If you are reading the Democratic presidential race tea leaves in Hillary Clinton’s camp you have to be more than a little worried if “Uncle Joe” the vice president gets into the race for the White House. According to the Wall Street Journal, the vice president is being showered with accolades from POTUS while the former Secretary of State puts more distance between herself and her former boss.
Does this mean that Clinton is being iced by the president’s very formable political machine? What it does seem to indicate is that while the FBI digs deeper into Hillary’s home server and email crisis, many political pundits inside the Beltway are beginning to see daylight closing down around her nomination chances.
The former First Lady may still be harboring the stinging rejection that the former 2008 frontrunner felt when the little known Illinois senator picked off her supporters like ripe apples on a political insider tree. Add to that her distancing she opened up between her and Obama by recently opposing his trade agenda, which she helped to negotiate.
What was certainly stinging for her supporters is the pro-Biden super PAC’s ad which White House press secretary Josh Earnest featured in his remarks this week. In fact, the pro Biden ad is scheduled to run during the first Democrat presidential debate next week. Poor timing for Hillary means great timing for Vice President Biden.
What also has to sting in her political war chest pocketbook is how many of the mega political donors that have been keeping their powder dry and their wallets closed. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, “Some Hillary Clinton donors are defecting to Joe Biden, resisting entreaties from the Democratic front-runner’s campaign to stand by her despite slipping poll numbers.”
Some might say that her lack of locking down these donors has something to do with Biden’s national poll numbers which show his growing favorability compared to Hillary’s sliding numbers. Yet, the Biden interest by fund-bundlers may also be based on what may happen if the FBI finds one or more smoking guns on her computer server backups. Biden represents a great B Option.
In the Clinton world, crime has always seemed to pay, and Clinton Rules are seemingly only meant to apply to the Clintons. Yet this time, the rules that worked in the 1990’s seem to be falling flat now. Consider it was liberal mainstream stalwart the New York Times which revealed the existence of the Clinton server. No right wing conspiracy there.
By comparison, the White House press secretary has nothing but glowing words to highlight Biden’s personal attributes. Earnest commented, “Vice President Biden’s personal story is as powerful as any story in American politics. And he also has a uniquely powerful way of telling that story, and using it to inspire other people,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
What could also be telling is how Clinton complained last week about the seemingly political attack she reasoned came from the House Benghazi Committee, thanks to comments from House Majority Leader McCarthy. She appeared to suggest that Obama was not doing enough to “Shut down” the committee as she would have done if she was president.
As the nation and especially the Democrats wait to see if Joe Biden will be in attendance at the first presidential debate, one can be certain that Obama’s operatives will be looking for ways to give Biden every way possible to take the poll lead from her. As Obama’s press secretary put it, “You don’t serve in the United States Senate for multiple decades and rise to the position of vice president of the United States without having a powerful story to tell,” said the Wall Street Journal.
Compared to Hillary’s, Biden’s story may look like 14k gold.
Image: http://73jefferson.wikispaces.com/The+12th+Amendment
