Stealing the Thunder? Biden Says He'll Be on 2012 Ticket...and Obama Will Run

Joe Biden will be the vice presidential candidate on the 2012 ticket. That's according to him.

In an article in Wednesday's New York Times, Biden dropped the news in passing:

“I tell you what, there’s real trust, that’s why he’s asked me to run again,” Mr. Biden said Monday, dropping this tidbit at the end of a 40-minute conversation, just before he dashed off to his third fund-raiser of the day. “Look, he said, ‘We’re going to run together, are you going to run?’ I said, ‘Of course, you want me to run with you, I’m happy to run with you.’ ”

The statement is in reaction to a report from Bod Woodward that an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket in 2012 was "on the table," a claim Clinton later denied.

Biden's announcement didn't sit too well with The Telegraph's Toby Harnden:

[A]t a time when Democrats are supposed to be focused on the November 2nd mid-terms and Barack Obama has not even announced he will seek a second term, did Biden really need to declare that he’ll be on the 2012 ticket?

Sitting in for Michelle Malkin at her blog, Doug Powers has some similar questions:

I wonder if the rest of Team Obama is aware of this. ...

You can hardly blame them for looking past the mid-term and starting to focus on the 2012 campaign already, but I’d suggest that the White Star Line at least wait until the first ship fully goes under before publicizing plans for Titanic II.

What both Harnden and Powers elude to may be the bigger story: Obama will indeed compete for the presidency in 2012. That has not always been clear, as Obama has hinted in the past he might only be a one-term president.

Back in January, Obama told ABC's Diane Sawyer he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term" one.

"For the first time, and despite the fact that no credible Republican candidate for 2012 has yet emerged, Obama is looking like a one-term president while one-party rule in Washington is in its death throes," wroteThe Telegraph's Harnden in September. The idea was advanced by Fox's Neil Cavuto:

What if the president knew all of these risks but went Gung ho spending anyway, not because he didn’t see the polls but because he really didn’t care about them? He knew voter would have a big problem with stimulus so he just makes it bigger. he realized that health care reform went too far so he pushes it to be even further and then he reasoned that a temporary ban would cause a problem and he makes it all but permanent…if he is trying to get re-elected he is not acting like it. What if he is not trying to get re-elected?

However, Biden seems to have sunk that idea entirely, possibly stealing the thunder of an Obama 2012 announcement in the process. But without an official word from Obama on a a run or a ticket, we could be revisiting the issue soon enough.