From the brain trust otherwise known as CNN's Crossfire, host S.E. Cupp exaggerates Vice President Joe Biden's age just a tad and attempts to paint Sen. Elizabeth Warren as some far left extremist to support her claim that the Democrats are the ones who have no bench if Hillary Clinton decides not to run for president:
CUPP: We'll get to Benghazi. But before we do that, I just want to -- I want to talk about your bench, the Democrats' bench just for a little bit, because if Hillary doesn't announce soon, I don't know what the prospects are.
Joe Biden is a great guy but he's, like, 100 years old. Martin O'Malley in Maryland, I don't know, is known to but three people outside of his home state. Elizabeth Warren, I think, is far too extreme. She's left of left.
If Hillary doesn't announce soon, hasn't she taken up all the oxygen from these other players who I think would need a significant amount of time to engender the kind of support that she already has?
ROSEN: First of all, Joe Biden as the vice president I think has a lot of support in the Democratic Party. So I'd almost put him in a special category.
But with other people, there's no question that there's no oxygen in the room to get a lot of attention, and I -- but that doesn't mean there's not talent there. That just means there's no oxygen.
And so, you know, if Hillary decides not to run, I think people going to very quickly look at the rest of our talent. And it seems odd that we should worry about somebody being too left when you've got a guy like Marco, you know, Rubio or Ted Cruz.
CUPP: Look, the Republican bench is great. We've got rising stars. There's no coronation on our side.
ROSEN: I'm not worried at all about that perception.
CUPP: Hillary Clinton isn't giving any of these -- including Joe Biden -- isn't giving any of these guys a real chance.
ROSEN: Well, first of all, Hillary Clinton isn't doing anything. We in the media are doing this.
CUPP: She's refused to say whether she's running or not.
ROSEN: But nobody's saying whether they're running, really.
CUTTER: It's 2014. It is 2014.
ROSEN: We still have another election to go before we need to have a candidate declare.
CUPP: Candidates aren't made overnight. And I don't think anyone at this table believes that Martin O'Malley can wage a significant opposition to any of the Republican contenders in a year.
CUTTER: Has anybody declared a--
ROSEN: The fact of the matter is as soon as -- if Hillary Clinton were to step aside, as soon as she did, there would be plenty of attention and plenty of time for somebody else to--
CUTTER: I want to -- I want to change gears a little bit.
Rosen is right. It's the media that has decided to suck all of the oxygen out of the room when it comes to trying to coronate Hillary Clinton before she's even announced she is going to run. There's also no shortage of perfectly viable candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle should Clinton decide she doesn't want to get in.
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