XPost: dc.politics, atl.general, uw.clubs.vietnamese   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush   
   From: dumb.old.broad@hillaryclinton.com   
      
   Joe Biden may well be the most honest man in Washington. That's   
   a very good thing if you are a member of the political press   
   and, at the moment, not a very good thing if you are Hillary   
   Clinton.   
      
   Witness Biden's interview Monday night with CNN's Gloria Borger.   
   Borger asked the vice president to explain why Bernie Sanders   
   has found so much success in his challenge to Clinton for the   
   2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Here's how Biden   
   answered:   
      
   BIDEN: I think that -- that Bernie is speaking to a yearning   
   that is deep and real, and he has credibility on it. And that is   
   the absolute enormous concentration of wealth in a small group   
   of people with the new class now being able to be shown being   
   left out. There used to be a basic bargain. If you contributed   
   to the profitability of an enterprise, you got to share in the   
   profit. That's been broken. Productivity is up, wages are   
   stagnant.   
      
   BORGER: But Hillary's talking about that, and....   
      
   BIDEN: Well, it's -- but it's -- it's relatively new for Hillary   
   to talk about that. Hillary's focus has been other things up to   
   now, and that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's   
   authenticity on those issues.   
      
   Cue groans in Clinton campaign headquarters.   
      
   In an interview with the "Today" show Tuesday morning at the   
   White House, Biden sought to clean up the controversy caused by   
   his comments to Borger -- noting that "what I meant was for the   
   last five years she’s been engaged in foreign policy -- for four   
   years here." As for Sanders, "even when income inequality wasn’t   
   as serious as it is today, it was his drumbeat,” Biden said.   
   “[Clinton's] coming up with some very good ideas but Bernie is   
   pushing the envelope on this.”   
      
   Read between the lines of Biden's answers and you get this:   
   Bernie Sanders is doing better than most people expected because   
   he's authentic and actually believes what he says. Hillary is   
   fine but, let's be honest, she is talking about these issues now   
   because Bernie is forcing her hand. He's credible on issues of   
   economic inequality; she's not really.   
      
   It's not all that surprising that Biden threw Clinton under the   
   bus to Borger if you remember the duo's history. During his long   
   consideration of a 2016 run against Clinton, Biden -- and his   
   inner circle -- made it very clear that he resented Clinton's   
   attempts to cast herself as the natural heir to Obama's two   
   terms in office. And it's no secret that Biden has long viewed   
   Clinton as an overly cautious, poll-tested sort of politician --   
   the antithesis of his say-what-you-mean-and-mean-what-you-say   
   approach to public life.   
      
   Biden did offer a bit of a warning to Clinton (and everyone else   
   running for the Democratic nod) when he announced, back in   
   October 2015, that he wouldn't run for the nomination. "I intend   
   to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I   
   can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a   
   nation," Biden said at the time.   
      
   Regardless, Biden's comments could hardly come at a worse time   
   for Clinton -- or a better one for Sanders. Clinton's widely   
   assumed lead in Iowa appears to be eroding with less than three   
   weeks to go before the caucuses -- raising the possibility that   
   the Vermont socialist could sweep the first two states to vote   
   and throw what looked like something close to a coronation for   
   Clinton into chaos.   
      
   Here's another way to look at what Biden's comments will do to   
   the "Bernie rising/Hillary struggling" narrative -- via Homer J.   
   Simpson:   
      
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHjhP07HyAs   
      
   Biden, of course, knows what he is doing. Which is what makes it   
   all the more delicious, politically speaking.   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/12/joe-   
   biden-just-trolled-hillary-clinton-big-   
   time/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na   
        
      
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