Thank you Roger.
19
If you walk down a parade route in the Midwest, (which I just did, twice), you will hear, overwhelming shout outs to Bernie. Sure Warren is great, but it’s Bernie whom the working man relates too. They want his buttons, his stickers, his bumper stickers, and his yard signs. And what other candidate can say, “I wrote the damn bill!”? He’s like a dad to all of us.
20
Just for the record. There's NOTHING Joe Biden could ever say about African-Americans that is more insulting than anything that has come out of Donald Trump's mouth.
That's why all the phony hand-wringing about his "record player" or "poor kids not being as bright and talented as white kids" comment (which happens to be a bit true by the way because there's still massive segregation in schools and no such thing as separate-but-equal) by superficially over-concerned white liberals misses the point entirely.
On top of that lies the fact that Biden still has major credibility among the mostly hardcore moderate base of Black Democratic voters, which is also why Sanders, Warren, Harris and Booker continue to take occasional shots at him.
No doubt one of the reasons for his popularity has a lot to do with his stint as Vice President with Obama and sheer name recognition, but mainly it's because he's perceived as the one with the best chances of getting Trump out of the White House.
Within the two and a half years of his presidency, Blacks have repeatedly learned the answer to the question Trump once asked of them when he was still a candidate: "What the hell do you have to lose by voting for me?"
It just so happens to be quite a lot.
35
Elizabeth Warren is the cream of the crop and would make the president best equipped to move us forward into what good government should mean. There's only one problem, and it's kept people like her out of power with the exception of FDR: what used to be called the "robber baron" class of runaway capitalism. Those in charge of the big banks and giant corporations will never let her near the White House: she wants them to give back! And the obscenely bloated military will also never let her win. Of course this will not happen directly. Bit players in their employ will find a way to kneecap her, just like the DNC did to Bernie in 2016.
19
In the small group of front runners, Warren is the most intelligent of the bunch. Is she a little too progressive in her approach? Only the voters will decide.
I have no favorite at this point. While I like and admire Biden as a person, I am disappointed in his debate performance to date. He is not the sharpest tack in the room. I am just a year younger than him, and could not possibly handle the rigors of the Presidency and be good at it. Trump fits into the same category in my opinion.
I will never vote for a Republican even for dog catcher or garbage collector, even as I think those who perform these tasks have more integrity than a Republican politician.
31
Do the Dems think "Bye-den" can attract the millions who crowded the streets yesterday demanding action on global warming (time to get back to the real terminology)?
What does he have to offer to the generation that will vote for the first time in 2020 and 2022?
33
Donald Trump succeeded in convincing enough Americans that an email storage issue was more disqualifying than his undistinguished life led in self-service.
Let’s not let him convince enough Americans that a few rhetorical stumbles are more disqualifying than the worst presidency in American history.
27
The future (always) belongs to the young. This effort by the "oldsters" to lock up the courts for another thirty years, to block education efforts at all levels, to squash nearly all immigration - is just planting the seeds for pitchforks, torches, and riots in the decades ahead. The world is always going to change. You don't need to get used to it - you won't be here that long. Read a history book. Read up on what's being discovered about the past in archeological excavations... So many billions of lives, over thousands and thousands of years... All VERY finite.
20
A few days ago, Biden said his child care plan would put 720 million women back into the work force. I guess all those women would work at the record player factory so black parents could do a better job raising their children.
Enough already. Now that his administration successfully dodged congressional subpoenas and whistleblower reports, Trump is moving troops into Saudi Arabia. We don’t have time for this nonsense.
A 76 or 78 year old running for President is nothing but selfish. As is a 78 year old being speaker or an 80 year old being majority leader.
22
When Biden announced his candidacy it sucked the air out of the other centrist democrats’ campaigns. Those centrist democrats,Klobuchar and Booker, are more equipped to weather the barrage of childish insults Trump is sure to launch in the campaign, and they are more likely to pull in independent voters who will not vote for someone who is out of touch with a rapidly changing modern world. Right now my biggest fear is that the dems nominate Biden who will get lit up by Trump in debates, or the dems will nominate Warren, who I really like, and watch her lose the electoral college vote.
15
I was disappointed with this column. It strung together the commonplace observations that I hear everywhere in the establishment press. It downplayed Biden's mental state, as merely befuddled, when in fact it is a real and growing senility. And, predictably, it reluctantly, but insistently, adopted the current Progressive consensus that Elizabeth Warren is the one. And he was sure to tell us that her policies, which obviously are socialist, aren't socialist because, get this, she says she's a capitalist to her bones.
But perhaps it will comfort some uneasy Democrats.
12
Biden is too frail to be the President. A vote for Biden for President ,I would fear, would really be a vote for his Vice President.
13
The only evidence of Biden's unfitness is his tone deaf answer to a debate question regarding African Americans raising their children? That's it? Biden can't win because of that? I counter that with African Americans support him in droves. Beating Trump is the name of the game, not checking every single liberal box. Let's not let this Democratic primary devolve into crabs in a bucket. Stop attacking Uncle Joe, he can and will win. Biden Warren 2020!
12
Honestly, Mr. Cohen, if you don't know that lecturing African Americans on what ought to be insulting to them-this or that thing Biden said-is more patronizing and blinkered than anything Biden has said.
15
To be President, Per Article II, section I of the Constitution, you must be:
A Natural born citizen of the US,
Fourteen years a resident within the US,
At least age 35.
Maybe we should tighten the qualifications.
8
Roger, have you ever wondered what the Biden family is up to in Ukraine?
8
Roger Cohen blames Biden for having Pat Moynihan's warnings about the black family's disintegration. The black family still is disintegrating and its youth is still in trouble. Of course the white family is no example of success either.
As Biden begins to assess the whistleblower crisis now raging he shows a lack of vigor and seriousness which may be caused by his own Ukrainian involvements which may be unsavory to say the least.
8
Warren will NEVER get the black vote. We have absolutely NO connection with her what’s so ever.
10
I'm a Progressive. leftist Democrat. I thought Obama was a nice bore. Biden bores me more. Let's get original.
9
I'll rather spend less of my time over-analyzing Biden who is a tested and far better candidate than the political demagogue who is in power. I'll focus more on getting rid of this government of idiots who only makes noise, are so inconsistent, gets nothing done but shames and undermines America all over the world.
9
Biden was the second in command to a black man who was twice voted in as president of the United States...why is it he doesn’t broach the image of black people from that educated, intelligent perspective than poor, backwards people who all need social workers to help us raise our children...seems everybody is living in the “dark” ages.
8
"They don’t know what to do! Make sure the kids hear words! This is insulting toward African-Americans."
But it is true.
Ignore the problem and you are called a racist.
Try to address the problem by helping and you are blamed for being patronizing, or insulting.
What is left, then?
9
how about a Biden/Warren ticket?
6
The idea that a winning debate performance equals a win in the general election is a false equivalency. Yet, that is what I read repeatedly, Warren will win the debate with Trump because she is smart and has a lot of good policy ideas. Hillary Clinton was smart and had a lot of good policy ideas, too. She was better prepared and more articulate than Trump in the debates and won all three, but she didn’t win the general election.
People seem to be really looking forward to those debates because, as they predict, Warren will be clearly superior to Trump on all three nights. But I am looking forward to four years of good governance, and I want a candidate that can win the general election, not just three nights.
19
This over-80 is underwhelmed by Joe Biden, too, and always has been. If Democrats choose him as their standard-bearer for 2020, they consign themselves to a long march back to the future of 2016, putting up another lame candidate with all the pizzazz of a bald snow tire.
I'm prepared to lay good money on this, then skedaddle out of the country, and maybe the planet, if faced with the prospect of a second Trump presidency.
21
Both parties are in a transitional period---each trying to forge a new identity--so it is understandable that the Democrats are constructing a new narrative--which admittedly looks messy. As for the Republicans, Trump has finally exposed the old Republican narrative for what it was---Voodoo economics mixed in with the cultural war of the day--and even worse for the party, replaced this already tired narrative with his own personalized Trump brand---a toxic mix of racism, nativism, sexism, and nationalism. Even if somehow the Republican party wins or rather steals the next election, they are a dead party walking.
6
Biden has way to much baggage, the essentially blackmail stunt that Uncle Joe ran to help his son Hunter “score big” should by itself disqualify him; much less egregious offenses by Trump cronies Manafort and company put them all in prison. Biden is a watered down version of Clinton; the term “ all hat no cowboy” describes Uncle Joe to a tee. As for Warren she terrific on policy rhetoric but aside from the fact she rode in on Bernie’s coat tails I doubt she will do anything to bring about single payer nor when push comes to shove many other reforms, she’s a centrist at heart which becomes more evident daily as corporate owned mainstream media backs her and attempts to kick the only real reformer running to the curb yet again. There’s only one candidate running who will really fight for what little is left out the former Middle Class and that candidate is Mr. Bernie Sanders.
4
Biden is right on race. Healing our racial divide will mean much greater and deeper effort than we can contemplate, way past pay offs to descendents of slaves and nationally enforced busing. His responses indicate an arising of a lifetime of thought and concern on these matters, so far past the glib new programs as to be indecipherable to the young. This indicates a disconnect from real politics and the long struggle...the long haul...of democracy in our history and from the wisdom of those of us who fought those wars. I’m concerned at the level of stupidity and childish anger. What foolishness, and we will all pay for it. What a loss, beyond comprehension really.
8
Good article. Biden is possibly the worst choice to beat Trump. He was flustered by the half-hearted attacks on his record by fellow Democrats. How will he fair under the stupid school yard taunts by the trumpster?
He has no real policy ideas to fall back on. The way to beat trump is to eviscerate him for his obvious and constant lies, then pivot to the
exciting new ideas and policies you propose. This style fits Senator Warren perfectly.
11
With any luck, Mr. Trump might mount a successful campaign to knock out Mr. Biden before Mr. Biden is nominated. If Mr Trump does so, then in the end, the only positive contribution of Mr. Trump to the world might end up being keeping both Mr. Biden and Ms. Clinton out of the White House. Of course, the presence of Mr. Trump is a terrible price to pay for the blocking of Mr. Biden and Ms. Clinton. We really are at a nadir when these three persons are at the center of the national political conversation.
6
“Is Warren too far left to win? Maybe. “
That matters. Job 1. Is dethroning Trump.
Biden is a flawed yet fine man that takes informal talk a little too far. Big deal. He isn’t racist or neoliberal. It’s not fair that in these identities correct times, Biden gets waylaid for his age. Support the candidates in general as the process produces a nominee.
10
Not even a mention of the brilliant and vigorous Pete Buttigieg? Odd. He’s polling better or even with Harris and Booker.
11
Biden is starting to sound a lot like GW Bush.
JB is way smarter than W - but when w said things like the "food on your family" comment, I took it not necessarily as a sign that W was dumb (though I think he is), but more as a sign that he wasn't paying attention, that he was just mouthing his lines, that he didn't really believe what he was trying to say, and his head/heart weren't in it.
Biden seems to be trying to rattle off talking points, to tick through lists of stats and evidence and policy prescriptions...but his brain and mouth aren't syncing up.
Add in the fact that he's from a bygone era where people like him might have had their hearts in the right place but their do-good-ism was served on a platter of paternalism...and you've got the leading Dem candidate.
5
"What created Trump cannot oust Trump." That's it in a nutshell.
6
If Biden is the nominee he will lose to Trump.
11
It's important to remember that this is not just an election about beating Trump....it's also an election about defeating the 39-year-old radical, right-wing Republican war on democracy, the common good, facts and fair play that produced and sustained Trump to this day.
Stolen elections are standard operating Republican procedure since at least 2000.
Purge the voter files, pass voter suppression laws, gerrymander the House, don't put enough voting machines in the city so minorities have to wait in two-hour lines to vote, black-box-computer-'count' the votes, and pollute the TV and radio airwaves with Pachyderm Spongiform Encephalopathy that turns half the nation's mind to rabid mush.
Joe Biden thinks he can work with these GOPeople ?!
You can't work with Republican politicians and operatives; they're demonstrated political hijackers who've successfully run the American plane into the ground.
What makes Elizabeth Warren the right person at this point in history is that she knows how to build a new airplane and will help us build because she's the only capable of generating a Blue Tsunami of support that gives Democrats the House, the Senate and the Presidency.
And Bernie simply got out-Bernied.
Warren is an actual populist in the finest, authentic sense of the word and she knows how to unrig the Grand Oligarch Project .....as opposed to the current Oval Office fraud, whose populism is sauteed, baked and deep-fried in the Demagogue's Recommended Daily Allowance of spite.
14
"The genius of Barack Obama lay in the fact that Americans looked at him and could believe in almost anything."
And, the failure of Barack Obama lay in the fact that he chose to forget that he was elected to serve all of the people, all of the time.
Aside from his introduction of a poorly designed health plan, which still failed to cover all Americans, he helped rig it so Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and the Hospital Industry, and peripheral businesses, would still be the winners, continuing to beggar the poor and the middle-class, and still leaving millions uninsured.
And following right along after this debacle, our Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer democrats tried to shove the incrementalist talker, status quo protector, Hillary down our throats, causing such widespread anger that the people, so fed up, embraced the Liar In-Chief, and the rest is history.
Fast forward 3 years, and here is our "Here we go again", moment, as our Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer democrats try to shove their latest annointed representative with their resurrected incrementalist agenda down our throats, already stuffed with the decades long suffering their policies heaped on the poor and the middle-class.
Well, I'll tell you all something; we are not taking it; we got your number and we don't want any part of what you are offering, so prepare for irevelance, because come November 3, 2020 "we the people" will creat a tsunami of support for Bernie or Elizabeth, and elect either as our 46th President
8
Obviously the NYT is supporting Warren, given its hit pieces on Biden every other day. A note to Dems: if you want another term of Trump, nominate Warren. She is not electable. If you want to win, choose Biden. If you nominate Warren, don't complain after Trump wins.
13
I am tired of this sort of pontification. Not a vote has been counted yet. I think Pete Buttigieg is the smartest, most thoughtful, capable politician to come along in my life time, and you don't even mention him.
8
Elizabeth Warren must become my 2020 president. I make that simple statement because instead of discussing "the other 2" I want to raise a question about Barack Obama as "the first black president" and how the answer may bear on where America goes from 2020 on.
There is no such thing as a pure black, white, or - choose your color - human being. It was and is useful for the Obamas to be "seen as black" but as we look forward to the world beyond 2020 it would be useful for them to do as Jesmyn Ward has done in her "The Fire This Time" - explain how each individual genome is a lesson in evolutionary genetics and in the benefits of infinite mixing.
They and you, reader, might begin by reading Thomas Chatterton Williams gripping essay in the Sunday Times Magazine, drawn from his yet unpublished book with these two words at the end of its title:
UNLEARNING RACE
When we, the American people, begin to do that we can finally begin to celebrate the virtues of infinite mixing and then with Elizabeth Warren in the lead learn that only by offering every mixed citizen guaranteed best possible health and the end of poverty can the potential of a Barack or a Michelle or any other endowed with certain hidden gifts be fully realized.
Warren can show the way. The Obamas could help in their as yet untapped own ways.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
4
This is an article worth re-reading, clearly assessing the Democrat contenders.
However, I near choked on the praises heaped on Obama. His coolness, aloofness and masked brilliance is code for the reality of his being an empty suit. Now there is a similarity that Biden can relate to.
1
I've always thought Obama picked Biden for vice-president because he liked Joe and wanted to inoculate him against the "I gotta be president" bug. Too bad it didn't take.
3
Since the most loyal and long suffering base of the Democratic Party is black African American Protestant female why are the top three polling Democrats 78 year old white Bernie Sanders of Vermont, 76 year old white Joe Biden of Delaware and 71 year old white Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts?
Vermont is the 2nd least populous and one of the whitest states in the Union. Delaware isn't much better on population size but more diverse. Massachusetts devolved from Edward Brooke to Scott Brown. Massachusetts evolved from Mitt Romney to Deval Patrick.
My South Side Chicago homeboy Deval Patrick was my dream 2020 Democratic Party Presidential nominee. That he chose not to run for apparently many of the same personal family reasons that kept Colin Powell out is understandable.
I am still waiting for the first black President with a black African American father and mother enslaved and/or free-person of color historical ancestral legacy.
1
I don't know how anyone takes what the NY Times predicts about a Presidental election seriously after the 2016 election, especially since the paper has long given up any pretense of impartiality. Again, I say, I may just sit this election out for the first time since Carter vs. Reagan.
3
What a mess this Democratic Party is. I love it.
3
Biden (Obama) lost me when NO ONE went to jail following 2008 near meltdown of our economy. I am not afraid!
6
Am I the only person who doesn’t want to pay for everyone’s Medicare? My employer pays plenty.
If your illegal nanny and her aged sickly mother who never paid a dime want me to foot the bill for their health care please give me a reason to watch my taxes skyrocket.
I will not be voting for Warren!
5
The first woman President a serious policy expert and Harvard Law Professor? Sounds good to me after these recent years. The funny thing is, no one may hear that glass ceiling shatter because of the wild celebration that breaks out when we collectively shout to 45 “YOU’RE FIRED!”
6
“Americans looked at him and could believe in almost anything...”
Yeah, no.
1
If Russia doesn’t throw this election to Trump than hypersensitive journalists surely will. Heaven help us.
Seventy good polls have been taken of Biden vs Trump. Biden leads in all of them. 70-0. And no, Clinton didn’t lead Trump by this much, and Trump was an unknown quantity is 2015.
I’ll be happy with Warren too, but stop with the wishful thinking that because you don’t like Joe, voters don’t like him. Voters elected Trump. We’re really going to pretend that racial gaffes and occasional word salad are dealbreakers for this country?
Please feel free to write replies that you’re outraged, **outraged** that I’m not outraged, **outraged** over Joe Biden’s slips. I’m all woke-d out for the foreseeable future.
13
I was born on the cusp of the Baby Boom and I already have a Warren bumper sticker on my pickup truck.
4
Let's review: Sanders leads all Democrats in California; leads in New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado and is within the margin of error in Iowa (even as Biden sinks.) He is the great hope of milllons of young people (leading in Pew Gallup, Harvard Harris, Emerson and Fox News polling with voters under 50. He is the favorite of LatinX voters and trails Biden, but not by much, among African Americans. (He even beats Trump in Texas by 6%). According to Pew Polling, Sanders is favored by urban voters, working Americans, union voters and even women (due to his fight to force Amazon, Walmart, Disney, Target and 11 tates to pay minimum wage workers $15 an hour - as most of these workers are women and minorities with children.) Further, he beats Trump in 32 of 33 polls since 2015 when he first became a national figure. And he has done all of this with The NY Times and cable news throwing rocks at him everywhere. Now comes Roger Cohen, in his Timesman bubble, yet the latest to predict Bernie's ruin. It will make it so much sweeter when Sanders takes the nomination to go back and revisit this absurd and pretentious article. Will Cohen apologize for his error, as he has never apologized for his other ridiculous forecasts? For Iraq, for example? Doubtful.. Which is why people hate the elite media which sees only its reflections in the mirror...
3
Run Biden, lose to Trump; it's just that simple.
4
Mr. Cohen,
You continue to have your finger on the pulse of America. You always get it right.
I'm an old white guy, and I'm so very tired of old white guys running things. We've just about ruined the Country by being captured by the corporate benefactors. When the eventual head to head comes between Biden and Warren we're going to hear Biden try to defend the bankruptcy code that he pushed through to protect all the banks and that Warren was on the other side in that fight. She'll open Biden like a knife in a fish. I can't wait!
7
At this point, Warren scares me if she gets the nomination. She is under water with the African-American vote. Case closed.
Let's go Joe !
8
Thank Mr. Cohen for four more years of Trump...
5
No you're wrong, Roger.
You haven't spent enough time in America lately to understand how much Elizabeth Warren is seen as another distasteful Hillary Clinton liberal woman with an annoying voice who wants more government in our lives.
America will not elect Elizabeth Warren or any minority in 2020. She is no Barack Obama or Donald Trump as a dark horse.
Why does the media always fall for the Massachusetts liberals like Dukakis Kerry and now Warren, who are really so out of touch with how people live (preferring smaller government intrusion) in almost all other parts of the nation?
7
I would like nothing better than a third Obama term.
7
I've read through the lot of posts in this forum so far, as with all the others in the last few months. Yes, it's still early, but I'm fairly convinced that what I've feared all along is coming to pass: that Csar TrumPutin will coast in to a 2nd term unless Democrats start walking the empty talk of unity and get behind someone without decimating them—and our hope—in the process.
To read these in the wee hours of this Sat morn is to recognize what most are now oblivious to: that the majority of the electorate is now acclimated to the political subversion that has swept the country. If that were not, these forums would look a whole lot different.
Before you debate me on this, tell me where to find the urgency in here reflecting our democracy in peril. This reads like any other pre-election year armchair analysis.
We have a knack for shooting ourselves in the foot. Before we hammer the last nail of democracy's coffin, we'd better figure out in a hurry that this is not normal electoral protocol. Worried about being tagged a democratic socialist? Don't know about you, but that seems pretty tame compared to a sellout.
BHO's vision of Hope and Change was meant not just for his limited term, but as a link to a new long-term trajectory.
If we're going to get beyond the temporary subversive reaction to that vision that has swept both the country and our psyche, we'd better figure out how to think—AND ACT—a lot more outside the box than what we're, so far, willing to.
7
What Roger, no love for Peter Buttigieg? He's going to surprise in Iowa and New Hampshire. Take that to the bank.
1
If The nominated candidate chooses Pete Buttigieg as their VP , I would love to see him debating Mike Pence and put him in his place.
6
This is just another nostalgic article for a return to the pre -neoliberal Obama years by an establishment insider. No thanks!
3
Andrew Yang is close.
But overcoming deep seated bigotry against Asians won’t be fashionable until the third season.
2
Of course he should have been savvy enough to know not to equate poor people with black people. But, virtually all reporting on income equality and the poor reminds us that blacks are over represented among the poor. So, Biden can be forgiven for regurgitating the party line, even though he didn't do it quite correctly.
1
I don’t get Roger Cohen. Biden continues to be the Dem party choice in polls and the most likely to beat Trump. Why? Roger certainly doesn’t know. He has no feel for this sort of thing. Maybe, just maybe, he can talk to some Biden supporters and find out.
6
Biden, the not trump candidate
3
From afar, i tell you what it looks like:
And I am not one to use the 'r' word liberally.
American centrist elite Democrats, simply do not want to be associated with racists
But they are still economic racists.
2
With articles like this, why does Trump need the Ukraine's help in bringing down Biden?
9
Biden’s record player gaffe, however pathetically amusing, is getting too much attention.
The real shockers, along with his racist remarks, have been his comments about women. At his Hanover NH town hall, Biden made a series of bizarre comments, including one about “sexual relations” with the corpse of a freshly murdered woman. He said that women “wouldn’t understand“ his feelings about the civil rights movement. He said that if he ever made a misstep on education policy he would have to “sleep alone “: I guess his wife, a teacher, is not permitted to express disapproval except by withholding sex.
Biden’s gotta go.
3
And so the first of many small cuts begins, as Cohen and his minions begin their evisceration of Joe Biden.
4
I'm Joe Biden's age. If he were in my circle of friends my age, we would worry about him.
5
Well since this piece to makes the assumption that democrats are stupid and have no grasp at all, of the issues associated with this election.
This gutter president and his Russian supporters Moscow Mitch have to be swept out of office and if we need to promote a moderate who becomes the chosen candidate then we need to . Progressives will not stay home the stakes are to high. The children came out today for climate change across the world, the protesters are out day in and day out in Hong Kong. Maybe the democrat talknig heads can stay home the rest of us will be out on the streets campaigning for our candidate.
President Obama and Joe Biden saved this country from a depression and the gutter president will destroy us if we dont have the right candidate. We will not be defined by writers, Warren Bernie is doing the hard work. when Booker, Harris the candidates who are favorites for the NYT begin to do the hard work of understanding policy and really begin to talk to the American people they might deserve a second look. However they have been in the race for a long time now, running on the money from Wall Street and elites. Why should they care about the people.
We have a know nothing president now and we dont need to lose another 4 years of going backward.
Biden on his worst day is better than a gutter rat do nothing president. American people are entitled to a president who care about this country not the opinion of the NYT
7
There are a lot of good Dems running.
And let's face it, a ham sandwich would be a huge improvement over the current clown.
Among the current Dems, Biden would be a fine president.
Some of the key criticism here seems to hinge on the fact that Biden refers to using a "record player"? Give me a break!
Is Cohen really trying to imply that Biden is a racist? Was Joe really trying to insult African-Americans?
Most Americans see Biden as a decent, ordinary guy who can sometimes be clumsy with words. Many of have known that about Joe for over 30 years.
Mr. Cohen appears to be reaching too much for op-ed content.
5
Who would Obama vote for in the Dem Primary if no one would ever find out?
1
VP Biden needs to step-aside ASAP.
His time for a run at POTUS has come and gone. He would have beaten Trump in 2016 but he refused to run for personal reasons. Fair enough, but you don't get a second try at the brass ring when your country needs you to step-up and you decline to do so.
Biden can be effective campaigning for the Democrat's candidate in the key electoral college states of WI, MI, PA, OH and NC. The sooner he recognizes this is his assigned role in 2020 the better off the nation will be.
2
The Times is working hard to create a narrative of Biden as too old and out of touch.
When I think of Biden, I will always remember that he brought Obama kicking and screaming to back gay marriage. I think of how he consistently points out the danger of Trump, doing so far more than any candidate. Trump is an existential threat to our democracy, and any other issue can’t compare.
I had viewed Warren as a grand-stander as senator, but she has impressed me during this campaign. Having said that, polls of Warren vs Trump are too narrow for comfort, and I’m sure that Trump would eat her alive on the campaign trail. She doesn’t stand a chance against him.
I could see Biden, Harris, or Buttigieg taking him on, but Warren doesn’t have a prayer.
6
The closer I look at Joe Biden, the more problematic he becomes as a Presidential candidate. He comes off poorly in George Packer's "The Unwinding." Maybe, though, he makes a good stalking horse for the other candidates, drawing flak from Trump while they get more deeply established with the electorate.
