This article walks right up to the line of concern trolling, but perhaps stays on the safe side.
It's too early for Mr. Goldmacher to assess whether traditional media ad buys in Iowa will repay Biden in increased support.
The trouble with Goldmacher's thesis is that it ignores the particular strengths of the Biden candidacy. He is magnet for media coverage--good and, even more so, bad--and that keeps him at the forefront of the discussion. Biden is still the frontrunner in polling averages--and that's free media coverage everytime the horserace predictions are discussed (which is painfully often).
Biden's team may well know better than Mr. Goldmacher what it will take going forward in this environment.
2
I never look at ads online. We have a recurring monthly donation to one candidate. In the primary, I will vote for the Democrat who is polling the best against Trump in the swing states. After the primary, I will vote for the Democratic candidate.
1
While all this is going on -- Al Franken is about to dip his toe back into the public arena --
Embattled former Senator Al Franken returns to public eye with weekly radio show
September 25, 2019
Embattled former Senator Al Franken returns to public eye with weekly radio show
September 25, 2019 / 8:11 AM / CBS/AP
Al Franken, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat in 2017 amid sexual misconduct charges, will re-emerge into the public sphere on Saturday when he starts a new weekly radio show on the SiriusXM satellite service.
"I miss the Senate a lot but I'm not there so I want to be a voice," he said in an interview. Of the public's acceptance, he said "a lot of that will depend on me and whether folks think what I'm saying is important..."
The one-hour interview show with figures from politics, entertainment and other fields will air Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET on the Sirius Progress channel, with replays available on demand.
Franken said he's been talking for a few months with Sirius about the show, the conversations an outgrowth of a podcast he's been hosting.
He said there's a lot of public issues he wants to talk about, particularly with the 2020 election looming, mentioning health care and education specifically.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/embattled-former-senator-al-franken-returns-to-public-eye-with-weekly-radio-show/
Al Franken/2020
4
Dear Mr. Vice President Biden,
Here is the deal -- the gig is up. We are fed up with career politicians like you. President Trump undermined the office of the president with his "small favor" request to the Ukrainian president, but we also have serious questions about your son's participation on the board of that company. This situation clearly demonstrates why we are no longer supportive of career politicians -- we find your lot similar to a pop up advertisement we are trying to close but everytime we try to do so another advertisement pops up.
Most importantly, we did the MATH and Andrew Yang is clearly highlighting the real problems and proposing solutions we find reasonable. Sir, we truly thank you for your service. It's time to move the country forward.
17
The Times coverage of the Democratic primary races continues to reflect bias and Quixotic hope's that we can get a do-over on 2016 --- click our heels and we *will* get the preferred narrative: "first African American president followed [with a blip] by first woman" and she *will* be a pedantic psuedo intellectual right out of an 80s womens business leaders' luncheon. Biden is ahead so someone dissects his media buy for September and declares he too old and stale (and pale and male... At the Times we don't think racism is wrong because of the unfair way it pigeonholes people and denies opportunity based on biases, we just want to be the ones choosing the biases - and we *can* attack white males if we want to, our victims studies professor told us so).
All I know is that Trump is a disaster and he's got to go... and neither Warren or Harris will beat him. Further, pandering to the far left in our primaries like Harris and Warren have done is silly - we're not abolishing ICE, doing away with private health insurance, or making college free - not just because it won't happen - because it *shouldn't* happen!
When will we give a centrist and viable candidate a chance? Let's not do to Joe what we did to Walter O'Malley! Sexism is ugly even if it is turned on men, and Trump is a disaster worth stopping,
11
Biden is a creature of a bygone era. He'd be wise to rest on his laurels. His candidacy risks tarnishing a legacy he could otherwise be proud of. His previous 2 efforts to become the Democrat's nominee (1988, 2008) both fizzled out quickly.
He is already slipping badly from his early lead in most polls. All the momentum now seems to be with Elizabeth Warren-though only a few years younger than him, she adapts to modern campaign communication more effectively, & generates an excitement among millennials that Joe cannot match.
It pains me to watch the slow decline of one of his party's elder statesmen. For the sake of his party & the nation, Biden should abandon his presidential campaign in order to make way for the next generation of leadership.
2
At my company we vary our digital and traditional media spends based on market dynamics to get the biggest bang for our buck. This is normal in corporate America. If Biden has had a great week of fund raising with little online spend then that tells me that he's being very efficient with with his money. Isn't that what we want out of a leader?
Two recent examples of unconventional media strategies, against the grain of previous campaigns.
Obama 2008
Trump 2016
A withdrawal from one media avenue doesn't equal withdrawal from the race. And recent data suggests that with rapidly changing media habits, accelerated pace of change especially, following the last victor's media strategy pretty much assures that you won't be where you actually need to be, with your most engaged supporters. They're already on to something new.
Re digital media strategies in politics - this NYT piece is worth a look
https://nyti.ms/2Y9Orto
Further, data and articles published in NYT strongly suggests that it costs significantly more than you actually bring in to fund-raise via Google and Facebook. Ask Kristen Gillibrand about this.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." - John Wanamaker
I don't get it. Who is wasting time online and will see one of these ads and be inspired to click on it and be moved to donate money when the campaign starts bombarding them with spammy pleas for funds?
On whom does this tactic work? If I wanted to donate money to a campaign I would go the candidate's actual campaign web site. And give a totally fake e-mail address. (Probably one of my ex-boyfriends'.) If I'm watching a youtube video, first of all, I am either drunk or being forced to watch it against my will. Either way, I'm not going to pause the video to watch a commercial from some candidate yelling me from the side of the page.
I don't get it.
2
I know you need to advertise to win a campaign but I refuse to waste my money on an internecine battle of democrats. I will save my donations until the battle with Trump directly. Trump is amassing a huge war chest and it is high time everyone but the top 5 candidates should quit the race and stop wasting people's hard earned money --attacking democrats.
2
People have pulled their money from Ole Joe, want give him a dime. Looks like Ole Joe-China is trying to leave slowly, like he's being very graceful. This makes him a 3 time loser.
Now people are starting to ask questions about Obama since the Buck has to stop with him. Obama put hit on Point with Ukraine and China. So how much did he know?
I think I'll sit back and watch it all unfold. It might get very Nasty in the long run.
3
So buried in this story (with a very negative lede) is the fact that Trumps recent attacks on Mr Biden has given Biden his best week of fundraising since he announced. Isn’t that more the story about fundraising at this moment than your second guessing of his online strategy? Your hard news narrative on the dem primary does not seem wholly objective to this reader.
1
Younger crowd (< 45 yr old) want a younger & vibrant POTUS.... and new/modern ideas, and less history of being part of the polarizing politics of Washington, DC.
So, Biden and Bernie are at risk, while Warren has a slim chance to connect per her college professor persona.
But, a Warren-Buttigieg ticket might seal the deal with young/old, multi-ethnic, and LGBTQ...
Great photo of Biden bringing to mind, 'I'm a clean-cut kid and I've been to college too'. He has no rivals but only opponents, and shows that he is an economic fiscal conservative, which is all to the good.
