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When a presidential campaign folds, the first thing to do is thank your supporters. The next thing to do is settle your debts; Bill Richardson did this within a fortnight of his collapse in an email that teased us about an endorsement, faked us out with talk of issues, and then asked for some final donations.

Joe Biden hasn’t sent that email out yet, but we did get an interesting note out of the blue on Friday morning. It’s a text-only, unceremonious forward that only includes the lead-in,

As work in the Senate begins again, I wanted to pass along this
article. I hope you find it interesting.
Joe

The forward is this article from the Politico, “Biden looks overseas.” At first, you get the impression that this is just Joe’s way of reminding us that, as he reassured teary-eyed supporters in Des Moines that last night, he’s not going away, and that we’d be hearing his voice a lot from the Senate once again. The article talks about how senators return to the hum-drum toil of their day jobs after failed presidential bids; how Biden added some serious issues to the debates and campaign discussions by being part of it; and how there are pressing issues for the Foreign Relations Committee to tend to now that the sideshow is over. Good for Joe, right?

Then, discussing Iraq, the author brings up Biden’s Senate clout and makes the easy leap from there to the possible State Department appointment:

“Whatever choice the new president wants [to make], he or she will need congressional support and bipartisan support, and Biden will be crucial,” said Michael Mandelbaum, author of “Democracy’s Good Name.”

“Whoever is president will be courting him,” Mandelbaum added.

Of course, it’s possible that the next president will view Biden as a potential secretary of state.

Sure, sure, we’ve heard this a million times. After some more talk of the issues, the story drifts back to future appointments, and then kicks it up a notch:

Other foreign policy wonks said the same, referring to Biden as sophisticated and a shoo-in to lead the State Department or, alternately, on the short list for a vice presidential nod should Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois win the Democratic nomination.

Despite his foot-in-mouth comments about Obama being “articulate” last February, some said Biden’s foreign policy experience would complement Obama’s perceived inexperience in that area.

“When it comes to VP nominees, Biden is going to be on that list,” said Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a “radical centrist” think tank based in Washington. Clemons added that he hoped the possibility of being Obama’s running mate wouldn’t “distract” Biden “from the more important function of having the Foreign Relations Committee up and doing its job.”

Again, not exactly breaking news; when people weren’t accusing Joe of running for Secretary of State, they were accusing him of running for VP, and a Biden-Obama/Obama-Biden coupling was the dream of many.

But now Joe is sending this out to his supporters. Just FYI, you know? No appeal for money right now, just something you might want to read over coffee.

Uh-huh.

I tried to get some clarification on this, but one former staffer had no insight on who made the decision to send this out, and another, higher-up-the-chain former staffer hasn’t gotten back to me; for all I know the guy is on a beach somewhere drinking margaritas and looking through the WaPo job listings with nary a Blackberry in sight.

I’d be pleased as punch if Biden got a promotion from the next president — if it’s the only one named in the article, Obama. I’d rather he stay put at the Senate if we get another Clinton White House, as he’d be in a much better position to beat that two-headed cyborg about the face and neck on foreign policy from his committee chair post than if he was another toe-the-line sucker of a Secretary of State like poor Colin Powell. And a VP nod? Again, the most impotent and purely ceremonial of positions in the third Clinton administration, but with someone like Obama who seems open to advice and for the love of God sure needs it on foreign policy, it might actually be a job worth taking. Personally, I’d feel a little sheepish about how adamant I have always been that “I take Joe at his word when he says he’s in this to win or he’s going back to his day job, this isn’t about VP” if he turned around and started courting the VP nomination…but I guess I’d get over that dose of political reality.

Or is he courting it at all? Biden also said in Des Moines that he wasn’t going to make an endorsement — another thing I took the characteristically blunt man at his word for. By forwarding this article to all of his supporters before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday, which only mentioned Obama by name among people who would be courting Biden’s favor (if not partnership), was Joe giving a wink and a nod toward his favorite “storybook” candidate?

Eeeeenteresting.