Biden at SC fundraiser: middle class has been hit hard since Clinton years

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

"Big" Joe Biden might shake my steely pro-Clinton resolve if he chooses to run. He is truly a great American.

But an awful campaigner

Cuz Hillary is known as the great campaigner.

Compared to the guy who was out before NH in both his runs? Yes.

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

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.