The natural temptation with Joe Biden is to treat him as a slow-witted buffoon, the kind of guy who refers to J-O-B-S as a three-letter word.  But the clownish verbal façade conceals a crafty and ambitious politician. And yesterday’s Rose Garden announcement of a non-candidacy -- that sounded like an announcement of a candidacy 90% of the time -- justifies some reflection on what might be going on. And what about the shots launched at Hillary, implicitly rebuking her for calling the Republican Party her greatest enemy?

Occam’s Razor suggests that he was just reflecting his ambivalence, and he realizes that Hillary’s financial war chest will be hard to match. And he may have inside information about the FBI probe that suggests nothing will be done prior to the election to take her out of the running. And if something does happen, the 90% of the speech still stands, and Joe is ready to jump in.

A friend who goes by the pen name Charles Martel has an alternative interpretation – that Joe knows Hillary will be indicted:

 Fact: Joe Biden wants to be president more than anything else in this world or the next.

Fact: Joe Biden decided not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.

Conclusion: Biden knows that Hillary will be indicted. If he thought she would not be indicted he’d have jumped into the race to get the nomination. However, knowing she will be indicted Joe can now relax and know that the party will turn to him in seven or eight months without his having to work for the nomination. And, without being battered and weakened by the Clinton machine in the primaries.