WSJ: Biden leaning toward jumping in

Do you think Joe Biden really wants to run for president? I have my doubts. At this point in his life, at 72 years old and having shown no inclination to wage a campaign up to this point, what would be the rationale for suddenly getting in? I know he's run for president twice before so I'm not saying there couldn't be a hankering still in there. But Biden knows you don't wage a successful campaign by starting 14 months before Election Day. If it was really in his heart to seek the presidency because he just really wanted to be president, he would already be in the race.

The fact that he's not, but apparently he's very actively thinking about it, means only one thing and I think you know what that is. Very high-level people in the Democrat Party know Hillary is going to go down in flames and they're suddenly assessing every conceivable Plan B. There is no ideal one, but obviously one you have to look at is your sitting vice president. So they're talking to Joe, and at least if the Wall Street Journal's sources are in the know, Joe is leaning toward doing it:

Vice President Joe Biden, who has long been considering a presidential bid, is increasingly leaning toward entering the race if it is still possible he can knit together a competitive campaign at this late date, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Biden still could opt to sit out the 2016 race, and he is weighing multiple political, financial and family considerations before making a final decision. But conversations about the possibility were a prominent feature of an August stay in South Carolina and his home in Delaware last week, these people said. A surprise weekend trip to Washington to meet with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a darling of the party’s liberal wing, represented a pivot from potential to likely candidate, one Biden supporter said.

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“The vice president has not made a decision about his political future,” Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said. “Anyone speculating that he has made a decision is wrong.” Mr. Biden would enter as a clear underdog. Polling shows Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton running far ahead of the vice president, who would be building a campaign team largely from scratch. Mrs. Clinton, who declared her candidacy four months ago, has a robust campaign operation and an outside super PAC raising money on her behalf.

I'm not so sure about that "clear underdog" business. The initial polls are going to indicate that, of course. But everyone knows this whole proposition is based on the belief that Hillary is imploding, and quite possibly the only thing that's kept her viable this long is the sense among Democrat primary voters that there's no feasible alternative. With all the respect due to Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley (which is probably not all that much respect), neither of them is going to be the next president. Probably even they know that. Biden's position as vice president pretty much mandates that you have to take him seriously as a force in the race, even if you don't think much of him as a serious thinker or a capable administrator. And around here, we don't. But like I've said before, it would be a mistake to assume Biden has no chance of being elected just because he's a loose-lipped doofus who has a habit of laying his hands all over unwilling females, some of whom are as young as 14. A campaign that leads to a Biden victory would have to be focused on trivial nonsense that leaves virtually no room for the serious discussion of real issues. You don't think the media are capable of giving us a campaign like that? When was the last time they didn't? I still say the Biden talk is good news for now. Any time the Democrats have invested all their hopes in one candidate, and that one candidate is falling apart, that's an opportunity and we should be glad for that. I hope it turns out exactly like this and Hillary is once again denied the nomination, because it's simply too risky to let the country make it all the way to Election Day without eliminating the possibility that she could be elected. But as we found out in 2008, Hillary's defeat doesn't guarantee a good outcome from the country. I hope the Republicans remember that.