Joe Biden must be feeling a bit low today.
After a scare from Elizabeth Warren, who had pulled to within a half-point in the Real Clear Politics polling average, he has climbed back to a six-point lead. Indeed, Biden has never not been the Democrat frontrunner to take on The Donald in 2020.
Yet now he hears that Hillary Clinton might run, and that Democrats privately say they want someone other than Biden, or the leftist crackpots running against him, to stand against Trump.
They see what is obvious: Beating a man who can pack a domed stadium to the rafters won’t be easy no matter how many smears they manufacture between now and next Election Day.
And they apparently don’t think any of the candidates now running are up to the job.
“Anxious Democrats”
Sleepy Joe got the bad news in a report from the New York Times, “Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’ Party leaders who are fatalistic about Democrats’ chances in 2020 are musing about possible late entrants to the race.”
The subheadline laughably suggested that Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Michele Obama are possibilities, but less important for Biden isn’t who might join the field of 13 RCP contenders, but instead that Democrats think anyone should join at all.
“When a half-dozen Democratic donors gathered at the Whitby Hotel in Manhattan last week, the dinner began with a discussion of which presidential candidates the contributors liked,” the Times began. “But as conversations among influential Democrats often go these days, the meeting quickly evolved into a discussion of who was not in the race — but could be lured in.”
“Since the last debate, just anecdotally, I’ve had five or six people ask me: ‘Is there anybody else?’” a top Democrat told the Times.
Democrats, the Times reported, hope to find “Mr. Right.”
Actually, they’re probably looking for Ms. Right, or better yet, Ms. Left, but anyway, party elites fear that Biden might be Mr. Wrong.
“I can see it, I can feel it, I can hear it,” former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told the Times. “He said he thinks Mr. Biden is best positioned to defeat Mr. Trump but called the former vice president’s fund-raising ‘a real concern.’”
Biden’s campaign bank account is an anemic $9 million.
His debate performances are lackluster at best.
Clinton 2020?
Question is, who might run?
“Clinton and [Michael] Bloomberg have both told people privately in recent weeks that if they thought they could win, they would consider entering the primary — but that they were skeptical there would be an opening, according to Democrats who have spoken with them,” the Times reported.
“The chances that another major contender decides to run are remote,” the newspaper continued, and “the only scenario under which they’d consider running is if Mr. Biden drops out or is badly weakened.”
Weakened by stories like this, perhaps?
Why the speculation about Clinton? For one thing, nearly four years after losing the election to Trump, she still claims she won, a complete fiction that only a few delusional fanatics and her fans in the media believe. They relish a rematch.
As well, the Times reported, “Clinton, after largely staying in the background of the Democratic primary, has been more vocal this month, promoting a book she wrote with her daughter and taunting Mr. Trump on Twitter. She also opened a feud with Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii by claiming the long-shot candidate was being supported by the Russians, as a potential third-party spoiler in the general election.”
That claim is beyond absurd, but at any rate “Democrats who have recently spoken with Mrs. Clinton say she shares the same concerns other party elites have about the field — worried about Mr. Biden’s durability, Ms. Warren’s liberal politics and unsure of who else can emerge to take on Mr. Trump.”
Clinton’s claiming that Warren is too liberal is something of a laugh, and after her wacky claim about Gabbard, one wonders why Democrats are speaking with Clinton at all. Nevertheless, it appears that Democrats are prepping for a Clinton entry in the hope of a grudge match against the man who took away their candidate’s prize.
Given that Hillary actually believes she won the 2016 contest, her entering again would be no surprise. A victory in 2020 would vindicate her claim and delegitimize Trump’s victory.
But Biden has to step aside. And that, apparently, is what Democrats hope will happen.
Photo: AP Images
