Article snippet: Joe Biden won’t be among the parade of White House hopefuls in California this week, as he’s skipping the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting to campaign in New Hampshire instead. The former vice president wants the nation’s first primary state mostly to himself as his closest competitors jockey for attention from hundreds of Democratic officials gathered in San Francisco for the party’s last national meeting before presidential voting begins in February. Biden’s choice is partly a reflection of Democrats’ new rules that strip DNC members of their presidential nominating votes on the first 2020 convention ballot. But it’s just as much an indication of Biden’s deliberate front-runner strategy as he continues to lead national and state primary polls: The 76-year-old candidate is choosing carefully when to appear alongside the candidates who are trying to upend him, and he’s keeping a distance, at least publicly, from the party machinery that ultimately proved an albatross to Hillary Clinton in her 2016 loss to Donald Trump. ‘‘He has a real commitment to be in the early states,’’ said Biden’s campaign chairman, Cedric Richmond, pointing to Biden’s recent four-day swing through Iowa, the first caucus state, along with upcoming trips to South Carolina and Nevada and a return to Iowa. ‘‘I wouldn’t make any more of the scheduling decision than that.’’ Indeed, Biden has joined multicandidate ‘‘cattle calls’’ in Iowa; Nevada, the first Western state in the nom... Link to the full article to read more