Now Hillary Clinton has to worry about her donors deserting her, as her poll numbers collapse and she becomes a laughingstock on mainstream cable news shows.  She may be experiencing a tingle between the padded shoulders of her pantsuits, as the specter of a stiletto becomes very thinkable. John Heilemann of Bloomberg has an important scoop on a secret meeting:

… fewer than 12 hours after the Colbert interview aired, Biden partook in a meeting that signaled something entirely different. The meeting appeared nowhere on his public schedule. It was held in secret at his hotel in Midtown Manhattan and lasted for more than 90 minutes: a private, one-on-one session with one of the most prominent and powerful fundraising stars in the Democratic firmament—a mega-bundler who happens to be, at least for now, publicly committed to Hillary Clinton.

The bundler in question was Robert Wolf: the former chairman and CEO of UBS Americas, a prodigious buck-raker on behalf of Barack Obama in two successive campaigns, a four-time appointee to economic panels in the Obama administration, and perhaps the only person in the American business community—and certainly the sole Wall Street potentate—with whom Obama during his time in office has developed a deep and genuine friendship. (The two are frequent golf partners, most recently last month on Martha's Vineyard, where they were part of a foursome with Larry David and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett's cousin Cyrus Walker.)

The hints here are overwhelming: it looks like Obama is ready to back a Biden challenge. Of course, nobody will say so explicitly, because Hillary’s reaction must be carefully managed. But the stiletto is definitely out of the sheath.

If Biden does decide to run, the benefits of landing Wolf would be many, some obvious and some subtle—but all perfectly clear to each party. First, having raised north of $500,000 for Obama in both 2008 and 2012, he could be a source of a great deal of campaign cash. Second, he could help Biden establish ties to Wall Street, where the V.P. has few. Third, he could be a valuable adviser on economic matters, where the priorities of the two are in sync. Fourth, Wolf's defection from the Clinton camp would be a major symbolic blow to her already reeling campaign. And fifth, given Wolf's closeness to Obama, the move would carry with it the widespread (and likely accurate) assumption that the president had blessed it.

Vice President Biden is doing everything right, if he is planning to run for the 2016 Democrat nomination. His heart-felt interview with Stephen Colbert last week establishes him as a sincere and highly sympathetic figure, not only is stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, but giving him the tinge of victim. In this age, being a victim makes one immune from criticism, and so Biden now has earned a degree of immunity from the attack ads for his gaffes, that should be part of any campaign against him.