One of the most popular Democrats heading into next Tuesday's presidential primary debate (Oct. 13, 2015) doesn't have a campaign website. In fact, he hasn't even launched a campaign at all.
Joe Biden in the Debate?
Vice President Joe Biden, for all the uncertainty about a possible White House run, is the candidate most liberal voters want to see challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday. Those surveyed said Biden was their first choice, followed by Clinton (42 percent) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (35 percent).
Biden's indecisiveness leaves remaining participants with a unified target: Clinton.
Bernie Sanders
Sanders, the vociferous yet pacifying figure whose campaign steadily gained steam over the summer, told CNN his game plan doesn't involve slanderous attacks, or highlight-reel moments viewers witnessed with the Republican Party's first two primaries.
"You're looking at a candidate who has run in many, many elections, who has never run a negative political ad in my life and hopes never to have to run them," Sanders said on Wednesday. "And you're looking at a candidate who does not go about attacking people personally. I just don't do that."
Another thing the Independent senator doesn't do is stray from his views. Sanders' heartfelt speeches have drawn in undecided voters, helping to closing the fundraising gap on Clinton - Sanders raised $15 million as of July, mainly on small donations - and narrowing polls as the summer dwindled. His no-nonsense demeanor contrasts with Clinton's, or what the American public perceives Clinton to represent.
Hillary Rodham Clinton & Martin O'Malley
Clinton's goal next Tuesday, aside from downplaying the email scandal that made her nomination anything but assured, is to prove she isn't the hypocritical front-runner pundits paint her as.
"Wow! That's a reversal!" Maryland governor and Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley said on Wednesday, hours after Clinton flip-flop in supporting a free trade deal she repeatedly praised as Secretary of State.
"Secretary Clinton can justify her own reversal of opinion on this, but I didn't have one opinion 8 months ago and switch that opinion on the eve of debates," O'Malley's statement continued. "I'm against the Trans Pacific Partnership. I let people know that from the outset."
Sanders may not plan on attacking Clinton's record, but for O'Malley - who garnered just one percent of the vote in the NBC/WSJ poll - making a name for himself entails doing just that.
As for Biden, he's got everything a presidential candidate could ask for without verbally committing to his own campaign.
Biden has unaffiliated Super PAC's running ads. White House secretary on Wednesday called the vice president "a genuinely inspirational figure," essentially throwing the Obama administrations support behind him. His warming personality resonates with voters, though they may not get to see him Oct. 13.
If Biden does announce an Oval Office run in the coming weeks, at least other candidates' had this one night under the national spotlight.