amtrak-riding guy. He’s repeatedly referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” on the campaign trail and in speaking engagements as he publicly mulls whether to run for president.
While his finances might be unexceptional by the standards of well-heeled Washington politicians, Biden is unique among the top Democratic presidential hopefuls because of his avowed distance from the upper class. It’s central to his political identity. But if Biden runs, his newfound wealth could give his Democratic and GOP opponents an opening to attack him as disingenuous, or at least less than advertised.
For Biden and his supporters, “middle class” isn’t so much a financial status as it is a state of mind, a sensibility that’s ingrained in his political DNA. In a party where voters have grown increasingly wary of income inequality, Biden’s use of the nickname functions as an us-vs-them foil that tells both middle- and working-class people he’s one of them, the little guys sneered at by the elites.
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