….And now the shooting down of the trial balloon. (Updated with Resignation Bombshell)

[UPDATE]: This will teach me to read the full article that I am linking to first before posting. Apparently, according to unnamed sources in the Times article I link to below, Vice President Joe Biden considered resigning in the aftermath of Beau Biden’s death to care for his grieving family. This further convinces me he is not running. How do you go from thinking of resigning because of family to running for President in a span of two months? The answer is you don’t. What we are seeing is a pressure campaign put on by those like Dick Harpoolitan, Biden’s South Carolina operative, to force Biden into the race.

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The New York Times reports that friends and supporters of Joe Biden are concerned that a third run for the Presidency could harm his legacy. Consider me among them.

“Those supporters, in the White House and the Senate, and within the political circles he has moved in for decades, fear that the legacy Mr. Biden has built as an effective partner who took on tough jobs for President Obama, not to mention the deep reservoir of public good will and sympathy he has amassed in his poignant handling of personal tragedies, could be sacrificed in the pursuit of an unsuccessful challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination.”

“They fret that Mr. Biden, as well known for his undisciplined, sometimes self-immolating comments as he is for his charm on the trail, could endanger Mr. Obama’s own legacy by injuring Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy and causing his party to lose control of the White House.”

I am sure that Joe Biden will pursue the Bernie Sanders strategy of not attacking Hillary Clinton. The two are close friends. But if he is running just a “me too” campaign, what’s the point? Where is Joe Biden’s natural niche? Bernie has the far progressive left. Hillary has the pragmatic liberals and progressives. Does Joe Biden run a conservadem campaign to win 10% of the primary electorate?

Like I have written before, if he had wanted to be President Obama’s successor, he had to start planning a run back in 2013 and early 2014. Hillary is already running as Obama’s natural successor.

The assumption all throughout 2013 and 2014 was that Joe was not going to run. That the Vice Presidency was a nice capper on his long career. But if he runs, I encourage the Vice President and his supporters how he plans to win. Both the primary and general.