After months of indecision, the stars appear to be aligning for Joe Biden, the once and future king of the 2020 primary. On Tuesday, a new poll placed Biden first among equals, with 31 percent support among likely Democratic voters. On Wednesday, Politico reported that he has hired Cristóbal Alex, a high-placed alum from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the current president of the Latino Victory Fund. Meanwhile, according to Fox Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino, Biden has notified his network of Wall Street supporters that an announcement is “all but certain” in the next month. That mirrors what my colleague William D. Cohan reported last week: with Michael Bloomberg out of the way, Wall Street executives close to Biden say, the centrist-friendly lane is wide open. And there’s nobody who better scratches the establishmentarian sweet spot between Full Socialism and Donald J. Trump.

An April announcement is on the late side, but Gasparino’s Wall Street sources say Biden has little to gain by making a quick decision. He’s already got unparalleled name recognition, they argue, and that the extra time gives the public more time to dig into his rival’s downsides. Of course, it’s impossible to tell if this reflects Biden’s real thinking or is merely a post hoc explanation for his indecisiveness. Either way, standing on the sidelines while your rivals self-immolate is not an entirely irrational strategy. Kamala Harris has run into trouble with left-wing activists over her controversial history as California’s attorney general; Bernie Sanders has faced scrutiny over his past treatment of sexism within his 2016 campaign; and Amy Klobuchar is fending off reports that she’s an abusive boss with unorthodox views on cutlery.

But those stumbles seem minor compared to the money these candidates are raising and the media exposure they’ve gained in the meantime. After all, the race is long and there will be plenty of time for public scrutiny to take its toll. If he declares in April, Biden, the ne plus ultra political gaffe machine, would still have more than a year to generate sundry off-color remarks about Mike Pence being a “decent guy”, say, or how Indians run all the 7-Elevens and Dunkin’ Donuts in Delaware. You never know when another errant shoulder touch might be immortalized on camera.

Gaffes aside, Biden’s bat signal has grown progressively louder in recent weeks. The former V.P. has reportedly reached out to Hill allies and major donors, blanketing allies with calls over the holidays. As one Democrat recalled to The New York Times, Biden’s assessment was blunt: “If you can persuade me there is somebody better who can win, I’m happy not to do it . . . But I don’t see the candidate who can clearly do what has to be done to win.”

Biden boosters are also encouraged by the belief that other Democratic presidential candidates will trip over themselves in a breakneck race to the left, luring progressive voters with promises of a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and leaving him plenty of room for Barack Obama’s No. 2 to sweep through the center unimpeded. The prospect is even more appealing now that Bloomberg has removed himself from the race, preferring instead to blanket the election with enough case to inhibit Donald Trump. (A Bloomberg adviser told Fox Business that Bloomberg will not endorse Biden in the Democratic primary.) As Dan Backer, a campaign finance expert, put it to Fox Business, “Biden represents a process Wall Street knows how to manage.”

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