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Team Hillary Warns Biden: 'Nice Legacy Ya Got There...'

AP
October 1, 2015

Hillary Clinton really doesn't want Joe Biden to run, mostly because he's more authentic, likable, funny, popular, experienced, engaging, off-the-cuff, and human than she is. But she's not allowed to come out and say this explicitly. Instead, her allies are working behind the scenes to make sure Biden gets the message: "Nice legacy ya got there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it." The New York Times reports:

After months of voicing doubt about a challenge from the vice president, Clinton campaign operatives are viewing Mr. Biden’s entry into the contest as a serious possibility and are trying to rally the party’s apparatus and its donors to her side. They have flooded uncommitted Democrats with emails, phone calls and a plea for them to sign a letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. In the letter, Democrats are asked to "pledge to support Hillary Rodham Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Committee Convention with my unpledged delegate vote."

And you'll be shocked to learn that David Brock, of all people, is getting in on the action:

This week, David Brock, who created the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record, which is coordinating with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, told Chicago Magazine his "gut" told him Mr. Biden would not run because "he’ll realize that at this point in his career, he can go out with everyone’s respect and esteem."

Translation: If you run, we will destroy you. Politico published a similar report last week, noting that Team Clinton was already firing "warning shots" at the sitting vice president:

The hints from the campaign come in heavy: Biden would be to Clinton’s right if he ran, more out of touch with the party’s progressive base. Surrogates have sounded off, questioning his chances and his political abilities, wondering if he’d be up to the job. Clinton even leapt in herself, bringing him up out of nowhere as she spoke to a woman in a diner last week in New Hampshire to knock him for how disappointing he’d been when they were working on the bankruptcy bill in the Senate. That was followed by her campaign chair John Podesta, sprinkling a little of his own shade in front of the pro-Clinton Priorities super PAC in New York—it’s already too late for Biden to mount a real challenge, and he’s not going to decide for a few more weeks on top of that.

They’ve stepped up the roll-out of their endorsements and organization. Their operation is just so massive and well put together, they want Biden and anyone considering supporting him to think, there’s just no space left for him.

Not surprisingly, the Clinton campaign accused both outlets of dishonest reporting:

In addition to randomly blaming Biden for convincing her to support a bankruptcy bill that liberals don't like, Hillary has finally announced a position on the Keystone pipeline, and has come out in favor of repealing a major provision of Obamacare that unions dislike—both moves undoubtedly intended to turn the heat up on Biden. On Wednesday, we got a taste of the opposition research Brock has prepared to target the VP, with this Huffington Post item on some comments Biden, a devout Catholic, made about abortion as a freshman senator in 1974.

Brock is currently on the board of Priorities USA, the Super PAC that helped elect and reelect the Obama-Biden ticket.