1
Just to make one point -
Many African Americans have done very well - are as well educated, sophisticated, affluent, happy, comfortable as anyone else. The fact is that huge areas of poor African Americans still exist. Every large city in the US has 'ghettos' full of them. I am a teacher; I've worked in these neighborhoods in a very large city in the southwest. It's very easy for me to believe that these are the 'blacks' Biden refers to, in fact, I'm sure of it. There is great need there and great potential, yes. These are clusters of people who never made it out of the reconstruction era. There is such opportunity there - these people need assistance, and not just from the government, but from all of us. By the way, I'm so-called "white."
2
Thanks for this important column Mr. Cohen. However, I think it’s imperative that we no longer hedge the issue about the “occasionally befuddled and befuddling” Biden. He has already shown a “shocking moment of incoherence” at the last debate. I wish Biden were younger but his cognitive decline is showing. That is not a criticism nor is it ageism; it is a simple fact. Mr. Cohen’s column is a beginning of the discussion. It needs to be brought to the fore. We do not have time to kick around. I hope more journalists will help Americans understand what’s going on with dear ol’ Joe.
6
I will hazard a guess that 99% of voters already know who they will vote for, regardless of who gets the Democratic nomination, even if they will not admit it. Trump has indeed been successful in getting people to unite, just on one side or another. For sure, you either want 4 more years of this or you do not. It is that simple.
I really wish commentators would spend more time on the races that are in play, in the Senate and the House. That is what we need to hear about, we know all we need to know about the Presidental race already.
4
I’m not under 40 and I’m still underwhelmed by Biden.
That this has-been, several time loser is at the front of the Democratic pack is an indictment of the Democratic party. If you insist on pushing the same old, same old, couldn’t you at least run it in a younger package, more likely to make it through 8 years? Beto or Pete, for example...
Bernie and Liz, in contrast, have new ideas and the courage to fight for them. I don’t care how old they are (though I wish both had more years ahead of them than behind them) because they are the only ones in the primaries fighting for those ideas.
I’ll vote for Bernie or Lizzie. But not Biden.
I’m done holding my nose to keep from scaring the corporate Dems.
A tone deaf corporate centrist is who gave us Trump.
Best take that warning to heart DNC.
6
Am I the only person who wishes I knew their running mates?
President Trump seems to be keeping quiet on Elizabeth Warren, though he did make one reference to the fact that his Pocahontas label did not stick. There exists the common belief that he is afraid of Joe Biden, but I believe he is plenty afraid of Elizabeth Warren, and will be more so. You don't see him harping much on Nancy Pelosi, but he is plenty afraid of her.
4
I have believed that from the very first poll, which was probably mid November of 2016, that the real front-runner was whoever was in third place behind Bernie and Joe. They were on top because of name recognition and a wistful nostalgia. It surprises me that it is Ms Warren. I thought that one of the younger candidates, Kamala Harris or Cory Booker would break out. Ms Warren is a quick study and, proposals aside, has grown as a campaigner. She has learned to balance her natural professorial geekiness with a common touch, and I suspect that her "I have a plan for that" persona will play well with the intellectually bereft floundering fool in the White House. It is early yet, and someone else may yet emerge. If Michelle anounces between the time that I write this and it is published, just forget everything that both Roger and everybody else has written, cancel the primaries and claim victory.
@runaway: My dream team? Michelle and Pete.
2
We're not going back. We're not standing still. We're not going with someone who fumbles answer after answer. We want someone who can beat Trump. And we want some who can move the country forward. In 2020 it's Warrren.
3
The assertion is made that Biden's politics created the success of Trump. Is there any evidence for this? How about a growing disrespect for science in our society in general? How about the power of TV to make celebrities. How about growing worship of celebrities? How about the power of the internet to connect and empower wacko theorists? I think the general trajectory of our society rather than any particular political idea or phenomenon is far more likely to have led to Trump.
7
My first thought at least, it that maybe, finally, we will vote not on who it the hottest debater or most charismatic, but on policy. No, we don't want to outlaw private insurance. Border policy need to be much more humane, but within limits.
I wish there were more choices (like Instant Runoff would give) but for now, my vote is for Biden. If Biden has to delegate more responsibility, because of his age, that may be just what we, and the Presidency needs.
8
Let's be clear, Biden doesn't have it.
Judgment he has not. Otherwise he would have never promoted a retrograde Republican to the Supreme Court.
Modern he is not. He does not grasp the need to fight Climate Change or move into new sources of Energy.
That leaves us all US citizens with only one choice, and that is Mrs. Warren. Even if she was not our first choice.
4
@Leon
I'm tired and tired of all this prognosticating.
We are still a DEMOCRACY.
The "only one choice" is for US citizens is to make up their own minds and VOTE Trump out of the White House.
5
Joe Biden has his heart in the right place. But, so do I. I trust you, dear reader, do as well. It's a proper foil to heartlessness. But it's not sufficient to deal with the pace of change required to keep up with all of the tipping points we've reached. The ship of state is listing heavily. Biden may keep the USA afloat, but I don't think he can steer it in the right direction. We are in the doldrums of decline. We need to catch a good tail wind and move on from Trump, Putin, Moscow Mitch, Kim Jung Un, and all would be populist dictators of the 21st century.
3
I prefer that a moderate Dem get the nomination as I feel the Dems would be best served by offering Independents and those remaining moderate Repubs who do not like Trump someone with policies that do not scare them away. If Congress is to become functional once again, it will require compromise and coalition building. I believe that it will be difficult for Warren to pivot enough to do this and I strongly believe that Bernie can not see beyond his policies. Biden has the experience and intrinsic tendency to do just this, but at times comes across as living in the past - he needs a more forward-looking message. I would prefer a younger moderate Dem such as Klobuchar, Booker, Bullock or possibly Buttigieg be the candidate as they do project a vision of America moving forward that should resonate with a broader spectrum voters. However, as said often by many, any Dem is preferable to Trump whose "real world experience" as president consists of insulting and alienating our allies, indecision, cozying up to autocrats, retreating from an position of world leadership and demonstrating to the whole world his total ignorance of the world and history.
8
The revelations of Ukrainegate may damage Biden as much as Trump. There is a deep resentment of favoritism and entitlement extended to families of politicians. Biden's son Hunter has flourished in roles carved out by his father's connections and positions. Nothing apparently illegal, but a well-greased and highly compensated career as a lobbyist with questionable ties to foreign governments. Biden himself has been making millions in speaking engagements (think about that). It is time for Joe to enjoy his retirement and the wealth he has accumulated since leaving the vice-presidency.
3
@Rick Spanier
So what if Hunter enjoyed professional advantages because of his father? That's reality. So what if Biden has made money in speaking engagements? Why shouldn't he if people want to hear him and pay for his speeches? That doesn't diminish his value as president. Both Presidents Roosevelt, came from wealthy families yet cared about the country and the people. Kennedy came from a wealthy family that reportedly made money from dubious sources. That didn't stop him from being a fine president. Heck, Trump was elected despite his known unsavory character and business behavior.
Who can win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, at the very least, and add Florida? That's what matters. Otherwise, all the other lofty goals and ideals will never materialize.
1
@Rick Spanier: Of course it will damage Biden as much as Trump. This is how Trump won in 2016. He made Hillary worse than him. Trump's 'unfavorable' poll number was way low. But he brought, through the course of the campaign, Hillary's down to almost as low as his.
This is what his strategy is: damage your opponent, cheating, using our government to do the dirty work, do whatever it takes to so sully your opponent, confuse and exhaust so many people that you benefit, you win by the slightest electoral vote margin possible.
But winning is everything and then he will become a true tyrant that no one can stop. America will be done in. It will be no more.
1
Pete Buttigieg is my candidate. He checks all the boxes. To be blunt - if he weren’t gay, he would be the front-runner. Am I wrong?
10
@Concerned MD
Yes. He's too young with absolutely no experience on the national political stage. He may very well be felled by his own ambitions, at his age a better plan than to jump into the presidential race would have been to run for governor or senator or etc.
3
I agree he “checks all the boxes” but his being gay is not the problem. He’s just not ready for “prime time”, intellectually he is but experience wise, he is not. His lack of experience showed in his dealings with the South Bend police union.
1
Sure.
If only Clinton weren’t a woman, she’d be the Democratic frontrunner. Oh wait, she was.
If only Obama weren’t black, he’d be the Democratic frontrunner. Ah, but he was, wasn’t he?
And now: Mayor Pete would be the Democratic frontrunner except that he’s gay.
But let me throw something out there: Perhaps being gay is not his problem. Perhaps its being a rather inexperienced, corporate centrist that is his problem.
Seems like a nice guy otherwise, though. Kind of like a woke and well spoken Joe Biden.
1
I don't understand this obsession with the prospect of a warren-trump debate. Even if Warren can deliver a debate performance which would far exceed whatever Biden could do, it wouldn't matter much. People generally do not make election decisions based on debates. And thinking being smarter than Trump is enough, I reference you to the last election. People make gut decisions about who is going to work for them, and if democrats want to retake the rustbelt and major city suburbs, its Biden and not Warren that will make the best case.
9
I think I may be the only one unimpressed by Warren’s debating abilities. To my ear, she lectures and creates fog with words. I still love her, but I don’t think a Trump/Warren debate would be ‘must see’ tv. Besides, Trump lost 3 debates in 2016 and still became President— so how much does this really matter.
7
America's restoration from Trump will not be achieved by going back to the conditions that spawned him, but Mr. Cohen is wrong to worry whether Elizabeth Warren is "too far left to win." Her problem is that she is not left enough. We are way past trying to "reform" capitalism. Capitalism is why we have burned through our resources and are poisoning the planet. It is what created the wealth gap that has so polarized the world's populations that neofascist governments are springing up throughout the West, led by Trump's noxious example.
Democrats have still not come to grips with why the Rust Belt, fairly reliably for them in presidential politics for three decades, went for Trump in 2016. It wasn't because of Russians. It was because Democrats had offered those voters not economic solutions but rhetoric, while pushing the policies of their donors like NAFTA, repeal of Glass-Steagall, and anti-union legislation which made their situation worse. Rust Belters may want a beer with Joe Biden, but they are not going to vote for the man who was the very architect of policies that hollowed out their economies. Polls show that Warren's tweedy demeanor and top-down solutions are not resonating with them either.
Bernie Sanders won the 2016 Rust Belt primaries for a reason. What Mr. Cohen dismisses as his "habitual dyspepsia," voters see as authentic indignation. While Wall Street and the establishment may be arrayed against him, they see him as having all the right enemies.
7
I love Bernie, and will vote for him, but I’m willing to hold my nose and vote for Liz.
In fact, I’d even not be sad about it. While she is not my ideal candidate she is at least a giant step towards moving the American Overton window away from the hard right and toward the center.
As long as she takes climate and environment seriously, we can then wait for AOC’s first term for the next steps.
@Boris Jones
So. True. Having strong enemies is a blessing!
1
My daughter and son in law who are in their 30's understand that a new vision for the future is necessary for their own children to thrive.
Endless war, income and racial inequality, a planet in crisis and the mantra of "staying the course" and taking the "safe" option is not going to get the job done.
America, listen to your children. They get it.
10
Well, the only epithet Trump ever used that hit the mark was 'Sleepy Joe'. I dread his candidacy. As Cohen argues, the next Democratic nominee must be able to energise not just the base but the independents and Trump supporters who are wavering.
The Democrats need someone with guts and charm, a cross between Tulsi Gabbard (who held her own on Fox recently) and Bill Clinton (who won over the nation's youth, wearing shades and playing tenor sax on the Arsenio Hall show).
If Biden runs, swing voters will stay away.
2
Whoever the Democrats choose has a shot at the Presidency only when the general public tune in to the debates. So choose the best debater, and that's it. Presidency is not much of a big deal in the era of Trump; he has lowered the standards to such a level anybody can be a better President. And there is a truckload of qualified individuals who will take care of the daily business of administration.
Sorry, but you are not going to win an election with a candidate who is going to take away your private health insurance. Her position on reparations will not win her any votes either. I wish either Booker, Harris, Klobuchar, or buttigieg would gain more traction but that hasn’t happened yet. And I really don’t know why. So we may end up going into this race with something less than our best effort. Be that as it may, Biden still has enough left to beat Trump.
8
Americans "love" their private health insurance!?? a big chunk of us have employer provided health insurance. We have no voice in what insurance our employer chooses and the money spent on it by our employers and (usually) also by us is money we don't get in our paychecks. Our employers look for a good deal. If we change jobs we get different insurance from the new employer - usually meaning that we cannot keep our doctors and have to use the ones that take the new insurance. Since we use antiquated systems of health record keeping the new doctors have only our memories to rely upon for our medical histories. Not a problem for anybody under 30, but more and more of a problem after that. Our employers also have to compete on world markets with companies based in Europe and Asia that don't have "employee health insurance" on their balance sheets.
Our private health insurance, which we love so much, is free to change what medications and procedures they cover from year to year and we can either accept their decisions or look for a different health insurer - and all new doctors.
We love that every time we go to the doctor or hospital we are bombarded with forms asking the same questions about our medications and medical history so the provider can have their medical insurance staff or an outside service transcribe the form into one of the dozens of health insurer's forms - a completely redundant task contributing only to the annual increase in premiums.
6
I am not sure who to vote for, and being in SC I’ll have a first-ish crack. I’m 40, a xennial, and know in my heart of hearts that Biden will fall over before the next 4 years is up. He’s been an amazing Statesman, but his energy is waning. Sanders is old & grumpy and has been a Fox News target for too long. He is a fighter but has never shown the diplomacy chops to allow me to support him. Warren is by far my favorite candidate. She’s smart & passionate, and connects with people. Booker would also be fantastic. He’s just been overshadowed. I think Buttigeig & O’Rourke are inspiring much like Obama protégés. Either would do wonderfully. O’Rourke made the 2nd amendment people mad, but his passion is inspiring. Buttigeig is losing his reason by staying in the “alternative to Joe lane.” Harris, Klobuchar, & Castro are all good too. My vote goes to Warren though. We need her ability to connect to counter the inauthenticity and aloofness of Trump and Pence, if Trump actually gets impeached or resigns. (Unlikely, but he looks so bad.)
223
I like Warren, also. However, we need a president of The United States of America, not an apologist for the corrupt countries of Central America. The asylum issue has brought our political system to its knees. Deal with that Liz!
2
An incredible amount of projecting is going on here. The question is, what's backing it up? Do you have a crystal ball, Mr. Cohen? You seem awfully sure about who's going to vote for Biden and who's not. Your internal polling must be amazing. Oh, wait. You don't have any internal polling? And yet, you know that the under-30's (presumably all of them) are angry that Biden didn't retire. And, you speculate that Bloomberg could sweep in and woo enough moderates to be a game changer. Let's leave this type of work to Nate Silver, shall we?
8
"The genius of Barack Obama lay in the fact that Americans looked at him and could believe in almost anything. The left of the Democratic Party saw the revolutionary incarnation of hope, the promise of sweeping social change, and, in a black president, the overturning of America’s original sin. The center saw a measured product of Harvard Law School, a prudent reformer, a man of mixed identity and the middle ground."
Keep in mind Mr. Cohen, it took Joe Biden stepping out of his comfort zone to wake Barak Obama on gay rights. I don't have a dog in this fight except to say that this Country has changed and adapted over time and the Joe Biden of 30-40 years ago is not the Joe Biden of today. Time to get off the ancient history train and look at today and the recent past where he has been quite effective on rights liberals care about.
4
@Bill
30 years ago, plagiarizing a speech was enough to disqualify Biden. What happened to our standards?
2
“...he has demonstrated tone-deafness on race in a way that is disturbing.“ This comment alone says it all about Joe Biden. Liking him or not liking him is not the issue. Good guy he may be but Joe Biden is not the change leader this country needs. He’s just more of the same.
6
I'm ok with Joe as the candidate, but I don't think he really has any ideas. He's a political animal, going along with whatever seems the most likeable at any given moment, but without any real conviction or innovation, as far as I can see. He's just a really nice guy. Still, if he can win, I'm all in for him.
1
Once again, the most important question is how did we get here?
Obama is "whip smart." But that does not mean "always right." He governed as a centrist some say, but his statement that "elections have consequences, and "I have a pen" for executive orders echoes loudly.
Not even George W, reviled by so many, acted like that. Congress approved the Iraq war. He did not go it alone.
We had 8 years of "I know what's best" and "I want to have a transformational presidency." How about we think about that, and how nearly 50% of the people were alienated by it. And perhaps had the Republican nominee been someone reasonable other than Trump, well more than 50% would have voted for him/her.
Americans are not left wing liberals. We are centrists. That does not mean compromise everything (ie same sex marriage). But most things are ripe for compromise. Yet the left is screaming that it is their way or you are immoral. I don't get that from the real Republicans.
3
@NY Surgeons
Those "left wing liberals" are what are centrists in most of the other first world countries.
Take a look at Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, etc.
We spend an average of $10,000 per person for healthcare. They spend an average of $5,000 per person.
They have universal healthcare. We have parts of the US with infant mortality of a second world nation.
We have to argue with our insurance companies. We have bankruptcies because of hospital costs.
What are Republicans doing to fix this?
Obama-care was the Republican plan. It was Romney-care. The exchanges were free-market competition. The mandate was individual accountability and responsibility.
When Obama agreed to it, Republicans called it government takeover of healthcare and "they're going to pull the plug on Granny."
Republicans want to fight to make abortion illegal rather than work with Planned Parenthood to get women birth control.
Every pro-life and evangelical I have talked with have all used birth control.
You are apparently a physician, help us fix this problem.
And during the 2016 primary, not one Republican running to be the most powerful person on the planet would admit in public they believed in evolution.
Then there is the NRA.
5
@NY Surgeons
PS - then there is the Ryan / McConnell / Trump tax cut.
The deficit is going from $600 Billion to $1 Trillion.
The projected 10 year increase in the debt is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per tax payer.
To be paid for by our children and grandchildren.
This is after eight years of Republicans relentlessly railing against the debt under Obama.
Every Republican senator voted for it. Not one Democratic senator voted for it.
JOBS:
2011 2.09 million
2012 2.14 million
2013 2.30 million
2014 3.00 million
2015 2.71 million
2016 2.24 million
2017 2.06 million
2018 2.60 million – now revised to 2.4 million
1
@Independent
1. We are different than other countries. Our politics and political spectrum is very different.
2. Health care is a major problem but again cannot be compared to other countries. I do not believe that Americans would tolerate the limits (though they are completely appropriate) in care provided by other countries.
3. I also know, first hand, that in Europe and Israel if you show up to the ER with a broken arm or an acute problem (as long as you are conscious), you are asked to pay up front or you WILL NOT get care. As opposed to the US, where you show up directly from the airport with cardiac reports and get admitted to the hospital for cardiac surgery FOR FREE. Yes. This happens all the time.
We have problems. The left is not the answer.
Tax cuts for me? Why not? Why should I be paying through the nose when large segments of the population have too many kids that they cannot afford and make horrible choices and do not want to work or work off the books? Fix that, or at least acknowledge that, and then we can talk.
1
Joe Biden said he was running because he feared for the country if Trump won another 4 years. So do I. But there are other fine, qualified Democrats running. He should bow out gracefully and back the Democratic nominee. He is ahead in the polls right now but much of that is name-recognition and his association with Barack Obama. I fear he would lose to Donald Trump in a general election. The Republican Party and Donald Trump are gearing up against him and they fight very, very dirty.
1
Biden represents all that didn't work in the past. The old guard.
And, somehow, miraculously, a woman who faked being a minority to further her career is the future.
God help you.
6
@Ken
"Somehow"?
No. Elizabeth Warren got where she is today through a lifetime of very hard work and dedication to the interests of average Americans. She is, in fact, part Indian. She beat a very talented man, Scott Brown, to become senator. At the moment, she is our best hope to put the Trump horror show behind us.
2
I want to like Elizabeth Warren. But even on a friendly podcast like Pod Saves America, she takes so long to answer a simple question that the host makes a joke about her long windedness. She has the droning tone of an assistant college dean. However vile, tRump knows the value of forcefulness and concision. For warren to win in 2020 she’d have to be completely different from who she is. Not a likely outcome.
8
Roger Cohen writes “Moderates were closer to the mark. Obama, a cool man, proved cautious to a fault. Still, the way he cloaked his coolness and masked his aloofness in the language of the heart was brilliant. This time around, there is no such political genius out there among the Democratic contenders.”
Pete Buttigieg, anyone?!
4
It's not just those under 50 who find Warren to be the choice. Plenty of us in our 70's do too. Biden, nice enough, would be gored (intended) and slashed by an unending barrage of cruel and fabricated Trump insults--in fact such a barrage would probably provoke so many "mistatements" from Biden he would be doomed from the get-go. Just as blacks (and all the other others) and poor people actually do know what to do, the same holds true for seniors. There are lots of us out there. Don't forget us.
2
What concerns me is how Biden has zero interest in discussing the Ukraine fiasco.
1
Mr. Cohen,
With all due respect, I think that you're the one who's having a rather serious case of dyspepsia. Your obvious resentment towards Bernie Sanders has clouded your judgement.
5
Biden is inept, clumsy, and thoughtless. His message is garbled and his chances debating Trump is zero. We don’t know how Democrats failed to give Sanders an equal shot, but we know how it turned out. The DNC alone can give Trump 4 more years by acting as the arbiters of this primary season. Hubris will re-elect Trump. Biden himself could prevent this by withdrawing and endorsing the winner of the primaries. What do you say Joe? For the good of the country?
5
That Joe Biden hasn't been laughed out of the presidential race is an indictment of our national media. With any other contender, Biden's inability to speak publicly without making outrageous gaffes would have spelled immediate doom. Consider, for example, his ridiculous and racist/paternalist comments at the last Democratic debate -- that what black parents need most is social workers and "record-players" in the home to teach them to raise their children. It's amazing that this man is still in the race! Imagine (and I can't) if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren has said something similar. They'd be buried under a mountain of outrage. But Biden shuffles on...
4
Yawn.
Another pundit with demonstrated zero understanding of how politics actually works telling me Biden can’t win. Months and months of this and yet somehow he is still on top of the polls. I expect we will soon see similar “how can it be, it’s black magic!” stories about his continuing success the same way we saw about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both. I hold no brief for Biden (undecided Democrat, I also like Warren) but the relentless attacks on him from the press are also reminiscent of the media campaign waged against “sure loser” Al Gore. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a similarly self-fulfilling “prophecy.”
5
Déjà vu Hillary Clinton.
The Republican strategy was to continually beat on her with Benghazi and the “missing emails” until the public began to think, “Well, there must be something to all this, what with all the talk.” It worked. It destroyed her credibility.
Now we are seeing the same strategy used against Joe Biden—except it is employed by the left. “Joe’s too fuzzy headed.” “He’s out of touch with today.” “He’s old and tired.”
All of these charges are nonsense, as those who have spent time and listened to the man know well.
But let us assume the far left gets its wish and either Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders gets elected. It is highly, highly doubtful that either one can carry a Senate with them. So what you get is four years of gridlock.
Déjà vu Barack Obama.
3
@Paul M. Troop
You think Warren or Sanders would only bring four years of gridlock? Centrists are forever saying they want a President who can talk with Republicans, reach compromises and "get things done," but just what is it that you want "done?" Getting a start on repairing our crumbling infrastructure would be nice, but would you "compromise" by agreeing to privatize roads, bridges and transit to get it done? Getting budgets passed and avoiding government shutdowns would be great, but would you accept deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare to do it? "Compromise" with the Republicans as they are presently constituted is more like giving in to hostage-takers, and the more you do that, the more they will demand. With democracy itself under siege, this is the season for standing on principle and fighting, not compromise.
Progressives are so sick and tired of the whining of Democratic centrists who blame the Russians, the media, Bernie, James Comey, Jill Stein, stupid uninformed "deplorable" voters, the Electoral College -- anything and everything except themselves -- for the Democrats' 2016 electoral debacle which was their worst overall showing (despite Hillary's razor-thin popular vote "win" which centrists cling to like a life raft) since 1928! It is your refusal to look in the mirror that is why we are now staring at the very real possibility of a Trump second term. The world is on fire and the status quo is collapsing. Wake up!
2
@Paul M. Troop
You think Warren or Sanders would only bring four years of gridlock? Centrists are forever saying they want a President who can talk with Republicans, reach compromises and "get things done," but just what is it that you want "done?" Getting a start on repairing our crumbling infrastructure would be nice, but would you "compromise" by agreeing to privatize roads, bridges and transit to get it done? Getting budgets passed and avoiding government shutdowns would be great, but would you accept deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare to do it? "Compromise" with the Republicans as they are presently constituted is more like giving in to hostage-takers, and the more you do that, the more they will demand. With democracy itself under siege, this is the season for standing on principle and fighting, not compromise.
Progressives are so sick and tired of the whining of Democratic centrists who blame the Russians, the media, Bernie, James Comey, Jill Stein, stupid uninformed "deplorable" voters, the Electoral College -- anything and everything except themselves -- for the Democrats' 2016 electoral debacle which was their worst overall showing (despite Hillary's razor-thin popular vote "win" which centrists cling to like a life raft) since 1928! It is centrists' refusal to look in the mirror that is why we are now staring at the very real possibility of a Trump second term. The world is on fire and the status quo is collapsing. Wake up!
2
The Bygone Baggage of Mr Biden includes the hiring of his son Hunter, by Burisma, a Ukranian company owned by a Minister in the then Yanukovych Government .
As in the case of Chelsea Clinton , it rise questions
From the LA Times
"Why did NBC reportedly pay Chelsea Clinton $600,000 a year?"
The disclosure raises the obvious question of NBC's goal in giving a person without any measurable journalistic
or broadcasting experience .. The answer is equally obvious. Plainly, it was done to curry favor with the Clinton family
LA Time, JUN 16, 2014 | 12:08 PM
And , IMO, it too was done to curry favor with the then Vice President of the United States
6
Barack Obama was indeed cool in temperament - a great attribute for a President. . But where did you get “aloof”? Don’t ever recall him acting like he was superior or above anyone else — even though he was actually intellectually superior to most and was, for a time, the most powerful man in the world. He also has a great sense of humor and every year generated an NCAA basketball tournament bracket. Would we call a white president of similar temperament and behavior “aloof”?
4
Trump. No one has done more for minorities than President Trump.
1
My take is that Roger Cohen has decided, correctly, that Biden is a loser and Warren is the only hope of Democratic moderates that aren’t in favor of real change in the status quo. Great sounding programs from Warren that won’t pass in any form near their marketing claims, but hey, “we tried.” A slick and more contemporary “hope and change” but, as before, no hope and absolutely, no change.
1
People claim Warren is too professorial.