There is nothing squalid or sordid about losing his appeal among 'the digitally active' who should be out and about spreading the word that this measured Democratic candidate for the presidency never gives in to despair, and shows growing appeal among independent voters to come out and support his nomination.
Well done, Sir, and keep sweeping away the flustered bats and cobwebs of deceit, lingering in The White House at the turn of this new century.
1
So many factors affect who gets support that this focus on online advertising seems silly. Who knows why Elizabeth Warren is surging, but I doubt it is on the back of her internet ad buys.
Joe Biden seems to me the same poor candidate he has always been. But nobody else seems much better. If Elizabeth Warren gets the nomination it will just go to show that the breadth of the Democratic field masked the fact that no one has much depth at all.
5
Two words: Elizabeth Warren. The Biden campaign was in trouble before last week. Now, it is all but certain he wont be the nominee.
6
Everyone should boycott Facebook~I left long ago and never looked back. With nothing but lies coming from just about anyone, it's no wonder candidates should scale back. What's the point? Everyone hates the advertisements now --where will it all be in 3 months? 6 months?
That said, Biden will bow out. He's not cut out for this stuff. Let him be an elder statesman and provide counsel on the side for a new president. That would be the best choice for him now.
5
The best ad campaign Biden could employ is one which displays that he has the ability to think on his feet and doesn’t tire mentally after 20 minutes of exchange. In other words, the meat under the sizzle. As Walter Mondale once said during another presidential campaign - “Where’s the beef?”
I don’t see it.
1
If Biden is anything, it's that he's set in his ways, and he surrounds himself with people who are committed to indulging him on that front. Just a quick look at who's really running his campaign and it becomes clear why he's so out-of-touch with today's electorate - it's not just decisions about "digital" campaigning channels, he's shown us he's woefully out-of-step on several fronts. And in a race where authenticity is the highest currency, the "Uncle Joe" persona just isn't translating for a lot of voters, especially when so much of what he bases his "authenticity" on is connected to inflated and embellished storytelling obviously designed to stroke his ego more than make a point. With his (as VP) and his son's (as influencer) dealings in Ukraine come into better focus, it is clear that while nothing "illegal" was done, Biden's nod and his son's indulgence were easily in unethical territory. I found the following article by Sarah Chaes extremely sobering piece about how even though Trump's actions are beyond egregious, that doesn't make what the Biden's did of no concern: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/hunter-bidens-legal-socially-acceptable-corruption/598804/
6
Joe, please be a bigger man for once. No one forgets what you did to Anita Hill. No one forgets you are a capitulator, willing to embrace any political position. Act like a decent Democrat for once, and get behind Elizabeth Warren. YOU hammer the current administration, and SHE can set a path toward a better future.
13
“Worrisome” to the reporter (a bit of a Biden supporter, maybe?). Not to me (a Warren supporter). I see it as just one more obvious sign that Uncle Joe is out of it and going down, God love him.
9
Maybe Joe’s just being smart? I’m on a pc, laptop, tablet or smartphone all day, I’m politically active, but I have not watched or clicked one single online ad. Nada, zip, zilch.
I read wsj, nyt and wapo cover to cover and watch debates and news, but click an ad? Why? I never click ads for any product.
5
@Ccrawford12
Do you click on ads for Coca Cola or Pepsi? Would you ever buy what's advertised against your will on Samsung TVs or free apps you download on your phone?
Advertising isn't always about clicking on ads. It's about having a constant, intrusive presence in your subconscious.
1
It's going to be Warren.
8
Is there an app for that?
Well, thank heavens he's still sending out voicemails and emails, and everyone with a Jitterbug is still opening them and listening to/reading them!
I thought he was going to scale back to just weekly ValPak inserts and flyers inside the home delivery newspaper!
Now, how many of his Iowa supporters (besides the 10 kids in this picture<-) know how to text IA to 30330?!
His campaigns' letter to the tv newscasts that they stop inviting Guliani to speak seemed to me to be incredibly tone deaf. Who the heck thought of that?? How can such request do anything other than make Biden look guilty, not to speak of making him look weak, because it is a request that has zero chance of succeeding.. Why, Joe, why do you do things like that?? I am not a Bidenista, at all, but if he has to be the democratic choice, I am going to get an ulcer from being subjected to constant Biden gaffes..
9
Many of the comments are interesting. If all the top commenters hate Biden so much, why is he ahead in the polls?
3
Joes got it in the bag. The craziness coming out of Trump now is very troubling. What's next with him? War, more tariffs, or maybe shutting down the Fed? He's a desperate man right now. Nothing is off limits for him. Scary times folks. Wake up!
1
Biden Warren ticket. The old man needs all the help he can get, and stop giving jobs to your rich kid son
2
This article just inspired me to go on Facebook and donate to Biden’s campaign.
2
Anyone who uses Facebook and Twitter to follow the campaign for President is crazy. They would do just as well following the campaign on Russian government media.
30
As an expert in digital advertising I think this is a fine move. The avg ad gets about 1 click per 10k views. There is NOTHING valuable about giving Facebook millions for nothing in return but some bull metrics and a few charts. Hold the money. Forget the digital ads all together. For anything but direct marketing (products) they are a waste of money.
1
if the DEMs nominate Joe, we get 4 more horrifying years of the Donny, end of story .....that said, Liz Warren with Pete as her veep would crush the Donny next year, she just needs to fine-tune her policy & agenda items
4
I like Joe a lot but I've believed all year that he should not be running. Same goes for Sanders. Both are too old and their time has passed. They're sucking up air time that could go to the rest of the candidates (would we have taken Inslee more seriously if 80% of the press space wasn't taken up by these guys with name recognition?). Biden's problems are just multiplying now - regardless of how clean Hunter's involvement in Ukraine was, it doesn't look like good judgement to have skipped over concerns about him working there.
I'd like to see Biden spend his time supporting Senate candidates instead - that's where he could be most useful.
7
God Love Biden.. I mean it, but he ain't the one!
5
Trump KOs Biden 45 seconds into the 5th round.
Warren KOs Trump 12 seconds into the 8th round
Sanders KOs Trump 22 seconds into the 9th round.
4
When it comes to voting people will vote for whoever has the best chance of beating Trump. Trump himself just endorsed Joe Biden by asking for help from Ukraine to defeat him.
What a waste-- large or small. No one looks at on-line ads.
Pres. Trump knows full well that when the full details of Biden’s son lucrative deals with Ukraine become fully fleshed out publicly the Biden Presidential campaign will severely damaged. Democrats in their quest for Impeachment have fallen into a cleverly laid trap. By calling attention to questionable millions made by Biden’s family in the Ukraine the President has adroitly encouraged the Democrats to do his “bidding”.
4
Isn't it possible that Biden is ahead of his time?
Two years ago, I wrote to my senators, Cantwell and Murray, asking them the question: "Why are you even on Twitter?"
