I am puzzled as to why Joe Biden is the frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Supposedly, he gets more support from African Americans than any of the other candidates. Is this simply because he was Obama’s VP? I like all of the Democratic candidates, but Uncle Joe doesn’t strike me as being more capable than most of them. Biden voted for most of the things Hillary Clinton voted for when they were both in the Senate, but Clinton was accused of being every negative thing anyone could think of for those votes. Biden actually voted for the 1994 crime bill, as did Sanders and most of the members of CBC, and the overwhelming majority of the black community supported the legislation as well. But, because Hillary Clinton said people who murdered little children and other innocent people in drive-by shootings, were super predators, she was a racist. It has been said that our Russian friends made this a faux issue in the 2016 election, so I am not trying to make it an issue in the 2020 election. I am just pointing out things Biden is apparently getting a pass on.
Biden also gets as pass on how he was part of the good ole boy network during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing and did not allow some of the witnesses to testify on behalf of Anita Hill. He also voted for H.J. Res. 114, not that I hold that against him because contrary to what the press promoted, it was not a war resolution, but rather a peace resolution that the Bush administration and congressional republicans hijacked and made it a war resolution. However, apparently Hillary Clinton was the only Democrat who was responsible for that “resolution”, not a declaration of war, being used to invade Iraq. Biden also initially brushed Obama off as simply being a “clean” candidate in the 2008 primaries.
Now, Biden comes out as being against the Hyde Amendment, at age 76. I guess better late than never. The same women who suffered because of the Hyde Amendment before Biden opposed it, will suffer because of it after he opposes it. But now that he opposes it, that is all he needs to say because he is the only Democrat who can defeat a justly impeached president who was not convicted by the Senate in the 2020 election. Oh, my bad. Trump is not being impeached because House Democratic “leadership” doesn’t think Trump is worth defending the Constitution and the rule of law, and they don’t want to cause anymore division between Trump’s supporters and any sane people.
Double standards. Plus, Hillary was married to you know who. I haven’t made up my mind as to who I will be voting for, but I can say it will not be for Uncle Joe. His time has come and gone, that is my primary reason (pun intended). His candidacy could be the one thing the Democratic party didn’t need. I think the young Democratic party voters are going to shock the system, upset the apple cart, and vote many of out the baby boomers and throw their support behind a younger Presidential candidate.
He doesn’t get one from me, of course, you already know that though.
Biden’s got name recognition going on.
That’s the reason for his popularity.
Lame as it sounds, that’s it.
Exactly. And just as we saw in previous primaries, once voters get to see candidates in debates and get to know them, name recognition fades away as a factor.
Really looking forward to the debates.
At this point, I’m guessing Biden’s lead is simply a matter of name recognition. Ditto for number 2, Sanders. We’ll see how it looks after the debates, and this winter, when the campaign actually gets rolling.
That seems to be the case. What’s interesting is how Warren, Buttigieg and Harris, who have much lower name recognition, have all been rising in the polls while Biden and Sanders have been dropping. I think Biden is riding a bubble that’s not going to last through the debates.
Well, sorry, but we got cheated out of a woman president the last time, and I want a woman next time. Joe’s fine, with all those little exceptions you mentioned, and like the others, I’ll vote for whoever is nominated on the Democratic side. But I really like Elizabeth Warren at this point. She has a plan for just about everything. And Kamala Harris is very impressive as well. It’s time, folks. Let’s join the rest of the civilized world and finally have a woman leading this country. She certainly couldn’t do any worse than this man-child in there at the moment. And besides, nothing would warm the cockles of my heart more than seeing him lose to the second woman running against him. Only this time, let’s hope the Electoral College is in tune with the voters and that enough people come out to vote for her so there’s no question about who won the election.
Elizabeth Warren is my choice for the top of the ticket. I like Julian Castro for VP.
