How Hillary Can Keep Biden Out
The Clinton presidential campaign was biting its collective nails as a towering Democratic Party figure left everyone guessing whether he would jump in the race late. Then it grappled with weak poll numbers because voters did not see the candidate as honest and trustworthy.
Not Hillary Clinton ‘16. Bill Clinton ‘92.
Back then Mario Cuomo, Gennifer Flowers and the ROTC were threatening to deny a Clinton the prize. Now it’s Joe Biden and an email server. If Hillary seems unfazed, perhaps it’s because if you are a Clinton, you’ve seen it all before.
There are differences in the two predicaments of course. Cuomo would have been an instant, if not dominating, frontrunner if he had entered (A December 1991 New Hampshire poll showed Cuomo tied with Paul Tsongas at 15 percent, with Bill Clinton only at five.) Biden has polled poorly versus Clinton all year long. In fact three years ago, Biden was the one deemed the political liability by pundits, stoking chatter that Hillary would replace him as Vice-President to salvage Barack Obama’s re-election.
Another significant difference is that the Bill Clinton “scandals” didn’t surface until after Cuomo passed on the race. If Biden jumps in, it will be because questions about Hillary’s trustworthiness are weighing her down.
There was nothing Bill could do to affect Cuomo’s decision. But there is something Hillary can do to dissuade Biden: fortify her poll numbers and put to rest concerns among, as Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe once called them, the Democratic “bedwetters.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/how-hillary-can-keep-biden-out-121101.html#ixzz3iRYPYyR2
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