Joe Biden may be the only Democratic candidate capable of beating Donald Trump in the general election. That's bad news for Trump, because according to an overheard conversation on an Amtrak train (where else?), Joe is chugging headfirst into the race. National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru reports:
When Josh Alcorn joined the Draft Biden super PAC, MSNBC headlined its story on the move "Draft Biden just got real." Alcorn had been finance director and senior adviser to the late Beau Biden, the vice president’s son, and had worked as finance director for Harry Reid as well. Judging from phone conversations Alcorn had on an Amtrak train from New York to Wilmington yesterday, the Biden campaign is about to get still more real.
Another passenger said that Alcorn was being loud enough in the café car to make it hard to work. He said that Alcorn had said on one call, "I am 100 percent that Joe is in." He was less certain of when Biden would announce, but guessed it would be in mid-October. Alcorn’s own plans to travel to California in early October would have to be canceled if Biden announced earlier.
The other passenger said that Alcorn said that test ads were doing well in converting Hillary Clinton supporters to Biden supporters, and that money had been lined up to come in right before the announcement. He had just had breakfast with Jim Torrey, an Obama bundler, whom he described as wanting to be "the Penny Pritzker" of the Biden campaign. Pritzker was the national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 campaign and is now the Secretary of Commerce.
Alcorn later confirmed the breakfast with Torrey, and did not deny making the "100 percent" comment. The fact that the happened on an Amtrak train proves that destiny is conspiring in Biden's favor and the arc of the moral universe bends toward Joe. The "accidentally" overheard announcement also comes at a time when Hillary Clinton favorability numbers have reached a critical junction.
Joe Biden is polling better than Hillary Clinton against GOP candidates, and at this point should be considered the odds-on favorite to occupy the White House in 2017.