It’s very easy (and fun) to ridicule Joe Biden as a buffoon, but there are more than a few people who take him seriously as an alternative to Hillary Clinton as Democrat nominee.  Biden fever is rising as Hillary herself is getting harder and harder to take as a serious nominee.  Scott McKay argues in the American Spectator:

If ever there was an ill-fitting and ill-considered elevator pitch for a political candidate, it’s the narrative of Hillary Clinton as the defender of ordinary Americans. The sales job, which reportedly was the product of months of consideration from the Clinton campaign gurus, unraveled almost immediately. (snip)

If the Democrats are in position to win presidential elections consistently barring a major foul-up, then the smart play is to run someone anodyne and safe rather than to test their current demographic advantage.

But who is that anodyne, generic Democrat for whom they can shelve the ethically challenged, marble-mouthed former First Lady? There is the problem, and there is the dilemma the Democrats find themselves in as Schweizer’s shot reverberates through the countryside.

Writing in US News, Mark W. Davis argues that Joe Biden is the best alterative:

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is a happy warrior. But O’Malley’s inability to help elect his lieutenant governor as his successor has reduced him from a middle-weight to a welterweight.

Elizabeth Warren’s firebrand style could be counted on to cement a coalition of urban liberals with, well, more urban liberals, but the Massachusetts senator’s appeal among socially conservative Hispanics and blue-collar whites is questionable.

Jim Webb, the Reaganite ex-Marine turned populist liberal, is at best a curiosity.

So who?

At first, it may seem that the cupboard of candidates is bare. It is an oddity of our times that we overlook the most obvious candidate, the man in plain sight, who holds the job that automatically positions him to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

I refer to none other than Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., vice president of the United States for these last seven years.

It’s an argument that relies on a lot “buts,” as in, “yes, he’s goofy, but…”

… with no hints of scandal in his private life, Biden’s gaffes can be explained away as endearing eccentricities. Jill Biden is smart and articulate, a refreshing complement to her husband.

I would note here that the constant use of the title “Dr. Jill Biden” has led many people, including some fairly knowledgeable people of my acquaintance, to assume she is a medical doctor.  She is not.  Her doctorate is the field of education, and she is an education administrator by profession.  Given the status and lack of achievements of schools of education (has American public education improved in tandem with the vast growth in the number of education doctorates and masters degrees?), this verbal misdirection verging on sleight of hand may not resonate well.

But Biden does have two solid assets:

Biden has two other strengths. One is his deep relationship with public and private unions and their deep pockets that other Democrats can only envy. Hailing from a Catholic family in Scranton, Biden knows how to rouse a union hall with over-the-top rhetoric, recently comparing Republicans to Mussolini’s “blackshirts.”

This is very important, given the defection of white working-class voters from the Democratic Party.  And unions can provide manpower, quite useful in caucus states in particular.

Biden’s other strength is that he is believed to have the behind the scenes backing of President Barack Obama and his top aides. It is they, some say, who made sure the world knew about Clinton’s email account. It is they, it is rumored, who signaled to The New York Times and other liberal media that Clinton is now fair game. Room needs to be made for someone else, someone closer to the president and loyal to his agenda.

This is at the rumor stage, but quite plausible.  If there is a subterranean war between the Clinton and Obama factions of the Democratic Party, I say let ’er rip!  Each side knows damaging information about the other, and a scorched-earth battle to the end resulting in Biden as the last man standing would please me greatly.

I just got an e-mail from a Mr. Ahmad Khan, of a PAC, Runbidenrun, that is seeking to draft Biden.  Coincidence, I am sure.

The 2016 Presidential Election is really beginning now. We’re seeing lots of movement on the ground in the early primary and caucus states. Candidates in both parties are getting their ground games in place and prepping staff and volunteers. The momentum is building up and all the chess pieces are being put on the board.

I wanted to send you a quick note about Draft Biden 2016, a super PAC organized to draft Vice President Joe Biden into the 2016 presidential race, which is spearheading the charge to help ensure that Vice President Biden has ample support to successfully seek the Democratic Party's nomination in 2016.

Draft Biden 2016 launched in March backed by a team of campaign veterans and is petitioning supporters and allies to rally around a potential Biden candidacy. The petition has gathered over 25,000 signatures to date. The group seeks to exceed 30,000 signatures by month's end. The group plans to organize in the early primary and caucus states of in anticipation of the Vice President entering the race.

Two notes: there is no "union bug" at the bottom of the material, obligatory to prove that union printers produced the material.  Instead, they are produced "in house."  Oops.  Second, maybe it's just me, but there something slightly Grateful Dead album coverish about that graphic with VP Biden behind the wheel.  Maybe his candidacy would be more plausible on LSD.

There is something supremely satisfying in the spectacle of the Democratic Party reduced to considering Joe Biden the most promising of its alternatives.