Biden obviously won't beat Clinton in a primary but that's not because he's a bad campaigner. It'll be for the same reason he lost in 2008: he's a bad fit for the moment. In some respects, Hillary is a bad fit for the moment. But in other ways, she's a good fit to the point that she's inevitable.
It would be very strange and improbable for Biden to campaign as a raging populist. Yes, he's a stalwart pro-labor old-school Democrat (something I like a lot) but he also voted for NAFTA and the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill. He was really kind of hated on sites like D Kos before he hooked up with Obama. I think some people are responding to the Onion Joe Biden more than the real guy.
And just as a factual matter, he's almost 100% wrong. Most economists tend to date the decline of the middle class to the mid-Seventies, with the latter years of Clinton being something of a respite because the overall economy was so strong. Robert Reich, who's critical of a lot of Clinton policies despite being in his cabinet the first term, said as much on Chris Hayes' show recently.
All of this is correct.
Since Elizabeth Warren doesn't seem interested in running, there's no one ready to take the populist progressive mantle.
Bernie Sanders, though whether he'll actually run is unclear.