I would be very happy with this combo. 🙂
I’m still at “any rational adult” and whoever can pummel Trump the most effectively. I have to say, Biden’s pretty good at pummeling Trump. I do like that about him. I’m big on Inslee because he has prioritized climate change. I’m also very fond of Harris. But I like all except for two of them: Sanders and Gabbard.
I participated in a fun exercise on Twitter yesterday in which the question was asked, fill in the blank with whatever would be the worst activity or person yet could beat tRump’s ratings.
_____________ 51%
to
tRump 40%
Some fun ones
Colonoscopy 51%
tRump 40%
3 successive root canals 51%
tRump 40%
Dinner and dancing with Steve Bannon 51%
tRump 40%
Hovering over a litter box to pee 51%
tRump 40%
Very funny!!!
A couple more?
Flesh eating virus 51%
Trump 40%
Certain Death 51%
Trump 40%
Ouch!
Jam two knitting needles into eyes 51%
tRump 40%
Drop carving knife on foot 51%
tRump 40%
Kiss Mitch McConnell 51%
tRump 40%
I think both Warren and Harris are going to be strong contenders for the nom though Warren is my favorite between the two.
Remember, the whispers about Obama during the primary was that America might not be ready for a black president so the whispering about America not being ready for a woman president is just as mistaken.
The latest polls show all of the top Dem contenders beating Trump handily so as the primary continues, I think the argument about being a woman could be a liability will be disposed of.
Please don’t go to the “couldn’t do any worse” argument. First of all, you could say that about a carrot. Secondly, and I know it’s not intentional, its patronizing to any female candidate. Let’s judge them at face value.
I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Warren and I’m going to have a t-shirt made – “I’ve Got a Plan for That.”
How is it patronizing to a female candidate when I’m a woman myself? It’s important that this country put a woman in charge because the men have made such a mess of things. Sorry, but that’s just a fact. When this has happened in other countries, it made a huge difference. Check out Iceland, for example. It was on the brink of ruin, but women got in control and put the country back on track. The men in this administration have made such hash of our system and ruined so much of our government, it’s going to take a woman to clean up the mess—as usual. And as you say, Warren has a plan for that, and given half a chance, I will vote for her, too.
I tend to agree with what you’ve written TOCB. I like Joe, but I like a couple of others better. He is not my choice, but if he wins the primary, rest assured I’ll vote for him!
I agree. I will vote for who wins the Primary.
Agree. I will support ANY Democrat over ANY republican.
First off, I am in complete agreement that this kind of “playing-it-safe” mentality that has Biden at the top of polls is a mistake and is exactly how Dems lose elections.
Americans like to be inspired, they really do like hope and change, they want to be excited about how a new president will make things much better and try different things. It worked in Trump’s favor in 2016, it won’t in 2020 but it won’t work for Dems in 2020 if they pick a candidate who doesn’t represent something fresh and optimistic.
Voters don’t get excited by someone who is pointedly not really about change and instead embraces small, incremental tweaks to a system that is not working for most Americans.
It may seem curious at first, Biden’s #1 ranking in the polls, but considering that the two main factors for this will soon dissipate, I think his initial lead in primary polls will decline similarly to Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama in 2008 and Jeb Bush against Donald Trump in 2016.
Polling this early is rarely accurate in predicting outcomes since debates and the actual campaign haven’t begun yet. So all that polls can be based on is name recognition, the bits and pieces about candidates some voters pick up from news items and early campaign stumping which is localized.
As for Biden getting Mulligans, I couldn’t agree more.
We castigate the GOP and Trump voters for ignoring the terrible things (and crimes) Trump does because they favor bigger political goals Trump represents to them (like ending Roe v.Wade and purging people of color from the country). Dems doing the same with Biden and overlooking his positions and decisions that are terribly wrong because they think he’s the best candidate to beat Trump is similarly unprincipled.
Polling always tightens up as elections near and whoever the Dem candidate is will not have a huge advantage by the time November rolls around. Biden’s support for old school, conservative positions are a liability that Trump and Russia will no doubt hammer in a General Campaign if Biden was the nominee. The truth is, there is no candidate more vulnerable to being chopped down over his political baggage than Biden.
