My colleague Joe Cunningham reported earlier today that some tea leaves are starting to reveal that Susan Rice has been picked by Joe Biden as his VP running mate.

Over at HotAir, Allapundit has a story that points to a Tweet by a noted Democrat insider Joe Cooper, saying that sources have told that Biden has made his selection — without saying who that is.

But along with that nugget of information Allapundit points to reports that earlier this week Rice exercised stock options in Netflix that she was granted as part of being named a Director in the company, and after exercising the options she promptly sold the stock, netting a profit of approximately $300,000.  Rice has been a director of Netflix for more than two years and had never before exercised her options.

Simply stated, what that means is that Rice was given the opportunity by Netflix — the “option” — to purchase Netflix stock from the company at a specific price regardless of the price such shares were selling at on the open market.  When the market price is higher than the option price, the option holder can “exercise” their options, buy the stock at the lower price and then hold it or sell it.  If they sell, the option holder realizes a profit from the difference between the option price at which they purchased, and the market price at which they sold.  That is what Rice did this week.

Does that mean she’s the choice?  No, but this is the kind of thing she might start to “clean up” in her personal finances before running for office.

Another tidbit in the reporting is that some serious work has been underway to rewrite portions of Rice’s Wikipedia page — which is typical when supporters of a candidate want to minimize any negative commentary there.  And there is a TON of stuff in there to clean up.

We also know that significant reporting over the past 7-10 days from a variety of outlets have done serious damage to the other two “women of color” rumored to be atop Biden’s list of choices — most notably the brutal takedown of Congresswoman Susan Bass who had the strong backing of Nancy Pelosi and the California House Delegation.  The signs seemed to be pointing in Bass’ direction last Saturday before the Biden campaign suddenly announced that it would be another two weeks before the choice was made public.  Rice’s seemingly sudden ascendency since last Saturday strongly suggests that the actors behind the attack on Bass came from the Obama camp.

Nothing about Susan Rice screams “She’s going to win me a bunch of votes from people who don’t now support me.”

She is a career bureaucrat whose experience is largely confined to the State Dept. and foreign policy.

She is a lifelong resident of DC so she has no geographic constituency.

She has never been viewed as a “trailblazer” or opinion-shaper on matters of race or gender such that she — by her presence alone — would energize those constituencies.

What she is mostly is an avatar for Barack Obama – although prior to joining his election effort in 2008, she was a long-time member of the Clinton cabal under Madeline Albright, who had been her mentor as a long-time family friend in DC.  Rice was the first Clintonista to back Obama’s challenge to Hillary in the 2008 Democrat primary. Might that still influence any in the Democrat establishment who are still Clintonistas at heart, and who believe Hillary Clinton should have been the first female President, and not Susan Rice the traitor?  If Biden is elected, there is a strong likelihood that Rice will be President prior to the end of Biden’s term.

But there is more to the Rice-Clinton tension than meets the eye.  When Obama was elected, he named Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State as her consolation prize for having lost out to him for the nomination.  Do not for a moment believe all was well between the Clinton and Obama camps while she had that position.  Obama usurped what the Clintons has long expected to belong to them — eight years of a second Clinton family Presidency, and a political legacy unmatched in US history.

Rice betrayed Clinton in that fight.  But Obama had to reward her for her loyalty, but sending her to the State Department to work under Hillary was a step too far.  So Obama named her Ambassador to the United Nations, which would normally have placed her under the thumb of Clinton’s State Department, but he solved that problem by elevating the position to Cabinet-level status meaning she worked directly for Obama and was Hillary’s equal.

Rice has never run for any office, so her effectiveness as a candidate on the campaign trail is largely unknown.  As far as her ability to wind up a crowd and deliver a stem-winding stump speech goes, we can look to her efforts before the United Nations.

[Crickets]

Well, maybe not.

So what about her makes her the “best” choice — in the sense that she’s the least worst alternative among his bad options.

All the chatter, reporting, and over-the-top squealing on the left about Durham maybe returning indictments prior to the election is a pretty strong signal that Durham is going to do exactly that.  This likelihood has been deciphered by defense attorneys from Democrat political orbits representing likely targets who have some insight based on the treatment of their clients.

AG Barr has already taken Biden off the table in terms of possible defendants, and even if Rice was a potential target — I doubt she was — naming her would take her off the table too.

But if the Biden Camp is already of the view that the campaign might be fought largely on the ground shaped by what Durham does, picking a running mate who is right there next to Biden neck-deep in the problems serves to amplify the cries of “politics” and “unfairness” that will surely come from the left-wing media and punditocracy concerning Durham’s actions.  In that sense, understanding that they are likely to be on “defense” in terms of the Durham investigation, Rice is a choice that allows them a full-throated roar on “offense” that Durham’s actions are meant to influence the election because both Biden and Rice — more so Rice by her actions — are going to be implicated through “guilt by association” with any plot that Durham announces.

Every option that Biden “mouse-trapped” himself into with his stupid political stunt promising a VP choice who was a “woman of color” has significant downsides in the general election campaign.

It’s likely that the information being kicked around the internet about Rice is a “trial balloon” meant to gauge the reaction to her by the political class ahead of the weekend talk shows.

If nothing else, it at least takes Biden’s racist comments from this week off the front pages.

Speaking of which, I found some old video of Biden from his days in the Army. Yes, it’s a little known fact that Biden did a stint in the military several years ago. The video shows not much has changed with regard to his views on the African-American community.