I received no answer.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, et al are the platforms used to hack our elections. Their leaders make billions of dollars--especially Facebook's leader--facilitating murder in the Philippines and destabilizing rational discourse all over the world. For the love of money, they don't care if Americans are at each other throats with lies all day long; in fact they help it along with on-site advisors (e.g., Cambridge Analytica). And when the lies don't work and the threats escalate to guns, they help live-stream the murders.
Would it really be so bad, if candidates left Trump to have that poisonous sewer all to himself? A day of reckoning is coming for the tech industry's avaricious destruction of our society by manipulating human psychology. It isn't going to be pretty.
Maybe Biden should do what another old guy--John McCain--once did to get unusually popular among college students: Give some good old fashioned, in-person speeches on college campuses.
1
Biden hasn’t ever finished a primary so why would anyone be surprised. Obama tried to talk him out of running (probably because of Ukraine). He should have listened. Biden is a babbling buffoon gaffe machine, but he is also the only chance of a competitive race with Trump.
2
"Strategists are worried." REALLY? ... Why go after folks who are singularly unlikely to show up for caucuses or early primaries ... when there are hundreds of moving parts. This sounds a lot like an opposing candidate leaked something that - even if true - is being given "special spin" by columnists looking to make something out of nothing.
Clearly, political pundits believe it is all about the money, not the message. I object whole-heartedly to funding being the deciding factor for who is allowed in the televised debates. I donate a modest amount I can barely afford to a candidate whose message is clear and consistent and not one that says, "I deserve your support because you know me." Shrill shouting will attract those with limited attention spans who likely will not vote in any election. Just as likely, people who carefully listen and consider the message and the candidate are turned off by a message stating, "I deserve your vote." These are the people who are guaranteed to vote. I will vote for the Democratic candidate who is "appointed" by the DNC but up until that time I will not support Biden, the screamers, like Harris, or the foul-mouthed, like O'Rourke and Harris.
3
As long as he remains a central part of Ukraine-gate, good or bad, no one will forget about him. Better he save the money to hit back at Trump's more egregious smears and do more free TV interviews. I agree with other posters that the online ads are annoying and never really say much anyway.
Biden is running on being the most electable but he is perhaps the most unelectable. We are faced with major problems created over the last 50 years and Biden is part of the generation that created those problems. If he is the candidate the under 35 vote will say why bother to vote, he'll just give us 4 more years of kicking problems down the road. The Democrats need to move into the 21st century not return to the 20th.
40
@Duncan
I read comments like this a lot, that just focus on the negative. It's true there's more to do, but a lot of good has come out of the past 50 years. Urban rivers and harbors that were toxic cesspools in the 1970s are now swimmable. Technology advances have given us the internet, social media, smart phones, and artificial intelligence. It was a big deal to travel overseas back then, but now, it's common for people of various income levels to travel to places like Bali, Africa, or Thailand. Youth weren't thinking about climate change, but they were growing up believing the world would end within 10-20 years from a nuclear war. Young men faced an automatic draft to fight in Vietnam.
If you blame older people for everything wrong that's happened, you should give them credit for everything good that's come as well.
5
@Duncan
FYI. If anything, it was the "under 35 vote" that was instrumental in helping to elect Donald Trump in 2016, either by voting for an independent third party candidate -- or not at all.
With the possibility of another four years of this president, we don't have the luxury of sitting this election out.
No matter who the torch-bearer is chosen to be, we've got to get out the VOTE!
3
It's going to be Biden or Warren, and time for Democrats to pull together. The digital demographic may not be voting for Joe, but Warren's got similar problems with the older moderate voters. Let's not repeat 2016.
3
Hilarious, if the person(s) who came up with the Stand with Joe Facebook ad is still employed. The centrists will continue to drop as folks figure out these candidates are sustained not by some moderate groundswell, rather the hedge bet for billionaires.
4
In the mid-west the population is older, more conservative and just plain frightened by the new technology. Biden's move is appropriate considering the demographics of Iowa.
Additionally, many people have pulled away from Facebook as a news source because of its reputation for disseminating false information, particularly in the political arena. While antiquated by the social platforms, traditional email can be used as a very effective tool and offers information about its source that can be tracked and verified.
Social networks have taken quite a beating regarding their veracity and, as the Facebook pullback on providing "Likes" counts shows, the power of "Influencers" is diminishing.
As long as Biden maintains a social presence for those who use nothing but a cell phone for their daily tasks, he should be OK.
Other contenders continuing to believe the social media lie regarding its effectiveness will corral the "progressives" and cause a split in the party that may lead to no presumptive candidate leading to the Democratic convention.
We've got about 9 months before the convention and candidates who use different tactics in different geographies and demographics with end up as the winners.
As it now stands, Joe Biden is the greatest Trojan Horse of all time and a lot of people are thanking him for his contribution to the defeat of the sitting President. Politics is a game of knowing what to say when - Biden is a master of that part of the game.
1
@William. How did you decide people are frightened of technology? You gotta love generalizations made by the Left Coast - amusing, but meaningless.
1
Why is Biden even running? He has absolutely no ideas and no policies that would do anything differently at a time when change is desperately needed. Do we really want someone who provides unquestioning, absolute support to the corporate robber barons - in banking, insurance, fossil fuels, etc?
13
The Internet has disrupted (or will disrupt) almost every enterprise we know, including elections.
Social Media is the new Iowa.
So his money will come from posh fundraisers for the ultra-wealthy, he will appeal to his base with landline robocalls and by distributing campaign buttons and bumper stickers and with bus tours? Maybe my mail box will even be stuffed with more environmentally harmful flyers that I can't even recycle any more. We aren't trying to elect Eisenhower: that was in the 1950s, not 2020. I am in my 70s and the Biden techniques won't reach me. I get almost all my news on-line or on cable where I can by-pass political ads by pre-recording shows.
6
Not sure that pulling Facebook ads mean anything. I'm over 60 and I spend much more time on Facebook than my 20 something son. Younger people aren't on Facebook that much anymore.
After what happened in 2016, I think that polling is fundamentally flawed in the digital age. Biden has been spectacularly unimpressive thus far, but let's see what real voters say in Iowa first before we call anything.
4
Quite frankly - I am so tired of all the unsolicited online spam political ads delivered to my feeds and web searches which are all basically asking for money or trying to create some name recognition. I welcome anyone who cuts back on interrupting me with messages I don't want to see.
2
This pullback could be a smart strategic move to remove attention from his family while the Trumps Ukraine scandal plays out. (And keep other candIdates names away from the scandal as I am doing now)
Trump is trying to create another false rallying point - like Obama’s birthplace or Clinton’s emails.
The only sensible play is to keep the attention on Trump’s scandal and minimize Trumps attempts to deflect the issue.
2
@Jennifer LeClaire. And let the media cover Hunter Biden.
It's clear from this report that Biden is simply walking towards an inevitable ending. His is a "Dead campaign walking". He's been steadily sliding back towards the pack in spite of all the support from the DNC and media who continually harp on his bogus "I'm the only one who can beat Trump" meme. And now he will have to deal with the blow back from his and his son's involvement in the Ukraine. Even if they did nothing wrong, they won't escape without tarnish or doubt about what they really doing there. The fact that he's remaining silent about it speaks volumes.
