Democrats so panicky over Hillary, they're ready for this

Here's what's clear and undeniable: Any notion of Biden 2016 is all about the Democrats' growing sense of panic as they realize what was obvious to some of us a long time ago - that Hillary Clinton is a horrible candidate. Biden has been around politics long enough to know that you don't just start thinking about running for president 15 months before the general election. The guy has no organization and no money raised. If Biden had an active ambition to become president, he would have been laying the ground work at the start of Obama's second term.

The only reason to suddenly be looking at it now is that he and other Democrats are watching Hillary's plausibility collapse before their eyes and they realize they should never have put all their eggs in her basket. They're desperate. They need to scramble and come up with a plan, and quickly. And the message to Hillary can't be any more clear: Go away. They're trying to prop her up publicly for now, but any Democrat who can handle reality sees what's happening here. Not only is Hillary unappealing on the stump, she's obviously a poor choice on the merits - and that's before you get into the Clinton Foundation, the e-mails, Benghazi . . . egad, the Democrats need a rescuer, and quick! You ready for some mularkey?

Mrs. Clinton remains the front-runner for the party’s nomination in national polls, yet some party activists are growing anxious because of the expanding probes of her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has fallen behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a recent poll of New Hampshire voters, while Vice President Joe Biden is considering his own presidential bid. WSJ's Jerry Seib explains why this isn’t surprising. “There are Democrats who are concerned about the turmoil swirling around the secretary with the emails and the server, and now the FBI is investigating and congressional hearings are coming up in the fall,” said Steve Shurtleff, the Democratic leader in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and a Biden supporter in the 2008 presidential campaign.

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A Biden candidacy would be a fresh sign that the Democratic Party has yet to fully coalesce behind Mrs. Clinton. In June, 75% of registered Democrats favored Mrs. Clinton in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll; last month, the figure was 59%. The surprising surge of primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also suggests there could be an opening for Mr. Biden.

I know the instinct of a lot of Republicans will be that a Biden candidacy is a dream come true. This is the doofus who constantly utters total inanities and has this creepy habit of putting his hands all over women in very public settings, some of which are the grandchildren of his colleagues. And that doesn't even account for the long-ago plagiarism scandal that forced him out of the 1988 race, helping to pave the way for the Dukakis juggernaut. But I can't help but think back on the Biden-Ryan vice presidential debate of 2012. (Is there anything stupider than a vice-presidential debate?) Most Republicans expected the razor-sharp Ryan to clean Biden's clock. No one was ready for Biden's two-hour-long performance of smirks, head-shaking and nonsensical declarations. It was impossible for Ryan to discuss anything on a rational or factual basis because Crazy Uncle Joe was too busy beclowning himself. Let's say Biden jumps into the race, Hillary folds and Biden wins the nomination. Easy Republican win in November, you think. Are you sure? If Biden plays this game on the stump, in the debates, in his ads . . . what makes you think the media won't frame the campaign narrative in terms of Biden's successful trolling of his Republican opponent, whose hapless attempts to talk about repealing ObamaCare or whatever just can't gain traction in the face of Uncle Joe's regular guy schtick? Biden may not have the organization or the resources now, but if enough of the Democratic Party apparatus decides that Hillary has to go and he's their only hope, he'll have all he needs. I believe the same as I did in 2008. Keeping Hillary out of the White House is the first priority above all else. A Hillary presidency would be a horror show that would make Obama look like a mere inconvenience, preferably before she ever sniffs the nomination. I know she would be a weak general election candidate and I know we would probably beat her, but the risk of letting her get that close to the presidency is just too great. I'd rather see Biden take her out and then take our chances going up against him. And apparently the Democrats are starting to see it the same way. The only question I have is what took them so long. If they really couldn't see that Hillary was, is, and will always be a disaster, I have to seriously wonder who's running that party.