Is Joe Biden Looking At These Polls?

Today's polls don't offer much in the way of encouragement to a Biden presidential run.

NBC News/WSJ:

Hillary Clinton has widened her lead in the Democratic primary race after a strong performance in the party’s first televised debate, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

The poll offered little encouragement for Vice President Joe Biden as he wrestles with whether to enter the contest. For all the respect the vice president enjoys within his party, just 30% of Democratic primary voters said they would like to see him run for the presidential nomination, with 38% saying he shouldn’t run.

The survey, conducted Oct. 15-18, found Mrs. Clinton leading the primary field with 49% support, compared with 29% for Sen. Bernie Sanders, and 15% for Mr. Biden.

Without the vice president on the ballot, Mrs. Clinton’s lead over Mr. Sanders opened to 58% to 33%—a margin 10 percentage points wider than in a Journal/NBC News poll taken in late September, before the Oct. 13 Democratic debate.  (our emphasis)

ABC News/Washington Post:

With anticipation surrounding Biden at a peak, Clinton has 54 percent support in interviews Thursday through Sunday, compared with Sanders’ 23 percent and Biden’s 16 percent. That’s 12 percentage points better for Clinton than her position a month ago, bringing her halfway back to her level of support in the spring and summer, before her September stumble.  [snip]

Clinton’s support for the nomination is more than double Sanders’ and triple the unannounced Biden’s. Leaving Biden out of the equation, she has even more support, 64 percent, compared with 25 percent for Sanders, with others in the low single digits. That’s improved slightly for Clinton from a 56-28 percent race vs. Sanders in September. (our emphasis)

As we noted the other day, we tend to agree with brother Tomasky that Biden's best course of action would be to say he's sitting out the primaries; he keeps his reputation and legacy intact while gaining great favor with Clinton (and maybe even some Sanders) supporters.  At the same time he'd be leaving the door ajar ever so slightly for a draft in the highly unlikely case Clinton's campaign implodes.  Either way, this mindless tease that's been going on with the media's active involvement should end, and end very soon.

Biden Not Running! (Because Kristol Says He Will)

(click on image to enlarge)

(Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

We can now be confident that Joe Biden will not be entering the Democratic race for President because always, unfailingly wrong Republican ratf*cker Wee Willie Kristol is "confident" Biden will be entering the race.  Thanks for clearing that up, Wee Willie!

(Ed. note:  We think the cartoon reporter above has to be CNN's relentless, agenda-driven Jim Acosta, who is making a mini- career out of speculating about Biden's intentions -- including whether he would swoop into Las Vegas to join last week's Democratic debate.  Someone, please, get him back on his meds.)

More On The Biden Boomlet: The Narrative That Won't Die, Until It Does

One of our go-to blind squirrels, Dana Milbank, discusses the narrative that won't die, until it does:

Finally, it can be reported: Joe Biden is running for president, unless he isn’t. He will announce his decision this weekend, unless he doesn’t.

Furthermore, Biden is approaching important deadlines for declaring his candidacy, unless those deadlines don’t matter. His advisers really want him to run, except those who don’t, and he has been sounding out potential staffers, or perhaps not. He finds the opportunity irresistible, except when he lacks the passion for it.

Who, besides self-serving, anonymous "advisers" and "friends" want Joe Biden to run for President?

Why, the media, of course. Like Politic-ho, as Milbank notes.  Like the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle.  Like CNN.  Like MoDumb.  And all the other outlets Milbank points to.  Because it's all about the horse race (ratings horse race, that is). 

And ... Republicans who like nothing better than ratf*cking Democrats whenever they can (and whenever we let them get away with it).

But Democrats?  No.  Not so much.

Maybe the media should give it a rest for a few days at least.  See if you can find something else to write about, like "issues important to the American people" -- hahahaha, just kidding!

BONUS:  Ed Kilgore has some additional updates worth reading, and a suggestion for Joe Biden.

