So is Joe Biden still the frontrunner now that both Iowa and New Hampshire have basically stagnated into some sort of deadlocked, trench warfare situation? Seriously, Democrats… if you can’t get your act together pretty soon you may have to look for a new, fresh face to lead you to victory in 2020 instead of one of these tired old frontrunners. How about Hillary Clinton?

After you’ve taken a moment to stop gagging we can figure out where this is coming from. As it turns out, someone at Harvard/Harris polling decided to put a survey in the field that included the former First Lady as a possible 2020 nominee. Shockingly, she came out in a statistical tie with Joe Biden. (Washington Examiner)

A hypothetical matchup between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary race showed the two nearly tied for the nomination. The poll done by Harvard Harris found that 19% of people would support Biden with 18% supporting Clinton. Without Clinton in the race, the poll found the former vice president pulling in 33% support from Democrats. However, nearly half of his supporters would jump ship to back Clinton if she were to enter the race.

So… Hillary Clinton jumping in as a late entry to the 2020 nomination race? That sound you’re hearing is Bernie Sanders gasping for air as he suffers a second cardiac event in as many months.

Before we get too carried away here, we should realize that this is almost certainly nothing more than pure political theater and marketing. Clinton is on a book tour with her daughter Chelsea. Since all of the political action is elsewhere at the moment, she needs a way to generate some headlines and draw more attention to their book. Talking (or at least joking) about getting back into the race is one way to do that, particularly if the cable news talking heads are bored when she does it.

Last month, Chris Cillizza dug into the question for CNN and concluded that virtually every instance where Clinton has made a comment along these lines wound up being confirmed as a joke. (Or at least an attempt at one.) And in most cases, as with the most recent incident mentioned in the Examiner article, it’s the reporter doing the interview who brings up the subject of another run for the White House rather than Clinton broaching the topic herself unbidden.

However, there may be some actual news in this story beyond the obvious gags and giggles, but it’s really not so much about Hillary. What does it say about Joe Biden if roughly half of his voters would jump ship and support the losing 2016 candidate if she were actually to enter the race? Biden’s support certainly appears to be a mile wide in many states outside of the first two. But is it actually an inch deep?

In any event, listening to Clinton and her daughter discussing her “possible 2020 run” themselves while pitching their book will tell you more than any headline. Here’s the brief video clip of that exchange from the Examiner’s YouTube channel.