Heilemann: Biden ‘Doing the Ultimate Gut Check’ About Whether He’s Running

‘This is the last big political decision of his life’

GUTHRIE: "... Let's talk about the Democrats. Our survey monkey poll shows Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead, really opening it up between Sanders and Biden, not declared, but did not fare as well. Ted Kaufman, one of his closest advisers, is sending out this letter to Biden alumni, as Peter reported, basically hinting, you know, we still may get into this thing. But has his moment passed? Can he still get in?"
HEILEMANN: "Well, look, I've engaged in attempts to report on and read the mind of Joe Biden as much as anybody in the course of the last few months. I'm done with that. The vice president is now -- if he's making a calculation on the political landscape, it's more forbidding now than it was a month ago. You've got Hillary Clinton performing well at this debate, the Benghazi committee now kind of delegitimized. She's keyed up to have a great day next week where it could have been a moment of peril, but I don't think that's how Biden is thinking about this. He's not making political rational calculations. This is the last big political decision of his life and he's doing the ultimate gut check now and will decide on the basis of that."

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