Yesterday, I told you that Kamala Harris is the current frontrunner for Joe Biden’s Vice President search. The others on the shortlist currently aren’t showing any signs that they are in the running.

But two of those candidates are on the media’s shortlist: Stacey Abrams and Elizabeth Warren.

Abrams is a recent media creation, built up largely out of the white guilt they feel for ignoring her in 2018 and choosing to build up Beto O’Rourke instead. Abrams is a young black woman with charisma and the guts to take on the white men who control a deep red state, or so they like to think. So, they have been running op-ed after op-ed, giving her interview after interview, and showering her with a lot of favorable coverage.

Warren, however, has been a media darling for much longer. She has long been adored by them as a strong, smart, intelligent woman and many in the mainstream media were openly mourning her dropping out of the presidential campaign. She lays low after dropping out, only coming out when she is needed to endorse Biden. But, now there are stirrings that she’s aiming higher.

The timing is the most suspicious part of it. Abrams, who has been the media’s focus for weeks, started receiving some pushback from other Democrats, publicly (like Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri calling her “PR campaign” an “inappropriate” one) and likely privately. Clay’s comments came a week ago, and Abrams has made few media appearances since then.

As her star fell, though, it appears that Warren’s began to rise again. A CBS News poll puts her at the top of the list as far as voters are concerned, and she is now publicly defending Biden against the allegations put forward by Tara Reade.

The new poll, released Sunday by CBS News, shows Warren way ahead in the poll, followed distantly by Harris in second and Abrams in third. The problem is that it is an online poll, which tend to not be the most accurate polls. However, they are good at measuring mood if looked at the right way, and the mood that was set after that poll was a lot of media excitement for Warren — multiple outlets breathlessly ran with it.

What’s more, outlets like Slate and others played up the “plausibility” of the choice, showing that there are some of the “thinkers” on the left who could accept the choice.

Her comments defending Biden, meanwhile, are more recent.

Asked Elizabeth Warren if she believes the Tara Reade allegations need to be probed, and she seemed satisfied with Biden’s comments last week, calling them “credible and convincing.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 4, 2020

“I saw the reports of what Ms. Reade said, I saw an interview with Vice President Biden. I appreciate that the vice president took a lot of questions, tough questions. And he answered them directly and respectfully. The vice president's answers were credible and convincing.“

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 4, 2020

As expected, there is a lot of material from the Kavanaugh hearings that suggests Warren would not be so forgiving if Biden were on the other side of the aisle.

HT @CourtlandGarret pic.twitter.com/X1joZSQQNZ

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 5, 2020

But you don’t have to go all the way back to Kavanaugh to find that Warren is considerably tougher on men who may have abused subordinate women in some way. She was vicious in attacking Michael Bloomberg on the subject mere months ago.

Mike Bloomberg can easily release the women who have accused him of sexual harassment—and who voluntarily want to speak about their experiences—from their non-disclosure agreements. Take a look at how simple and straightforward it would be: pic.twitter.com/XLncEnSXDF

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 21, 2020

So, someone like Biden, a former opponent that she sparred with on several occasions on a debate stage, is suddenly free of blame? It doesn’t make sense unless she was not really a believer of all women back then… or if she sees a political opportunity.

The timing is suspect. Abrams is on the downward trend, and Warren has a built-in adoring base in the media. She can seize on this and ride it to several television spots and headlines, but the problem she will have to avoid is appearing to openly campaign for the job. That is what got Abrams verbally smacked by her party. Warren will have a little more insulation from that, considering she has a better record of winning elections, but she cannot simply walk in and expect it.

That will end just as badly for her as it did Abrams.