BONUS II:  Charles P. Pierce has the last word, until it's not the last word:

The whole Biden shadow play is getting very, very old. The inclusion of him in current polling models is one very small step short of ratfcking Hillary Clinton's numbers, and it does a real disservice to the other candidates as well. (Why not put Mitt Romney or Michael Bloomberg in the Republican field?)  What we seem to have is a bunch of generally nervous Democrats, and some Biden loyalists who like to talk to reporters, and who still dream of that West Wing office that was denied them the other two times Joe Biden ran for president and got crushed. Oh, and there are some political reporters who find this whole thing a lot easier than working for a living.  (our emphasis)

More Washington Post Biden Boomlet Wanking

Today, it's the ever- appalling Georgetown salon dweller Ruth Marcus wanking about Joementum!  (Her op/ed is full of ridiculous Biden boosterism fueled by Clinton hate and the desire to muddle the Democratic race and reinforce the media's "Democrats in disarray" narrative.)  Since she's typically several beats behind the Conventional Wisdom, Marcus is coming a bit late to the once great Washington Post's Bezos Bugle's Biden Boomlet, because it would seem the latest Conventional Wisdom is that Biden is not going to run.  Presumably, Marcus can't find enough to write about in the box of rocks also known as the 17 Republican presidential candidates to fill her weekly quota of electrons.   That's your "liberal media," friends.

As an antidote to the Bezos Bugle's ongoing anybody- but- Clinton wankery, here's Ed Kilgore:

Notwithstanding attributions of “panic,” and despite heavy, heavy negative press for months now, Hillary Clinton is maintaining a lead over all potential Republican nominees in the RealClearPolitics polling averages. In the last national poll to be released, from CNN/ORC, she led Bush by nine points, Fiorina by ten points, and Walker and Trump by six points. In the Democratic nomination contest, she’s leading Sanders nationally two-to-one, even though pollsters are choosing to muddy the waters by including Biden in the surveys, and is leading Bernie in every state other than (in some polls) New Hampshire. Biden’s running a weak third at around 12 percent. Having run twice before and failed dismally twice before, amid signs he did not or could not raise the kind of money needed for a serious candidacy, he’s not exactly a natural magnet for moneyed or tenured elites, either.

The more you look at the Biden bandwagon, it looks more like a ghost ship being pulled through the mist by a combination of hungry political reporters, Hillary haters (including most of the conservative media), and Delaware-based Friends of Joe who, of course, would love to see him run. Plus there’s [Clinton- hating South Carolina Democrat Dick, and we do mean Dick] Harpootlian!

As Kilgore points out, pollsters are muddying the waters by putting Biden in the surveys (where he comes in a distant third);  with him not included, Clinton's "falling numbers" firm back up again.  But, when you want your narrative to be, "Clinton Flailing;  Joe Biden to the Rescue?", you can arrange it any way you want.

Your Daily Biden Boomlet, Presented By The Totally Objective Washington Post

The Clinton haters objective reporters at the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle just can't print enough of this stuff:

The possibility that Vice President Biden may jump into the 2016 presidential campaign is convulsing the network of wealthy Democrats that financed President Obama’s two White House bids, galvanizing fundraisers who are underwhelmed by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s performance.

A wide swath of party financiers is convinced that Biden will make a late entry into the race, and a sizable number are contemplating backing him, including some who have signed on with Clinton, according to more than a dozen top Democratic fundraisers nationwide.

Their potential support — driven in part by a desire to recapture the passion they felt in Obama’s campaigns — could play a key role in helping the vice president decide whether to make a third White House bid. The chatter among a cadre of well-connected party fundraisers suggests that he could benefit from an early jolt of money should he run.

"Galvanizing," "wide swath," "recapture the passion."  Ooooh, we're feeling the Joe-mentum, completely neutral Bezos Bugle reporter!

Here's what those of us in the real world, who don't have to depend on creating false narratives and blowing hot air into trial balloons, are looking at:  after months of assaults by Republicans and their media stenographers, Hillary Clinton still has a healthy lead among Democrats (48% to Bernie Sanders' 26%, with Joe Biden at 14%). 

Clinton is maintaining a clear, sustained lead against her Republican rivals (see post below).  Would Biden rise in the polls if he gets in?  Probably - and it would last about as long his first gaffe (we like Joe, but the reality is he's a certified, long-term gaffe machine).  They all look invincible when they're not running, and the media loves you until it doesn't, especially if you're a Democrat.

BONUS:  Laura Clawson at Daily Kos has more on the same subject.