But she gave us the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Republicans were so afraid of her, they would not let her run the bureau.
If Republicans are that scared of Warren taking on their billionaire donors and Wall St., that is good enough for me.
7
I agree, Mr. Cohen. Biden's blindness, deafness, at best incoherence, when talking about racial issues makes my skin crawl. He really seems to believe, deep down in his psyche, common stereotypes about Black people, Black families. Until I started reading about his political history I did not understand this. Why he has support amongst such an inexplicably large number of Black voters is strange to me unless it is because of his relationship to Obama. But he must have been chosen as Obama's running mate only to moderate the radical idea of a Black President. He was never a true believer in social justice and racial equality.
In this divided country of ours Biden will not succeed in making the country's citizens of color feel part of the solution. Rather, he is more likely to focus his policy initiatives on forgiving white working class and middle class voters for their selfish adherence to privilege. Being someone who desperately wants Trump thrown out of office, if Biden is nominated I will have to hold my nose while I stand my polling booth.
2
I like Joe. The far Left loathes him and this makes me even stronger in liking Joe Biden. —Thanks for sharing Roger.
70
@Mike- Sure, I like Joe, the way I liked my many uncles who, while they were great guys, and talented each in his own way, were not up to the task of being President, especially in 2020.
29
@Mike. It's not that anyone dislikes Joe, to the contrary. I'm sure that those running against him, respect him and are thankful for his service to the country and party.
But there are disturbing signs that Joe is starting to lose his mental faculties. If, as many fear, Joe is in mental decline, the situation will get worse not better as the campaign progresses. Do you really want to take that risk?
28
@Mike Liking is not a good enough factor to vote for someone. Joe is old, bumbling and fumbling, with nothing to offer but a fatigued out of date Obamacare, that too, not his own. So, Warren, who is smart, tough, sincere, and a fighter, is not good enough for you, because you like Joe, the plagiarist, Joe, the too-old-to-remember that record player went away a long time ago. Joe who mysteriously has support of black people that he opposed most of his political life, but managed to fool because he hung on to Obama’s coattails. His son, Hunter, made a great deal of money, because he was the Vice President. Talk about corruption and judgement! People like you will impede Warren from being elected, because Trump may not be a big threat to you personally.
9
For over 40 years moderate Democrats like Joe Biden along with Republicans helped create the problems the majority of Americans face. Delaware has been a haven for forming nefarious corporations like the one Cohen and Trump used in order to hide payments for Trump's escapades. Statistics have shown many Americans have increased credit card debt for medical and basic living expenses due to the obscenely low minimum wage while the cost of living had sky rocketed. Delaware is home to many of those credit card companies with interest rates that will never allow them to be paid off. The defaults are written off while they gain enormous tax cuts and people flounder for years with credit ratings resulting in higher interests rates for those who can least afford it. Biden voted for the Iraq war, a gift to Cheney and Bush, one that keeps giving.
6
“The under-30s, maybe under-40s, are underwhelmed by Biden, even angry that this honorable man has not chosen dignified retirement.” I am nearing 60 and I am very underwhelmed by Biden. I listen to the young, their vision, their future and I am pained that we collectively are leaving behind a world that is terrifying for our children and grandchildren the plant works and the animal world. Species are dying yet our old white male Christian lawmakers do not care one bit, they only care about self preservation and re-elections.
11
Think of the sleaze that the president brought into our lives in 2016. The putrid pile of it. Think of how more profound motivation his motivation to win in 2020 and his swollen sense of power, the staggering things he has been allowed to get away with.
The Democratic candidate will run against the ugliest man in our political history. I pity any candidate who has to endure his filth for a campaign season. For that matter, I pity us.
I don't think Biden will be able to withstand the level of violence and hatred that Trump will bring. I can't picture him trumping against it. The election will wreck him.
I think Warren is more impervious precisely because she is so focused on policy, and treats personal style so modestly. The fact that she isn't a Barack Obama, with a big charisma and mythology for Trump to malign and ridicule, serves her well.
Warren can't help herself but talk in facts and ideas. Trump can't respond to a natural and unpretentious intellectual like her, think of him at the G-7, with the appearance of a pouting child, with nothing to say, confused, and alone, because he was surrounded by sophisticated thinkers whose priorities go beyond rhetoric.
Of course, he, his party, and his propaganda network will misrepresent even word she says.
I don't think she would be ill served to get a running mate on her team who can handle the big artillery so she can keep focused on her strengths and keep her hands and discourse clean.
7
@Eric: Klobuchar and Harris come to mind. If a male, Andrew Cuomo. Or Michael Bloomberg. Sherrod Brown maybe? But the important thing to remember is to vote Democrat, from top to bottom of the ballot. We need the Senate too.
5
The 2020 race will turn on policy. If this election is about kitchen table issues: jobs & education there's no way the Democrats lose. If the election is about immigration, busing & reparations there's no way we win. Warren is for reparations. In poll after poll, the majority of American voters are against this. Reparations are the only issue that would compel independent swing voters to hold their nose & vote for Trump. Reparations guarantees the Democrats will lose the working-class vote. Voters are also strongly against any legislation that would increase the flow of illegal immigration. But Warren is for policies that not only decriminalize illegal immigration but encourage it. They & their progressives allies are on the wrong side of this issue. Last January NY lawmakers voted to allow illegal immigrants the ability to receive scholarships & financial aid. How are Democrats supposed to tell voters that state aid to help afford college isn't available for them but is available for those who are in this country illegally? Many state Democrats are now offering illegals free healthcare, welfare, drivers licenses, schooling, & sanctuary. This is unsustainable. Why is the only answer, that they have an unrestricted right to come to the U.S.? The more benefits we give, the more will try to get here. It's an impossible equation. If a far-left candidate is the nominee then we will lose. Biden is leading in the polls because he gives us the best chance to win in 2020.
95
@Bill Brown
Biden is ahead in some polls, not all. His performance at the debates is crude and uncertain.
As for helping immigrants, hasn't that always been one of the prides of our country, as the Statue of Liberty professes?
Of course, if we give huge tax breaks to billionaires already swamped with money, the idea of continuing this part of the democratic process unfairly rests on the general population.
Since 1970 the income of the top 10% in our country has gone up 250%, while that of the general population has stagnated. (Bush lowered tax on the wealthy and Trump just lowered it another 20%). Tax the wealthy that can afford it and we can continue to live up to our past.
23
@Bill Brown
Spot on, from start to finish.
11
@Bill Brown agree 100%...reparations and hand outs to illegal immigrants are losing issues for many otherwise longtime Democratic voters...along with "free" childcare, "free" college, "free" this and that...though I'm not sure many would vote for Trump, but they may very well just stay home...Biden does, however, need to be a lot sharper in future debates, and speeches if has any chance of being the nominee...
17
Folks, when they ask you how Warren is going to pay for universal healthcare, the answer is:
We already are paying for it. We just aren't getting it.
All the money we are already paying private insurance would instead go to Medicare for all.
The US on average spends about $10,000 per person for healthcare.
The other first world countries spend on average around $5,000 per person.
They get universal healthcare. We have parts of the US with infant mortality the same as a second world country.
Not to mention all the hassles of dealing with insurance companies doing their best not to pay, bankruptcies, and on and on.
And the plans for Medicare for all are not Medicare as we know it today which has been influenced by the medical and insurance and pharmaceutical industries but something more comprehensive similar to all the other first world countries.
Remember W Bush pharmacy benefit that prohibited Medicare from negotiating pharmacy prices?
And the insurance influence of Medicare Advantage.
I understand why Bernie and Warren want Medicare for all. It is because they know we can't trust the insurance industry to do the right thing.
6
I am 69 and happily retired after a deeply gratifying career. I am suspicious of geezer Type-A’s like me who want to prove that they have still got it by, say, running for President, the hardest, most exhausting job in the world (except for Trump, who isn’t really working). Kind and decent Joe Biden should leave the stage. So should dyspeptic Bernie, who surely knows he will never be nominated. There is a time in life — I am in it — to put the ego aside and simply be. Some of our politicians need to learn this lesson.
790
@Mark Siegel
Agreed! I am a year younger than you, and have informed my fellow townspeople that I will not be running for re-election to the Zoning Commission this November. Many of my fellow citizens are dismayed, and one local developer, I'm sure, smiled at the news.
The world will get along just fine, maybe better, without me or Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders having a hand in day-to-day business.
53
@Mark Siegel
Ummmmmm. Warren is 70. Did you forget?
24
@Mark Siegel Yes, but. In 2016 Bernie raised the issues that Democrats were running away from - income inequality, universal health care, fair taxation, etc. He is still doing that and keeping the rest of the field talking about those issues. He should stay in, if only to keep them on the right track.
29
Joe Biden will suffer the same defeat that Hillary Clinton did. The Obama years were not as Magical as we believed. So many National and International issues we are dealing with today were issues during the Obama Administration.
The Democrats have to move to the Center if they want to beat President Trump.
Elizabeth Warren can go toe to toe with him but she has to appeal to a much wider Electorate.
1
I think it is useful to continue to have Biden in the field. He is drawing a lot of fire that would otherwise go to Warren. If when Biden drops out, as seems inevitable, all of Trump's fire will be focused on Warren. For the moment, she doesn't have to deal with the fire hose of Pocahantus vitriol that will be coming her way. If she can consolidate the democrats, who admittedly resist consolidation, she will have a decent chance next year.
5
Here is the problem. Young people don't vote in large enough numbers. Even Obama did not change that dramatically. I want a win. The best ticket I can imagine is Biden-Obama ( either one). Then on inauguration day, Obama can resign and Biden can install Warren as VP. Let's be creative for a change.
2
@USNA73 -- Some times our young people vote in much larger numbers than in other times. Why? Because some times there is a good candidate. Other times, they are both just crooks.
1
Biden lost my vote when he said “non-violent criminals should NOT be in prison”. Really? Ask the victims of Bernie Madoff and the college admissions scandal how they feel about that. To me, his statement isn’t a flub, it’s rich man privilege - pure and simple.
3
Elizabeth Warren can't beat Trump.
Cohen and other Warren admirers are offended that, to beat Trump, it's going to take a moderate old white man who's popular with blue collar whites and blacks all the same.
They don't want this to be so. They want to see Trumpism defeated by "pure" progressiveness. They live in a metropolitan fantasy bubble.
If we nominate Warren or Sanders, we lose.
10
@R.T. -- All the polls say she can beat Trump, and in particular that she can beat him in the states that Hillary lost to him.
2
And yet, Joe Biden still maintains the support of much of the black community. I doubt that they perceive him as a racist. That label is more of a projection by progressives.
I agree that Elizabeth Warren is the brightest, most energized candidate. But I have real doubts that she can win. Trump will use anything and everything to rip her to shreds.
So that brings us back to Joe. And I’m okay with that.
Bernie who??
4
You’re talking about Biden as an old established guy of the bunch that allowed Trump to flourish and win ......so Warren is a wild young girl?
Let’s be honest, comon, she’s not Ocasio-Cortez, she’s from the same generation of Biden, she’s just following the new wave of ideas that appeals to young-adults but that will need a great way of diplomacy and political skill to be - only partially and soooo diluted - adopted in 20-25 years, not a presidential cycle.
3
Stop trying to destroy Biden. He's decent, intelligent, experienced, devoted to public service. Warren a good veep candidate. Yay Biden! Keep going for it. You deserve it.
5
Sorry Mr. Cohen, I really like your opinion pieces here in NYT and I have always thought that you are an astute and clear-sighted commentator, but they way you denigrate Bernie Sanders in this article is just inacceptable. Maybe one should remember that it has been Bernie Sanders who almost single handedly made it possible that many of Warren's policy ideas can be part of the plattform of the Democratic Party. A party which in international comparison is was not in any way "progressive", but lingers more in the Merkelian/Obamaian center.
To me Bernie Sanders is the one of the two who paved the way. He's the real deal with his serious understanding of the ills of our current capitalist system and the understanding that in the end it needs to be overcome. With Warren I am not so sure.
I understand that "liberals" like you don't want a Bernie Sanders Presidency but nonetheless you could be fair in your journalism and don't spread electoral propaganda.
7
Mr. Cohen asserts Elizabeth Warren's ability to sway centrist voters over to her "plans" for a progressive future. While Ms. Warren's intelligence and analytical skills are extremely impressive, her ability to influence those not already drawn to her "brand" is unproven. Stating that the past won't fix the future is rather simplistic and ignores the fact that the entire America Constitution is designed to make it as difficult as possible to effect change. Good luck with the revolution.
6
It looks like the entire NYT editorial board is supporting Elizabeth Warren. At least we know where their biases are.
11
Bernie Sanders needs to step aside for a sharper, more articulate progressive who happens to be a woman. After a couple of months of watching two old men screaming at one another, voters will see nothing more than that.
The media will quickly seize on the narrative of 2 equivalent lunatics unable to convince anyone of anything, likening them both to demented seniors fighting in the rec-room of an old age home. Not exactly a binary choice.
What exactly in Elizabeth Warren's many "plans" does Bernie Sanders actually oppose? Do Sanders supporters require the man himself, with his one-note arsenal, "We need a Revolution in this country" accompanied by wild gesticulation?
Or can his supporters understand the advantage a dignified woman confers on their agenda? For the good of your own movement, Bernie, please step aside.
4
I prefer Warren to Biden. But the NYT keeps peddling silly tropes like Biden thinks that blacks are "poor and inept." Who really believes this?? Apparently African Americans don't, as they support Biden by a wide margin. Why does the NYT continue to push this narrative?
5
And Mr. Biden's record as senator and vice-president is even worse than that:
He supported 51 new categories on the death penalty in support of Clinton, and also wrote the 1994 Crimes Control Act, responsible for the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of black people for possession of cocaine.
In 1995 he wrote the Omnibus Counter-terrorism Act, which became the Patriot Act in 2001.
In 1996, representing Delaware in the US Senate, he voted against Gay Marriage.
1999 he was for the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act, which helped bring about the world financial crisis.
In 2002 Voted for the Iraq War.
Mr. Cohen in his zeal to promote Elizabeth Warren treats Bernie Sanders dismissively, also in an attempt to reduce his chances in the public eye.
He's wrong. Many of the polls have, and continue, to place him on top. He also misunderstands the term "socialist", which, distant as it is from communism, refers to inclusion of the people in the governmental process -- Democratic Socialism -- much like that in most of Europe; it does not refer to the exclusion of the capitalist class.
6
This Biden bashing needs to stop. It may be that, Mr. Cohen, that the constant barrage of criticism, bordering on invective, directed at Joe Biden on these pages-yours being the latest installment- may in the end, lead to his defeat in a general election.
4
" Biden, on whom Trump may have been seeking dirt in a July phone call"
Mr. Cohen, since you apparently enjoy reporting rumors, what about the rumor that Hunter Biden traveled the world, Ukraine and China in particular, collecting huge fees for "consulting", for example as a natural gas regulation expert in Ukraine while his father was Vice President? Or, is it only negative rumors about Republicans that you report? Has the Old Grey Lady become the Old Grey Muckraking Rag?
3
There is new category of "deplorables" in the so-called "liberal" media. Namely, ordinary moderate Democrats like myself who in election after election support solid, workmanlike but decidedly unglamorous candidates such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore and Michael Dukakis.
These are all honorable individuals who would have made great presidents, but all somehow lack the gaudy sophistication and zeal (or as Trump would say, the "It") that appeals to the Twitter-world of sophisticated Times columnists and readers.
For us moderate Democrats, coming on the liberal op-ed pages is often a humiliating experience. As with Mr. Cohen's column, there is an incredible, patronizing air of condescension toward Biden and his hapless supporters (as there was towards Hillary in 2016 and Gore in 2000) who somehow are "deplorably" viewed as lacking the breadth and complexity of vision to see how inadequate their candidate is.
This is 2016 all over again. Instead of the Bernie supporters (and the GOP trolls who used him as a stalking horse), the comments section will be dominated by Warren supporters mocking Joe Biden. And instead of "but the emails", some Biden "scandal" (Ukraine?) will emerge as a cudgel with which to hammer him.
Joe Biden is a decent and honorable man. I don't think he wanted all this abuse, but sincerely felt he was the only one who could stop Trump from a second term.
And I'm sorry Warren supporters, but I can't see her winning Ohio, PA, MI or WI.
8
Anyone who supports Warren is going to have to explain how taking one of the Democrats most powerful issues, health care, and turning it into their greatest liability by banning private health insurance can defeat Trump. And how this can be done simply on the grounds that single payor may achieve some cost savings through administrative streamlining. It's no wonder that Biden has dominated the polls when Warren supporters such as Mr Cohen respond to this concern by censoring it out of the discussion. I assure you, this issue will be front and center in the Trump campaign.
5
Our nation desperately needs a reawakening. While Biden is a good, decent, and honest man, I don't see how he can bring that to pass. He has legacy enough from his career thus far. I wish he would just walk away from this.
1
I appreciate this astute column by Mr. Cohen, and the yeasty discussion it has generated. I think I understand the commenters who take issue with Mr. Cohen, who continue to lift up Mr. Biden's policy centrism, Biden's credibility in calling for proven integrity in leadership, Biden's 'affable guy you could have a beer with' appeal in swing states. Nonetheless, the main motif of the column is time: the challenges of this time, the temper of these times, even the sense of a 'ripe time.' I believe Biden's time is now past, and that Ms. Warren's appraisal of this present moment, and the critical structural and policy priorities that are required for us to restore a healthy democracy are...timely. Not merely timely; let's say urgent. Even inescapable. And, energizing in ways that can lead to a general election victory.
12
Joe Biden has run -- and not particularly well -- twice before. So I'm stymied as to why people expect this time to be different. Yes, he is by now the party's elder statesman, but that's attributable as much to the inevitable passage of time as to his service as VP.
Would I be pleased if he, as the nominee (which might come down to a convention fight), beat Donald Trump? Of course. Do I agree he has some well-needed support in key battleground states? Yes. But of all the candidates, he's not the brightest, the most articulate, and certainly not visionary.
He may be the front runner, but I keep thinking his campaign slogan will be something like "Biden For Adequacy," "Biden: It Could Be Worse" or "Joe Biden: Good Enough is Good Enough."
12
@AACNY
But he's not running ONLY against Democrats to his left. Klobuchar is a self-described moderate. Harris is likewise a moderate, once you pin her down.
I've heard since July 2018 (from friends active in Democratic state politics) that the ticket will ultimately be Biden/Harris. Demographically it makes sense, and she compensates for some of his shortcomings as well. TBD, I suppose, but it's interesting (and, imho, disheartening) that those two were floated as a unit many months before ANY candidate even announced a run.
1
"Turn On The Record Player" For A Brighter Future
Biden 2020
Cluelessness never had a closer friend than Joe Biden, Dara.
3
I keep hearing that Warren is "too extreme," "too liberal," "too progressive," even from some of my own family members. Why is this a bad thing? We need more of such liberalism and progressiveness to counter the "too conservative" bent the Republicans have imposed on us (limiting government, tanking the environment and climate, women's reproduction rights and on and on and on). You only counter with bold totally opposite policy. Then hopefully, you end up somewhere to the left of center which is good for ALL of society.
6
@Karen K -- Because she'll tax rich Democrats. They have their priorities, and their own wealth comes first, second, and always before anything else.
5
I have no doubt that Joe Biden is a decent man who is a more effective soldier who implements policy that others design. I am taken back by his comment that he wishes he could have done more during the Anita Hill testimony. He was chairman of the judiciary committee. If he couldn't do anything then what makes you think he would be able to effectively design and promote policy on an executive level in the white house. I share his moderate instincts however I dont feel confident in his ability to assess situations correctly and promote effective interventions. At times I think his gaffe prone comments are overstated; but I do think he lacks a certain meta communicative ability that allows one to gauge the intent or sensitivities of others. Not a ringing endorsement for maintaining diplomatic relations. My preferred candidate is Mr. Bennett who obviously is not going to win. I think he is every bit the policy wonk of Ms. Warren with a more sensible moderate application of government interventions. Ms. Warren is an admirable candidate but her carte blanche interventions of just tax the rich to pay for her various policy proposals are beyond the mainstream. She needs to strike a balance between individual responsibility and governmental interventions that lessen barriers to ones quest for personal achievement.
1
That's right. You cannot be part of the solution if you are part of the problem.
The other problem is all of those "moderate" candidates.
Those so-called "moderates" are there to perpetuate the problem. They are there to comfort those who were comfortable with the situation that precipitated a Trump presidency, and to reassure them that "Nothing will change. We will all just go back to things as they were before, and it will all be okay." Well that will not be "okay", and the solution is very different from things as they were before.
Neither Sanders nor Warren is all that "far left". What they propose is coherent, sensible, and appropriate to mitigate the problems that brought on a Trump presidency. But Democrats have accepted the Republicans' framing, and liberals have used the conservatives' framing of the issues for so long, that everyone has deluded himself into thinking America is well to the right of where they really are. Let's see how that works out.
9
I recently asked a group of Democrats, all of them very politically active seniors, whom they planned to support. Most said Biden. Out of curiosity I asked the same group if they had the power themselves to simply select the next President who would they choose. All said Elizabeth Warren. I believe a lot of voters feel the same way. Desperate to beat Trump they believe Biden with all of his flaws is the best option. But they really prefer Warren because of her sharp focus on fundamentally restructuring a system that leaves too many Americans behind no matter which party is in power. She is basically proposing a new New Deal, and many Democrats, and likely Republican voters as well, agree that something of the kind is sorely needed to save this country from imploding. Trump will lie and demonize any opponent, but in 2020 Biden seems the safer bet to beat him. But say Biden wins. What happens in four years after the disappointments with his tepid approaches likely lead to even more cynicism and maybe even another version of Trump, but this time a really smart demagogue? With Warren if the American ship goes down at least we will have gone down fighting. And, like in FDR’s time, she and America might actually win.
14
Cohen gets it right. After Thatcher, Reagan, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we entered a brief "End of History" period, where leaders like Blair, Clinton, and Obama promised a society where technocratic management of a free-market economy, softened by a solid social safety net, could result in a permanent state of peace and growing prosperity around the globe.
But below the calm surface, treacherous currents were swirling. The modern economy that makes our great prosperity possible was also destroying our environment, generating vast wealth inequities, threatening the financial security of working people, and accelerating the disintegration of family and community. In the midst of unprecedented prosperity, fear was growing among the masses—a sense that holding on to their share of prosperity was becoming ever more difficult, that their present and future security was ever more tenuous.
History has come back. And with a vengeance. The liberal democratic order to which Fukuyama attributed the end of history is collapsing. Frightened people feel the impulse to fight amongst themselves for what they see as the remaining scraps of prosperity. Nationalism, racism, and xenophobia are growing. Dictators—offering cheap salvation—are becoming ever more appealing.
Biden is an end of history man. But the end of history has ended. All around us, Trumps and Putins are ascendent. We need a compelling alternative. Warren may not be radical enough. But she's the best we have.
21
Eloquent and smart as usual from Roger Cohen. But here is the thing: whether we like it or not, America is a moderate nation, not a revolutionary one. This plays to Biden’s advantage. And number two, Joe continues to outpoll all his rivals in support from the Black community. Despite his gaffes, the guy who carried Barack Obama’s bags for eight years has earned the trust of many. If two white guys in their seventies are getting into the ring next year, I sure as hell know who I am voting for; and so do a lot of other Americans who will do what it takes to defeat the most corrupt President in American history.
8
The primaries are dangerous. It gives the power to the performers. If one is not a good orator, one is not quick on one's feet, one will do badly in the primaries. Alas, as we know, being a good performer, a good orator, has little to do with guiding the nation: the essential quality is wisdom (think George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Barack Obama). It used to be that the party leaders went into a smoke-filled-room and came out with their nominee. The wheeling and dealing went on in private, and the winners were chosen by the political pros. I liked that better than primaries. Under the primary system the choosers are the least informed, the most likely to discriminate based on emotions rather than by real-politic; the later being safer. Primaries gave us Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both who probably would have been rejected by the smoke-filled-room pros, but primaries also gave us Donald J. Trump, a very dangerous person. Some might say that I am just a sore loser because New Jersey's primary vote, coming so late in the process, doesn't count; they would be right.
3
Very sound, and not just the regret about the Victrola. Nothing could be simpler than to depict Joe Biden as a clueless grief merchant, his gut for righteous alarm and policy commitment vitiated by grieving for his horribly unfortunate personal life. Biden transforms Trump into the happy warrior; Warren surpasses him at that game.
When I heard the record player line from Biden I got a chuckle. He could have easily said turntable or even CD player and still could have been criticized for not saying satellite radio or downloaded music. Hardly worth making a big deal out of that, but these types of campaigns are scrutinized and scrutinized. I get that.
But what does bother me is the mention that the under 30 and under 40 voter does not want an old man in the office. I disagree with that. There is a wisdom that inherently comes with age and also you become inherently more efficient at things. You just learn these things over time and in that time wisdom grows and good habits polished and hopefully bad habits are discarded. I would be a bit more sympathetic to younger voters if a larger percentage would get more engaged in politics, but for many people politics is something you grow into with mortgages and retirement savings.
However given the choice between Biden and Warren I’m rooting for the policy a minute gal. She has a real fire in her, great vision and sense of fair play. (Sorry for you the uber wealthy), and at least to me not a shred of vanity. She wants to contribute rather than be adored by society.
13
I didn't agree with some of President Obama's policies. But I was always in awe at the man's capacity for leadership. Aside from an occasional "sneaked" cigarette, he was the ultimate role model of a man, husband, father, boss, speaker or beer drinking companion. Above all else, he demonstrated an unparalleled capacity for self- discipline. In today's field of Democrats, only Warren, and possibly Buttigieg, are candidates who even begin to come close.
14
I think the detail of the current 'chaos' of the day, the Ukrainian whistle blower news, will end up sinking Biden.
The media so far seem to be missing the main point. Biden's son seems to have earned millions via a board seat on a Ukrainian energy company.
The DC system at work in full glory. Whether Biden leveraged his position to help his son make these gains does not matter, the situation smacks of the vile cronyism and corruption in our system.
Warren wins the nomination and the Presidency. VOTE !
(Also, Trump will never agree to debate Warren)
10
@Bill Wilson
Well yeah, except that the Hunter Biden story had already been investigated (years ago) and found to be nothing.
Even Trump knew that there was no "there" there... he doesn't even care if it's true or not, he just wanted the Ukrainian government to start an investigation so that he could have an attack line for his rallies. ie- "My opponent is corrupt!! See, even the Ukrainian government is investigating him!!"
