Vice President Biden met in Washington with far left liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren as he continues to mull whether to run for the Democratic nomination for president.

Warren has pointedly refused to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, nor has she said much about the other candidates. But would she endorse Biden over her soulmate, the socialist Bernie Sanders?

Politico:

Biden press secretary Kendra Barkoff didn’t deny the meeting, nor did she point to any official government business that would have been discussed. CNN first reported the meeting.

Were Biden to run, he’d have to cobble together a coalition of support very quickly, and even implicit backing by Warren could electrify support for him among progressives. Any potential support of groups that had been rallying to draft Warren for the 2016 race could help provide some infrastructure for a Biden campaign that would be very far behind on organizing if he made a late entry.

Warren’s support could also exploit perceived vulnerabilities that Clinton has on economic issues, in being seen as too much of a moderate. Part of the Biden argument, if he launches, would be on his record of middle-class values, and Warren could help him graft that to the support she’s generated among progressives, particularly younger ones, for taking on the banks and speaking out on income inequality. That she’s perhaps the second most-prominent woman in the Democratic Party would only help him make the argument against Clinton.

Warren spokeswoman Lacey Rose didn’t return a request for comment.

Biden’s expected to make a decision sometime in the next five to six weeks.

Warren will support the most liberal candidate possible who could win the general election. That may be Biden, who has lower negatives than Hillary and far higher name recognition than Sanders or O'Malley. But this carefully choreographed public dance by Biden as he apparently seriously considers a run is designed to take the temperature of Democrats to see if there is a path to the nomination for him.

He is far behind in organization, fundraising, staffing, and planning. If he waits another month, he would have about 4 months to build a significant organization to compete in Iowa. That's not enough time, which suggests he might skip the caucuses and put most of his effort into knocking Clinton off in New Hampshire. 

As in 2008, until Clinton loses, she is thought to be, if not inevitable, certainly the odds on favirote. Despite her troubles, she is still far ahead of her Democratic competition in the polls and still the first choice of a majority of Democratic voters. But Clinton is weak in New Hampshire and Biden may see the Granite State as a perfect spot to ambush her, taking some momentum going into the southern primaries and destroying the myth of her inevitability. 

But it would be a very long shot and Biden, who just lost his son a few months ago, may really not have his heart in the effort. Perhaps the Hillary situation with her emails will be clarified in the next few weeks, making his decision a little easier. Regardless, he can't wait too long or the window of opportunity will close.