It is unacceptable, in today’s Democratic Party, that a Dem candidate would favor the oppression and prejudice that the Hyde Amendment represents. In essence, it created two classes of American women, those who have money and can exercise their Constitutional right to abortion and those who are poor (and mostly people of color) who can’t exercise their Constitutional right to abortion because they are poor. Supporting Hyde was supporting prejudice and a stripping away of Constiutional rights from poor women. That’s not okay.
Biden’s unflattering flip-flop on this exposed the very weakness of his candidacy. He folds as easily as a wet napkin on a supposed principled position he’s held for decades? Because it’s now a political problem? How would Trump portray Biden in a General Election if he does it then too? As weak, unprincipled, desperate and pandering.
Biden has sabotaged himself in other presidential runs, I don’t see why anyone would think he would suddenly become a perfect candidate instead of self-destructive as usual.
And consider how many other issues over which he will be put on the defensive, where he supported something that runs contrary to current day Dem values or American values.
Biden supported the bankruptcy bill that stripped Americans of many rights to claim bankruptcy (Biden did this to help banks over Americans because he’s in Delaware where many banks are based).
Biden supported the crime bill that led to record imprisonment of African Americans.
Biden mistreated Anita Hill and other women in the Clarence Thomas hearings who risked sharing personal stories of sexual harassment to help the country (or wanted to, Biden blocked another woman from testifying about Thomas’ sexual harassment of her).
Biden voted for the Iraq War.
Biden opposed the ACA/Obamacare.
Whether one can make legitimate excuses for some or even all of these positions, it would be Trump-supporter-level denialism to think that these won’t be hammered on by Trump’s campaign to damage and muddy up Biden.
Wouldn’t it just simply be better to have a candidate who was never on the wrong side of all those issues and more?
And if you think Russia was successful depressing Dem turnout for Hillary, imagine how effective they could be depressing Dem turnout with all this ammunition against Biden.
Add to that, Biden is running a cynical front-runner campaign of avoiding details on issues, plagiarizing other candidates and organizations position papers, dissing Progressive Dems as “elitists” and “socialists” and frankly, coming off as a bit creaky and stiff on the stump.
I think that if a candidate so out of touch with the modern day Dem base was the nominee, we could see a 2016 type loss or worse, despite the Hillary-like advantage Biden may have now in polling against Trump.
Dems need a candidate that they can get enthusiastic about and combined with the passion to remove Trump, that would be a powerful voting block that could yield big results for Dems as happened in 2018.
We ran an old school, establishment and corporate-friendly candidate against Trump in 2016 and lost. The numbers proved that voter turnout went down for Dems in 2016, enough to swing the election. There were multiple factors for this, including James Comey’s sabotage of the election, Wikileaks and the Russian disinformation campaign on social media.
However, there is no question that voter enthusiasm for Hillary was lower than for Obama, voters wanting someone new leaned for Trump and the high negatives of both Hillary and Trump discouraged some voters from voting for either of them.
What we need in 2020 in a Dem candidate for president is someone who doesn’t carry decades of baggage that can be used to bury him/her, someone who offers vision, energy and enthusiasm to American voters, someone who has modern day sensibilities on what is right and just and someone who’s not afraid to push for the big changes this country needs.
Unfortunately, Biden doesn’t check any of those boxes. So I think that as the debates begin in about two weeks, we’ll see this sugar-high polling lead of Biden’s dissolve as other Dems step up to hold his feet to the fire on his negatives as a candidate and promote their charisma and determination to the American public.
