WASHINGTON POST COLUMN: …The rationale — floated to me by a Biden lieutenant — is that the vice president could serve as a stalking horse. His entry would shake up the race and thereby lower the barriers for other, potentially better-positioned, candidates to join the fray.
This could turn the Democratic contest into a free-wheeling affair, and for the party there would be only upside: Either the more fragmented Democratic field would produce a better candidate than Clinton, or, more likely, it would sharpen Clinton on her way to the nomination…
Previous nominees Al Gore or John Kerry could jump in, validating Mo Udall’s theory that presidential ambition can only be cured by embalming fluid. Mike Bloomberg could rejoin the party and put his billions to work in a shortened primary season. Populists such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) or, failing that, Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) or Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York could reconsider… (more)
EDITOR: With Clinton as the only candidate, she is a lightening rod for the Republicans. A broader field will disburse their attacks.