This also reveals a very troubling side of Biden, even if he did nothing wrong: interacting with foreign actors, even as Trump was being investigated for the doing the same, shows an appalling lack of awareness, or perhaps its hubris, thinking that he's somehow special and can get away with things - a belief most politicians seem to hold.
The sooner he acknowledges this reality and drops out, the sooner he can save his reputation and legacy. And the sooner he can leave the field to someone much more suited to these times, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, all would be better choices than he.
Unfortunately for Joe, while he looks the part, he just never quite had all the parts that make up the "leading man". He would've had a better chance at getting the lead in West Wing, than in actually residing there. Retire from the field with honor, and put your support behind someone better suited to lead America.
9
I think that the latest Trump scandal will undermine Biden as well as Trump. Who could believe that Hunter Biden had any reason for being a director of a Ukrainian energy company -- other than his name? Which is not to say that his father committed a crime -- but, his father should have told his son "hands off." Instead, Hunter made money he didn't earn. The same goes for Trump's children. I look forward to seeing both Trump and Biden move far far away from the presidency.
5
This entire article, if re-framed, could also serve as an insight into the Biden's overall campaign strategy. Which is, in sum, focusing his appeal to moderate, older voters who, whatever else you may think about them, do vote, as opposed to many younger voters, who do not.
Clearly, the article has a critical tone, by suggesting that the Biden effort is making a huge mistake. But is it? Especially since (and contrary to the headline), Biden has now accelerated online spending in wake of the Ukraine development.
I believe the Times' political coverage would be more reliable if each story was trying to prove a point -- candidate A is up or down; candidate B is making a big mistake, etc. -- and instead focus on what is the strategy behind the decisions of each campaign, without characterizing it as a brilliant maneuver of a careless blunder.
Because, in the end, no one yet knows how the Iowa primary, or any other primary, will turn out this far in advance.
2
Democrats ignore at their peril the lesson of Hillary Clinton's 2016 disappearing act allowing Donald Trump to bash her night after night on national TV and allowing him to run essentially unopposed. This more than anything else is why we are in the predicament we are in now.
2
It is not too smart to spend any money on advertisements while he was on news day in and day out, the returns will be low. On the other hand, if people beginning to believe that there is some wrong doing by father and son in Ukraine, then, Biden should go aggressively to counter that with heavy advertisements. Biden caught between rock and hard place. They couldn’t make up their mind, so, they decided to save money until they figure out the strategy and then go aggressively. Trump certainly threw a monkey wrench into his campaign.
3
Nobody really knows who is going to win and who will bring voters to the polls. The fact of the matter is that neither Warren or Sanders has been under the microscope in the general election so we don’t know how their policies will be torn apart by Trump. Personally , I think nominating Warren is EXTREMELY risky . Her MANDATORY Medicare for All is a big problem in my opinion . It’s a problem for me . Do I love my Insurance? No , but there’s absolutely no guarantee that a government run plan would be better . I would have to buy a supplemental plan as well . And I would have to buy into Medicare for All . It’s not going to be free. So I don’t want that . I love Warren’s other ideas but this Medicare for All eliminating all private insurance is going hurt us .
I’m with Joe !
1
Biden has all of the free press he can get from the Trump administration. This impeachment inquiry will make it very clear that this Trump administration is involved in major cover ups.
Trump and his enablers want to destroy our country. Biden who can put many sentences together has never asked for the imprisonment of any fellow American in the insane manner that Trump does.
.
Biden knows how to be president and the contrast between Trump and Biden is striking, one old draft dodger, con man who is selling the country down the river and is happy about it. But not being happy being caught. Biden is a statesman and will save this country whether he runs digital ads or not.
Thinking people know a crook when we see a crook. We dont need a constant display of political ads just like we dont need to see a thousand drug commercials. Facebook can run all of the GOP fake ads because they to dont care about America only about how much money goes into their pockets.
the same people who are watching the Facebook ads are the same people who are in the dark side of the web, I am sure they run some very interesting digital ads on the dark side of the web.
1
Why should he? He’s toast already and the monied interests are already shifting their support to Warren, a slightly improved, yet equally warmongering version of Hillary.
But Joe knows his graft and that - when he inevitably drops out of the race - he can still keep all the money he raised afterwards for staff, travel, etc.
Just like Warren is doing in the primary with her slush fund from PACs for her Senate campaign. Corruption wherever you look. Right in your face. If you are willing to look.
Give Joe some credit, folks. He knows the system well and knows how to get rich off of it.
7
With the typical Trumplican lying machine in high gear against Biden, what’s to prevent the same thing from happening to the other Dem candidates, particularly after the convention and one is chosen to run? Nothing. Not only is Biden an anachronism and an easy target, he’s a corporatist that will bring zero change. Impeach Trump, and start up the truth machine on all the important issues that have been highlighted by Bernie, Warren, etc.. Impeachment and truth will win in the end.
1
Hunter Biden is a disaster who got a gig paying $50,000 a month as a board member of Ukrainian gas company for 5 years, or 3 million dollars, despite having no knowledge of the gas industry or the Ukraine. And he secured this gig shortly after Daddy VP Joe Biden began monitoring the region.
Joe Biden supports the symbiotic relationships between government and corporations, he is a defender of the so-called meritocracy, which is really just a new and improved way of saying “aristocracy.”
He said when he announced his candidacy that he would restore this greatness to America when he defeated Trump.
This is why the corporatists controlling the Democratic party and odious think tanks like the Center for American Progress will do anything to prop up Biden and keep this legal grifter’s game going.
The neoliberal wing of the Democratic party is so hypocritical that I would just give up and agree that they should nominate Biden and go down in flames again since they learned absolutely nothing from 2016, but the climate change issue can’t be ignored for another 4 years.
Unfortunately those of us who care about civilization have to fight the neoliberal death cult of ever expanding growth and consumerism with all the energy we can muster.
Maybe Trump has finally scored a hole-in-one, and this single act will torpedo his own electability as well as Biden’s.
That’s too much to hope for, but Christmas is coming.
9
Oh come on now, Biden knows Trump and he knew this would come out sooner or later it all depended on how bad Trumps poll numbers were. You got to ask yourself with all the people involved was the whistleblower a put up job by the Republicans trying to remove Trump.
@CathyK. No one asks themselves that after seeing Schiff’s performance with his lying parody.
1
Radio. Ads on radio will gin up the excitement Joe needs among the under-35 voters, whose votes are necessary for a Democrat to win a presidential election.
1
It's past time for the former VP to go home to Delaware and rest on his considerable laurels.
Nothing screams "Grandpa doesn't get the internet" quite like the campaign spending patterns you describe here.
This is a perfectly safe campaign strategy, but only because Biden's supporters are all eligible for Social Security......and many don't own smartphones.
3
The digital crowd is young and not voting for Joe.
1
Reading the comments here engages my PTSD from 2016.
Democrats fighting each other like rabid dogs.
