Biden: We Don’t Need Socialism The veep’s comments were seen as a small swipe at Bernie Sanders.

[MADem]

A week after comments that were construed as critical of Hillary Clinton, his former White House colleague, Vice President Joe Biden may have inadvertently waded back into the Democratic presidential primary, declaring that the U.S. doesn’t need “socialism” — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political calling card.

"We need — not just in my country, but in other countries — a more progressive tax code. Not confiscatory policy, not socialism, a tax code," Biden said, in a speech about economic fairness and boosting the middle class at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Everybody pays proportionally a fair share. This is not meant to penalize everybody." ... It’s not clear if Biden meant to criticize Sanders, the Vermont senator and unabashed Democratic Socialist whose insurgent presidential campaign has captured the imagination of progressives — and is gaining on Clinton, the party’s front-runner.

But seen through the lens of recent history — he favorably compared Sanders to Clinton on the candidates’ authenticity on issues of wealth disparity — the comment looks like Biden’s attempt to balance the scales.....

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-01-20/biden-we-dont-need-socialism?int=a6f909

[earthside]

1. Biden is giving himself an opening into the contest.

If Hillary is indicted or the email scandal blows-up even bigger and she has to take down her candidacy, I have no doubt that the Vice President will enter the fray.

The more Hillary "brushes off" ... the more I am convinced that she may have a real problem here.

Clinton brushes off report that her private server contained highly classified intel
CNN

This isn't going away.

[MADem]

2. Doubt it.

CONFIRMATION is about to drop on HBO.

He will have a tough time holding his head up after people are reminded of his role in that debacle.