The Hill quotes the former potential next candidate for president:

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday took a swipe at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, saying it’s “naive” to think the country can be governed without working with Republicans.

At a gala honoring former Vice President Walter Mondale, Biden said it’s critical to “end this notion that enemy is the other party.”

“End this notion that it is naive to think we can speak well of the other party and cooperation,” he added. “What is naive is to think it is remotely possible to govern this country unless we can.”

It was Biden’s sharpest critique yet of Clinton’s remark during last week’s Democratic debate that she sees the GOP as her “enemy.” …

Clinton was asked during last week’s debate which enemy she is most proud of. Clinton listed the National Rifle Association, the Iranians, drug companies and “probably the Republicans.”

“It’s most important that everyone in this room understand the other team is not the enemy,” the vice president said. “If you treat it as the enemy, there is no way you can ever resolve the problems we have.”

Biden has taken repeated subtle jabs at Clinton for the comment, albeit without mentioning her by name. At a panel discussion with Mondale on Monday morning, Biden emphasized that “I still have a lot of Republican friends.”

“I don’t think my chief enemy is the Republican Party,” he added. “This is a matter of making things work.”

Biden said he’s fond of former Vice President Dick Cheney, a deeply unpopular figure with Democrats, even though he disagrees with how he used his office.

“I actually like Dick Cheney, for real,” Biden said. “I get on with him. I think he’s a decent man.”

Given that Democrats believe Cheney (who I met 20 years ago) is the devil incarnate, Biden may have lost some Democratic support right there, and perhaps that’s why he announced Wednesday he wasn’t running. On the other hand, Biden is the first actual or potential candidate of either party who, as far as I have noticed, has made a statement that acknowledges the legitimate existence of the opposition party. It’s as if he wanted to get crossover votes or something.

Of course, bipartisanship goes both ways. U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R–Janesville) probably lost support in his own party when he was endorsed, sort of, for the job no one seems to want, Speaker of the House, by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D–Nevada) and former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–California). It’s hard to believe that Ryan isn’t a conservative, but that’s what the House Freedom Caucus would have you believe.

Biden’s statement that begins this blog was on Tuesday. Here’s what happened Wednesday, reported by Facebook Friend Ron Fournier:

“I be­lieve we’re out of time,” Joe Biden said Wed­nes­day of his op­por­tun­ity to seek the Demo­crat­ic pres­id­en­tial nom­in­a­tion. Then the vice pres­id­ent warned Wash­ing­ton’s polit­ic­al class that its time was run­ning out.

Stop fight­ing, he said. Stop the mad­ness.

“I be­lieve that we have to end the di­vis­ive par­tis­an polit­ics that is rip­ping this coun­try apart. And I think we can. It’s mean-spir­ited, it’s petty, and it’s gone on for much too long,” Biden said in Rose Garden along­side his wife Jill and Pres­id­ent Obama. “Four more years of this kind of pitched battle may be more than this coun­try can take.” …

Biden pro­jec­ted con­fid­ence in his stand­ing among Demo­crats. “While I will not be a can­did­ate,” he said, “I will not be si­lent.”

Prov­ing his point, he made a thinly veiled jab at Clin­ton.

“I don’t be­lieve, like some do, that it’s na­ive to talk to Re­pub­lic­ans. I don’t think we should look at Re­pub­lic­ans as our en­emies. They are our op­pos­i­tion. They’re not our en­emies. And for the sake of the coun­try, we have to work to­geth­er.”

… While par­tis­an voters love polit­ic­al com­bat—en­cour­age it, ac­tu­ally—a grow­ing num­bers of voters are wary. They’re identi­fy­ing them­selves as in­de­pend­ents, even if they tend to routinely sup­port one party over an­oth­er. They’re dis­con­nect­ing from the polit­ic­al pro­cess or hanging out at the fringes with the likes of Sanders, Don­ald Trump and Ben Car­son.

Clin­ton says she gets it, and she prom­ises to work with Re­pub­lic­ans if elec­ted. It’s hard to ima­gine that hap­pen­ing.

The vice pres­id­ent cer­tainly is a par­tis­an, but Biden is also the product of a time—he was first elec­ted to the Sen­ate in 1972—when polit­ic­al lead­ers worked to­geth­er, when party voters al­lowed their lead­ers to bar­gain, and when mem­bers of Con­gress lived in Wash­ing­ton and made friends on both sides of the polit­ic­al di­vide. It wasn’t per­fect, but it was in many ways bet­ter than now.

Biden re­mem­bers when there was an in­cent­ive to solve prob­lems.

“As the pres­id­ent has said many times,” he said, “com­prom­ise is not a dirty word. But look at it this way folks, how does this coun­try func­tion without con­sensus? How can we move for­ward without be­ing able to ar­rive at con­sensus?”

Good ques­tions. We need an­swers. Time is run­ning out.

Time for what is running out? Let’s remember that politics is and remains a zero-sum game in which one side wins, therefore the other side loses, and therefore the only goal is winning. This is the logical result of every political development from Franklin D. Roosevelt to today. Congressmen make nearly $200,000 a year, which is four times what the average Wisconsin family takes in each year.

I am starting to think that, like the bizarre Vietnam War statement “we had to destroy the village in order to save it,” we need to destroy our government as it exists today in order to save our country.