We need a new word to describe this kind of divisive partisanship.
This behavior will most likely have the same result as 2016 unless Trump is in prison.
I have never seen Joe Bidden as an "online" kind of guy.
I have never seen Joe Bidden lose his cool or verbally attack someone.
People know who Joe Bidden is. He's like a reliable Chevy truck or Tahoe.
I don't pay attention to online adds. Frankly, I find them distracting and they interrupt what I'm trying to read.
Besides, with so much negative press about Facebook and Google, I think Joe Biden is being more conservative and cautious. People know who he is. He doesn't need to spend millions on someone who's been around almost as long as the day's long.
28
@Marge Keller. And have you ever heard him tell the truth?
5
@Jackson
And which politician speaks only the truth?
2
The strategy makes sense for Iowa. Not as many young Democrats voting in Iowa compared to older Democrats. Besides, competition is fierce for this demographic (young voters), but I often wonder if young voters are even worth the investment. Will they come out and vote? A more reliable predictor will be seasoned voters who just don't give lip service online, but actually register and vote.
7
I’m with Joe. And once again believe news of his demise in the polls is premature. So he’s stopped throwing endless $ at Facebook? Good for him.
17
Frankly this is why I can't support the guy. He tells parents their kids need to listen to record players every night and his managers don't understand the value of social media.
Good luck grandpa.
40
What an shockingly unsophisticated digital campaign and messaging strategy.
10
It’s astonishing to read all of the commentators making blatantly ageist comments against Joe Biden. Racism, homophobia and sexism are, thankfully, no longer acceptable. But ageism? No Problem!
As for fussing about whether younger adults are “inspired” has it occurred to any of you how unreliable they are as voters? I’ve talked to countless young adults whose idea of engagement is to take a sign to a protest but, then, aren’t even registered to vote! Whereas older citizens actually vote, in every election including for school board, county bonds and city council. This is why the GOP keeps winning because they know better than to shoot down this Golden electoral voting bloc.
Maybe instead of insulting older individuals with your constant stream of rude, and apparently “allowed,” ageist comments, you all might want to consider winning some of them with messages about Medicare and Social Security. And by all means, get younger adults registered and out to the polls, but please stop alienating the ones who vote most reliably — Senior citizens.
Last I checked, we want to win the election. Right?
24
@Annnabelle it’s not his age per se, it’s his anachronistic and regressive ideas. Warren and Bernie are older folks too, but they have progressive ideas.
6
How about reverse ageism? Why is everyone expecting 3 septuagenarians to move our country forward? Are they really the answer to a fast paced world?
1
@Annnabelle
I'm 64 and think he's too old to be president or the leader of his party. He and his generation (my generation) had their shot. Step aside with a bit of grace and dignity and let someone else (without sons who worked in the Ukraine for 5 years) take a shot.
Frankly, I wish Elizabeth Warren was 10 years younger. I could support her more readily. But an 80 year old as president? Give me a break Annabelle. It's not ageism that has me question his physical and cognitive abilities. It's personal experience. It's human physicality. The body and the mind are slowing down. That's a fact.
It's also a disqualifying fact.
6
Biden will be disappearing soon. It’s amazing his campaign thinks they can control who appears on tv.
11
@Jackson
And no critic words from Dems about that ! Really astonishing (but actually not really surprising)
Of course everyone trying to silence. Trump is welcome ! (And they lament the state of our democracy...)
Yet another "knock' against Biden to show he is not "with it. " I get daily e-mails soliciting contributions for his campaign. It seems as if the whistleblower's revelations have been exploited by Trump, via his tweets and the airwaves, to create further divisiveness and raise questions, however spurious, about the former VP's character and qualifications. It's the same tactic used against Hillary Clinton, and one reads with dismay that the State Department has revived an investigation of her staff about their e-mails.
11
I do not believe that campaign solictations are real. i bet 1 in 10 might be real. it is all a scam. easy scam.
Hopefully this scandal not only brings down the monster in the white house, but also those complicit in the continuous run to the right by our government. Joe Biden has been a corporate apologist working on behalf of the credit card companies and other big businesses that have squeezed the middle class into debt. The old generation ideas need to change so we can move the country out of this guilded age the Bidens of the world have stood aside and watched happen. Hopefully someone like Warren or sanders can end the corporate socialism and shift that support to the people.
17
@MC. Can any liberal define corporate socialism? What “run to the right” are you talking about?
2
@Jackson
"Corporate socialism is where we socialize losses and privatize gains. Companies that have failed in the marketplace stick the taxpayers with their losses, but when they make money they get to keep it, and secondly, huge amounts of capital are given to companies by taxpayers" David Cay Johnston.
A report from Oil Change International (OCI) investigated American energy industry subsidies and found that in 2015–2016, the federal government provided $14.7bn per year to the oil, gas, and coal industries, on top of $5.8bn of state-level incentives (globally, the figure is around $500bn). And the report only accounted for production subsidies, excluding consumption subsidies (support to consumers to lower the cost of fossil fuel use – another $14.5bn annually) as well as the costs of carbon and other fossil fuel pollutants.
The largest financial companies now combine traditional commercial banking with higher-risk activities such as trading so that both their banking and betting activities get access to these government protections and the multibillion-dollar subsidy that comes with them. Using subsidized money to finance the conglomerates’ bets encourages ever-higher levels of debt, risk and interconnectedness not attainable or sustainable in a truly free market.
The Democratic Party, as well as the GOP have been bought 'n paid by the Corp. Our gov. is now an oligarchy. Fascism tends to be Rightward leaning.
Candidate Sanders is the beginning of the correction.
1
I am more impressed that Mr Biden showed up at the 16th Avenue Church in Alabama than clickbait ads that are placed in harvested silos of echo chambers.
I admire Joe’s pace. It already feels like steady hand on the till.
20
@Bill Tyler
We need a professional steady hand no matter what the NYT thinks, Joe is running because he cares about this country. He is not running because he has nothing else to do and it feeds his ego.
There are many in this race ie Harris, Booker, Amy, Castro, Beto, Mayor Pete who think they are entitled and there ambition is doing the talking not about caring for the country at all. Trump is feeding his bank account and could care less about this country .
Joe doesnt need to spend money on ads but he should just keep doing what he is doing and the country will get to the finish line with him .
1
Clearly Democrats ought to wake up to the fact that the chances to beat Trump increase with an outsider. That is why the online forums are abuzz with Yang. Yang's growing popularity suggests that the public perceives him as someone who does not represent the time-honored but tired past. Yang's digital popularity suggests his public support may not be depth but actually broad...
We are experiencing a bottling longing for fresh faces in Europe. That is why Kurz and Macron won the elections in Austria and France--beating the old faces/politicians--and there is a deepening public weariness against the faces presenting the old politicians such as Merkel in Germany. AKK tries to swing the public to her side by occasionally sounding different from her predecessor but the German public remains in the stupor of longing for something fresh 'outside the box.' This shows in the election, CDU (under Merkel) continues to lose its popularity. So, invest how he could or would- Biden happens to represent the relic of the past (politics)...America needs more someone new to address the abuse and changing world (e.g. surrogacy and Chinese babies case), this person ought to transgress the borders of left and right politics...that is why I could see the Kurz in Yang.
