Instead of running, use your influence with the white working class to stump for politicians like...uh...outgoing Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.
Instead of running, use your influence with the "white working class" to stump for politicians like...uh...outgoing Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill. Scott Olson / Getty Images

Here we go again.

A poll released on Christmas Eve shows former Vice President Joe Biden beating Trump in head-to-head matchup. A bunch of polls released earlier this month more or less suggest the same thing. Shortly after those polls came out he called himself "the most qualified person in the country to be president," echoing a line from Hillary Clinton. By all accounts, he longs to be President of the United States. He yearns for it. But there are a million reasons Biden should stay out of the race. Here are five of them.

• Biden has a bad record on criminal justice. A real bad one. Writing for Slate, Jamelle Bouie details Biden's history as "a drug warrior and incarceration hawk," and reminds us of his role in helping secure Clarence Thomas's seat on the Supreme Court in the face of Anita Hill's accusations of sexual harassment.

• Speaking of which: I really hope Joe Biden's history of touching women without their express permission starts and stops with these already creepy and documented examples of him touching women without their apparent express permission.

• He's got no love for the kids. Earlier this year Biden claimed he had no empathy for millennials, who are dealing with increasing income inequality and destabilizing job markets coupled with the rising costs of health care/education/housing/you-name-it. "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break," he told the L.A. Times. Setting aside the bad PR, Biden's apparent lack of understanding about the exact ways his generation fucked over our generation is disqualifying for a president in 2020.

• Also, am I the only one who does not at all buy many of his extremely public displays of empathy? Biden emotes like a high school lead really digging into his soliloquy. Maybe that shit goes over in Scranton, but I remain skeptical, and I wonder if he could endure two years of Trump essentially calling him a crybaby.

• He's an old white guy, and if the 2018 midterms told us anything, it's that, when offered the chance, Democrats get really excited to NOT vote for the old white guy.

Right now Biden is only leading in the polls because many people dislike Trump and know Biden's name. Instead of running on his bad record, Biden should use his universal name recognition to help boost younger, more exciting, more non-Biden candidates.