Sadly it blew up in his face.
2
The old saw is that you should vote in the primaries with your heart and in the general election with your head. The problem is that those things are connected. Logic and emotion provide the pathway out of our current mess.
Elizabeth Warren captured me when an early video of her went viral. She said in someone’s living room that “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.” Totally true. (And our current president has done the impossible and made that 100% true statement even more true.)
She understands both the wonky policies that enrich the already wealthy but does more than the fiery response. Not to burn down the mansions, but to tax enough to make people think twice if they can really afford solid gold faucets.
Society helps people become rich—currently by keeping others poor. That’s the paradigm she wants to change. She’s the only national candidate who is thinking through the problem. She can run and think at the same time.
8
I'm a bit tired, yet addicted, columns like this one. Biden is too old, Warren too extreme, etc.
What Biden is promising isn't really a return to Obamism or Clintonism. He promising, first and foremost, a restoration of our democracy.
If Warren would pivot to restoring our democracy first and foremost, temper some of her extreme program ideas, and pick a centrist as her running mate to telegraph that even she sees some of policy positions as potentially too extreme, she'd have it in the bag.
6
This election must be about the future, not the past. One look at Biden and his mumbling lecturing on how black families raise their kids says it all: we must have a candidate on top of his or her game--sharp, passionate, and confident.
The candidate that has all of that is Elizabeth Warren--except for the very important fact she likely wouldn't be elected by the money men who decide elections.
We spend a lot of time railing against Republicans and how they win by playing dirty. But we don't spend enough time pointing out how the Democrats seem to have lost their spunk, bypassing opportunity after opportunity to fight hard against the despot in the Oval Office.
Just as Donald Trump has cast a spell over his own party, the opposition looks, sounds, and is feckless. I don't think history will be kind to the cowardice of Democrats in confronting lawlessness in this president.
5
This has to be the 10,000th anti-Biden op ed I’ve read. Biden has been hit on everything from his style of expressing affection to his role in a crime bill that most elected officials supported at the time to, now, his son’s career moves (put into the bonnets of pundits by the most corrupt and lawless president in modern history).
It all makes me wonder if the news media itself hasn’t been corrupted by its confusion of blindly adversarial coverage and analysis with quality coverage and analysis.
I was no fan of Hillary Clinton. But she was clearly superior to Trump. And yet the media hammered her harder than Trump until it was too late.
The fact that Mr. Cohen cannot seem to tell the difference between Cory Booker (solid) and Kamala Harris (opportunistic and uncertain of her own beliefs) is in itself telling. Just as there were never -Trumpers during the 2016 campaign, there is now a large contingent of never-Bideners in the media. If, as seems likely, Biden emerges as the Democratic nominee, the Trump campaign can begin to destroy Biden by simply quoting or running clips of countless media commentators who have made Biden seem to be equal to or worse than Trump as a racist, a misogynist, and as someone who puts his greed ahead of what is good for the nation. This media posture is grotesquely unfair and intellectually lazy.
12
What some old-line Democrats still don't understand from the election in 2018 is that massive change is what the electorate wants and will vote for. Corporate Democrats need not apply. It's not just Biden's age that limits him, it's his old ideas, lack of focus and inability to articulate what matters to people NOW. It's not about you, Joe!
3
Warren will make a great president. But Biden still has the better chance to win right now. Suggest Biden/Warren. But if you insist on real change now, try Warren/Booker (or Buttigieg).
2
I’m 74. And let me tell you: Biden is out of touch!
We need someone dynamic and “with it!” And that person is Elizabeth Warren.
I write this on a train in Denmark, headed to Hamburg. At 74 I’m on a solo trip to places I’ve never been. Frankly, I’m willing to bet that Biden, at 77, would be unable to manage what I’m doing right now. He’d be at sea. Out to lunch.
But Warren? She’d have a ball!
We need to elect someone who’s ready to face the unknown, learn quickly, and is at the top of their game with regard to using their wisdom and experience, along with their energy and ability to adjust to a changing world.
Biden is not that person. Go with Elizabeth!
10
I don't see Warren and Sanders as in competition so much as on partnership to bring about a new political and economic paradigm in this country. They together can defeat the plutocrats (Democratic plutocrats but plutocrats never-the-less that Biden embraces and draws support from.
It is not only the youth of this country who are not impressed with Biden. I am 71 and I see Biden as a serious liability to the Progressive change. It is clear to me that Joe Biden still embraces a mid twentieth century white working class Roman Catholic labor union member's set of economic assumptions and racial and ethnic prejudices. Joe Biden has failed (like Trump and the Koke brothers) to comprehend that climate change and the social and economic exploitation that three centuries of carbon energy and economic exploitation that created climate change is an existential threat to human civilization and the very survival of life on this planet.
I will vote for Warren, I will vote for Sanders, I would prefer vote for both on the same ticket, but I will not vote for Biden or Trump. If the race is a choice between Biden and Trump I will vote for the Green Party candidate.
Joe Biden can render a final patriotic service to the Republic by ending his run for the nomination for POTUS. He is loosing it and it is too late for him not because of his chronological age alone but because he is loosing it and can no longer keep up with the need for fundamental societal change.
8
Being upfront, I am a supporter of Senator Harris, I could easily back Senator Warren, Senator Sanders or Mayor Pete.
Like Mr Cohen I am also aghast at VP Biden's tenacity to fumble , sometimes come off as being condescending and then there is his age, he just looks old.As Trump opens his mouth, out pops a lie, with Biden it might be a Faux Pas, or worse.
However having expressed all these concerns it appears that Biden is the candidate that Trump and his team fear the most. Hence Trumps clumsy efforts eight tomes no less, to get the Ukrainians to dig up dirt on Biden's son, with the intent to thwart Biden's efforts to win the nomination. Has team Trump conducted some internal pooling that shows Biden alone can beat Trump in say Pennsylvania or Michigan.
Who knows but there is something about Biden that evidently frightens Trump so perhaps we Democrats should not be so quick to write him off.
That is if beating Trump in 2020 remains our priority.
2
@Britl
I'm in favor of a Biden/Harris ticket.
Let Biden ease the country out of the divisive Trump neo-fascist place we are in, and let Harris position herself to take over as the first woman President in 8 years (I would pay money to see her debate Mike Pence in the VP debate).
It would give us the best of both worlds.
2
I'll be voting for Elizabeth Warren in the primary. In the general I'll be voting for the democratic candidate because they are all an improvement over trump.
6
Many voters that want to see the Criminal-in-Charge gone and in leg irons share the sentiment that any candidate with a D next to his or him name will fit the bill. Although understandable, this idea is a huge mistake.
Our nation and subsequently our planet is in crisis mode. In addition to the horrible unraveling that our imaginary emperor has unleashed, our planet is on fire, and we are closing in on four wasted critical years in this battle.
It is vital that the next leader of our nation is coherent and contemporary. Of all the current front runners, Grandpa Joe is neither of these things. As noted in this piece, his ongoing gaffes, and anachronistic comments during the debate were frightening at best. When it comes time to vote, we need to put the best and brightest in charge if we hope to survive. Removing Joe Biden’s name from the list of contenders will help make this a reality.
3
It’s a constant source of aggravation for me how openly contemptuous and unfair the denizens of the corporate media are toward Bernie Sanders. It makes sense, I guess, since he’s serious about rocking their corporate boats.
3
@EJS
Speaking only for myself I can tell you exactly why I'm contemptuous of Bernie Sanders...
When his supporters protested the DNC convention and proudly booed all of the speakers (including heroes such as John Lewis), Bernie NEVER said a word to stop them. (Seriously, when Sarah Silverman is the voice of reason you are doing something seriously wrong)
In the vital month after the convention instead of hitting the campaign trail (the way Clinton did for Barak Obama in 2008), Bernie took the month off to start writing a book on how to oppose the upcoming Clinton presidency, and when he finally started campaigning (half-heartedly) for Clinton in late September, he said publically in a radio interview how it wasn't HIS job to convince HIS supporters to vote for Clinton. Bernie DID make a million from his book though, so there's that...
Up to the day of the election Bernie never once did anything or made ANY public statements to stop the non-stop flow of visceral hatred being spread by his followers towards Sec. Clinton (H.A. Goodman anyone?). Bernie did NOTHING to heal the divisions in the Democratic party that he and his supporters (with the help of Russian trolls) created.
Why am I "openly contemptuous" of Bernie Sanders? Because he is a contemptible person.
2
@James Constantino -- Odd, that is exactly what we said about Hillary.
The difference is that we were right.
Don't do it again.
2
@James Constantino I’ve heard this many times and think it’s a form of scapegoating to avoid responsibility for Hillary’s loss to the worst candidate in the history of our country. Besides, I was talking about the corporate media’s contempt, not yours. It seems unlikely that corporate journalists routinely dis Bernie because he allegedly wasn’t enthusiastic enough in supporting Hillary.
2
I don't want a nice guy as president, I want one who can do the job, all of the job. Yes one must be civil and sometimes ingratiating but that's not how to handle for instance, Russia. That does not mean I approve of a bullying president like Trump either.
Biden is of the age like Trump and Roy Cohen. That generation was more willing to turn the other way to privileged wrong doing. I don't like the sound of Biden having a son who is a lobbyist in the Ukraine and Biden being so involved politically there. It's why it's so galling that it's Trump going after Biden dirt. Trump's too black of a pot to call any kettle anything.
About Warren's stance, I agree with her starting out from a further out there position. It leaves her room to compromise when pushed. The depth and breath of her plans show she will be a keen negotiator. Obama's not having done this is at the root of many of the weaknesses of his administration. He should never have waited on the 2010 election thinking the repubs would play nicely. He should have kept a public offering on the table when negotiating ACA rather than starting with their a republican plan. Obama bailed out the banks leaving too many to suffer the Recession forever warping their lives.
Warren is coming out of the box like a real negotiator asking for more knowing she will have to concede something. I don't think she'd wait on anything and give the advantage to a republican congress like Obama did.
10
There are many people in America who support Trump and will vote for him or give him money but are embarrassed or unwilling to admit it. That is why polls cannot be trusted, aside from the fact that polls fail to take account of the Electoral College which determines the path to the Oval office. Failing to craft a campaign to take account for this fact might create an opening for Trump to win the election.
Roger, you are correct about Warren, except that it is still early. She has been evasive and disingenuous about the cost of her health care plan and the other "bread and circuses" which inevitably will mean that the middle and upper working class will be taxed to pay for her plan. Also, she will scare older voters who vote and the professional and educated class who can add. Black people are not thrilled and will not come out to vote the way they did for Obama.
Biden, Warren, and Bernie are all too old. Kamala keeps flip-flopping on policy and does not even have overwhelming support in her state. Besides is America ready and able to elect a black woman? Being mayor of a small city no matter how smart or losing for the Senate does not qualify to be president. Booker has the smarts, the coolness of Obama, the ability to stir a crowd, and the good looks to make it. But this is the year for a woman. Amy Klobuchar has the smarts, the right state, and the center but does not inspire and is unable to rise in the polls because there is not enough air in the room. It is early.
7
@Alan Does it matter that Trump is almost as old as and much fatter than the Democratic front runners?
3
The problem with all Dems so far is they're focused full-time on the diseases and not on the health side. Where's the vision for the future beyond problem solving? Isn't engaging the world the next frontier? Where's the discussion of all the things that unite people - that make people human - Art, travel, humor, literature, music, hiking...? Solving problems is crucial but I don't see there counterbalance.
1
Warren is smart, yes. But how does she define wealth? And from whose pockets would she take more money? She has not answered the question as to raising taxes on the middle class.
3
@AACNY -- Just cancel all those tax cuts. That would fix most of it. That's who she would tax. Then add in a financial transactions tax, a wealth surcharge tax, and we'd be on our way.
The middle class didn't get any cuts, so it isn't their problem.
Many of the people so determined to elect a "centrist" like Biden are the Democrats who got their share of those tax cuts, and mean to keep those tax cuts.
1
@geeb
She just raised taxes on the middle class in MA.
It is painful for me to read this column, and these comments, and realize how out-of-touch with reality many on the left are.
Out-of-touch because they don’t recognize how close the 2020 election will be. The Republicans and their benefactors are prepared to spend whatever it takes, to bend whatever rules, and tell whatever lies they need to win. They will have the added advantage of a Russian thumb on the scales. http://tinyurl.com/y6prm4kt
If Trump gets another term, he will do to the country what he has done to the Republican Party. He will turn it into his wholly owned property, a totalitarian state with a mere facade of democracy.
The next election will be a referendum on Donald Trump, on his personality, his fitness for office and the direction he is taking the country. It will NOT be about the candidates’ respective policies, nor what they said 40 year ago, however much many on the left wish would wish it. The election will be about only one thing, character.
That’s why it’s so important for the Democrats to nominate a standard-bearer who is favored and trusted by a large cross-section of the voting public, someone whom Trump cannot easily demonize. That is Joe Biden, even with all his foibles. If the Democrats can persuade Warren to be his running-mate, they may just possibly eke out a win.
This is not happy-hour, folks. We are at an existential tipping point, where the future of democracy, and the survival of life on this planet are both perilously at risk.
20
@Ron Cohen
Indeed we are at a tipping point, and what we must not do is be deluded further, into tipping over, by choosing the Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer Biden democrats, with their incrementalist status quo beggar the poor and the middle-class policies.
Time for real change; Warren or Sanders will handily beat the current Liar In-Chief, send him back to his bankruptcy riddled way of of life, and Americans will usher in a new dawn.
8
@Mel Farrell
"Warren or Sanders will handily beat the current Liar In-Chief..."
And your evidence for that? Don’t cite me polls. Once the election campaign begins in earnest, and the Republicans wheel out their big guns, the entire dynamic will change.
Not since Harry Truman has a progressive won the presidency. Carter and Clinton ran as centrists. Stevenson lost twice, Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis all lost. The left wing of the Democratic Party is, and always been, mired in self-delusion.
2
I'm eager to watch the debates between Warren and Trump. One appealing to reason, the other to fear and hatred. It's time to move forward again. Together. Before it's too late.
2
I have long been a fan of Joe Biden's. He has served our nation long and well. But he has his flaws, and it may be that time has passed him by.
As for his predisposition toward seemingly tone deaf errors of speech, it's hard to forget his reference to then first-time presidential candidate Barack Obama, who Biden eventually served for eight years as Vice President, as "clean" and "articulate." If Obama and the African-American community could overlook that faint damnation with seeming praise, so too might the rest of us be able to.
But a history of such utterances and similar gaffes by Biden doesn't instill confidence. In an era when Donald Trump has almost daily perfected an inartful propensity toward outrageous, unscripted utterances, America may be tiring of it all, and looking for a candidate more predictable in clarity of thought and expression.
5
On a recent a fishing trip with Trump supporting friends (we generally avoid political discussions) I expected to hear a few warm fuzzies about Biden. Instead I was surprised to hear the former VP being dismissed as "useless" along with respect for both Warren and Harris.
None of my friends will vote for a Democratic President in 2020 and certainly neither Warren nor Harris if one of them is the nominee. But their view of Biden does line up surprisingly well with the view from the Democratic left.
5
I am backing Warren; I see no benefit in choosing Biden to somehow encourage moderate Republicans to hopefully see the light and either vote for him or stay home. That seems to be the strongest argument for his candidacy.
I'm nearly 70 --we need to mobilize the young, those who typically stay home but appear to lean Democratic or moderate, and people of all backgrounds. And we need to fight like our democracy depends on it. It does.
20
Plenty of us older, whiter voters are completely underwhelmed by Biden. I just helped local youth organize a dynamic, large, and visionary climate justice protest in my community.The message from the millions of youth who came out yesterday is: It is way past time to move ahead into a new vision of a sustainable, just America.
Joe Biden's call to basically do a do-over of all the disastrous policies of Donald Trump, and move back to 2016, will never get us out of the mess we are in. We can only win when we nominate and elect a person who is looking ahead to the new world demanded by the younger generation. Our children and grandchildren deserve to not only survive, but to thrive. Joe Biden does not represent that vision.
22
I want progress. I want America to stay alive. I want the constitution to stand as an important guide. I want the rule of law to stand as the most important system of fairness. I want the press to be free and continue to be the invaluable check on power. I want Trump gone. I want the Democrats to take the senate. I want a government that serves the everyday people in this country. I especially want the presidency to be restored to a place of honor and leadership. I’m disgusted by the obsession with the media and a tv celebrity president that plays them and us everyday. I don’t care which Democrat wins.
493
Thank you. This is how i feel. i would take any Democrat among the 19 still on presidential list. But, Warren would be my choice. I have followed few. donated to Harris, but come to see that Warren is it. She can beat Trump. That was my main concern.
82
@AACNY
The Ryan / McConnell / Trump tax cut will increase the deficit from $600 Billion to $1 Trillion.
The projected ten year increase in debt is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per tax payer.
In a few more years and we may be paying more for interest on the debt than for the military.
This is after eight years of Republicans relentlessly railing about the debt when it was Obama.
Every Republican senator voted for it. Not one Democratic senator voted for it.
I wouldn't mind if Trump voters were getting fleeced but the rest of the country is getting fleeced, too.
35
@Lake trash
What worries me is the fact that the NY Times, like other "mainstream media," is starting to pick at Elizabeth Warren as they did Hillary Clinton.
They are concerned about "optics." They keep asking whether Warren is too far to the left. They run polls that make the primary into a horse-race.
You are correct about the role Trump has played and is playing. The media love conflict and he provides it. He's entertaining in a really perverse way. It like a reality show and Trump is sensitive to and works to manipulate his "ratings."
And then there's Fox...
13
I relish the thought of Warren debating Trump. A Biden-Trump debate evokes great trepidation. Case closed.
609
@LJR
Not so fast. Smart voters know debates highlight who is great at debating, not governing or making policy. Let's not be persuaded by canned one liners or stale talking points. (Kamala Harris, looking at you, among others). The smartest kid in the class is not necessarily the best president.
I've learned nothing more from watching a debate that I did not know from doing my own homework. Debates are overrated and underwhelming.
56
@LJR, I don't agree with you on Biden's debate performances, which I thought were good. But the debates won't decide this election. Clinton won every debate against Trump, but lost the election narrowly in three states on bot-driven memes and tweets. This election will also be drive digitally by memes and who your Facebook friends are.
Most voters don't study the issues. They vote for the candidate they identify with.
62
@LJR Not a chance Trump will chicken out of debating a woman. The headline would be, "He's afraid of a girl!" Trump could never stand that. Warren will get Trump on that stage and needle him until he just comes apart with anger.
13
I voted for Elizabeth Warren for Senate, here in Massachusetts. For a long time, I also supported her for president, but no longer. The final straw for me was her embrace of open borders, free healthcare for illegal immigrants, and an end to private health insurance—all hot-button issues wildly unpopular with voters.
I don’t believe Warren can win the Electoral College with those positions. They are a bridge too far for many swing voters whom she would need in order to reach 270 votes in the EC.
Can she backpedal on those positions in the general election? In this age of Twitter, it may not be so easy. Neither her friends nor enemies will be inclined to let her off the hook.
I admire Warren's drive and grit, but she has a "I-know-better-than-thou" manner that drives non-college voters crazy.
Even if she becomes president, the country will need a period of partisan healing before any of her big initiatives will be possible.
Almost certainly, the 2020 election will be much closer than many Democrats want to believe. With a Biden-Warren ticket, however, the Democrats just might eke out a win.
(N.B. When you decriminalize unauthorized border crossings, and then offer free health care to those do make such illegal entries, that is tantamount to creating "open" borders, in the minds of most Americans.)
18
@Ron Cohen: Warren does not embrace open borders, access to Medicare is not for free for anyone, but the ER is already if needed, by law, and Warren is pragmatic enough to allow private insurance to those who want it when she has to negotiate her health care plans. I never understood why Americans were so willing to pay more for less services and more uncertainty and bureaucracy when it comes to their health insurance. By the way, employers based insurance is not private, only insurance you pay sticker price for is private, but only the 1% can afford that.
14
@Ron Cohen
Decriminalizing is not legalizing, it's changing the offence from a criminal one to a civil one. The difference keeps the wrong doing in a court of law. They will still be held liable. A civil proceeding is a lawsuit or non-criminal legal action started by an individual or company in court against someone that they say caused them some loss, harm, or injury. In other words, they will be sued and on the hook for the cost of what they do rather than costing us money in jail.
About the health care, did you know that if you go to many countries, you would receive free health care regardless or not of whether you were there legally? It's done as a courtesy but also in self interest to keep people dangerously ill from hurting their own citizens. If any person comes here for instance from the Congo potentially bringing ebola wouldn't it be in our interest to treat this person under any circumstances?
A more important reason is the care for children born here to immigrant parents who may even be legal when the child is born but lose their status. To withhold that care could maim or even kill the child through no fault of that child. Wouldn't you want the same for your child outside of this country legally or not? It is what most civilized countries do.
The truth is we are among the most cruel first world countries and lags far far behind most other nations we feel we are superior to in these regards.
13
@no one
What does any of that have to do with the question of Warren’s electability, that I tried to raise?
2
Pretty much right on. What Warren shows that Biden, Sanders, and several of the younger folks do not is the mental agility to parse out new situations and ideas, and fit them into a plausible and coherent framework with what she's been saying all along. She sometimes doesn't answer the question, but she clearly understands it, and deals with it competently. Not being able to do that is what the whole "age" question is all about; it's not really calendar years. I don't care how her voice sounds, nor even about her Bernie-sourced health care plan, which isn't going to pass Congress anyway. I just want someone there who can follow reality in real time, tries mostly to tell the truth, and puts the country's and its people's interests ahead of hers.
528
@dorjepismo The 2020 race will turn on policy. If this election is about kitchen table issues: jobs & education there's no way the Democrats lose. If the election is about immigration, busing & reparations there's no way we win. Warren is for reparations. In poll after poll, the majority of American voters are against this. Reparations are the only issue that would compel independent swing voters to hold their nose & vote for Trump. Reparations guarantees the Democrats will lose the working-class vote. Voters are also strongly against any legislation that would increase the flow of illegal immigration. But Warren is for policies that not only decriminalize illegal immigration but encourage it. They & their progressives allies are on the wrong side of this issue. Last January NY lawmakers voted to allow illegal immigrants the ability to receive scholarships & financial aid. How are Democrats supposed to tell voters that state aid to help afford college isn't available for them but is available for those who are in this country illegally? Many state Democrats are now offering illegals free healthcare, welfare, drivers licenses, schooling, & sanctuary. This is unsustainable. Why is the only answer, that they have an unrestricted right to come to the U.S.? The more benefits we give, the more will try to get here. It's an impossible equation. If a far-left candidate is the nominee then we will lose. Biden is leading in the polls because he gives us the best chance to win in 2020.
15
@dorjepismo. You are not asking for too much.
1
Biden's been running as the front runner so far. Trump is a master of media. I don't see Biden as being able to counter that.
Bring on Warren! She can target false arguments and point the discussion in a different direction.
458
@kuttmeye
Warren will never win over most of Trump's supporters, but then again, neither will any Democrat. We should just write them off completely as a lost cause. They fought the ACA tooth and nail without knowing why, and now they wouldn't give it up, so don't expect them to actually reason things through.
If Warren is allowed to make her case in something more than the ten second snippets allowed in the "debates", she will inspire sufficient numbers of voters to show up. The very fact that Wall Street is scared of her gets my vote. Once it appears that she is the front runner, Trump and the GOP will spare no time in unveiling every foul abuse they know to take her down - which is good. They will have used up all their ammunition long before Election Day and just sound like the corrupt old plutocratic stooges they are.
37
@kuttmeye
But can she win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, at the very least, and maybe Florida? Doubtful.
3
@dba I seriously doubt she can. If you look at Demographic polls that indicate where her support comes from, you'll see she polls very poorly with black voters and does not do nearly as well as Biden with less-educated voters. The source of her appeal right now is with self-described white liberal voters. That means she will do well in Iowa and New Hampshire, but will lose in South Carolina. I think if the US were ruled by white liberals, she'd be a great candidate.
6
One thing could be said about Obama is that he was whip smart. The same can be said for Warren. Biden? I don't think so. I know my politics aren't everyone's, but my Republican father misses the days when we had a President who's intelligence could not be questioned. He admires Warren because of this and would vote for her despite disagreeing with her on several issues. I suspect that can be replicated to many others. She is the most electable Democrat running.
888
I admire her but disagree. I live in the all important suburbs. She is “distasteful” to too many and scary to a lot more.
What happened to Steve Bullock? How about Gina Raimondo as VP?
11
@Tkeennj And WHY is she "distasteful" and "scary"? Because she's a strong, opinionated woman. Just the way most of the opposition to Obama was because he was black. This needs to be said, again and again. I'll vote for whoever's the nominee, but I'd have to hold my nose to vote for Biden.
72
@cjp
People are using the term "whip smart" oblivious to its implications. A whip stings. A caustic wit hurts. Trump is caustic without the wit. Obama was witty (sometimes) without being caustic. Neither are whip smart.
If you think about it calling someone whip smart is what is sometimes called a backhanded compliment, an insult in other words.
It is also tiresome.
20
The problem, however, is that Biden is right. It is not popular to say it, but poor African-American children know far fewer words when they enter school than children if other races — hence the (yes awkward) call for the record player. Do African-American parents need help? Considering the large proportion of African-American children born to single mothers, the answer is undoubtedly yes. These are facts. They won’t go away by wishing them away or by pretending that they aren’t there. Censure your speech and you can’t solve the problem.
77
@Michael
I think you mean "censor your speech". The censuring is done by someone else.
Do you know how the problem shapes up by poverty level? Do you know how important poverty and wealth are as predictors of success in school? Do you know how race figures into that as a separate variable?
15
@Thomas Zaslavsky I spent 25 years teaching in poor, 99% black urban public schools. Poor children have limited vocabularies, limited experiences, limited opportunities. A huge portion of African American children live in poverty. We have to break the cycle. I never met a parent who did not love their child. I met many parents who did not have the tools to break their child out of that poverty cycle, They spent the vast majority of their time and energy trying to provide housing and food.
Yes, we need to do the same for poor white children, hispanic children, all poor children. Perhaps this is more an economic issue than a race issue, but African Americans are disproportionately poor in this country. That is why it looks like a racial issue.