8
Joe Biden is too old and too regressive to attract the cohort of potential voters that is under 70, doesn't remember the civil rights movement, has communicated via the Internet for over 20 years, and doesn't long for the good old days. Does Biden even use technology himself? The Democratic Party is blowing an opportunity to reposition this country for leadership on climate, disease eradication, meaningful economic prosperity for most, and emergence into multi-racialism by hanging on to the emotional coattails of its glorious post-JFK past. Get over yourselves! Stop fighting yesterday's battles with yesterday's politicians. Why can't they see beyond their romantic daydreams?
10
Why pay for advertising on line - most digital readers know to skip it - if you are getting heaps of free media coverage and everyone already knows who you are?
Biden may not be the next president, but this move sounds fiscally prudent.
12
Biden's toast. I'm not glad but reluctantly acknowledge it. When his spokesmen asked tv networks not to have Giuliani on air, it was clear the campaign had come off the rails. Whenever a candidate tries to shut someone up, the natural reaction is:
Why, what are you afraid to hear.
14
@JamesHaynes I admire Biden’s effort to pull Giuliani off the air. I wish the media companies had the courage to do this. Giuliani has no right to TV as a platform to spout lies. If the media companies had more concern for our democratic republic’s welfare, and not just a slavish devotion to the bottomline, perhaps Trump would have gotten less airtime to push his odious lies and vitriol and would not be president now. As it happens, Giuliani has been self-immolating on TV and totally disgracing himself, so perhaps he is his own and Trump’s worst enemy. But I think reducing the lying in the public sphere is a good goal.
1
@james haynes
Why no criitic words by Democrats apparently so "sensitive" to democracy issue ?
Joe know that people still gather around the radio at night to listen to the soap operas.
8
@Glenn
So what is a podcast nothing but radio listening on a different instrument. So lets get off of the magic progressiveness of digital ads. They dont run for free and they are not paid for with magic money.
Biden is a smart man to save his money for using it more productively. He doesnt have to pull a Booker scam asking people to support his run. Fake memo and fake imploring people to vote for me. If he had built a small donor base he would be ok, just like Bernie.
So Biden once again is smarter than the NYT and everyone else who feel that mouthing off about age is not an issue. Ageism is a real issue and needs to be addressed.
even my bland family finds joe biden severely lacking.
27 year old corporate lawyer, brother - crazy for WARREN, tons of student debt to contend with
61 year old nurse, mom - adores WARREN, wants better healthcare for everyone
67 year old retired VP, dad - loves WARREN, she owns every debate
it's the ONE thing we all agree on!
25
@MR. They must enjoy paying taxes. Or don’t they pay any?
1
@Jackson of course we pay taxes. We’re not billionaires, millionaires or corporations.
Sanders/Yang
2020
Unless it is President Pelosi.
8
@s.whether
My vote is for a Warren/Booker ticket.
5
@s.whether
How about Pelosi in 2024? That’ll give her a little more seasoning.
@s.whether
Yang / Sanders 2020
I trust the Biden campaign to figure out the best advertising strategy. However, a limited online presence helps fuel the narrative that he's behind the times, similar to his record player comment.
10
@The Buddy
Vinyl is outselling CDs in 2019, the first time in nearly 30 years.
Who's really behind the times on that record player comment?
7
@S James He claimed poor people did not know how to raise their children, dragging out a debunked theory from the 1960's. It's not the "record player" phrase that is the problem.
1
Please go Joe. Put your aviator sunglasses in the drawer.
Your time has come and gone. We already had Hillary shoved down our Democratic throats by “wise” party elders in the last election and it was a mess, and helped Trump get elected.
Warren for President! It’s time for real progressive change in the USA! Millennials aren’t buying your bland corporate embrace. We had that with Obama and we had little change. Power must be used or it’s wasted.
66
@Brett B
Lol...so you instead fall in line with the Establishment pick of Warren instead?!
Dude, guess who advises, tutors, and is the confidant of Candidate Warren? The Clinton's; with all their donor lists, establishment staff and machinations carried over.
Lol.. Warren is a political gimmick. An opportunist cosplaying a progressive till it's time to pivot; à la those two other corporates you named.
Agreed, it is time for "real progressive change". Not a fauxgressive version of incremental, Third Way Ok'd capitalistic revival.
Agreed Millennials aren't buying the bland corporate embrace.
Just like last election, the future of America is voting for Candidate Bernard Sanders.
They/we've tried the fauxgressive turned centrist candidate for the past decades, change is needed.
Only one candidate will bring about this change you espouse.
He doesn't pander to the establishment.
Bernie Sanders isn't Third Way Ok'd.
1
@Dobbys sock We get it, you're all in for Bernie. Sorry that Warren is stealing his momentum. If Bernie is not the nominee, don't waste your vote re-electing Trump.
Joe needs to show how he will end the cronyism that secured hunter’s payouts in Ukraine and China.
17
My company sells political bumper stickers supporting most of the Democratic candidates. We sell on Amazon eBay and our own Web site. I can tell you that for us, Warren is winning the bumper sticker race. We have three promising Biden sticker designs, but none has sold well for us.
The "Stand with Joe" ad featured in this article seems misguided. It features side-by-side pictures of two old, white, grumpy looking men, (Biden and Trump) as if to say, look at how similar these two guys are. Then there is a little arrow at the bottom next to the words, Stand with Joe. But the arrow seems to point at Trump. Very confusing and unpersuasive in my opinion.
I have four pieces of advice that might help Biden: 1. Be younger. 2. Be female. 3. Be black (but not blackface!). 4. Get an Obama tattoo on your forehead.
Good luck Joe! We have some stickers we would like to sell ...
22
@Dan Frazier
I guess people just arent buying from you but I see more than I can count Biden sticker, hats, cups
Maybe you should work on your outreach to the American public by reducing your prices
1
Internet ads to decide your vote?
Really, anyone who uses google or Facebook noise aka garbage ( 4 letter word beginning with C comes to mind) are silly.
Read the news and editorials, of multiple sources,
If wonkier read actual policy statements, at least extracts.
Watch actual statements and debates, again extracts
( watching all will likely make one ill.)
Refuse to use Facebook and google garbage.
14
Biden,
A corrupt politician.
His corruption in Ukraine and China should be brought to light, his dealing to get his boy a job, his use of the VP office to enhance his position as well.
Trust me Uncle Joe, you will be hounded to the end of your days with this.
You better come clean, or let the senate investigate you and your family for the next 5 years.
There is no place where you will find peace and quiet now, that time and chance has passed.
7
Biden should not have run. He is no white knight in shining armor to save this country. In addition, his campaign will have to deal with Hunter factor more than ever. His job in Ukraine doesn't pass the smell test. His having an affair with his kids' aunt doesn't pass the morality test.
