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 Vice President Joe Biden is at the top of that group, which also
includes Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren. Biden's visit to Iowa on Wednesday for a
relatively minor event speaks volumes about his desire to keep his
name relevant in the 2016 discussion.
Biden's trip to Iowa, which will hold the first contest in the 2016
Democratic nominating campaign, comes days after Clinton made a
splash there at a Democratic fund-raising event sponsored by Iowa
Senator Tom Harkin.
Biden will appear at a kickoff event in Des Moines for a tour by
"Nuns on the Bus," an organization that highlights the impact of
large amounts of corporate money on political campaigns.
"I think his visit is significant because it comes so quickly after
Hillary Clinton's visit," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul
Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. "She
was sending a signal and I think Joe Biden is too."
Biden's consideration of a 2016 run is well known, but it is not
lost on anyone at the White House that his path to the Democratic
nomination is decidedly uphill should former Secretary of State
Clinton run, as most expect she will.
As White House officials see it, Biden is a viable potential
candidate with broad foreign policy knowledge who is held in deep
respect by President Barack Obama, but most do not envision him
challenging Clinton for the nomination.
The polls bear this out. A Reuters-Ipsos poll from May found 52
percent of Americans would vote for Clinton in 2016, compared with 9
percent for Biden.
"Looking toward 2016, Biden's position is only tenable in Clinton's
absence," said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
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Still, there is a need to keep his name alive should the unexpected
take place. Biden has appeared frequently before party loyalists
this year, attending 32 Democratic fund-raising events leading up to
November congressional elections.
In Iowa, Biden has deep roots as a Democrat who twice sought the
presidential nomination, in 1988 and again in 2008.
"He certainly has a network in Iowa and he's done a good job with
touching base with that network," said Democrat Mike Gronstal, the
majority leader of the Iowa State Senate.
Many in the Biden network in Iowa would at least like to see Clinton
face some competition in the Democratic primary campaign for the
nomination to keep her focused.
"If he runs I'll definitely support him," said Iowa Democrat Sara
Riley. "But I do want there to be a good primary. The biggest fear
is if she doesn't have a hard primary and all of a sudden she has a
hard general election campaign, she's not going to do well."
(Reporting By Steve Holland. Editing by Andre Grenon)
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