Campaign 2016:
Vice President Joe Biden signals a decision is near on joining the race.
WASHINGTON — Just as Democrats were starting to count him out, Joe Biden sent a clear signal through his political team that not only might he enter the presidential race soon, he has a strategy prepared that he thinks could win.
After months of growing calls for him to run, the vice president’s tide began turning this week after the first Democratic debate, which softened concerns about front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton while obscuring any obvious rationale for Biden to run. But in a letter to former Biden staffers late Thursday, one of Biden’s closest advisers traced the contours of the argument Biden would make, and suggested a decision to run could be imminent.
“If he runs, he will run because of his burning conviction that we need to fundamentally change the balance in our economy and the political structure to restore the ability of the middle class to get ahead,” former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman said in an e-mail to a list of Biden alumni. The letter was obtained by the Associated Press.
Kaufman, who served as Biden’s chief of staff for two decades before replacing him in the Senate, has been at the vice president’s side for months, brought back into the immediate fold after Biden’s son died in May. He and two other aides have formed a protective and tight-lipped ring around Biden as he ponders a 2016 campaign.
“If he decides to run, we will need each and every one of you — yesterday,” Kaufman said, alluding to the breakneck speed at which Biden would have to ramp up a campaign after waiting this long to enter. Kaufman said he is confident Biden understands “the practical demands of making a final decision soon.”
Although Biden’s small team has been drafting a campaign blueprint and screening likely staffers for months, the letter to Biden’s former Senate, White House and campaign aides marked the most direct call to date for support for a potential campaign. It came as a growing number of Democratic leaders, including Clinton’s campaign chairman, expressed frustration with Biden’s delays and questioned whether it was already too late.
Yet even in the face of such skepticism, Biden has remained actively engaged in feeling out a potential campaign, placing calls this week to key Democrats in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, said several individuals familiar with the conversations. These individuals weren’t authorized to comment publicly.
In the letter, Kaufman didn’t identify specific policies Biden would propose if he ran. But in describing the approach the vice president would take, the letter drew an implicit contrast with Clinton, who has been criticized by some as a candidate for appearing calculated or overly choreographed.