Take a deep breath.  Then read this number: $884 billion.  That was the buying power of the LGBT community in the U.S. in 2014.  That means there should be plenty of deep LGBT pockets to help fund a presidential run for one of the more outspoken allies of the movement ever to hold higher office.  That candidate would be Joe Biden.  Except that, despite the fun “Ridin With Biden” catchphrase of the Draft Biden campaign, the sitting U.S. Vice President is still pondering his options.

Why the delay?  There has been much talk about his personal situation — the devastating loss of his son Beau in May to brain cancer at the age of 46 — as a reason for Biden’s hesitation.  Many thought Beau might one day make a run for the presidency himself. If so, that might have sidelined any ambitions on that score from what would have been a proud father. Instead, now he is bereft.

But the greater concern has been about fundraising, with suggestions that it is just too late to get into the field.  That is a sad commentary on our electoral system which undemocratically affords the wealthiest the best chance of getting seen and heard and, thereby, elected.  Or at the very least, nominated.

In any case, Biden should run.  Soon.  With the assorted Republican mavericks dominating the headlines in their quirky quests for the presidency, a Biden announcement could begin to liven up the Democratic field.  When embattled NBC anchorman, Brian Williams, referred to a certain politician’s “uncontrolled verbosity” and tendency to be a “gaffe machine,” he wasn’t talking about Donald Trump.

Fundraising from the deep-pocketed disposable income of LGBT voters shouldn’t be a problem for Biden who would be an unarguably stellar candidate for the LGBT community.  After all, as conversion therapy survivor Ryan Kendall joked to me in a recent interview, “Joe Biden outed President Obama.”

And it’s true, in a way.  In a May 2012 interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Biden sent the White House into a bit of a tizzy when he stated in an off the cuff remark: “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”

Forty-eight hours later, President Obama abruptly stopped “evolving” on the issue and officially endorsed same-sex marriage.  By June 26, 2015, the Obama White House was floodlit in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage across the country.

So why is Biden, who is also resolutely pro-union, such a friend to the LGBT agenda? Here he is explaining it on May 17, 2015, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia:

“My father taught me the simple notion that everyone, everywhere is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.  When it comes to LGBT people, that simple proposition has been painfully difficult to accomplish over the years.  But in the last decade, thanks to the astounding bravery of the LGBT community and those who have championed their cause, the United States has made remarkable progress toward the ultimate goal of equality in law and in life.  Our progress remains incomplete, but the momentum has shifted in the right direction.”

The Draft Biden Facebook and Twitter sites are full of glowing statistics offering other reasons to support Biden including his allegiance to the needs of working people and his strong views on climate change.  Not to mention his outpolling Democratic candidates who are actually running.  Curiously, there is little if any mention on the sites of LGBT issues, including silence on the Kim Davis saga which might have afforded Biden another golden opportunity to blurt something exciting or controversial.

We’ll have to forego that fun this time.  But the longer the question mark about his candidacy lingers, the more press and hype Biden gets.  Which is probably strategically quite a smart play.

Clearly, to win the nomination, Biden will need broad appeal beyond the LGBT community and its buying power.  But he seems to both understand and make the connection across the board on social injustices.  Consequently, even as the stereotypical older, white, affluent male, he is able to win support in demographics very different to his own.

At the March 2015 Human Rights Campaign convention in Washington, DC, Biden drew parallels between the civil rights and LGBT rights struggles, recalling the Selma demonstrations and attempts to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“Without a good job, without a decent place to live, without a shot at a decent education, it’s very hard to make it today,” Biden told the audience.  “Until everyone in the country – regardless of race, gender, religion, identity, orientation – has a fair shot of crossing that bridge all the way to the other side – that’s the legacy of Selma, that’s the challenge of Stonewall.

That sensitivity clearly appeals to Draft Biden team members such as openly gay national finance chair, Jon Cooper.  In a recent Reuters interview, Cooper said: “If Joe Biden does enter the presidential race, he’s going to get very strong support from the LGBT community and deservedly so.”

That “if” continues to linger in the air while the Biden riders hit the road, looking for LGBT donors in key states such as New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada.  It’s the campaign bus without a candidate.

So will the Ridin With Biden chocolate bars that the Draft Biden 2016 Super Pac craftily handed out at the Democratic National Committee’s 2015 summer meeting in Minneapolis last month simply become a collector’s item (if indeed any went uneaten)?  Or will the Obama-esque artwork on the wrapper evolve into a genuine presidential campaign poster?  We should know the answer in the coming days or weeks.