81
I taught in an area where the students were primarily African American and I think your observation is correct. There is usually one parent-the mother. These mothers are often very young, overwhelmed, and not ready to take on the responsibility of children. There are often other siblings as well and the transitory natute of these families is often extended to include the parent's young friends as well. The school age kids often referred to them as "play families." What is learned comes from this environment, what the kids see and hear they model, good and bad. Head Start helped fill in the gaps for our kids and taught what the often unstable environment at home did not. Now, we can talk forever about why this deficit happens, but the answer is relatively simple: the stable family that reinforces values and learning, with help from various programs, is the best solution. Kids who were disadvantaged but with strong stable families, had the best character and motivation to succeed. How we get that stability generation to generation, is the difficult perhaps unsolvable problem that affects all of society.
9
You can't talk, without willful ignorance, of "honorable men" who thrive in a corrupt system. Biden in particular has more to answer for than a record player. Consider his role in the worst Democratic policies of the last 30 years, much of which bought Trump to power.
Obama, a genial but not notably articulate man without a teleprompter, was a disaster for Democrats. Only look at what happened in Congress, and at the state and local level. And witness 2018. The shockingly irresponsible choice to run Hillary Clinton didn't help much.
And het the party is evidently eady to do it again. Biden, in his state of oblivion and befuddlement, might prove an even worse choice as the campaign drags on.
But are the leaders troubled? Not in the least, it would seem. Better Trump than Sanders, in their view. Even Ms. Warren is apparently too much for the leadership.
3
Beautiful writing. Mr. Cohen, and maybe what we need right now is a little poetry, a lift of the heart, the belief that for all Trump's filth the people of this country still have the guts and the heart, and the work ethic to get out and elect Elizabeth Warren, a person with hope and a strong vision for the future.
In the blighted landscape of trump-era politics, many, even most, of us have probably dreamt of going back to a time when we were proud of our country and looked up admiringly to our dignified and happy First Family. But, as trump's fans themselves prove, trying to turn back the hands of time is futile and foolish.
The only place we can go is forward, so let's do it with pride and grace and courage like we saw the Climate Marchers doing today. For a moment, among them, my heart soared!
6
Sorry, Roger. The winning answer has to be none of the above. Without exception, they are unproven, uninspiring, and unelectable.
JFK or LBJ, they're not. Bloomberg could do it. So could Bill McRaven or Eric Garcetti.
The current field of Democratic candidates is so inept and out of touch with most Americans that a Jeter-Posada ticket would be a nearly infinite improvement.
2
I disagree with Cohen's entire analysis. I like Joe Biden, and I don't think his verbal gaffes are anything new; I dislike the insinuation that they're tied to age ("befuddled?") All of the top tier Democratic candidates--and Donald Trump--are senior citizens. Age is not an issue in a head-to-head, and I'm offended by this column's ageism.
If Biden were the weak candidate Cohen imagines, why is Trump so afraid of him? Why is Trump pressuring Ukraine to cook up a bogus investigation? Why is Biden the only candidate Trump fears?
There aren't enough blue states or blue congressional districts for Democrats to win the House, much less the Senate and presidency. Democrats won the House in 2018 because they won purple and red districts. They will either win or lose the presidency in the purple states.
Cohen says that electability is overrated, then--like many pundits--points to Trump. But Trump was elected because Clinton was disliked. Electability was the most important factor in 2016.
7
Sorry, Roger. The winning answer has to be none of the above. Without exception, they are unproven, uninspiring, and unelectable.
JFK or LBJ, they're not. Bloomberg could do it. So could Bill McRaven or Eric Garcetti.
The current field of Democratic candidates is so inept and out of touch with most Americans that a Jeter-Posada ticket would be a nearly infinite improvement.
The US is a very sick country. Nearly 40 percent of the population is obese; ~ 100 millions with diabetes and pre diabetes; high rates on drug use and mental illnesses. If a candidate cannot galvanize voters around the idea that health, economic well-being and happiness are interrelated, he/she does not deserve to win.
3
Trump unwittingly (was that redundant?) tarnishes Biden with Ukraine accusations, doing the Democrats a favor. Hopefully Biden loses the "best-chance-against-Trump" label. Bernie is annoying, angry and impractical. Buttigieg is terrific - wish he had more experience than being a mayor.
Warren? She needs to get a lot more practical. She has spent the wealth tax 5 times over on every promise. Replacing private healthcare? What a non-sensical idea.
The rest of the field are just boring.
It's almost impossible to beat an incumbent. Even Richard Nixon won a second term in a landslide.
Trump is our best chance for getting rid of Trump. We're just going to have to wait for him to commit more provable crimes. Mike Pence will lose in 2024. Wake me up in January 2025.
A thoughtful analysis, Mr. Cohen, but we must always stop slightly short of the great inconvenient truth: All of them, Biden, Warren, Obama most of all, anyone, in fact, with a tiny chance at the golden ring. work for the same people, and must court the same people. The American people are a wholly owned subsidiary of a tiny cohort: banks, oil companies, and their mob. If you want to know who they are, just look at the sponsor list for public radio and television; (there's a reason that Public TV used to be called the Oil Network). American liberalism has been the lap-dog of big business for decades. We can pretend it's otherwise, if we still have the energy, but to deny it is folly.
4
The days of conciliatory compromise in the Senate Cloak Room are over. Biden is a relic, his views anachronistic and his policies dangerously tepid for a combustible era. We need a bold, unapologetic progressive like Elizabeth Warren.
2
Joe Biden seems like a courtly, good man. He has faced tragedies with grace and emerged hopeful and kind. This world is none of those things. Yes, I like him, but I do not think he can connect to or guide the country through what is facing us. Face it Joe, your time has passed. We are in many ways the worse for it, but reality is ugly like that.
2
Time for the two old men, Biden and Sanders, to get out of the way. Obama won by galvanizing the youthful vote. We need someone to capture that energy again, then there will be plenty of votes to beat Trump.
It will be so much more satisfying when a horrible misogynist like Trump is beaten by a woman!
5
The Obama-Biden administration was NOT "the emblem of the permanent political class, the one that created the conditions for Trump." The Obama-Biden administration created Obamacare, saved the world's economy during the crisis of 2009, and reduced the payroll tax until 2010 when the Republicans retook Congress and blocked everything. It was Hillary Clinton, her dreadful foreign policy (invading Libya and disrupting North Africa), and her self-focused, boring campaign that elected Trump.
The right ticket is Biden-Warren.
2
Um, I hate to break it to you, but Bernie is still consistently polling higher than Warren.
4
"America’s restoration, after this trauma, will not be achieved by going back. What created Trump cannot oust Trump. It will demand a new politics, and a new integrity, "
First, Cohen lauds the Obama era as a period of something for everyone that was pure genius. Then he says it was a period we can't go back to with Biden because it gave us Trump.
Huh?
This fellow is as confused on politics as Ken Vogel is on corruption in Ukraine and Biden's role in it.
My liberal and progressive friends are weary, sick of Trump's remake of Hitchcock's "Psycho," with Trump himself starring as Norman Bates. Sixty of us, from the boomers to the millennials, have had enough of the jabberwocky spouted by Trump and his creepy loyalists. We are aching for an intelligent and articulate Democrat to replace Trump the feral carnival barker. I am thankful that Elizabeth Warren is in the race and gaining traction. On November 3, 2020, vote for sanity, vote for Democrats. To those who marched today to save the Earth from further damage, know that if Warren wins, Washington governor Jay Inslee with be head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
3
I have to admit I'm a member of the "I like Joe Biden, but....." club.
Here is one important thing Democrats need to realize: The fact that the Democratic nominee is not Trump will not be enough to defeat Trump. Maybe it should be enough, but it isn't.
Crazy talk about socialism and confiscating everyone's guns plays right into the trap that could deliver four more years of ugly insanity to America and the rest of the planet.
1
Biden and fellow travelers didn’t create the conditions leading to Trump; perceptions of tunnel-minded “know it all elitism” ala Warren’s cadre established the springboard for Trump. Repealing insurance for 160 million Americans is a form of “reformist madness” comparable to jumping off the proverbial political cliff. Endorsing an anti Trump candidate of this ilk demonstrates not just the nuttiness of pundits but also an obtuseness difficult to explain. An astonishing lack of depth results from unfamiliarity with history’s profound complications and “rule” of unintended consequences. Journalists too often focus on narrow causes and thereby inflate their influence.
4
Joe Biden may not go the distance, it does appear increasingly so. And Bernie Sanders is being steadily replaced by Elizabeth Warren.
The problem with Warren is much of the country hasn't "progressed" that far yet. Of all the Democratic progressive plans the only one that fell short of a majority with "all voters" is Medicare for All.
And it's easier for Donald Trump to paint her as a socialist to tax you to death without providing what you want or ought to have. Her plans have a radical tenor. Too many voters would suspect the practicality of it.
Though less serious, she did write in an application that she was "Native American," a lie to get preferential treatment. That can add to the problem. Thus Warren is a weak alternative to Biden.
My money is on Pete Buttigieg. He's an amazingly gifted person. He knows it too but without hubris. He can communicate very well. His spontaneous responses are on the mark, a real feat, I thought. He looks a little too young and also gay. About 25% would not vote for a gay presidential candidate. But 75% would.
Very many more than 25% may not vote for a black man, but Barack Obama won twice. But Kamala Harris (whose unrestrained laughter may remind voters of Hillary Clinton) or Stacy Abrams or Cory Booker may not win, because they don't have what Obama had.
Joe Biden is a good guy from a state you campaign for US Senate in by walking across it in 3 days. Elevated to national prominence by being part of and being consistently re-elected to the most exclusive club in the world, from the second smallest state in the lower 48. Being smart and popular enough to represent Delaware is one thing. Winning an election for President at age 77 against the most venal person imaginable based on being a good guy is something else altogether, and won’t happen. Time to put another record on the player and sip that martini Joe. Warren - Buttigieg in 2020.
@John Murphy
Is winning as a Democrat in Massachusetts or becoming mayor or Mayberry really more impressive?
By this metric, the best candidates are / were Klobuchar and Sherrod Brown. They are ok choices, but Brown would be replaced by a Republican in the Senate, which would keep him from winning a primary thanks to our increasingly Machiavellian electorate.
1
Why is Joe Biden supposed to be responsible for what his son has done in the past.? If all of us were responsible for our adult children's behavior perhaps we would all be in legal jeopardy. Trump is a criminal and those who follow him are equally culpable for enabling him.
3
The GOP will use Biden’s words against him on social media to suppress the black vote.
He is showing his age and not overly concerned with fact vs fiction. Not a sharp enough distinction from Trump.
He cannot beat Trump and should drop out.
"Biden is trying to bridge reassurance to the wealthy with outreach to energized progressives."
This is the last thing we need. The wealthy need to pay their fair share once and for all.
This is bad enough, but add to it Biden's out of touch remarks about African American families and record players and you have a recipe for disaster. Biden is beyond understanding what today's world is all about.
1
@Magan
One has to understand that the wealthy can largely afford to move themselves and their wealth. Most are not tethered to their factory or medical practice.
This does not mean they cannot be taxed or audited, but treating them all as villians is probably counterproductive.
How about Warren as the presidential candidate and Bloomberg as the vice presidential candidate?
If you can swallow your deservedly large ego Mike, that could be best for the country. Of course Warren would have to get comfortable having Bloomberg on the ticket. We could all benefit.
1
Really?
Trump is selling our nation to the highest bidder, and we are more concerned about Biden hugging someone 33 years ago?
America deserves the fate it was ordained for itself.
1
I raised two children. They're now successful adults. I'm white and I can give Biden a few tips on how he can help black communities.
Does he not know, they are no different from anyone else? Good paying jobs, health care, quiet crime free neighborhoods are a start.
I'm glad Trump is standing up to Iran. I was concerned that he'd declare bankruptcy, run from the deal and let the radical government in Tehran see him as weak. It would make life so much more difficult for our next president.
If Warren is our nominee, I hope the Democrats choose a feisty VP to handle the transgressors from abroad. Kim, Putin are licking their chops as we speak.
4
I agree Biden did some apoplectic mangling in his answers. First, Cohen does not explain how Biden's views on reparations ties him to a bygone era. Next, it is NOT insulting to African Americans (or to Whites) that there is a role for social services of many varieties in helping children develop and thrive. This need is more acute in communities of color. It is evidence of Biden's compassion, concern, humanity even if it could be more deftly expressed.
Likewise, equally inept phrasing I suppose: "poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids". Inept, but Cohen's criticism excessive. I think the message is correct and important. Cohen is an impressive prose stylist - how would he phrase this inspirational notion for Black children?
1
Obama was cautious to a fault? He got passed a health care bill that other Democrats had dreamed of for decades. He led the bailout of GM and Chrysler. He approved the raid that captured bin Laden, which was not at all a sure thing. And, unfortunately, he bombed 7 countries, dropping over 21,000 bombs in 2016 alone. Like those policies or not, he sounds bold to me.
1
"If Warren widens her lead over Sanders, will he withdraw in a way that might wrap it up for her? Railroaded out in 2016, when the Bernie-buzz was fresh, he will not, I suspect, be inclined to favors. Mr. Magnanimous he is not. Warren will have to fight it out. On the evidence, that will galvanize her."
This may be the most important part of the column in analyzing how the 2020 race will go. If Warren and Sanders fight to the end and split the progressive vote, it may leave an opening for Biden to surprise everyone by holding his lead.
Also, you wouldn't know it to read the last 4 paragraphs, but Biden currently has 49% of the African-American vote, while Warren is at 13% (NBC/WSJ poll). Voters may not be as disturbed by Biden's flubs as Mr. Cohen is.
2
Biden is not that bright to begin with, and what mental acuity he has is being eroded by age.
Still, I'd prefer him to Bernie. Maybe Biden and Elizabeth together as running mates can beat Trump.
If Biden is the nominee of the Democratic Party, Trump will eat him alive, cackling and smacking his grotesque lips through the entire meal. Trump cut his teeth by bullying people like Biden. Biden, on the other hand, is exhibit A of the Peter Principle, a basically decent but completely undistinguished schmo who moved up the political ranks just by cussed doggedness. He has nothing on his resume of signifigance aside from longevity. I admire Bernie Sanders a great deal but it's now time for him to step aside in favor of Sen. Warren, the epitome of what Donald Trump most fears, an articulate, bright woman who is not cowed in the least by his endless stream of lies, insults, fabrications and plain old gas.
Sorry, but speaking as a life-long Dem, we need to get beyond Biden.
Joe had his chance 4 years ago. I am sorry that his son died. The DNC made the call. We can't un-ring that bell.
Young, energetic candidates are needed today. Not old corporatists.
1
“The left of the Democratic Party saw the revolutionary incarnation of hope, the promise of sweeping social change...”
I’m retired, and on Medicare and SS. The economy is blistering along. Jobs are at their highest level in decades. And so I ask, “Hope”? For what? “Change”? To what?
No “sweeping social changes” for me. I’m comfortable with the status quo......for now.
2
I'm sixty-something and I'm totally underwhelmed by Biden. He has nothing at all to offer! On with Elizabeth Warren!
1
If Biden falters, I do not think it will be Bloomberg who fills the void. We have Buttigeg, Kloboucher and perhaps even Beto O’Rourke who could fill that lane. But, having read his editorial today on Climate change, what about Al Gore? He is both reassuring to the public like Biden but now presents as transformative. Gore might be the very best candidate who could appeal to the progressives without estranging the purple suburban moderates.
Joe Biden is the only candidate currently in the running who can defeat Donald Trump.Period.The nomination of Warren will result in a landslide for the republicans.Biden- Beto ticket in 2020 is my bet.
1
When I saw him a couple weeks ago at the Democratic Convention in NH, Biden made .zero. sense at all.
He rambled from the beginning of one sentence to the end of a complete different sentence without any realization of what he was doing.
He managed a four, short-worded sentence okay, but he acted dazed the entire time he spoke.
What in the .world. does anyone pushing him think they are doing running Senile Biden for president?! He was the first speaker and my friend from high school, who is a middle school teacher now, back from living in Germany for decades, and I were ready to clap for him.
Instead, we gasped and looked at each other with wide eyes when we realized just how obviously, incredibly unfit to run he is.
2
Kevin Drum at the liberal magazine Mother Jones noted Warren's border plan did not even mention enforcement at the border, and deportation was mentioned only for felons. Drum said it does appear to be an open border plan as Republicans have claimed. She has 20 other plans equally verbose, unlikely to be passed or implemented and impractical.
4
Let me get this straight. Bernie Sanders has been a member of the US Congress since 1990. He’s 78 years old and a self-described socialist. Socialism is not exactly a new phenomenon. And Elizabeth Warren’s positions are more or less indistinguishable from Bernie’s. And yet they are somehow new? And Bernie is not a member of the “political establishment”? And Biden “caused” Trump?
2
exactly which committees has Bernie chaired as a member of the political class? What positions has he held as a member of the Democratic Leadership team?
Senator Joseph Biden delivered a eulogy for Senator Strom Thurmond, one of Democratic South Carolina's most unfavorite sons, calling him "one of my best friends." Time to seriously unfriend Strom and all of his friends, too.
These kinds of horse-race considerations are distasteful and frankly tone-deaf. The world burns. Who cares about these tiny differences, compared to where we are now? Let's get an honest administration in there and stanch the bleeding. Then we can have a fair debate about the best policies. But let's please not turn it into a war. That's what we have now.
2
I'm an old white guy who has seen and remembered Biden's missteps and faux pas. Trump and the dark PACs will eat him alive. And even if he were to be elected, he is not the leader America needs to confront the issues we face.
2
Again with the Michael Bloomberg fantasy football. Please stop.
And Sanders was not "railroaded" in 2016. He got fewer primary votes and lost.
5
Mr. Cohen is certainly entitled to his opinion about the relative virtues of Mr. Biden and Ms. Warren (even without his deigning to address some of the specific proposals that make the senator from Massachusetts so clearly unacceptable to moderates and independents in the Midwest) but to refer to the former Vice President as the man who made Donald Trump possible is no less absurd than pinning the blame for that on Biden's former boss (who did, after all, have the effrontery to mock Mr. Trump at a White House Correspondent's Dinner!). There are a thousand little things that made Trump possible, the totality of which resulted in a one-in-a-billion synthesis of ignorance, arrogance, fraudulence, narcissism, petulance, malice and malevolence. Biden could not have been responsible for this unless he were the Devil himself.
2
I never liked Biden; not that bright, he plays the main chance and intellectually skates most of the time. Plus he’s a loser.
Sure, maybe you like him. Maybe you see him as the heir to Obama, the guy who can beat Trump. But he is a loser and Trump will eat him for breakfast; admit it, you can see it, you can hear it (“record player” good lord...) and even his supporters have to acknowledge that he is too old, and past his best-before date.
He is a housebroken, smarter version of Trump. You will not get the type of change you need if you elect Biden. You will get a Republican influenced conservative Democrat, and I am here to tell you that incremental change isn’t what you need.
I think it is time for the smartest woman in the room to lead. I think it’s time for Warren.
2
Biden has no chance. The Democrat field, while wide, is shallow. Only constant social media coverage of the Dems makes them seem to be in contention.
3
It's fascinating to watch how hard you all are trying to shape the narrative. And more than a little nauseating.
When one types "news" into a search engine these past several years, 90 percent of the hits return opinion pieces. Here's an idea, present the facts: the candidates' words and actions, leaving out the tedious adjectives you slip in to elevate one candidate, dismiss another, (and shiv the third.) Our Democracy is sick unto death of pundits. It is rather sad to see such a striking example of a journalist aging into an opinion writer.
4
“What created trump cannot oust trump”. Why not? It’s a cute line but a 4 year return to normalcy sounds pretty good right now
1
I've said here several times before that I don't think "capitalism" is a thing. I consider it to be just a term Karl Marx invented to label and problematise societies in which private enterprise exists. He merely posited that viable societies were possible in which private enterprise did not exist. History has proven his conjecture invalid. Even North Korea has moved away from a complete prohibition on private enterprise. China thoroughly dispensed with the pretence that not allowing it was somehow socially and morally superior decades ago.
So do I think Warren is an idiot for stating she's "'capitalist' to my bones"? No. I can state my feelings about "capitalism" differently. If I allow that it's a term that has utility for referring to societies that feature private enterprise, I can call into question its significance by pointing out that societies that feature private enterprise can differ and change, and if "capitalist" societies can differ greatly or change markedly why remark that they're "capitalist"?Warren is only pragmatically following the fashion of suggesting that doing so makes sense.
She is well aware that despite remaining "capitalist" the US has changed markedly from how it was before the late '70's and it can change markedly again and it will still remain "capitalist". Similarly most commentators miss that by qualifying himself as a "DEMOCRATIC socialist" Bernie Sanders is stating that he feels exactly the same way. And that he's not as good a politician.
Kamala Harris. She has a prosecutor's background and skills to handle Republicans. The Republicans must be afraid of her because Tucker Carlson, devoted one of his rants against her, tore her to pieces. I thought wow, he's really afraid of her and that's a sign he thinks she could win.
People in the Democratic party like you, are why we have Trump today. Not the politics of Joe Biden...that's utterly ridiculous hyperbole. There's a lot that can be said about Biden, good and bad, but a foul-mouthed, sexually abusive, conman he ain't. You aren't interested in supporting the candidate that can win, you're interested in supporting the 'best' candidate. If you believe in the superiority of Democratic policies and leaders, then you get behind the person who can WIN. Not look good trying to win.
But, like so many self-loathing Democrats....as soon as Warren starts to take some hits on the campaign trail, or flubs a sentence here or there, you'll be there to throw her under the bus in favor of some other 'best' candidate. In the meantime, Trump and his cronies laugh at the bullied little children fighting among themselves about how to stand up to the bully.
2
Many (most) progressives lamented the Obama presidency as a lost opportunity, a disappointment. Obama I think correctly understood the limits of what he could enact given the nation's divisiveness and historical (yes, including racial) predelections. Trump was for many voters all about putting the white back in White House - angling to kill Obamacare (with no plan to replace/improve) and voiding the Iran nuclear containment treaty (to which all other major nuclear powers are all signatories). Eradicate all things Obama. Biden, to his credit, stands by his man. American GOP voters have been suckered by the cheap shot, the vilification, the tear down. Many of them are dirt poor but support (albeit unwittingly?) tax cuts for billionaires. It seems to be the white thing to do. Maybe Biden could lead hard white voters toward a healthier and happier state of mind.
2
Politics is the art of the possible. Obama understood this. Though flawed as a candidate and too old, Biden does as well. I am not sure that Warren does. In a general election, she will be crucified by Fox and the Republicans for policy positions that stand no chance of passage in Congress--even if the Democrats capture the Senate. Her current position on health care, an issue that the Democrats want to run on, will re-elect Trump.
I am an "over-70." I too am very, very underwhelmed by Biden, and so too are all of my friends. But of course we will vote for the Democratic nominee, no matter who it is. Not so sure if that is true of the Bernie bros , though, who if fewer today are rather resolute.
1
Your column is right on the mark. The lack of enthusiasm for Biden will doom the country to another for four years of Trump, and cement the end of democracy. We need a leader like Warren.
1
I am not a whole lot younger than Joe and am a Democrat voter since my first ballot in the 70's. Joe is a great man with a good heart. He should not be in this race. His time is past. There are other great candidates who can will his shoes if he will just step aside.
1
Biden is not only "the emblem of the permanent political class, the one that created the conditions for Trump," he is the emblem of the continuum of Clintonism, that duplicitous "centrism" that is in reality Rockefeller Republicanism. Biden is on record stating that other than for civil rights he's "conservative," and the claimed exception has its dubious elements. The political spectrum in America slid severely to the right forty years ago, and many establishment "Democrats" were more than happy to oblige their happy masters on Wall Street. Biden was one of them.
I won't vote for Biden in the primaries, and though I desperately want Trump out, may not vote for him in the general if he's the nominee. My patience is that exhausted from having to vote not in favor of the "Democrat," but only against the Republican. It's way past time for an actual democrat to be the nominee.
Elizabeth Warren is not perfect, and is a bit tone-deaf and tunnel-visioned in her loose "free college" and "Medicare for all" rhetoric, but imo she's the only candidate who has the necessary combination of integrity, character, policy chops, sufficient forthrightness, and charisma.
4
@Rocky
I’m always a bit shocked when otherwise reasoned comments end with an aversion to voting for a particular Democratic nominee. It belies a failure to fully appreciate the enormity of the danger of four more years of Trump.
We are truly at an existential moment.
Trump’s incompetence, corruption, ignorance, and narcissism are incontestable.
Someone should market a bumper sticker that says “I’m for ABT” (Anybody But Trump”..
1
@Rocky This opinion perfectly encapsulates the reason Trump could win: solipsism knows no bounds on the democratic left, even to the point of allowing and enabling Trump’s reelection if their way isn’t adopted! We Biden supporters would vote for any of the democratic candidates to topple this criminal administration but too many independents and Democrats haven’t that wisdom. Tragic!
1
It may turn out that the most important people who can affect the presidential election are the consultants who the candidate or the leadership of the Democratic party will employ to run the campaign.
Sec. Clinton was indeed the most qualified (and most vetted) candidate in 2016. That she was beaten by a reality TV showman with multiple bankruptcies, affairs and two divorces is due more to her staff of consultants than to her. The leadership failed Sec. Clinton by being timid and not hitting back at Trump's dirty tricks.
I only donate directly to candidates and not to House or Senate PACs who then dole out money to candidates. In 2016, the consultant ideas were lazy and dull. They failed to protect Sec. Clinton from the same smears she has been charged with since her husband entered politics. It was the same old lies with a couple new twists: child trafficking from a pizza parlor? Really? How does that charge not become an award-winning ad for how Clinton was smeared?
If VP Biden is the candidate, the consultants will want to "play it safe" by giving him another lackluster VP candidate from the East Coast. Sec. Clinton needed an exciting contrast who could convincingly generate excitement and would represent people who might need to take a second look at Sec. Clinton. Just from this year's list, there were better VP candidates: Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, Kamala Harris and others could have been good choices.
Elect Democratic Women in 2020
8
It is not enough for a Democrat running for president be a total contrast to Donald Trump and to be unrelenting in identifying Trump’s sins against democracy and his corruption. That’s the easy part, and it is not enough to win.
Elizabeth Warren is spectacular, but she is also an easy target for Republicans – even those who privately detest Donald Trump. Warren’s biggest problem is on one issue, healthcare financing. That is the issue on which Joe Biden is strong.