Well, as I said, I am not against Biden. I just think with all of the other choices, he should be evaluated based on the merit of his case for the job, just like everyone else. Biden has done more good in his career than bad. There are in fact, no perfect people. Also, one does not have to be young, to be able to consider issues that are important and unique to young people. One does not have to be black to consider issues that are important and unique to black people, and so on. Generally, wisdom comes with age and experience, so I am not knocking age and experience. Fortunately, Democrats have a lot of very good choices, including Biden. However, I think it is sexist and insulting for Biden and the press to promote that only a white male can beat Trump. In fact, in a recent poll almost ALL of the top tier Democrats beat Trump. From my perspective, voters win election anyway, and not candidates. As you said, candidates have to inform and motivate voters to make the best choice, which every candidate thinks is him or her. Democrats should appeal to the decency and sanity to every eligible voter. Of course, we will not be the choice of people who have no decency or sanity, i.e., republicans.
I think we can both avoid personal attacks on Dem candidates while being honest about their positives and negatives, otherwise we would be playing that same game of intentional blindness that Trump supporters play.
Biden is a decent man, he has accomplished positive things in his career, he has a very welcoming personality and he is smart.
None of that is negated by pointing out his weaknesses as a candidate and as a potential president.
We need to be able to discern between candidates to pick the one that we feel would both win and make the best president. I know you agree, you expressed this same point.
With regards to Biden having done good things in his career, that is important but so are the things he’s done that weren’t good and have caused harm to Americans. Especially because Trump will not mention the good things the Dem nominee has done but hammer him/her on the bad things they have done (including ones that Trump will make up anyway).
Who would have thought that Hillary’s campaign, which looked pretty inevitiable as a winner, would get so wrapped up and buried in an email server scandal? No damage was done, Trump is violating security in far bigger ways now but the fact that there was a negative that could be so hugely exploited, damaged Hillary’s likely-to-win campaign.
Biden has a number of these negative issues in his massive baggage that Trump will pound on incessantly. The simple proposition would be, “Wouldn’t it just be better not to have a candidate with damaging baggage?”
As for Biden himself, this is an observation not a personal attack. The tone of his campaign is one of entitlement. He is refusing to provide details on any issue except the environment and that was plagiarized, he offers pandering happy talk like claiming Republicans will suddenly become reasonable and happy to work with Dems…if only Biden is elected. He has avoided multiple events where most of the candidates have appeared, he is keeping his distance and apparently trying to only appear in very controlled events to protect his front runner status. His answers to reporters on issues have been plainly evasive, non-specific and uninformative.
Biden is essentially trying to protect his lead by avoiding saying anything specific, aside from saying Trump is an existential threat. That’s not exactly bravery when you’re only trying to appeal to voters who don’t want to vote for Trump.
It should be asked by Dem voters, why is Biden playing his front runner role like it is fragile and could be threatened so easily by him taking specific stands on issues and engaging with the other candidates? Does he and his campaign have a good reason for keeping him in bubble wrap? Don’t you only do that with things that are fragile?
Biden has a rep for having poor judgement in what he says, being a gaffe machine, and the strategy here seems to be to keep him on script, keep him out of specifics and just making general platitudes that won’t offend anyone and trying to slide by and win the primary from within that protected bubble he’s in.
I am very concerned because I think he could lose to Trump when being a vague and distant candidate fails to inspire voter enthusiasm or, being protected from ongoing pressure and conflicts, he is unprepared for the Trump onslaught if he became the nom and he makes gaffes and founders because he hasn’t been conditioning along the way for such a fight.
I do not dislike Biden. I would support him if he became the nominee but fingers and toes would be nervously crossed. I do not think he is the person we need to be President following Trump, a half-measures, vague guy. We need a real leader with a strong vision and to date, Biden has not expressed any genuine vision for a presidency, just vague words supporting things that everyone supports.
We need to win in 2020, that is unquestionable. Whoever the Dem nom is will need all of our support. But we are in a position now to choose a nominee who we think is strong, reflects our values and demonstrates the charisma and courage we want in our next candidate.
I think there are several Dem candidates much better equipped to excite voters to go to the polls, stand toe-to-toe with Trump and who have vision for the America they would help to shape. I’m more interested in them winning than Biden but I’m supporting whoever wins.
I agree. It appears the media is pushing for Biden more than the people are. I don’t believe he is as strong among African Americans as the polls suggest.