MINNEAPOLIS — As faithful members of the Democratic National Committee participated in the coronation of their queen in the main conference arena, twenty floors above them a small group of insurgents quietly met with superdelegates in an attempt to overthrow her seemingly inevitable nomination.
One by one, over 100 superdelegates and members of the party met with senior advisers of the “Draft Biden” movement in the “Biden suite” on the 23rd floor of the Minneapolis Hilton, where the annual DNC Summer Meeting was being held. While the vice president did not attend the event himself, advisers from the PAC propelling Joe Biden’s hypothetical candidacy spent the weekend meeting with superdelegates as well as members of the DNC, attempting to convince them to keep an open mind with their votes, and their pocketbooks, until Biden enters the primary.
The delegates were “extremely open” and “excited” about a Biden candidacy, according to one senior adviser to Draft Biden who wished to remain anonymous.
Although “everyone in that room is a supporter of Hillary Clinton as she has given a lifetime of service to the Democratic Party” Democrats are still willing to hold their support, and their wallets, for Biden, said the adviser, who added “there is no question that as Joe Biden decides whether or not he wants to run for president there would be support for him.”
Pro-Biden troops were out in force and the potential of a Biden candidacy was the elephant that loomed large in the room during the Democratic gathering, but establishment Democrats aren’t sure Biden has the infrastructure, momentum or time to successfully pull a coop in a primary that is already stacked in favor of front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The crowd was mainly pro-Clinton at the DNC’s annual event, with hundreds of Democratic delegates wearing shiny gold “H” Hillary for America pins on their suit jackets and loyal fans roaring loudly as she took the stage.
Joe Biden’s PAC spent the weekend fighting an uphill battle attempting to woo the exact same voting base months after Clinton; but how effective can that be?
Prominent Democrats with great influence, like DNC chair and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, pledged their support to Clinton long ago.
Biden “and Hillary agree on all the issues, so the only way that he runs a campaign to catch her is to go after her on the issues and I don’t think he wants to do that. I don’t think he has the heart to do that,” Rendell said. “Biden can’t separate himself from Clinton, not on the issues. To me, he won’t enter a race with Hillary in it.”
But that didn’t stop every candidate from fielding questions about the potential Biden run.
Bernie Sanders shrugged off questioning, dead-panning that this was maybe the “14th billion time I’ve been asked about this.” Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee similarly seemed annoyed that so much of their short Q&A was spent on the prospects of a hypothetical candidate, but expressed that they would love to see another Democrats in the race.
A majority of the superdelegates have already committed to Clinton, and she has had a long personal relationship with Biden, making Biden’s prospect of jumping into the race seem unlikely.
Asked about a potential Biden candidacy, Clinton laughed and reiterated her great “affection and admiration” for the vice president, but added the phrase reiterated by nearly every Democrat at the conference that Biden needs to be given “space.”
“This is a difficult decision for him to make and I want him to have the space and time to do it. There will be opportunities in the future to talk about what I did in President Obama’s cabinet, and in his Senate, but now’s not the time,” Clinton said.
When asked about Biden, nearly every DNC member repeated some version of that exact answer. Whether cautioning that it was too late to raise money, too soon for Biden emotionally, or just too late to attract voters, not one Democrat was gung-ho about the vice president’s potential candidacy.
“We’ve spent more time talking about a possibility then what kind of campaign he would run,” said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile. “And whether or not given the time, with the resources required to run a successful campaign, you need message; you need mobilization; you need momentum. And I think the vice president, while he has 100 percent name recognition — even to put together campaign at this stage requires a lot of time and effort.”
Biden currently polls at 14 percent nationally, whereas Clinton has nearly half of all voting Democrats behind her. Biden’s faithful followers were undeterred by Clinton’s commanding lead, however. They continued to pass out leaflets in elevators and chocolate bars with the VP’s face.
“Joe Biden has run twice for president, and he was not successful. I think the third time is the charm,” said Brazile, explaining Biden’s appeal. “Joe Biden who would be able to charm. He’s a natural [and] a great leader. In this party, we love Joe Biden.”
“But then again it’s not about love,” she added. “As you know, it’s about getting delegates.”