If we were designing a healthcare financing system from scratch, we would go with a Medicare-For-All model like Elizabeth Warren describes. There is no need in a perfect system to have private insurance companies which add a layer of high executive salaries, the expense of paying the salaries of clerical personnel and claims adjusters and the commissions of agents, the advertising costs and obligations to turn a profit and to pay dividends to shareholders.
But we’re not starting from scratch. There is an enormous corporate structure already existing, and that is precisely why Barack Obama had to come up with Obamacare, which works beautifully when given a chance. Joe Biden recognizes that reality. Elizabeth Warren does not.
There are other possible Democratic candidates who are attractive. The brilliant Michael Bloomberg may only be a pipedream, but Corey Booker is an articulate, smart, and decent person who, with the right woman as his running mate, could beat Trump and be a fine president.
4
Unless you defeat Trump, nothing will get done and all the progressive plans will go nowhere. The factor missing in all this babble is voting. In the last Presidential election close to 100 million potential voters did not vote. Where are the voter registration drives and efforts to get people registered and ready to vote. A fraction of new voters voting will get rid of Trump. Most of the ages mentioned by Roger have a bad record of showing up. The VP is liked and trusted by most of the electorate, some 60% that say they will not vote for Trump. They will vote for the VP. That is why he has led and continues to lead in the polls. All this other chatter means nothing and will continue to mean nothing. Likability and trust wins every time over all the plans and hype.
,
11
@Fariborz S Fatemi
A Biden nomination will absolutely depress turnout and hand the election to Trump. A Sanders or Warren nomination would energize and mobilize gave-up-on-the-system voters much more effectively. With Sanders' impressive grassroots game; his working class, multiracial base (as opposed to Warren's wealthy white one); his popularity with rustbelt voters; and his historical strength with Independants -a larger group than either dems or repubs - I personally believe he is best suited to drive turnout and have the longer coattails in the GE. But Biden? No way. Few would be voting for Biden, most woukd be simply voting against Trump. And that won't be enough where it's most needed, just as it wasn't in 2016.
Recent ActBlue stats. Of the 206 counties that voted Obama-Obama-Trump, Biden has fewer individual donors that three other candidates.
Biden: 12k
Buttigeig 14k
Warren 14k
Sanders 33k
1
By all means, support the candidate of your choice all the way through the primaries. But when the time comes to choose to vote or not, just vote Trump out. I'd take any of the Democratic candidates in a heartbeat and feel it is my duty to my country and the world to just get Trump and his enablers in the Senate out.
The passion people feel this time is refreshing after the malaise that followed the Bernie vs Hillary primary.
But I don't think that the meanness that is rearing its head toward Bernie, Biden or any of the other candidates is helpful. One of them will be the nominee and suppressing the will to vote will bring us Trump in 2020 just as it brought us Trump in 2016.
Support for your candidate doesn't mean trashing the other candidates. Highlighting a candidates' advantages is a better path for turning out the vote and promoting unity in the face of corruption and hate.
22
I would vote for Warren in a heartbeat. But she has to find a way to convince the moderate Dems and enough Republicans that she is ‘a capitalist’ with compassion for the average people struggling to just get by. Hopefully, her being a woman will not turn off too many moderates as well.
1
When this race began, I was against Warren due to her age. She, Bernie, Biden - feh to all of them. But I'm being won over by her policies and her energy. I'm not hopeful that she can win, though, given her gender - which will no doubt spark an outcry in the comments. Just looking at the number of commenters here who describe her as "distasteful," "strident," "on the edge of a nervous breakdown" - all well-worn tropes when it comes to talking about articulate, powerful women. Every single one of these words could equally, or even better, be used for Bernie. They usually aren't. Want to guess why?
12
@eml16
Want to guess why? Yes, more than likely it has to do with Elizabeth's sex.
That may well be the reality and it isn't just moderate Democrats. It certainly would be those working class men from places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.
The reality remains the same: the country (or at least the Electoral College (which who selects the president) will not select a woman. Period. Sad.
So the Democrats will make the same mistake they made in 2016 and the results will be the same. We will still have trump.
The reality of a situation is more important than pipe dream.
4
I love Elizabeth Warren, although I dislike some of her policy positions. I would be delighted to vote for her (and for any other Democrat). But to win the Presidency, the Democratic candidate must win 'rust belt' states. If Warren is perceived as supporting open borders I doubt she can. If Warren continues to support the end of private insurance, will GM workers - who just got GM to agree to pay 96% of their health insurance premiums - vote for her? I doubt it. Roger Cohen makes a wonderful case for Elizabeth Warren as President; he does not make a believable case for Elizabeth Warren as an electable candidate.
8
I love Elizabeth Warren, although I dislike some of her policy positions. I would be delighted to vote for her (and for any other Democrat). But to win the Presidency, the Democratic candidate must win 'rust belt' states. If Warren is perceived as supporting open borders I doubt she can. If Warren continues to support the end of private insurance, will GM workers - who just got GM to agree to pay 96% of their health insurance premiums - vote for her? I doubt it. Roger Cohen makes a wonderful case for Elizabeth Warren as President; he does not make a believable case for Elizabeth Warren as an electable candidate.
1
The genius of Barack Obama could not overcome what the Right saw him as, and this was precisely what he needed to overcome in order to succeed in what he wanted to do. Many were disappointed that he did not try harder and more eloquently.
3
@sdavidc9
I think of Eloquence and I think of Obama.
"What created Trump cannot oust Trump."
Exactly. The Democratic establishment cannot sell the status quo before Trump. They couldn't sell it last time, and now the needs are even greater because the damage is even deeper.
24
@Mark Thomason
The facts are that Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million. Trump's election was won by 3 states with thousands of votes - not much. I know there were many lies about Clinton, Russian inference and low turnout by voters. There is an urgent need to get this man out of the WH.
Joe Biden has my vote. There has been so many negative news articles about him. It seems as if everyday the article is about how old he is.
STOP IT!
1
Bernie may be driven, but he has always understood respect and compromise as a path to get some of what he wants.
Warren could offer him a lot more of that than he's ever had before, more respect because she very visibly does respect him, and a bigger role in bigger changes because they share many of those ideas.
Remember that Bernie was more willing than many of his supporters to compromise with Hillary, but she spurned him and insulted his supporters. Warren would never do that. Plus, Warren would actually undertake to do much of what Bernie hopes to get done.
Warren would not have a Bernie problem. He'd be an asset for her. He'd delight in it, even if he can't be President.
Remember
9
@Mark Thomason. Bernie offered support to Hillary? I guess I missed that - well, it came eventually, but it was pretty grudging and a lot of his supporters sat out the election or wrote in - with the results we have now. Mr Magnanimous he is not.
8
@eml1
Bernie knew he was more apt to beat Trump, that‘s why he fought it out to the end. I do hope that he and Warren strike a deal, otherwise it will be Biden and I’m not sure he‘ll be able to get enough of the vote out.
7
@Make America GOOD
Good politics has always been about making intelligent deals at the highest levels, and so far the Dems have not shown much talent in this department. In 2000, Gore needed to make a deal with Nader, but he appears to have totally failed to understand this. In 2016, Hillary needed to make a deal with Bernie, and she too failed on this account. We can only hope and pray that this time around there are wiser people in the picture.
8
I hope we keep in mind how much of the new progressive wave is in fact a matter of going back to the past.
For example, covenants not to compete used to be disfavored and hard to enforce. They should be. They’re anticompetitive in a way that hurts working people. Let’s go back to the past on that.
I think Warren wants to reenact Glass-Steagall, updated for current circumstances. That’s taking us where we’ve been before in a good way.
Financial consumer protection isn’t really a new idea - for example insurance has long been heavily regulated.
And the antitrust laws used to be enforced with an eye not just on price, but also on the sort of robust competition that leads to innovation and on notions of fair competition that give small businesses a fair chance. Nowadays, build a better mousetrap and Mega Rodent Solutions (my apologies if that’s a real company) will buy up your idea just to kill it.
Those scenes in the film “The Aviator” where a senator is trying to keep Howard Hughes from competing with Pan Am are interesting - “I think one company can do it better.”
4
Warren, if she picks Bernie as mate. Bernie deserves VP, he is the father of Progressive thinking and the millennials will vote for him, not for Biden.
Together they have most of the money, all from small donors and most of the people=votes.
5
It just seems as though former vice president Biden has had an extraordinarily distinguished career as a Senator and as vice president.
It would be hard to find a candidate with a more distinguished resume for the actual job as president.
Warren? not so much. Warren's qualifications for the job seem trivial compared to that of Biden.
Do actual qualifications, personal stability, successful experience ,and the best poll numbers count at all???
8
@David
You know, at a certain time in a person's job search, they can lay claim to experience in their industry. Add a couple of decades to that time, and experience--aka seniority--turns into a job-hunter's liability. This is Biden's problem, as a candidate. Those gaffes simply reflect his that his thinking is from a previous era, and it's no great leap for the voters to want someone closer to the present moment to lead them into the future. Joe was right to delay announcing his candidacy; his decision to run is unfortunate.
19
Which begs the question, if the Dems choose a moderate, will the progressives stay home?
12
@JoeG
The "purity progs" did so last time handing us Trump — some even said so. The problem is when people get so invested in their candidate they can't think of the ultimate goal. The Republicans did that. Trump was almost no one's favorite — until he was the candidate.
Too many loudly claiming the progressive label — & using it as a hammer won't entertain the idea that most people in the country are center - something. People like to be in an equilibrium. We need people to be off balance on issues like the Climate Crisis but they can't do that if they feel the whole ground shaking under them.
We Democrats could throw away this election convinced of the correctness of our leftier than thou vision. The '80s are in the mists of time.
There are still people claiming that Bernie was cheated (a view that the Russian trolls pushed too) when his own campaign's deficits took him down.
No matter who wins the primary we must all come together around our candidate.
8
Trump has a history of making it up as he goes. Zigging and zagging to please his ever more unpleasable and unpleasant base
by rapidly dismantling what's left of our democracy. Sanders will be scare those in the middle with his didactic anger. Warren has already begun to shift and soften her positions without compromising or sacrifice too much. The rest don't seem to have the chops to take on the leadership of this country with a coherent plan that would positively energize us without frightening us as we move toward a better, stronger future. Any and all of them would make a solid cabinet to enact Warren's
strategies and policies.
That said, the field is still open and welcoming for the next Obama to challenge the next generation.
Vote.
14
A decent assessment but have to quibble with one point Cohen stated,and a couple he omitted. Being over 60 years old, this eternal Democratic voter is most definitely not in Biden's corner. He is decent enough,but his subliminal bigotry, along with his works as a senator, ie:Clarence Thomas, his votes on personal bankruptcy and his close ties to credit card banks belie his claims to having an affinity for blue collar workers. Biden represents the limousine and la-di-da liberals who contributed to the weakening of the Democratic Party's ties to workers in general,and unions specifically. Paradoxically,Senator Warren evokes the past when there was a thriving middle class but blends her message with rights for all people,and environmental issues, to move into the future. Warren is in 2024 while Biden is in 1994. If Biden truly cares about his working class roots,he should step aside.
73
Montana's Steve Bullock, he's a successful progressive in a Republican state.
Biden made the mistake of assuming that the reparations for African Americans is aimed at poor African Americans, not the wealthy or solid middle class.
The early childhood interventions he poorly articulated are in fact good strategies for leveling the playing field for the poor, regardless of ethnicity.
8
"America’s restoration, after this trauma, will not be achieved by going back."
This is perhaps what I find most frustrating about the Biden campaign. He offers nothing but a return to the pre-Trump status quo, which is what created the conditions for the present nightmare. America is undergoing a profound political shift in large part because our country's gaping inequality has finally impacted a critical mass of the public. Biden doesn't see this. Biden went out of his way to reassure billionaire supporters at a fundraiser that things weren't going to change for them if he is elected president. A significant number of Americans are fed up with the status quo. In large part that frustration is what elected both Obama and Trump.
(BTW, "befuddled" is an excellent way to describe Joe Biden. I find it unbelievable that the Democrats are poised to give the nomination to the one and only candidate who manages to come off as more senile than Donald Trump.)
I too am leaning Warren, though I am also a fan of Sanders. The OG. I don't think Sanders necessarily takes votes away from Warren in a primary. I read somewhere that many Biden supporters' second choice is Sanders, and vice versa. Makes sense. They both have a blue collar rust belt sensibility about them. Of the two, Sanders is the only one with a forward thinking platform though.
31
Given the economy, and the Democratic field talking to themselves Trump sad to say is the most likely winner. The democratic party needs a strong candidate and more important a strategy to win the election. I hope and pray they figure this out before a Trump victory is inevitable. This election may mark the end of the USA as we know it.
8
A right on, excellent piece of thinking, lucid in its insights. Thank you, Roger.
9
In the fall of 2002, I wrote letters to those who represented me in the House and Senate and shared my concern that President Bush was rushing us into a war with Iraq. To their credit and my everlasting gratitude, all three of these Democrats voted against the Iraq Resolution.
The ever congenial Sen. Joe Biden, however, accepted the lies coming from the White House and sided with the Republicans in giving Bush the green light for a war in Iraq.
It’s doubtful that his wisdom has improved since then, and his answers to these debate questions more than demonstrate that Biden is way past his prime and should not be the Democratic candidate.
Put another way, Biden would be toast in a debate with President Bone Spurs.
41
Roger, I'm surprised at you. You're not normally this strident. We'll see how the voters in Iowa and NH react to Joe and Liz, not to mention the twenty some others in the field. But Roger, please, if decency has no place in our politics, what hope is there for any of us? Yeah, Joe is 76, and would be 77 if elected, the oldest president in the history of the United States. Sure, Joe is fragile, and, at best, probably a one-termer. But, our democracy is fragile as well, perhaps never more so than at present. Can a fragile, decent man save a tottering democracy? You better hope he can, bygone baggage notwithstanding. The alternative is chaos. And as a nation, we may not be able to endure four more years of the current chaos in Washington. Godspeed, Joe!
16
@ron in st paul
"Can a fragile, decent man save a tottering democracy?" Well the alternative is not chaos: the alternative, such as Elizabeth Warren, has a lot of energy, a vision for the future, and plans. Doesn't seem too chaotic to me.
59
@ron in st paul
Another alternative to Biden and Sanders is Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Although she would be needed in the Senate as a voice of reason and a legislator who can accomplish work which must be done, she would be a capable president who could clean up the mess left by Trump. However, I do feel strongly that the Democratic Party must reflect its diversity in the candidates it nominates at all levels.
We need a two term President to really bring the USA into shape after the damage done by McConnell and Trump. As President Carter pointed out, 80 is not an age to take on the job of President.
The Democratic party needs to nominate a candidate who can convince the voters of the USA she/he is not insane, is not corrupt by taking money through owned properties as Trump does and has a consistent vision of the moral responsibilities of the USA in domestic and foreign policies. Regaining the trust of long-time allies after Trump will be a significant task to do in 8 years, much less 4. We need a candidate under 65.
@Lynda
We actually need a candidate who is currently 37! Pete has all the qualities and characteristics of a brilliant and, ultimately, effective leader. It's impossible to listen to him and not be aware of his intelligence, insight, civility and sincerity. Even though he doesn't flail around when he speaks and turn purple in the face, doesn't mean that he doesn't have passion. His maturity obviously exceeds that of most of the other candidates.
4
All of us who seek to rid our country and the world of the travesty of Trump, to heal, and move forward in renewing and expanding our leadership in protecting the environment--consider the climate change protests and latest reports of diminishing bird populations in light of Trump's continued rollbacks of environmental protection rules--promoting equality and justice, need to keep our focus on our common, share goals while we debate between "center" and "progressive" candidates. Look at the big picture: all the Democratic candidates are strong on the environment, health care, and economic policies.
I worry that overly self-assured views will prevent us from forming the necessary coalitions--between more centrist and progressive views--to effectively beat Trump, AND take the senate while keeping control of the House. We too often naively think that a candidate, if elected, will automatically be able to implement all the plans she/he proposes. The fact is governing will require compromise and collaboration. Let's not forget how McConnel continually thwarted Obama and unless the Dems take the Senate he will do the same to a potential Democratic president.
16
This isn't 2008. Bush, though unpopular, was done so there was no downside in going for a bold choice. John McCain was a bit of a war monger but he was an honest man and would have made an acceptable president. In 2020 the only criterion is who can beat Trump, who has proved he's not fit to be president. Warren excites Democrats but it's not California and New York that will decide the election. Biden doesn't excite anyone but enough people will overlook his quirks to get rid of Trump. Then we can start on the future.
14
I have been acquainted with Joe for about 65 years. In 7th grade, he told his teacher, Sister Lawrence Joseph,(S.S.J.), he wanted to be President. He is an intelligent, well educated gent, and he has kept his eye on the ball. In his first election, he won a seat in the New Castle County legislature. From there, through fortuitous circumstances and dedicated effort, he jumped to the US Senate. The youngest person ever elected to that house. He was too young to serve at the time. In the Senate, he was unremarkable, until he was tangled in the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas imbroglio.
Like a bricklayer, or a roofer, Joe is a craftsman. He is an electioneer, knows how to win elections. He could be a Professor of Electioneering. In selecting a president, this not a particularly consoling notion. But Joe's heart is in the right place, and with his skills, he may do a magnificent job.
I support him, and would not bet against him getting elected. .
23
@Heckler
Biden knows how to lose elections, especially Presidential ones. His experience in that regard is equaled only by Jerry Brown -- who at least still has all his marbles.
This not a particularly consoling notion -- but pity won't win Biden this election.
3
Dyspepsia? Indigestion? Habitual? Bernie? What? Roger! I’m sorry, I cannot turn my back on a man who has worked so hard for the cause of others. I’ll stand for Bernie, because he’s been standing for us a lot longer than any of the others.
19
@rebecca1048
Bernie may have been "standing for us for a lot longer than any of the others" but he has done almost nothing during all his more than 25 years in Congress! Nor had he earned the respect and backing of his colleagues; recall his whining about super delegates not choosing him?
What has Bernie done that was not for Bernie?
5
@Sam Dobermann
You're exactly right. He's exceedingly self absorbed and lacking in actual, substantive accomplishments. And despite all his yelling and jabbing his fingers in the air, he has a cold persona. This is evidenced, especially, by the way he avoids interacting with individuals who attempt to speak with him or shake hands. He doesn't even acknowledge his wife when she appears beside him, or dutifully follows along behind him. 'Tis a sorry sight.
My 2 Cents:
I feel very sympathetic towards Biden for his personal tragedies but he should have chosen: “dignified retirement”. Warren and Sanders are very shrill. Beto is way too dramatic. Harris doesn’t really have a cohesive message. The rest of the candidates are very underwhelming at best.
Unless there is a “Breakout Moment” - Trump will probably win in 2020 and will continue to torture us with his brand of demagogic and dystopian dictatorship. Heartbreaking!
4
Biden's unfortunate remarks were stunning. They could easily be seen as falling under the heading of "what's wrong with black folks is simply they are not more like white people". As for "record player" how far back do you have to go to the era when most Americans had records and played them with a turntable and pick-up nettle? We've even moved beyond the CD era which took flight way back in the 1990s.
It is not just Biden's age. He clearly has an understanding of the world, with vivid reference points, from another era. We should assume he understands the present? We should hope and wait for evidence.
Obama, Biden and their staff assistants surely missed understood the era in which Obama was in the White House. They thought they could work with Republicans. This was a bit like saying maybe the truck headed for you at 90 miles an hour wouldn't likely hit your car, stopped in the middle of the road. The Republicans didn't want to work with anyone, they were fighting constant internal battles in their own party and had no program other than opposition. Nihilism won.
The presidency is always about the future, even for the older voters who retain their sense of proportion, even if they won't be around to see much of what comes. This is one reason Hillary Clinton didn't win in '16. By then, she was old hat and had been subjected to a quarter of a century of demonization by the far right. Can Biden lead us into the future? Let's see what effort he makes to project that potential
8
@Doug Terry I admire your resignation to the consolations of philosophy. I wish I'd been born a sports fan, instead of... this.
@Doug Terry
Doug, I agree especially about Biden. His tape recorder clearly has gotten stuck in the 80s. Thinking that with Trump gone Republicans would turn cooperative is a sensible as having gigantic white rabbits for tea.
But Roger has a limited vision of our field & like many is bewitched by the elderly top three. There are more. Klobachar is being ignored. Perhaps she shouldn't be.
@Doug Terry
Biden's unfortunate remarks were stunning -- but not only because they could be seen as falling under the heading of "what's wrong with black folks is simply they are not more like white people."
Those same remarks could also be seen as offensive even by Biden's purported white working-class base. No one wants a social worker coming to their house and telling them how to raise their kids.
This is a rare instance when Roger Cohen is in over his head. Perhaps it his decades growing up abroad.
Be that as it may, the fundamental question is precisely who in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and, maybe, Florida who did not vote for Clinton in 2016 will vote for Warren in 2020? The degree of victory in the rest of the states is entirely irrelevant to the electoral college outcome.
Though most Blacks appear to detest Trump, they've heard "plans" and "promises" forever, and many are likely to just sit home, unless the Democrats nominate someone (a Biden/Klobuchar ticket perhaps), who they believe can actually accomplish something, however moderate, rather than not accomplish utopia.
Meanwhile, Democrats are busily neutralizing support from young, white, (primarily but not exclusively) male voters. What 20-year old guy making minimum wage (if he has a job at all), hoping for some sex and eventual marriage, is going to bother voting for candidates that tell him that everyone else should get preferential treatment in life over him?
Trump's "appeal" has not changed. He has acted as expected since Day One. Thus there is not likely to be a diilution of those who voted for him in 2016.
Most voters, especially those whose minds are actually open, vote on an evaluation of what the candidate will do for his or her priorities, not what the candidate says should be their priorities. Warren and most of the other candidates fail on this latter, very significant point.
15
@Steve Fankuchen
Unfortunately you make valid points. Hopefully you are wrong.
1
The young voters are angry that Biden hasn’t chosen a dignified retirement and instead represents a permanent and entitled political class that they resent.
I don’t think that Joe Biden would be running for President if Trump wasn’t the clear danger that he is. Joe Biden has earned a wonderful retirement after a lifetime of public service. I see him as an old soldier who has volunteered for another tour of duty because he knows he can reach enough of America to win the election. And Trump knows it too, as evidenced by his contact with Ukraine and his efforts to dig up dirt on his most powerful potential opponent.
I think that the young voters should be grateful that Joe Biden is willing to take on this arduous task because he is doing it for their future more than he is doing it for himself. And if he is the nominee the rest of the Democratic Party should quit their circular firing squad and rally behind him so he can lead them to victory and end this nightmare.
27
@Me
Pity and deference won't win this election. Exactly which votes do you think Biden can capture with that sort of appeal?
3
@Me
Biden's had a mighty hankering to be president for decades now. This not-young voter remembers his disasterous run(s) in tne 80s, is _not_ thankful he threw his hat in this time, and believes a vigorously contested primary is the _only_ way to assure we get the candidate who has the best shot at beating Trump.
3
@Me
Very well said.
Biden just does not cause people to get excited and want to go to the polls. If Warren toned it down a little and focused on two or three social changes, (not Medicare for all), she would overwhelm Biden. What is his position on the issues? You really don’t know. Stay the course (we were on in 2016)?
4
Joe Biden too resembles Trump to win the nomination of his party. The same can be said of Warren and Sanders. All three rely too heavily on bluster to be elected President in 2020.
Trump: all wind, no rain
Biden: raging at the Gods, in the wrong church
Sanders: fire and brimstone, too hot for the times
Warren: know-it-all manager, eyes roll
Trump is a good boxer, a feverish counter-puncher. The only way to defeat him is to avoid boxing with him in the first place. His challenger must enter the ring, of course. When the bell rings, the gloves must be dropped. An offer to dance would confound Trump , and that is what's needed.
Biden, Warren and Sanders, like most politicians,
are rather clever and not at all imaginative. But cleverness alone will not defeat Trump. He possesses an evil form of cleverness that is highly developed. What is needed to defeat Trump is a potent imagination.
Who among the front-runners in the field has shown considerable imagination? Certainly not Buttigieg, Klobechar, or Harris. They seem at best to be youthful versions Biden, Warren and Sanders.
Booker and Yang, on the other hand, are offering something fresh to the electorate. They have the ability to throw Trump off his stride. Confronting Trump head-on is a losers game. Stridency will fail against Trump. Jujitsu is a far better approach.
3
@Boris. You term Warren a "know-it-all." That's what many good, sharp women have to put up with - they're called strident, shrill, know it all where a man would be seen as sharp. Do we seriously at this late date STILL have trouble accepting a woman as President? I fear we do.
1
@Boris
You lost me at Booker and Yang...
Most voters, especially those whose minds are actually open, vote on an evaluation of what the candidate will do for his or her priorities, not what the candidate says should be this or her priorities. Warren and most of the other candidates fail on this latter, very significant point.
Be that as it may, the fundamental question is precisely who in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and, maybe, Florida who did not vote for Clinton in 2016 will vote for Warren in 2020? The degree of victory in the rest of the states is entirely irrelevant to the electoral college outcome.
Though most Blacks appear to detest Trump, they've heard "plans" and "promises" forever, and many are likely to just sit home, unless the Democrats nominate someone (a Biden/Klobuchar ticket perhaps), who they believe can actually accomplish something, however moderate, rather than not accomplish utopia.
Meanwhile, Democrats are busily antagonizing potential support from many young, white, (primarily but not exclusively) male voters. What 20-year old guy making minimum wage (if he has a job at all) and hoping for eventual marriage and responsibly raising children, is going to bother voting for candidates that tell him that everyone else should get preferential treatment in life over him?
Meanwhile, Trump's "appeal" has not changed. He has acted as expected since Day One. Thus there is not likely to be a diminution of those who voted for him in 2016.
Hopefully, Democrats learn to do non-utopian math.
4
Let me reply to Mr. Cohen regarding Biden, as someone who will vote for Biden assuming that the choices remain as is. Democratic elections are about our collective vision of tomorrow. Were the election to be held today, most in the Democratic Party would probably agree that Warren's vision of tomorrow is one that most could coalesce around.
But smart managers know that you need to manage both for today and tomorrow. If you do not get today right, you have no tomorrow. And with Trump - especially with Trump - it is all about today, and what it will take to defeat Trump. Nothing else matters because if we have to endure another term, there will most likely be no democracy. It is as simple as that.
