An e-mail from Ted Kaufman, former senator and top Biden aide, to Biden friends and supporters concludes:
“He believes we must win this election. Everything he and the President have worked for – and care about – is at stake. I know in the daily ups and down of the political swirl, we all get bombarded with the tactics. So sometimes it’s good to take a step back and get real again. Let’s stay in touch. If he decides to run, we will need each and every one of you – yesterday! Ted.”
Wait a second. If he’s going to need all of his friends’ and supporters’ help “yesterday,” maybe it would have helped to have made the decision the day before yesterday. It’s not like the 2016 election and its filing deadlines just snuck up on him. Biden’s known he was going to have to decide whether or not to run for president since, oh, Election Night 2012.
This is something of a concession from Biden’s world that it’s actually getting late in the cycle for a decision. (As Yogi Berra said, “it gets late early out there.”)
Ballotpedia lists the filing deadlines for states, noting that information can be subject to change. The filing deadline for Democratic candidates is listed as November 6 in Alabama, November 9 in Arkansas, November 10 for Texas, November 20 for Louisiana, November 27 for New Hampshire and November 30 for Illinois.
MSNBC, citing a Democratic source, listed the key deadlines as “a 5 p.m. cutoff on Friday, Nov. 6 in Alabama and continue with deadlines in Arkansas three days later, Michigan on Nov. 17, and Florida at the end of month.” (Ballotpedia lists Florida as December 15.)
Biden could theoretically announce a bid after those filing deadlines and not compete in those particular states, but obviously he would be putting himself at a small disadvantage by conceding those states before the contest even begins.