33
Joe Biden is a nice man who once again shows bad judgement. From his management of the Anita Hill hearings to his vote for the Iraq war to his “clubbiness” with racist senators to the latest. It is not good judgement to allow his son to travel with him on Airforce 2 and then to do business in a foreign country while he was Vice President.
He will drag down the Democrat’s bid to win the next election.
35
@LB
exactly! I think these items mentioned just do not reflect who we want now.
warren 2020
Family on a dirty Oil Company Board-- not a President of the Future look. Even if nothing illegal, this does not endear him to the under 35 crowd.
Trump just took him out of the race with one blow.
11
Google and Facebook are treasure troves of lies and fake news. Maybe Biden's campaign doesn't want to waste money on sites that spread lies and fake news.
5
Biden's message is completely uninspiring, unless you are a Wall Street CEO or a member of the military-industrial complex. Those guys don't bother with FB or Google.
The young, energetic base of the Democratic party will never, ever get excited by Biden because he doesn't share their beliefs. Because of that, he is the one and only Dem who will lose to Trump, guaranteed.
21
Among younger voters who are mostly aligned with the ideas of most of the Democratic candidates, all are very active users of social media. The Democratic primaries will be influenced by younger voters. To them Joe Biden was Obama's Veep and now the central figure in Trump's Ukraine fiasco. But what else do those born around the turn of the century know about Joe Biden? He is not inspirational, like so many of the younger candidates for the Democratic nomination. He has past his prime and doesn't know it. Most Biden supporters are in the older age demographic and like most of us old folk don't like change and yearn for the past. But Biden's past doesn't inspire the young to want to return to that past. Biden is backward looking. He touts what he has done, not what he wants to do for the future. His time has past. Too bad he doesn't know it.
9
I'm really curious about how important the digitally engaged segment of voters is. It gets a lot of attention (e.g., when "Twitter" or "the Internet" is angry about something). Although these groups do seem to influence media coverage--perhaps more than they should--how important are they at the ballot box? I guess we'll find out!
5
I’ve never been convinced that Biden, or his campaign staff, has the “fire in the belly”.
I attended a Biden event in August that didn’t have many of the basic elements of a presidential effort. No signs or bumper stickers for distribution, poor staging and crucially, Biden never asked for attendees to vote for him despite talking for over an hour.
Biden’s surrogates (Ed Rendell!) are throwbacks who don’t seem to understand the electorate.
I suspect the quarterly fundraising numbers will reveal the limits to Biden’s lackluster campaign.
150
"No signs or bumper stickers for distribution, poor staging and crucially, Biden never asked for attendees to vote for him despite talking for over an hour."
That's...sad. Perhaps he's (still) convinced he's pulling an early 2016 Hillary, simply having down-to-earth humble chats instead of fiery speeches; and that it would work. Me? I think "It is over".
14
@Cousy
Biden, Rendell...the Old Boys Club trying to hang onto power instead of embracing the fact that we need change in this country and new leadership.
6
Spending isn’t necessarily the most accurate barometer to success. Trump was out spent in 2016 by Hillary Clinton’s campaign by a significant margin.
42
@Limegreenjeans yes but he had a little help from overseas and that made the smallest, and most critical of differences (78,000 ish votes?) in the outcome.
18
@Limegreenjeans
Ah, but are you adding in the billions in free advertising because the media just couldn't get enough?
I think you'll find the Trump machine significantly outspent HRC if you add in that.
26
There is no evidence whatsoever that Mr. trumps 78,000 votes had anything to do with external sources of funding.
Indeed, I would submit that such a claim is evidence that Russian disinformation continues to poison political dialogue in this country.
3
Has anyone considered that a single candidate's resources aren't up to dealing with the discredited attacks by Trump, and Biden's campaign is making hard decisions about spending? Let the choice be made on the issues -but does it seem that Trump will stop if the candidate is someone else? The DNC or a PAC must massively stand up to the hammering of lies; this is not one candidate's problem. The message to voters if Biden goes down because he can't fund a counterattack against the Trump election campaign, the RNC, and foreign interference is that ALL Democrats are no better than Trump. Think about that.
6
Biden seems to be basing his campaign on returning to a Cold War-era regime of bipartisan cooperation. That's nice an all, but he's woefully short on detail on how he'll make that happen with GOP senators and representatives who've been elected since the end of the Cold War, you know, the ones who think bipartisanship is outright sinful. How exactly will he make it happen? All he seems to have to say is "Trust me, I'm Uncle Joe."
And what will we get if he wins? No major changes, just four years of things not getting worse. Surely, we can do better than that! Definitely, we need much more than that!
11
Senator Booker's "I will quit if I do not get $1.7 million" (even though he already has a spot on the debate stage in October) reminded me of a fraternity that once advertised with a poster that read:
"Come to our party or we will shoot this dog".
Maybe Joe Biden's ad choices are a sign he is secretly running out of money and losing support. Maybe it is a sign he has given up on reaching voters who are active online, which is almost everyone. Maybe everyone believes Rudy and his affidavit from a fired and corrupt foreign prosecutor and Biden knows he is doomed.
Or maybe, just maybe, since everyone already knows him and he is constantly being written about it might not matter so much for him like it does for everyone else. He does not have to convince everyone the country is ready for socialism or some radical new approach to something, and he does not really have a credible challenger in the polls among non-progressive candidates. The best strategy for desperate candidates is not the same as the best strategy for the leading candidate.
This is an example a more general problem with overuse of "average case" analysis. Not every case is like the average case, so pretending that all the cases are fundamentally similar can lead someone to faulty conclusions when one of them deviates from the average. It could mean what it would mean for most, but maybe the deviation is merely a reminder that at least one of the items is quite different.
3
@Alan That was a National Lampoon cover in the 1970's.
1
I wish selfie-focused, college-educated, white liberals would try to remember that they cannot win a presidential election on their own. The support of other groups is needed. Warren is taking support from Bernie now. Big deal. Neither can win.
I will vote for the Democrat, whoever it is, but I fear this will be another loss because Democrats cannot get out of their own way.
15
@DebJ Why then do you vote Dem anyway ? No different from Reps who vote Trump no matter what ...
But in this case why are Trump's voters called "robot like" or "no brain" ?
Trump will smear Mr. Biden and he will find enough to make him look as crooked at Hillary seemed to be, because that's all the hardcore Trump Voters will need to be all fired up.
Finding anything on Warren or Sanders will be hard. Both of them march to a different drum. They too can fire people up. A Warren/Sanders ticket would be my dream come true.
I hope this time the Democratic Party will listen and make the right move. I want to leave the voting place excited and all fired up, not in silence, as I did in 2016.
10
I would gladly, even excitedly vote for Warren (hopefully NOT with Sanders on the ticket. Won’t be as excited to vote for Biden but I expect he would put competent people in the Administration. Bottom line - I will vote for the Democrat - whoever they are.
4
Joe , are you listening?
Almost every post on this article highlights that your time has come and gone. To pretend that you can joust with Trump is shear folly. It’s not your strong suit and your gaffs are only going to become a greater liability as you are increasingly pushed into the limelight.