Those of us who know Biden from his record know his limitations. He still thinks that he can reason with a Republican Party that hung both he and Obama out to dry. He is too close to the banks, and he is too soft on China. We get that.
But he knows foreign policy, something that none of the other candidates do. He has the gravitas to reassure our foreign allies of our commitment to them, at the same time that he is rebuilding our foreign policy establishment. He has managed at the top, also something that none of the others have done, and he has the best shot at delivering those rust belt states.
He is a transitional figure, not a transformational one. At his age, if he gives us that, we should be grateful, while immediately planning for that tomorrow with a younger figure.
34
@PB
You make an excellent point about Biden being transitional as opposed to transformational figure with the talents that are desperately needed in your country today through next November.
The ship must be turned around before it can sail in the opposite direction. And, that feat will take the kind of skill set that primary debates cannot reveal.
17
Mayor Pete will be our nominee. We need now, and moderate. Mark this date.
8
i would not say i am "angry" that biden is running (although i am also not under 40). i think his candidacy is pointless. if he had adopted an elder statesman role, critiquing trump and playing kingmaker from the dais of select speaking occasions, he would have been excellent. perhaps he will come to that yet.
i don't frame candidates by the election ("electability") but by the need (climate change, wealth inequality, corruption, etc.). biden simply won't address the need. he can't. he's a good and courteous man; he's also a team player, an incrementalist and a trimmer. warren is a good and gracious woman, and has been a team player, but she is not a trimmer.
at some point people will stop panting and ranting in their partisan fever dream and really look at the choice, the only choice they will get. that time is not yet. there are still too many imponderables.
if the electorate doesn't come to some kind of clarity and sanity, wake up from its consumption addiction and face reality, which one of the many elect won't matter. politicians can't save us from ourselves: we already know that.
12
For the record, sales of vinyl records have been on the rise in recent years, particularly among the youth. A record player is actually not that dated of a reference nowadays.
43
@brian Wait for Joe's first meditation on insta-Polaroids
2
@brian
But it shows what era Biden is stuck in...
2
I wish I could see the situation as clear as the author does. If we did no have The Electoral College, or if, at least, the number of electors assigned to each candidate in each state were proportional to the numbers of votes obtained, I would have no doubt that Ms. Warren would beat Trump.
Incidentally, the main reason why Mr. Trump won was that, in addition to the Russian intervention, liberals went to election divided without coalescing with all their heart and mind into a candidate, and I am afraid that history is going to repeat itself.
16
Great thoughts, for the electoral college to fairly represent the will of the people 3 things need to happen.
1. Democrats retain the house, capture the senate and the presidency.
2. The house must pass a bill that reapportions the house based upon the 2020 census with house districts equal to the population of say Wyoming (500,000 /- with a goal of having a House of Representatives of about 525 members), get this through the senate and signed into law.
3. Do it! This will put elections in the hands of the people and prevent the distortions of 2000 and 2016
Small rural states will complain loudly but they have equal representation in the senate. Fair is fair and they might be surprised at how well this will actually work out for them.
4
Well, Warren needs to further refine and temper her plans, and doesn't the entire party get to work on the official platform; so if she is the smartest and ,most appealing of our group, the party has to work out some of the details to improve here likability with the entire party so that people will actually show up on election day and vote for her. The current president is so massively corrosive to our country in seemingly every aspect that we need to all get Warren as ready as possible for the election.
8
Interesting times for Mr. Cohen but his Bernie is a threat to Elizabeth leads the discussion to a significant point, which can put down Trump on the age of populism.
Sanders did very well in the 22 states he carried, many of them the ones that put Trump over the top in 2016; the power-brokers may have made a sad choice.
Now Warren if she displaces Biden will have the woman’s vote but will she still carry the image of lawyerly insider elite that would not overcome the ‘those people’ basis – the populism problem – and Cohen’s implied problem here.
He is insightful in this piece, but no one has that answer.
3
"But she can adjust." And that is the clincher for me when it relates to Elizabeth Warren. Yes, she is progressive and an idealist. But to quote President Obama, 2020 is about "the audacity of hope." And I am certain that more Americans than not are clinging to hope, because that is all we have right now. That and faith. And I have faith in Warren's smarts, experience, wisdom, and integrity.
I watched the marches today around the globe. These marches were organized by the future of our nation and the world. They, rightly so, are concerned and even frightened by climate change and global warming. Many of those high schoolers in America will be voting next year. Who embraces the struggles and challenges of this still young 21st Century? Who understands the needs and aspirations of not only adults but also our youth. I would venture to say Elizabeth Warren. I fear that Joe Biden will keep them away. We can not have that again. We have too much at stake, for us and our democracy.
104
If the prospect of another Trump terms keeps them home rather than voting for Biden, than they never cared in the first place. Respectfully, the argument that Biden won’t energize the base is rooted in an arrogant assumption that because you don’t get everything you want, you should withdraw and pout. We need them to vote. If Biden is the guy, as mentioned above, he’ll be transitional-not transformative
4
@Gaucho01 Good points. Thanx.
2
Yes, Biden is flawed and may not be terribly inspiring with any bold and new ideas.
Sure, the blue coastal states with urban centers will vote for Warren or Sanders, but that will not ensure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win. The only states that matter are Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida, where independents and moderates will decide the election. Trump has been losing independents, and those states are not Bastions of progressives. None of the progressive candidates can win those swing States. The debates have already provided the republicans with their ad campaign: the Democratic agenda of decriminalizing the illegal border crossing, free health care for illegals, elimination of student debt, elimination of private health insurance, taking away guns, and, of course, reparations, all of which require tax increases which the wealthy always manage to avoid. The swing States will hold their nose and reelect Trump.
Furthermore, all the arguing about these progressive plans is futile because none of them will see the light of day with a Republican Senate. And this agenda is not likely to help flip red Senate seats. It's doubtful narrow democratic Senate could enact them. But Biden is trusted and liked by the swing voters and independents warts and all. First you have to get elected before you can enact bold change. I'm inspired by Biden's warmth, empathy and humanity. Too bad Bulluck is unknown. We need a centrist.
24
@dba My humble prediction: A Warren / Bullock ticket emerges from the Democratic Convention. Gov. Bullock then planted on the ground with the voters of Wisconsin / Iowa / Ohio / Indiana / West Virginia / Pennsylvania for the duration of the fall campaign. Trump will get hammered by his worst nightmare - a woman and a cowboy. This ticket will sweep the nation and earn a historic Electoral College victory as well as a huge plurality of the popular vote.
9
Can someone please point out to Elizabeth Warren that today, if you are employed and eligible for Medicare but your employer provides health insurance, the employer's health insurance must be your primary insurance and Medicare becomes secondary. So if Medicare for All really is an extension of Medicare it need not eliminate employer provided insurance, which can remain a competitive benefit for employers and unions to negotiate.
Once Warren discovers this she can drop her insistence that private health insurance be eliminated but remain committed to Medicare for All.
14
Mark, that is not correct. As to Medicare Part A which you have to sign up for at 65, Medicare is primary and employer-provided insurance is secondary. You are not required to sign up for Part B if you are covered by employer-provided insurance. I know because I was in that situation before I finally retired. However, it might be the case that Medicare Part B coverage is better than employer-provided coverage or premiums in which case it could make sense to drop the employer-provided insurance and enroll in Part B.
12
@Barry Newberger
Not Quite. But rather than go into it here let me recommend Medicare.gov. There a phone # for getting in the weeds.
M 4 A is envisioned to take in the whole of the existing Medicare and then some. So there would no longer be any choice. Nor would there be any other choices as it envisions swallowing the VA, IHS, & for all I know Santa Clause. M4A is a monster & not well thought out. It is all premised on "insurance companies are evil & do nothing but evil & if we eliminate insurance companies we will fix everything wrong with the health care system.
It won't of course because the major problems with the health care system aren't the insurers & fixing things will need more than a slogan.
Medicare 4 All is equivalent to Build that Wall.
Neither will fix the problems they are proposed for but they sound good chanted on TV.
2
@Barry Newberger ... let the individual decide. Competition; i.e. public vs private, is good.
"He’s the emblem of the permanent political class, the one that created the conditions for Trump"
Exactly! And Hilary was an emblem before Biden. If the DNC doesn't understand this basic point, they should all get out of politics. The majority of Americans are fed up with the Status Quo that has enabled the rich to get richer while everyone else pays for it: with lost and lesser jobs; lower wages; lost benefits; lost job security; higher health care costs - even with "health insurance they love". This anger and frustration led to Trump being elected. His election - regardless of how much the Russians helped and other voting irregularities he benefited from - was a STATEMENT: "The System is broken and we don't care what happens!"
To serve up a bastion of the Status Quo like Biden is to ignore this loud message. Yes, Bernie may be too strident and "socialist" for some, but even so, he came close to beating Hilary when the DNC and the MSM were stacked against him. He did so because people want the version of America that he talks about: true equality and a level playing field. Liz may be the more "acceptable radical" since she is careful to not call herself a socialist (though you can't put rice paper between her and Bernie's plans). Moreover, she's a woman and having missed a chance at getting our first woman President in 2016, many will want to see it happen this time.
Biden is the candidate of Yesterday; Sanders and Warren are the candidates for Now.
63
You can laud Warren over Biden, but she'll lose to Trump. I've admired Warren for years. She was my first choice for 2020. Sadly, to placate the most radical elements of the left, she's rendered herself unelectable.
Warren is consistently unpopular among working class whites; even more so among blacks. Speak with people in Michigan, Wisconsin, and South Carolina, as I have, and you'll hear how much people hate her border plan.
The left-wing publication Mother Jones analyzed Warren's immigration platform and found it "de facto open borders", (their words) in, "Are Democrats Now the Party of Open Borders?"
"No one will ever be deported-except, presumably, for serious felons, though Warren doesn’t even say that. Expedited removal will be ended. The Border Patrol (can only) focus on...screening cargo, identifying counterfeit goods, and preventing smuggling and trafficking."
"(We've) previously criticized Republicans who accused liberals of wanting "open borders." President Trump tweets about this endlessly. But it’s hard to see much daylight between Warren’s plan and de facto open borders. CBP will not be permitted to patrol the border looking for illegal crossings; if border officers happen to apprehend someone, they’ll be released immediately."
Cohen understands how actual mass migration caused the rise of the European right. It's nothing compared to what a mere threat of mass migration has done to America. Warren will lose to Trump based of her border platform alone.
60
@Robert B
Warren will fine and arrest the employers,who caused this mess. Non-union,cheap labor,no benefits, no workers compensation taxes,no unemployment insurance,no overtime pay. The "immigration issue" was caused by right wing businessman.
25
@Tim Lynch
A majority of Americans will never buy a convoluted argument that we should give people illegally crossing the border the equivalent of a parking summons and then immediately release them into the United States because the real problem, which you tellingly call the "immigration issue", (neither Republicans nor most Americans will call it that, they'll call it an invasion), is all about employers and businessmen and non-union labor.
Republicans will run a barrage of ads saying Warren plans to destroy America with open borders and massive illegal immigration and include actual excerpts of her own platform, which she not only published online months ago, but touts in speeches. That will be the end of Warren, and Trump will definitely win.
Too much of the left denies this fundamental reality. It's why Mother Jones refused to deny it in their detailed analysis.
Yours is doubling down on a losing argument. Instead people should be doing what Mother Jones was trying to do: convince Warren to pursue her winning reform agenda, progressive taxation, and universal healthcare, put forward a proposal for humane treatment of migrants, and drop her disastrous open borders policy.
It's the only way she stands any chance of defeating Trump.
Finally, my entire extended family are immigrants, so I know how resentful and even hostile many Americans are to even legal immigrants. Most Americans will never vote for any candidate seen as supporting massive illegal immigration.
20
@Robert B
Sing it. The best comment on the campaign yet. Maybe if we all send copies to our friends & to Senator Warren it will penetrate.
Otherwise ...
5
The truth is we need Biden to beat Trump. Period. But Biden will be (intentionally) a one-term president (he has basically alluded to this) so what is critical is who he chooses as Vice President; it must essentially be a "co-president" that can step right into the presidency in 2024.
Political correctness being what it is, he has to pick a progressive and a woman. So, that pretty much means Warren. I think the country will be ready for a woman as president in 2024. However I don't think a woman can win in 2020 against Trump, especially a progressive woman.
The other woman who could potentially be a good VP would be Harris, but she damaged herself in her attack on Biden. Not a smart move, and it begs the question of whether their pairing would be attractive to voters. I doubt it.
13
Both Biden and Sanders would be one-term presidents (M4A is meant to be implemented in 4 years). I agree that the VP will be crucial and the de facto 2024 Democratic candidate -- but my dream ticket (and the most logical one) for 2020 is Sanders/Warren.
7
@Claudio
I agree with most of your reply, except that my dream ticket is Biden/Warren, in that order. We are both dreamers, perhaps.
2
It simply is not the truth, your premise is false.
I hope that Mr. Biden will soon realize that Elizabeth Warren is eminently better qualified to run our country than he is and that he will then spend his time vigorously supporting her.
45
Today, while digesting Trump's attempt to damage the Bidens via Ukraine and causing the Ukraine president unease about a promised aid package, I decided that Trump's dirty behavior deserves someone, a Democrat, to rise and explain to Americans, with proper outrage, how Trump is subverting our ideals. It should be Biden, I thought, he's the likely nominee. Then I realized, for the first time, that Joe is not capable of that, at least not capable of doing it in a way that confirms leadership. His command of language is not what it used to be. He stumbles a lot and has trouble nowadays blending his ideas and his emotions. The Democrats absolutely need a leader who can call out Donald Trump in a way that inspires all of us to defend what we know is best about America by rising up against Trump. Biden is not able to do that.
54
Roger and his fellow geniuses in the op-ed dodge can talk Bernie down all they like. I don't give a hoot. I'm sticking with the original progressive until he quits the race and tells me to vote for Warren.
Why they uniformly talk Bernie down remains a mystery. It seems to have a visceral basis.
By any standard measurement of politicians––experience; intelligence; integrity; policies––no one on the debate stage is more qualified to be president than Bernie Sanders.
30
@Taz
Bernie's not big on integrity & has accomplished pathetically little in over 25 years in Congress. He campaign seems to be crashing now.
4
@Taz
I just read today that Bernie wants to eliminate 81 billion of medical debt. Add that to the rest of his wish list.
If you are really going to vote for Bernie, you should just skip the middleman and vote for Trump.
1
@Taz
I agree with you 100% !!!
2
Age is not the issue with Mr.Biden, it’s what lurks beneath his record and is referred to as “centrism” that matters . And therein rests Mr. Obama’s failure as well, and the reason Trump got elected. Mr. Obama was mistaken in not bringing back FDR era financial regulations and incarcerating the crooks who crashed the economy. Middle class families who are barely making it, saw how crime paid off for a small group of people. And so again, like Secretary Clinton, VP Biden is misreading public opinion, at least one side of it, that wants Trump out, but also wants structural reform. Reform is not what Mr. Biden offers. VP Biden is riding high on the crest of name recognition, not ideas, not voter energy. That won’t last.
74
I can see that in 2020 Trump will be as crazy and incoherent as he has always been in his debates with Warren on national TV, with ever more scandals coming out weekly and daily. I can see that Trump will be reminded by his adviser to always come back to three short questions he can still remember to ask Warren:
1) how can you get $30 T to pay for your medicare for all?
2) why would you take away 80% of Americans' private health insurance?
3) why would you decriminalize border crossing?
With all the acadmically plausible plans and arguments that Warren will have convinced mostly reluctant democrats to have nominated her, she could not really answer these three questions from Trump. Warren will still win the debates, but she loses the 2020 election and Trump gets her 2nd term.
This is the only road that Trump can win in 2020, and Democrats (some) are building the road for him.
11
@RM
I am not a Warren supporter but I will answer these 3 questions for you:
1. Americans spend OVER 3.5 trillion dollars per year already, so, the 30 trillion dollars for the 10-year period represents a savings o at least 500 billion per year.
2. Single Payer Medicare-For-All will NOT take away Americans' private health insurance. It will replace it, and by the way, Medicare is by far better than most of the private health insurance plans (ask any older person who happens to be on Medicare).
3. Someone crossing the border is not a criminal action in most civilized, advanced countries, why should it be here?
Perhaps you can answer a question for me, do you approve of the inhumane way these "illegal immigrants" are being treated by the Trump administration?
13
re #3 = Someone crossing the border is not a criminal action in most civilized, advanced countries, why should it be here?
Do you ever watch the nightly news on networks or BBC etc? Have you seen the drownings of refugees, the wretched refugee camps? The way they are treated in many other places? That doesn't justify our barbarism but it doesn't support your point.
More moderate than the more left progressives, I have watched Biden in the debates and other places where he is found in the public eye. He is much better off the horrendous debate stage, where to answer in a reasoned enough time is not given. He responds poorly there. Even so, I am leaning more towards Warren because I believe that she will respond to the reality that in the history of trying to pass the ACA, the GOP placed enough blocks that it was very difficult to pass, MCA will be nigh on impossible. I have never drunk the Kool Aid of Bernie, touted as something different, but in reality just another politician offering up what is impossible to achieve, but Warren could move us in a direction of actual accomplishments and certainly after the morass of the current Administration, where incompetence has been the largest study performed, she could show what capability in leadership is like. Finally, I would argue with this opinion expressed that the causes of the rise of Trump certainly does contain some democratic contribution, but way off the scale is the empty, nondemocratic, autocratic, and non-patriotic behavior of the GOP in the federal and local governments. Who are lackeys to the 1%. Give the main credit for where we are to those who deserve it, the republicans.
4
Yesterday Iowa State University (ISU) published a poll of likely Iowa caucus goers that for the first time in my knowledge actually showed Elizabeth Warren leading both Biden and Sanders, with 24% of the prospective vote to 16% each for her two rivals. Tomorrow (Saturday) The Des Moines Register will publish its own poll measuring Iowa Democrats’ preferences. If it reflects ISU’s findings, that will confirm objectively what many of us in Iowa have observed subjectively and anecdotally: that Warren is surging, Sanders is fading—and Biden is struggling to stay in place.
44
@Dennis Smith
Really? What about any of the others?
Those top 3 could each hand it to Trump.
"Obama, a cool man, proved cautious to a fault. Still, the way he cloaked his coolness and masked his aloofness in the language of the heart was brilliant. This time around, there is no such political genius out there among the Democratic contenders". Meaning - it was just a political ploy to appear warm and engaging in any and all images of this amazing man interacting with people from all walks of life all over the world? I don't think so Roger, I really don't think so.
20
@Richard
As none other than Bill Ayers once said to me, "Obama might well be the most intelligent person I've ever met -- but it's important to remember that, first and foremost, he's a politician."
1
Enough with people trying to drive Sanders out before a single vote is cast. He is in position to finish at the top in three of the first four contests. Let’s see how things look then before declaring it a two person race.
23
@Benjamin Hinkley. I'd like to see Bernie do the best thing and drop out of the race so that Warren can save us from Hillary2.0 named Joe.
It's distressing to see how desperately the NYT OpEd columnists are trying to bring Biden down. If he's such a weak candidate against Trump, can these folks explain why he's got by far the best margins vis-a-vis Trump in head to head polls? In the 2018 election, Warren was the only candidate who significantly underperformed the partisan lean of her race. Also Democrats won the House because of the moderate candidates. Not a single progressive won a competitive race and this was a blue wave election. How are we supposed to have confidence that Warren can magically win PA, WI and MI? The people responding in head to head polls are clearly stating that they overwhelmingly prefer Biden over Trump but that's not the case with Warren. The reason is that she's adopting policy positions that are unpopular wh the general electorate. She needs to be upfront about how she'll get her plans implemented. It's not enough to simply say that she'll 'fight for it.' The system of govt has been intentionally designed to make sudden and radical change pretty much impossible to achieve.
55
@Ajay Aiyer, the chief motivator of those who desire Biden's nomination is fear. It's hardly escaped notice that a large wing of the Democratic Party, particularly its older voters who have far too many losses under their belts, is awash in fear. Tentative to a fault as a result.
Don't get too comfortable with Uncle Joe. This Ukraine thing may become a political punch in the face to the president, but will just as likely end Biden's viability as a candidate.
5
@Ajay Aiyer People who write for newspapers seem to struggle with projection just as much as us average people. They think Joe is too moderate and too old, and therefore, nobody else likes him either.
Warren is perfect for journalists: she’s a Harvard professor. She’s brainy, progressive and articulate. Of course, so was Hillary Clinton, but journalists still cannot believe that voters are okay with word salad and non-wokeness.
2
@Ajay Aiyer Yet, somehow we went from having a vibrant working and middle class to an oligarchy in less than 40 years.
4
America should really have three main parties
Republicans
Socially regressive
Economically conservative
Democrats
Theoretically socially progressive
Economically conservative
OTHER PARTY
Socially progressive BECAUSE it is economically progressive
America has lacked this 'other party' for way too long.
22
@EC, America has never had a successful third party because it's a two-party system. It may not be written in the Constitution, but it's the way our election laws work.
Those who want a viable third party need to work to change election laws in their state. Instant run-offs are the way many countries handle it.
2
@EC. A third party has to be a third PARTY to accomplish anything, like putting a person in the White House. Not merely a third candidate. It has to come up from the bottom, not down from the top. When that party holds some state houses, some seats in both houses of the congress, and controls a state legislature or two, then it will have what it takes to govern the country from the White House. The president is the captain of a team, and without the team, he does nothing.
5
@SandraH
Yes, ranked choice voting is the go.
But the point is, Joe Biden represents the wing of the Democratic party that says to minorities and women "we won't hurt you like the GOP, but we won't help you either'.
Not good enough.
2
Many of the under-80 and under-70 age are also underwhelmed by Joe. They have reason to be as they have lived through his compromised politics and seen it crash and burn. Remember, those fils were raised in the 60’s and many never lost the faith of the promise of the civil rights movement and the mobilization to end the war against the Vietnamese. Say it ain’t so Joe! Throw in the towel before you collapse on the mat.
54
@James Wright, your comment is confusing. Biden has a 100 percent rating from the NAACP--he's always been a champion of civil rights. He was opposed to the Viet Nam War. If you oppose Biden on those issues, you must not know his history.
3
It appears that Trump very well might have committed a clearly impeachable offense in trying to get dirt on Biden. Too soon to say emphatically but close enough to change the nature of our national debate.
If Trump were to be put back in the White House, by whatever margin, impeachment would roll round with absolute certainty if the Democrats keep control of the House. So, we would have an unhappy, disruptive time ahead of us that could rip the nation asunder, even more than at the present.
Anyone who plans to vote for Trump next year should be aware that, regardless of political leanings, the Trump trauma would not end in 2021. Instead, it would get a lot worse.
When Trump got into the White House with 46.1% of the total vote, those who believed in orderly government, those who believe you have to have some actual qualifications to be president and those who knew that this man did not prepare, did not even study up in a cram course on government, all were in such a state of shock they didn't know what to do. Many hoped the Republicans would save a nation at risk by reining in Trump.
This proved to be a false hope and a bad joke. Instead, a few hit the exit button (Paul Ryan, el al) and the rest acted like they had been transfixed by hypnosis or had joined the cult of Trump.
Until now, impeachment or removal under the 25th amendment has been a mashed up, mixed up mess. With the Ukraine phone call, all bets are off. Trump just might have finally gone too far.
25
@Doug Terry Nope. Trump supporters and republicans in office will just yawn. And democrats are impotent.
Wow, you don't get it Mr. Cohen. People don't vote on fashion or cheap shots at age. People (not pundits) are longing for solid character (not p. c. soundbites), demonstrated skill and dedication to the people by stability, working together even with people like Republicans rather than demonizing them. Cheap shots like this follow Trump's playbook.
17
Biden is washed up and too old. I’m going with Warren win or lose because she will offer a stark contrast to Trump and will be effective in highlighting his countless weaknesses.
165
@Cliff .....AND she will bring the kind of change we need to rebuild the middle class of this Nation.
9
Let’s count: Elizabeth Warren is 70. Biden is 76. Bernie is 78. Biden is the only one who’s too old?
2
Here is what I see in my dreams of a Blue Wave:
Now until the Iowa caucuses: Warren maintains the progressive hard line, steadily chips away at Sanders's base, doesn't even acknowledge Biden exists, since he is clearly headed toward implosion.
After winning a plurality in the Iowa Caucus (where Sanders is third, maybe even fourth behind Harris or Buttigieg) Warren shifts gears, maintains the progressive "vision thing" but starts to acknowledge there are substantial numbers of Democrats that are not sold on her and Sanders's maximum program. She (finally) starts to focus on addressing their concerns in direct and understandable terms: e.g. M4A will raise your taxes, but your employer should increase your wages to make up for the fact they are not paying insurance companies for part of your health insurance; M4A is not like the current Medicare which can still cause extreme hardship, especially to families that can't afford a Supplement; crossing the border without authorization is still a civil infraction and we can just require ankle bracelets instead of criminal charges and incarceration, and we will try to assist the failing states from which they are coming; etc.
After Warren wins the primaries: the progressive wing focuses on Stacey Abrams's voting rights campaign with a zeal not seen since the 60's; Gen Z mobilizes for an historic turnout, and the rest is a history that is the nightmare of the NYT's Three Horsemen of the Progressive Apocalypse (you know who you are).
12
@Yojimbo Predicting is difficult, especially about the future.
@Yojimbo
No, the purity progs will call her a sell out & say she knifed Bernie so they will stay home to teach us a lesson.
And Trump will win.
And I won't give a flip cause I'm 79
(except that I have 2 grandchildren)
"They don’t know what to do! Make sure the kids hear words! This is insulting toward African-Americans."
Perhaps because Biden's comment came in response to a question about race, it's reasonable to consider this "insulting" to African-Americans. But his premise is on target - the research is pretty clear that children who hear more spoken words at an early age do better later on. And the research also says that children from lower-income households hear far fewer spoken words in their early years than children in middle- and upper-income households. It's not just African-American lower-income household - but a disproportionate share of African-American households are lower-income.
So, Joe is right - the kids need to hear more words at an early age to set them up for success in school and beyond. I'm not sure a "record player" is the right solution, but I'll chalk that up to the silliness of the "debate" format.
41
@Gary R
I couldn't agree more. Children need nurturing and interaction from their parents. They need stimulation to energize their curiosity. Our daughter has a young daughter and interacts with her constantly. She PLAYS with her, one of the most important activities a parent can do with their child.
