One Giant Reason Biden Might Run

If Joe Biden pulls the trigger and jumps into the presidential race, the vice president’s current boss would be his most important supporter.

Besides the obvious boost among liberal Democratic primary goers from a public endorsement, President Obama could stock a Biden organization with a cadre of campaign veterans from the president’s two successful runs for the White House, including some of the same figures who orchestrated his own upset win over Hillary Clinton in 2008.

The president can, of course, also allow Biden free rein to use Air Force Two to travel the country on the taxpayer dime “campaigning” on official business for the White House. And he has already made sure to keep Biden in all important White House meetings, raising the stature of a job one vice president once called “not worth a bucket of warm spit.”

There are many Obama loyalists in the big donor circles of the Democratic Party waiting on the sidelines for a possible Biden run. Only 52 of the 770 bundlers for Obama’s re-election bid have taken on a similar role raising money for Clinton, according to a Washington Post analysis.

So what’s in it for Obama? Plenty. With his vice president in the White House, Obama’s legacy would be in friendly hands. Plus, Biden would be a continuation of the Obama presidency at a time when Clinton has been taking increasingly critical positions toward the administration. Last, but not least, if the many reports that have emerged over the years are true, the Obamas just don’t like the Clintons, Hillary or Bill.

Few would be surprised if Obama was not feeling passionately “Ready for Hillary” now that the Democratic front-runner publicly opposes him.

As Biden and his allies have teased the speculation around a possible bid to full frothy frenzy in recent weeks, Clinton has staked out turf opposing key legacy markers for the Obama administration. That kind of eye-jabbing provocation could encourage Obama to decisively charge into the breach in a Biden bid, in order to defend his legacy from an increasingly critical Clinton.

After months of dipping, ducking, and dodging a firm position on the issue, Clinton finally made explicit her opposition to the president’s proposed trade partnership with 12 Pacific rim nations. The measure, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is a top priority for both Obama and establishment Republican leaders.

The agreement is largely opposed by populist conservatives, as well as liberals like Clinton rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The administration pulled out all the stops to get TPP within striking distance of the end-zone in Congress. During the tenuous debate in June over passage of fast-track authority, which the administration needed to finalize the agreement, the president personally visited Capitol Hill in a rare effort to lobby Democrat lawmakers for their support.

Clinton, who touted the deal as secretary of state, opposed it anyway.

Few would be surprised if Obama was not particularly passionately “Ready for Hillary” now that the Democratic front-runner publicly opposes the agreement the president worked so hard to carve into his legacy.

Clinton stuck another finger in the eye of the administration by calling for the repeal of the tax on so-called “Cadillac” health care plans, a key revenue element of Obamacare.

The incumbent-bashing from the Hillary camp has only increased in recent weeks.

The tax is opposed by big labor unions that enjoy having the option of baking plush health care plans into negotiated union benefit packages — and whose support Hillary desperately needs.

The incumbent-president bashing from the Hillary camp has only increased in recent weeks, with Clinton grumbling about the president’s handling of illegal immigrant deportations.

“The deportation laws were interpreted and enforced, you know, very aggressively during the last 6 1/2 years,” she said in an interview with Spanish language network Telemundo. “I think we have to go back to being a much less harsh and aggressive enforcer.”

For the vice president to overcome the Goliath organization and cash stockpile of Clinton, the most important weapon he could muster is the one Clinton is busily antagonizing — the president who beat her.