Does Hillary Clinton really think she can “ice” Joe Biden – i.e. scare off big donors and, by so doing, scare off Biden too?
Evidently so.
From Gabriel Debenedetti\’s article at politico.com:
Hillary Clinton\’s team is getting tired of the Joe Biden talk. And this week, they want to kill it.
From a sprint through Iowa that deflected attention from the email saga to her first stop in the swing state of Ohio and now the Democratic National Committee cattle call in Minneapolis, Clinton\’s operation knows it needs to both flex its political muscles and prove it can keep its nose to the grindstone to score a controversy-free week.
The workmanlike stretch is meant to convince Democratic power brokers and big-money donors that they don\’t need to place side bets on the vice president – and to suggest to Biden himself that there’s no role for him here; there’s no race to save.
Who does Ms. Clinton think she is dealing with? Some second-term senator from a small state that no one ever heard of?
We\’re talking about a six term senator who has been the Vice President of the United States for the past 6 1/2 years. Someone who, whatever you think of him politically, has never, to my knowledge, run away from a fight.
Do the Hillary Clinton people actually believe that if they “score a controversy-free week” (which, by the way, they can\’t do), they will somehow prove that the Clinton campaign is rolling along without any major problems?
That is delusional.
I am guessing that Joe Biden, who has aspired to the presidency for decades and, at 72 years of age, has his final chance in 2016, will jump in.
I am also guessing that when he does, he will immediately pull significant votes from both Hillary Clinton, whose candidacy is, with very good reason, scaring the excrement out of Democrats, and Bernie Sanders, who derives a great deal of support because Hillary Clinton\’s candidacy is scaring the excrement out of Democrats.
If it happens, it will happen within the next two weeks – probably within a few days of Labor Day, either before or after.
And it is an excellent bet that if Biden takes the plunge, he will immediately leapfrog Bernie Sanders and be a competitive second-place to Clinton. Just like that. Baddabing baddaboom.
In other words, on day one Biden will be in roughly the same position as Clinton, after 4 1/2 months of her intense campaigning. And he will have upward momentum – in sharp contrast to her downward spiral.
Then watch the fireworks begin.
How much fireworks? Let\’s just say that Donald Trump will finally have some competition for the lead political story.
Fasten your seatbelts…..
