DAILY MAIL – The internet is buzzing today with the rumour that Barack Obama's gaffe-prone running mate Joe Biden will drop out of the race for health reasons – to be replaced by Hillary Clinton.

John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has created so much interest in the Republicans that Mr Obama will have to make a radical move to regain momentum, the argument goes.

Mrs Clinton could be just the key. Mr Biden, who had surgery in 1998 to repair two brain aneurysms, would drop out after the vice presidential debates due to be held on October 2, according to the claims – leaving the way open for the former First Lady.

Most are dismissing the rumour as the usual internet chatter. But it has been given added weight by those who have not addressed it – namely Fight the Smears.

Fight the Smears is a website the Obama campaign set up to quash just such damaging Internet rumours – but it has not yet touched this one, though that may be out of fear of fuelling the rumour.

The Obama campaign has not commented on it, other than to say that Biden’s medical records will be released soon.

Snopes.com, a site devoted to picking apart online rumors and urban legends, has labeled the status of the claim “undetermined.” Several online discussion boards have been loaded up with denials.

Biden has caused several problems for the Obama campaign. This week he was forced to issue a clarification after he called one of his own campaign ads “terrible” in an interview with CBS News.

He was also rebuked Obama after he spoke out against the government bailout of American International Group last week before Obama was ready to take a position.

On Tuesday, he said that President Franklin Roosevelt had gone on television in 1929 to discuss the Wall Street crash – but Herbert Hoover was president in 1929 and the TV hadn’t been invented yet.

At one point, he even said Hillary Clinton might have been a better pick for Obama’s No. 2.

The Republican National Committee has gleefully set up a Biden “gaffe clock” to monitor his disasters on the campaign trail.

Nonetheless, Democratic supporters dismiss outright any speculation that he might be dropped from the ticket.

“It’s crazy. … It’s just not gonna happen,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said.

Dropping Biden from the ticket would be a throwback to George McGovern’s shocker in 1972, when he replaced running mate Thomas Eagleton after it was learned that Eagleton had undergone electro-shock therapy for depression.

McGovern lost to President Nixon in a landslide, suggesting that seventh-inning lineup changes are not the best strategy for presidential candidates who want to shake things up.

Speaking hypothetically, Beckel said that, if it were to happen, the Democratic National Committee could feasibly call a mini-convention of sorts to confirm a new running mate.

He also said “it would be so disruptive” that it would make no sense for Obama to pursue such a change.

Deadlines have passed in some states to send absentee ballots to military personnel and civilian voters overseas — meaning they would have received a ballot already with Biden (and Palin) on their parties’ tickets.

“I doubt it,” said Christopher Hull, presidential scholar and adjunct government professor at Georgetown University, when told of the Biden rumor. “Joe Biden is not that big a liability. Joe Biden was arguably the most experienced candidate in the [Democratic primary] race.”

“Joe Biden, of course, has shot off his mouth and gotten himself in trouble,” he added. “It’s Joe Biden we’re talking about.”

Though Obama lost ground in the polls after McCain tapped Palin to be his running mate, he has recently regained some of that footing. The FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll on Wednesday gave Obama a 6-point lead, and a Washington Post-ABC News poll put his lead at 9 points. The Gallup daily tracking poll gave the Democrat a 3-point lead.

Hull said he would understand the desire to put Clinton on the ticket if Obama were persistently trailing in the polls.

A recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll showed former Clinton backers are still reluctant to support Obama. The survey showed just 58 percent of them back him – unchanged since a similar poll in June.

But Hull said he doesn’t sense panic in the Obama ranks.

Obama, meanwhile, is standing by his man.

“Joe Biden is also an outstanding public servant and I am very proud of the choice that I made,” he told NBC’s “Today Show” in an interview that aired Tuesday. He said he’s a “great admirer of Senator Clinton’s” and he hopes she remains a “close adviser.”

Source:  Daily Mail