Biden secretly met with Elizabeth Warren - and that says a lot about the direction of the party
What's perhaps most interesting about the meeting is the conclusion that it's led everyone to draw: now he must be serious about a presidential bid!
CNN said it was "the biggest indication yet" that Biden could be feeling out his chances.
Bloomberg called it "a sign that Biden is courting influential members of the party before announcing his intentions."
They're not wrong.
Elizabeth Warren, once an obscure academic who only became a senator in 2013, has now become something like a Democratic Party bouncer. That is, any Democrat hoping to lead the party must try to get through her first.
That could have a big impact on the direction of the Democratic party - and its attitude toward Wall Street.
After all, Warren is the populist senator who once blocked a Democrat from a top Treasury position because he used to work at an investment bank.
She helped spearhead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she's a loud supporter of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and most recently she's been calling to reinstate the Glass-Seagull Act in an effort to further regulate the financial industry.
Biden would not be the only presidential hopeful seeking Warren's approval, were he to run. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has started to sound a lot more like Massachusetts progressive, too.
