Obama spokesman Earnest: You know who'd make a great presidential candidate? Joe Biden

If Hillary's viability is based to a large degree (and it is) on the notion that she simply has too much establishment support for any other Democrat to overcome, it would stand to reason that the guy at the top of the establishment would not suddenly have his mouthpiece singing the praises of another Democrat specifically in the context of a prospective 2016 presidential run. And yet, enter Josh Earnest, who knows perfectly well that everything he says is understood as representing Obama to some degree:

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White House spokesman Josh Earnest added to the intrigue when he volunteered to reporters on Monday that President Obama thinks his decision to choose Mr. Biden as his running mate was "the smartest decision he's ever made in politics." Mr. Earnest is a careful man who wouldn't say this without clear presidential authorization. "The Vice President is somebody who has already run for President twice," Mr. Earnest added. "So I think you could make the case that there is probably no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign." So where does that leave Mrs. Clinton in the President's esteem? Mr. Earnest described Mr. Obama's "appreciation and respect and admiration" for Mrs. Clinton, citing his "warm" remarks in the past about her service. But the former Secretary of State did not get the President's superlative treatment.

This comes the very same day as reports that Biden is leaning toward getting into the race. Earnest knows what he's saying here. Surely he knew about the reports that came out that same morning. He knew the press would be interested in anything the White House might have to say concerning a Biden presidential campaign. If there was nothing to it, the simple thing for Earnest to do would have been to call it all speculation and say it wasn't his job to comment on political scuttlebutt. Instead, he went out of his way to lavish effusive praise on Biden while offering more obligatory politeness where Hillary was concerned. If the establishment is watching for signals that it's OK to consider a viable alternative to Hillary, this is it, no? And I think that's exactly what's going on here. The White House wants to see if establishment Democrats who have sort of supported Hillary by default are open to the idea of Biden as an alternative. If you start to see movement away from Hillary now that they've been given the A-OK, it further demonstrates that Hillary's support may be miles wide but it's an inch deep. People only back her because it's seemed all along that her nomination was a foregone conclusion and there's not much point to backing anyone else. I think the White House wants to see if major backers pick up on the signal (which they will) and take their cue to get behind Biden, not just as a Plan B should Hillary fail, but as a potential new Plan A if the White House believes Hillary's eventual implosion is a foregone conclusion. And as the Journal speculates in the piece linked above, the White House probably knows what the FBI and the State Department know about just how bad Hillary's trouble is with the homebrew e-mail server, particularly the contents of e-mails concerning Benghazi and the Clinton Foundation that can't be kept under wraps forever. The fact that they're suddenly pushing Biden as a fabulous presidential prospect suggests to me that what's in those e-mails is very very very very bad for Hillary, and the White House knows it.