Our son has three children. His wife literally ignores them except to scream at them. A stay at home mom, she never reads to them, never plays with them, instead plunks them down with an I-Pad and lets them fend for themselves. Their 2 year old son doesn't even speak, our daughter's not quite three year old talks up a storm and is bilingual. Sad to say I believe our son would be a better parent as a single dad than the go along to get along and keep the peace parent he is with his wife who is completely lacking in parenting skills.
"His reference to a “record player” in the last Democratic debate ..tied Biden to a bygone era..."
The hair-on-fire response to an older-technology reference borders on the kind of liberal smugness, if not hysteria, that may eventually undermine their cause. I say that as a Warren fan.
Even if "record player" is an infrequently used term now (although vinyl records has been making a comeback requiring, of all things, record players), he was trying to make a valid (though clumsily formulated) point: that children of any race or income group should be exposed to as much aural/verbal stimulation as possible early in life to improve their ability to gain vocabulary, express themselves and learn. I don't think that gets much push-back from child developmental psychologists.
Parents, especially parents in low income career tracks, either don't understand this -- or work too much to have the time to sit and read to their kids, etc. So the stimulus from electronic, ideally educational, entertainment does fill in the gaps to some degree -- a la Sesame Street. Which is what Biden's comment was attempting to get at in a scrambled, Keystone Cops kind of way.
As comments go, however, if his thought were a plane it had a troubled take-off and an ugly landing, possibly without a survivor. If he can't do better than that in the future, he should turn in his wings.
25
@bijom
My husband is a huge vinyl fan and has read that vinyl is tracking to outsell CD's this year. Maybe Biden knows more than most believe and is actually ahead of the curve ;-)
2
You always nail it. Thank you.
Personally, I think the left-right-center analysis no longer holds a lot of water. It's not socialism v. capitalism. It's democracy v. the bad stuff.
15
"Is Warren too far left to win? Maybe. Does she worry some purple-district Democrats who did well in 2018? Yes. But she can adjust."
Then adjust. I have a bad feeling about the relentless criticism (with repetition of the same things) of Joe Biden in these Opinion pages. Many people like Biden or feel he has the best chance in key states-and he still consistently leads in the polls. A candidate who appeals to his supporters without bashing him might have a good chance for success.
26
One of the many difficulties with Warren is that she always appears to be at the edge of a nervous breakdown, definitely not an attractive quality or reassuring quality for a President.
Even worse for Warren is that the next presidential election outcome will be determined by voters in the swing States of the electoral college.
There is no evidence that Warren can win a majority in the electoral college, which is likely to be determined by the swing States.
There is very substantial evidence that Biden will command a majority in the electoral college, and every indication that he is the only current candidate who can do that.
So what is the point of Roger Cohen constantly trashing Joe Biden?
If Cohen actually would like to defeat Trump, of what value is it to Trash the only candidate who can do that - namely Joe Biden?
30
@David
Warren has not been a strong vote-getter in the areas of Massachusetts that most resemble the swing states of the Electoral College.
14
@karen b.
the whole point is that Massachusetts is not a swing State in the electoral college, and does not resemble most swing States that actually determine who will be president.
Massachusetts voted for Hillary, but enough swing States voted for Trump to elect Trump president.
if Democrats had a credible alternative to Biden, that would be one thing. but they do not.
So what does trashing Biden actually accomplish?
10
@David How much of your sense of Warren being "on the edge of a nervous breakdown" is because she's a woman who's speaking strongly and forthrightly? Bernie seems far closer to the edge to me. Meanwhile, Biden just doesn't have the energy - and I'd feel the same if he was ten years younger. Once again, any man is better than a woman. (But I'll vote for him if he's the nominee.)
7
Biden is a solid candidate that will do quite well in a general election. He is a realist and knows that the far left policies - i.e. Medicare for all would never get passed in today's climate. The Democratic Party has to realize the magnitude of this election. Biden can hit the ground running. Our NATO partners are comfortable with him. There is a lot to fix in January 2021. I hope Biden will choose a smart young running mate (Mayor Pete?) who can take the mantel.
As for Bernie, first off he is not a Democrat. Remember 2016, he lost the popular vote to Hillary by 3.7 million votes, and he was very slow to endorse her. Why should anyone expect different in this election?
43
The key for the Dems to win the presidency and to take the Senate is to fight back against the GOP, nervous fellow Democrats and pundits who worry about this candidate or that being "too far left". In today's political lexicon, too far left equates to ideas that were accepted by presidents and lawmakers of both parties, including Eisenhower and Nixon.
But after Saint Ronald came along with his anti-government rhetoric, the Dems were spooked into me-tooism. Bernie broke the pattern in 2016, but with all respect to him, Elizabeth Warren has taken on his mantle this time, and with a more personable manner.
I particularly like this from Warren: “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for. I don’t get it.” To me it echoes FDR's "we have nothing to fear but fear itself".
And I can see her fulfilling trump's worst fear: being outdone by a woman on the debate stage. I wouldn't be surprised if he chickened out of any debate with her.
21:45 EDT, 9/20
133
@mancuroc. I was thinking what a HRC V LW debate would look like. My guess given the breath of subjects in a presidential debate, HRC in three rounds. In last debate Warren faded into back ground pretty much after M4A discussion. Only other comment she made that stuck with me was the incredibly naive Afghan vignette Well i tagged along once with McCain do i know as much as CJCS etcal.
2
@mancuroc
No way will Trump participate in any Debates. He’ll declare it useless and “ fake media “ and hold many loyalty rallies. Guaranteed.
9
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Hasn't he already stated he won't debate? Or is this in reference to a primary challenge. Either way it shows what an empty suit coward he is..
1
This is well reasoned and simply stated without bias or vitriol. I’m 60, and I’m begging Joe Biden to drop out. You missed your chance, Uncle Joe. I truly believe you would have beat Trump in 2016. But due to all the shenanigans, both foreign and domestic, Clinton’s vilification sealed her loss. You will be great on the stump, campaigning for OUR nominee.
It’s Warren. Just as with Obama, I want a President Smarter than I. Otherwise, why bother ? Enough of this voting for someone you’d have a Beer with. I want to Vote for someone that helps keep the Brewery in business, the Workers provided with Fair wages and Healthcare, and the Roads in great shape, to get the Beer to the Bar. Or the Grocery store. A true Leader and Visionary, with the ability to choose outstanding staff, and cut thru the daily landslide of GOP provocation and foot dragging.
Warren AND Harris, or Warren AND Biden. I’m thrilled with either. And yes, I’d be shocked and ecstatic with Warren AND Mayor Pete. But that’s not realistic, quite yet, especially in the Red States. VOTE BLUE, No matter WHO.
452
@Phyliss Dalmatian So well said! Thank you.
14
Yeah, Warren and Buttigieg works for me. Imagine two whip-smart articulate people holding the two highest offices in the land, who will surround themselves with others like them in the cabinet. Imagine a Secretary of the Interior who would actively work to protect the environment — mind blown, am I right?
6
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Oh, please not that empty suit Harris. She has few accomplishments other than ... OK, she has few accomplishments.
1
Have you ever seen Warren deliver zingers aagainst Trump? She did it in 2016 to support Hillary. She's plenty tough! She has the intelligence to mock Trump, to ridicule him, to be sarcastic, and if she lands some of those jabs he will be shaken. Trump's whole thing is that he can never be made to look weak. At the correspondents' dinner that's what Obama did when he talked Trump into the ground.
Biden definitely deserves the admiration and honor from the party, and this country, but that a president does not make. What is needed is a total renunciation of the Trump style, the agenda, and a clear attack on his devastation. It's not entirely clear Biden can do this, whereas Warren already has shown she can.
Let's not let our love for Biden become a gamble for 2020.
247
@Srose "Donald I think it's quite possible you spend more time of a morning making your hair just so than I do and I'm a woman."
"Donald when I think my hairstyle needs some fixing against the wind I use Dove Therapy Style Plus Care - what hairspray do you use?"
This is how Warren could erode support among the Republican base for the actually rather foppish strongman-wannabe poseur that is Donald Trump.
7
@Srose
Warren can't explain how she will pay for her programs.
She is too weak on foreign policy and never discusses it.
Her policies are under water with the general electorate according to polling.
The MSM has still not turned the white hot lights of investigation onto her.
So far she appeals to the white, liberal gentry. Look at that crowd in Greenwich Village. It looks like a James Taylor audience on a college campus.
4
I like this opinion piece. It is refreshingly honest.
35
@michael h
I like it too, but everything I agree with, I find refreshingly honest.
2
@michael h
To be honest, that is you own opinion. LOL
1
Trump is the president now because he promised something completely different. All the GOP candidates wanted to continue with the status quo.
The rest history. Let the Democrats also something completely different. One should not be afraid always of the unknown.
23
The problem is that too many older baby boomers hang on too long in every aspect of the work sphere.....there are many in Congress who should also bow out and let a younger generation move in. One could argue that Elizabeth Warren falls in this category. Plus the primary politics are just not realistic.....a rude awakening of massive debt awaits whichever Democrat wins. Everything is not free. Just hoping we are not doomed to another four years of the same thing.
4
@Diane: hey, I resemble that remark. I work as a programmer at 68, and keep my job because my code is good and I catch the customer requirements better than most of the young folks, who think technically but not so much about how the code is going to work in the real world. Rest assured, if my code stops working, then I'm outta there. This is not a bad field at all, but Liz navigates it like a ballerina among disco wannabes. Survival of the brightest, most honest, and possessed of the best judgment is how it should work.
55
Unfortunately when you figure out may live to 90 or 100, many boomers realize that they will outlive their money and nobody is going to take care of them. I assume you took your grandparents out and had them put down since you don’t seem to have any respect or concern for older people.
@Diane Uh, some of us have to make a living or die.
Joe Biden is a nice relic of a past he never really understood. Now he's battling for the highest office in the land with even less understanding of our perilous present. People often refer to Biden's inability to grasp reality as "miscues" or "gaffes." Fact is, he's always lived in a fantasy world where everyone is essentially good and all we have to do is sit down and work out a few disagreements. His view won't be nearly enough to handle the manifold pressures of our times, especially given the demonstrated retrograde malevolence of the Party of Trump.
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@Eric Caine
And Warren, despite her plans for everything, has trouble explaining anything.
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@Paul
Huh? I think some of her plans are too "big", but this is the time to be creative.
@Eric Caine,
You have written a terrific line, and I quote you:
" ... especially given the demonstrated retrograde malevolence of the Party of Trump."
You just nailed Trumpism.
oz.
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My concern is that a "capitalist to my bones" candidate will sell labor out. The NY Times trashed Bernie in 2016 and is continuing to do so now. Then you said he was "chasing unicorns" by pushing for single-payer health insurance. Now that other Democratic candidates are catching up on this issue, he gets lambasted as "shrill" (a word only used for women in the past) and "dyspeptic." Well, if the current political situation doesn't give you dyspepsia, I guess you're one of the 0.1%.
Bernie's policies have been consistent for decades. He's on our side, and I'm with him.
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@Martha Shelley
I'm concerned about Warren's acceptance of cash from large donors in her Senate campaign and its use in her run for president. And now she has said she will accept big money in the general election, should she be the nominee. That makes her much-touted statements that she doesn't accept money from big donors in her campaign deceptive, in my book. And I believe she said it so she could compete for votes from Sanders' supporters. I'm also uncomfortable with her close ties to Hillary Clinton, which have been characterized as "secret" by the media. Her ideas are mostly Sanders' ideas. I'm still with Sanders.
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@N
I strongly agree with both you and @Martha Shelley.
While there is a great deal I respect about Warren, I have serious misgivings about her maneuvers vis a vis the party machine and donors. Her foreign policy instincts just plain alarm me.
And honestly, the more that pundits and MSM give up on the sinking candidacy of Biden to lavish praise on and boost Warren, the more unsettled I become.
State polls show Sanders very much in it. He is still in a strong position - though to read 'news,' one would get the impression his campaign is foundering as much as Harris'. Sanders' supporters are overwhelmingly working class and multiracial. He historically does extremely well with independants. Warren's base is much wealthier and whiter. I am beside myself with worry that self-important and very self-interested powers are betting on a Warren they believe they can "work with" *wink wink* but, in their transparent desperation to influence the narrative, and thereby the thinking and emotions of primary voters, they are serving up a potentially weaker general election candidate.
Hope and Change 2.0?
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@N
It would make me much more comfortable if Warren took an oath that no one from Wall Street would be in her cabinet or head an agency. How difficult would that be to do?
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“They don’t know what to do! Make sure the kids hear words! This is insulting toward African-Americans.”
Actually, for the past 50 years, our welfare programs have been incentivizing the production of fatherless, single-parent “families” with multiple children with one mother but each with a separate, out-of-the-picture father.
Biden spoke the truth, whether it was insulting or not. We have multiple generations now, where the mothers, grandmothers and even great grandmothers are the only real parents children really see or know.
And the statistics on spoken words heard by age 5 are real too. The words need to be heard live, in a conversation between and with adults, and the longer the sentences, the more nuanced the words, and the more relevant the context, the better.
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota all know Joe is correct on this point.
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@Toms Quill
1. No doubt that Mr. Biden is right. All who have to deal with socially troubled areas and deprived people have to deal with such problems no matter if white, black, nationals or foreigners are concerned.
2. It had been a major omission of the Obama era not to take action on this field. Nobody seems to know this better than the inner circle of the Obamas.
3. The zeitgeist in the liberal, progressive and activist camp in US doesn´t allow to address these problem openly because they put ideology over reality true to the motto: If it shouldn't be so, then it can't be so.
4. This zeitgeist is so strong at present that it has overwhelmed Mr. Cohen also here. Viewed objectively Mr. Biden has proposed something right. Under normal circumstances he should not be loathed for this.
5. But Mr. Biden is top politician running for president and has to collect as many voters of the liberal, progressive and activist camp. While many liberal are still open to listen to such truths others, progressives and activists are not and start to flail immediately because circumstances are not normal in USA of 2019 any more. So he never may adress this at all.
6. This is not understood by Mr. Biden who seems to live still in Obama era - this means the past - and who is showing reactions like great-grandpa when his grandkids tell him "What you are talking about, an ipod perhaps?" These are clear (normal) signs of aging of a man who is stuck in the past at the end of his life.
@Toms Quill: two things. First, without the black vote and enthusiastic turnout, any Democratic candidate will lose, and that kind of talk will slowly but surely lose the black vote or kill black voters' enthusiasm, for good reason. And second, trying to "help" black people by giving them ways and opportunities to become more and more like white people has failed for as long as I've been aware of politics, which started around the time Goldwater was running. It's not going to start working now. What a lot of black thinkers seem to be saying is that a system that, like ours, consistently produces inequitable--not unequal, but inequitable--results is racist, regardless of the ideas and intentions it's based on. That's the perception that needs to be the starting point, not whether or not black parents are doing as well as they could. Truthfully, I think Andy Yang's ideas on this are better than Liz's, but he's a long way from having the requisite fire in the belly to get elected.
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@Toms Quill
And so do you, there is no doubt in your mind about your correctness. However, the facts don't back up your vast generalizations. I'm not referring to words heard by age 5, but to the erroneous sweeping statements.
Joe Biden is the front runner who gets no respect. The Left wants Warren, the Right wants Trump, both see Joe as their primary nemesis so they go after him constantly. Yet he just keeps plugging along not only leading the Democratic pack but crushing Trump by double digits in just about every major poll match up. Mr. Cohen has written yet another "insightful" NYT column carefully pointing out Mr. Biden's perceived defects and Ms. Warren's perceived strengths. In my opinion this column is in total disconnect with the bulk of the American electorate and one only needs to pay attention to today's top political story to see who Trump is most worried about.
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@George
Your post is tremendous and contains some great analysis. My only reservation about Elizabeth Warren is that Biden is a lot more likely to beat Trump.
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@George. Imagine Biden debating Trump. It would be a disaster.
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@George No one has voted yet. Get back to me when the primaries begin.
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Well past time to stop grading Biden on a curve. He makes Trump sound articulate, quite an achievement. Time to give him a participation ribbon and send him home.
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In my opinion what beat Hillary Clinton was her years of DC baggage, different from Biden's, but baggage nonetheless. It would be best for the Democratic party to have a brilliant person with some DC experience but no DC baggage. To me that is Senator Warren and she has the best chance to oust the worst president in US history. If he gets another 4 years, it is unlikely we will even recognize the US come 2024. I already live in Panamá and will not even visit the US as long as Trump is in the WH.
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@James Ricciardi
I'm ready to move out of the US if Trump is reelected. Not just because of Trump, but because of recognition that half of Americans are really (a phrase I deplored) a basket of deplorables.
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@David Currier You live in the only state which resembles Panamá in climate and in the diversity of its people, flora and fauna. I have been to Hawaii at least 30 times. I agree with you about what a reelection of Trump would say about the US citizenry.
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@James Ricciardi
Hillary's "DC baggage" was, and continues to be, her husband.
Unfortunately, the big loser in Ukrainegate will not be Trump, who has proven himself impervious to the flailings of the Democratic Congress. It will be Biden, who will have to answer - at the very least - for his son Hunter, who leveraged his father's position to make an inordinate money working for the same type of people as Paul Manafort. Whether or not Biden intervened on his behalf, the appearance of impropriety on Hunter's part is all too reminiscent of Trump and his children. It will not help Biden's case with an angry, depressed, economically-stressed electorate.
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@thebigmancat
Great comment!, and I absolutely agree. Hunter’s deals in the Ukraine and China would never have been possible without his father’s influence. The latest twist on this story only helps to resurrect the issue Biden hopes will go away....but it won’t.
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Hasn’t seem to be an issue for the Trump’s trifling trio of older kids and the biggest grifter, Jared Kushner. Their use of Trump’s influence seems to net them loads of loans and opportunities with zero repercussions.
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@Summer Smith That's true. But, unfortunately, he's already President.
One of my favorite comments from Warren -- and one that got me in her corner way before she was running for President -- was when she discussed how legislation that 80% of the population supports, such as common sense gun laws, could still manage to not pass Congress. "It's simply never brought up for a vote," she said. What I like is that Warren thinks systematically, and she is outraged at the right things -- not a political party or an individual, but a system that no longer represents the actual citizens.
That is the system that created an oligarchy, with a president like Trump lining his pockets with all the enthusiasm of a third-world dictator.
And it's Warren's understanding the need for that kind of systemic change that makes me believe in her.
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@RVC
80% of voters are likely to support taxing the top 20% more. Thst does not necessarily make it good policy.
Senator Warren is intelligent and educated enough to know that such issue polls are often worthless. That she claims otherwise is disappointing.
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@RVC
Senator Warren just got a paid-leave for child care passed in MA. Like all her grand plans, the cost is now borne by the taxpayer. Beginning Oct 1, every employer and employee in the state of MA will have a new tax taken out of their paycheck. The kicker is that the benefit does not start until 2021, as the government needs to first build up a trust fund of other people’s money before they pay out benefits.
Once again, she claimed this would be paid for by the rich. Ultimately, the middle class takes the biggest hit here.
And the law of unintended consequences....companies are already talking about eliminating their maternity leave policies since they’re technically paying for the State’s plan. Of course the State benefit is well below the current employer provided benefit of most middle and upper class employees. So, those working minimum wage jobs will benefit, while everyone else has to pay a new tax combined with a soon to be decreased benefit.
A sign of things to come when the Left talks about free everything. It’s not just the rich who pay the cost.
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@Alan
"Not necessarily", sure, but it is good policy and necessary for the survival of American democracy to tax the top 5% more, the top 1% much more, and the top 0.1% much, much more. They pay less tax, proportionate to income, than the 80%, provided you are aware that there are taxes other than income tax. I hope you are.
All this could have been said before the 2017 tax give-away to billionaire persons, corporate and individual. Now it needs to be said twice as often and ten times as loudly.
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I normally agree with Mr. Cohen, but Warren leaves this Democrat cold. Sounds like nails on a blackboard. Another who is too old. Bernie as well. Get the retirement home troika out of there or risk another Trump term.
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@JWMathews Really? Then who?
Warren has the intelligence, message, stamina and strength of character to take on Trump-- and win.
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@JWMathews Sounds like "nails on a blackboard"? Is that another way of saying "shrill"?
For better or worse, I still think Biden is the best chance in places like PA, MI, WI. I don't care about perfection, I care about winning. I say we roll with Biden/Warren and everyone walks away from the table with something. The rest of the pack makes up the up and coming bench for 2024 and beyond.
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@Scott S.
I agree but prefer Biden/Booker. Given Biden's age, the VP is more significant in this cycle than previous ones. So, I'm not sure Warren will be reassuring to those midwest voters as she is very much on the left. Booker seems more moderate and less beholden to the far left agenda.
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@dba I agree but prefer Biden/Bullock. A governor from a red state, he knows how to win even in red territory. Bullock is also a moderate who would compliment Biden. In regards to Booker, too many clashes with Biden for there to be any chemistry.
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@Ric Max
Agree completely about Bulluck, though I wish he'd run for the Senate. If we don't take the senate, it really doesn't matter if the democrat wins the white house because Republicans will pass nothing and find a way to hold off on supreme court nominations till 2024.
7
I support Bernie the most. I know he isn't as articulate or polished as Elizabeth Warren. But it seems to me that he is more of a dove than she is. Even if he shouts a lot.
I could live with Warren. It's just that I think we need more democratic socialism and less capitalism in our nation now. There's a lot of struggle and pain and people left behind. At its core, capitalism is dog eat dog.
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@the quiet one
Yes, and it's largely responsible for the destruction of the planet, which needs to be emphasized in the environmental protests and debates.
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The discrepancy between Biden’s approach to the news of the whistleblower and Warren’s approach is interesting and, perhaps, instructive.
One asks for immediate turnover of the whistleblower’s complaint. The other cuts to the chase and calls for Impeachment.
The country deserves a leader. I am not sure Biden is that person.
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Too bad they didn't give Warren a chance in 2016. Although Hilary was very well-qualified, she had alienated a certain section of women much earlier and it seems this caused her problems. Warren also would have been more collegial to Bernie and this would have prevented the tension at the Convention that arose.
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The white women who Hillary irritated voted in droves for Donald Trump. They weren’t going to vote for Elizabeth Warren any more than they voted for Hillary.
Mr. Cohen, this Op-Ed is so close to the truth that it is depressingly scary .
I have to say the Democrats are not up to their game. Sanders is losing his 2016 momentum and Biden’s time to time vacant look is mind boggling.
For me I was leaning towards Kamala Harris but somehow she has lost the initial momentum. She would beat trump to his game so would Warren.
Pete Buttigieg is wonderful to listen to and hope he stays in the radar for many years.
Lastly we have Elizabeth Warren so let’s see her rise further.
We can only hope this is a onetime President, otherwise we are doomed.
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I am 73 and as far as I am concerned, Biden is too old to run. He is not convincing - I am still waiting for him to clarify why he is running. Its time for younger politicians to lead. I like warren - she still has the energy, but I would take Harris or Buttigieg any day.
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@Amos have you looked at Andrew Yang's platform? He's also got a lot of great ideas based on common sense. I'd like to see Warren & Yang.
@Amos I am 67 and I am with you all the way. If Warren gets the nomination, she should choose Buttigieg for her VP.
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......or Bernie, right?
"Biden...can put an end to the president’s sullying of the Oval Office. He can’t, however, embody renewal."
I've not read a purer statement of the fact that Joe Biden is past the point of no return. He is simply non-competitive. He is reaching and lurching, much like Donald Trump has done for 4 years (including his candidacy) but with more, umm, honor.
I was surprised and heartened to see your enthusiasm about Elizabeth Warren. You have it right, Mr. Cohen. Bernie Sanders recalls nothing but the shrillness of clarion calls in 2016 when it was sort of fresh. Now it's annoying, like, ah, a 45 on a record player.
Barack Obama comes in for praise from you here, which is sort of surprising, given your near-hostility for the Iran deal in 2015. I'm pleased, however, that you saw the president as a prism for hope however distant and in the mold of an ice prince. I think an accommodating Republican Congressional delegation might have warmed the temperature.
The ex-vice president served his president well but it was a near thing. Barack Obama could have done better but his daring candidacy was enough to put the brakes on too much, too soon. He needed Biden's past for all his faults; he was the present/future.
The Democratic nominee will be Senator Warren. She has proven to be a bridge too far for all of her competitors. Joe Biden reminds me of the poor fellow stuck on the carousel in Roy Orbison's "The Comedians." He watches helplessly as the world walks away .
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@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
If Warren is the Dem nominee, then expect four more years of Trump. She has no support from low educated white women and men, older black women and men, moderate 2016 Trump voters who regret their votes, affluent retirees whose stock portfolios would suffer from Warren's targeting Wall Street, large and small businesses fearful of increased taxes to pay for all those freebies. Trump's team will make mincemeat of her.
3
Over 50, and totally backing Elizabeth Warren. Tired of promises and more nothing being done. I am finally ready to fight. And I AM NOT AFRAID.
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@Ann M
Also over 50, also totally behind Sen. Warren.
I love her for many reasons, but here's one not often talked about. I am sick and tired of corporate leaders doing evil and getting off without any charges. Look at the Great Recession then and Perdue now! We need someone with the will to see these people charged, and Elizabeth has an iron will. This stuff will continue until we see crooked CEOs and CFOs wearing orange...
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@Ann M - I have two decades on you and agree with your comment 100%.
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She’s the candidate of white liberals. Very little enthusiasm for her among blacks and Hispanics.
5
"...the way (Obama) cloaked his coolness and masked his aloofness in the language of the heart was brilliant. This time around, there is no such political genius out there among the Democratic contenders."
I nominate Elizabeth Warren. All of the intelligence, more recognition of the real problems and the need for real change, and an ability to appeal to the middle class, the traditional strength of the democrats. She's it folks.
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@ESB Joe Biden has served his country as a Senator and Vice President and we all owe Mr. Biden a debt of gratitude for his service.
The Democratic Party needs statesmen like Mr. Biden to advise and counsel the women and men who will be elected in 2020 to lead our country. We need Joe Biden's political insight today just as we needed his leadership years ago.
Let's hope that Joe Biden will realize that he can serve his country effectively by counseling rather than leading. He has had his opportunity to lead. Joe Biden needs to step aside and give Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats the opportunity to draw on his knowledge.
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@ESB I second the nomination!
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@OldBoatMan
And yes indeed, he can still remail in the limelite and be supportive to another Candidate.
It is time for Biden ti let it go .
6