Time to panic: “Draft Biden” drumbeats getting louder

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Ed Morrissey

February 6, 2016

 

On one hand, Democrats have a scandal-tainted former presidential also-ran whom voters don’t trust. On the other, they have a 74-year-old self-proclaimed socialist who may drown all of their down-ballot candidates attempting to take seats away from Republicans without having a prayer of getting to the White House. What other options do Democrats have? Some are demanding that Vice President Joe Biden get sent to the bullpen to warm up (via Jim Geraghty):

 

Fox News has learned that a prominent backer of the “Draft Biden 2016″ movement, Tulsa businessman Bill Bartmann, fired off an email Friday afternoon to several dozen Democratic allies musing about the possibility of reviving the push for Biden.

 

“I would urge all of you to join me in ‘keeping our powder dry’ until we see if for the good of the party and the country, we should resurrect (sic) the Draft Biden movement,” Bartmann wrote to fellow Democrats who had been involved in trying to draft Biden last year.

 

“We cannot afford to lose the White House.”

 

In his email, Bartmann specifically cited as an impetus for his concern a new national poll showing a steep dive for Clinton, who just barely beat Sanders in Iowa and now trails him by double digits here in New Hampshire.

What has Bartmann worried? The polling that shows Hillary’s large national lead collapsing, for one thing. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the race a dead heat, but that’s among registered voters. Quinnipiac’s poll, however, shows the same thing among likely voters. While national polling doesn’t necessarily translate to performance in specific primaries, Hillary needs that aura of invincibility to overcome her poor personal-quality polling. Now that Hillary doesn’t look inevitable, those qualities — especially trust and authenticity — have become millstones around the campaign’s neck, as the Associated Press notes in New Hampshire:

 

(Snip)