You are a great patriot but please, please, please step aside for the benefit of the country, I know you love.
33
Max, Joe Biden is the only Democrat who stands a chance of beating Trump, gaffs and all. Our country, despite all the young twittering masses (who let me remind you didn’t even bother to vote in 2016), is not going to vote for people who are advocating free health care for illegal immigrants, free college, free everything and other equally foolish ideas. People will see him as the statesman that he is. As a life long Democrat I’m appalled at the other choices apart from Biden. The only exception - I can’t wait for Mayor Pete in about 10 years but it is too soon for him right now. Biden is running because he loves his country and he will do a good job when elected.
5
@MBKB I have zero confidence that Elizabeth Warren (or less likely Bernie Sanders) will win against Trump. There are far to many misogynists in this country and the democrats will be labeled as socialists. Forget Yang, O'Rourke, or Harris (just watch SNL). I like Mayor Pete but he is inexperienced and all the closet homophobes will vote against him. So while Biden has issues, I agree that he has the best chance of winning. When are Democrats going to learn to just shut up and keep their opinions to themselves. We need to get rid of the maniac in chief or in 8 years we won't have a United States left.
2
@MBKB
absolutely with you.
the biden people aren't responding here.
Joe Biden was always destined for a full political face plant since he entered the 2020 race.
That's what he does in every Presidential race he enters, in 1988, in 2008..... and now again in 2020.
He's a comfortable pair of Democratic bed slippers who appeals to be afraid to change who lust for the good old days of a bipartisanship that is dead and buried in today's Republican house of oligarchy, authoritarianism and stolen Supreme Court seats.
Young people are as attracted to Joe Biden as they are to Geritol.
The sooner Biden's candidacy collapses, the better.
So long, Joe.
It's Elizabeth Warren time.
83
I'd like to see Biden run TV commercials on Fox. What a publicity coup it would be if Fox refused to run them.
6
Bernie 2020
Most money from the most donors
People=Votes
Dems win.
Write in Bernie, if we must.
1
Everyone who wrote in a vote for Sanders, or refused to vote for anyone in protest of HRC’s nomination, helped put DT in the White House in 2016.
If you care for this country at all, you’ll vote for the Democratic candidate, no matter who it is. A write-in for Sanders or anyone is not just a wasted vote; it’s a vote for DT...or his replacement.
11
Bernie = trump’s re-election
1
Hmmm
I guess you are not old enough to remember how Ralph Nader torpedoed Al Gore with the same rationale
1
I am an even greater fan of Biden after last week.
13
Thanks to something like a $5 donation, Joe's campaign sends me about 10 emails a day. He's really more active on that front -- plus he's getting tons of organic media right now, so maybe he knows what he's doing dropping social spen. It certainly doesn't "reek" of anything like defeat.
One of the big reasons why we have the national crisis that is Donald Trump is Social Media. Twitter continues to enable Trump's propaganda despite the fact that he daily violates their usage policy, for example. It's literally sickening. We don't need to be supporting these companies with our dollars because they're destroying the nation with their cowardice and inability to moderate truthfulness and hate speech. If Joe is as sick of it as I am, then I think I might just go donate to his campaign again.
51
After Cambridge Analytica, online marketing seems tainted, but at the same time, it's efficacy is unparalleled in my opinion if it got Trump elected. If you cannot be effective online or with grassroots donors, you're doomed! Biden should drop out, sooner rather than later. He is soaking up TV time that prevents candidates with legitimate ideas from being heard. I honestly can't name a single new policy that he's running on, and I don't see a path to victory after Hunter Ukraine scandal being re-exposed. He is at severe risk of tarnishing his legacy if there's embarrassing losses in early states. Buttigieg seems most likely to gain the centrist appeal and represents a more youthful alternative for Biden's portion of electorate. Biden dropping out will give room for fresher candidates like Yang to bring ideas to forefront if political discussion.
2
@Brannon Perkison
Don't waste your money. He will never get elected. Independents, moderates, progressives will never vote for Biden, so if the Democrats put him forth as the nominee, Trump will get 4 more years.
Let's remember that Biden already officially ran for President in 1988 and 2008. Voters didn't go for him then, in a far less volatile political climate, why would they now?
Thank you for your service, Joe, but the Democrats need new leadership.
11
@Hope Thanks you for candidly saying what needs to be acknowledged. If you haven't gotten a chance to do so yet, please check out Andrew Yang's campaign.
2
Biden was never going to be the nominee. He represents the past, not the future.
51
@Brad
The past must be aknowledges if you want to have a bright or better future.
Biden's problem is not his age itself, it is the kind of entitlement he is projecting. Kind of Hillary
This is a really old politics
2
He doesn't need to pay Facebook, he texts me several times a day. The Facebook ads were just breeding grounds for Bernie and Trump trolls. Sometimes it is hard to tell them apart, they spread the same lies and memes. So why give them the platform?
We will find out if Biden or Warren is the choice when the actual primaries in diverse states occur. I wish my Democratic party wouldn't hold the first primary events in states that are the least divers, don't they think minority voters should have the same attention offered them?
Of course the states to watch are those where a great Presidential candidate can pull a Senate seat out of Republican hands. Who will bring Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, or South Carolina blue?
12
Hopefully, Biden will have strategy. Personally, I think online political advertising is ineffective because mosst of the ads are ignored by online readers. The truth be known, most advertisers waste their money because we are inundated and we do our best to ignore them and click on what we're primarily looking for.
12
We need a centrist nominee to beat Trump.
Biden is centrist but he has so many negatives that he is not too appealing.
Mayor Pete and some others come to mind as fitting nominees.
4
I went to a Pete rally in Nashville and it was like listening to my councilman discussing a 4-way stop proposal.
4
Facebook is really a vehicle for older voters. I don't think most young people even use it any longer.
12
So spending less on advertising to a demographic that doesn't vote anyway is poor strategy? Oldsters are necessary for the win- Facebook addicts who don't vote aren't.
7
@rick I think bad is considering them lost and not even try to get them as audience
The situation is really very simple. Biden draws the lion's share of his support from the oldest part of the electorate - a part that is not technology-savvy. These are also people who think the most important issue in the next election is to oust Donald Trump and return to the untenable status quo Biden represents. Young people are unenthusiastic about Biden because his speeches of full of kum-ba-ya nonsense and not policy substance which might benefit their lives.
People 35 years of age and younger support Warren and especially Sanders because they articulate issues that affect Americans today and suggest policies to strongly engage those issues.
When the Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC attack Sanders and his proposals as unrealistic or use Republican talking points people from the left wing join those on the right to decry the declining quality of journalism.
Think big or go home.
9
But he will be putting out a vinyl LP of all his major speeches so people can have a record playing while the kids sleep.
7
@whaddoino Funny, but his underlying point was that "poor people don't know how to raise their children", which was an old debunked theory of the 1960's, that poor children had smaller vocabularies.
How many times has Biden run for President? He won’t be the nominee this time either.
19
If Biden really wanted the presidency, he would have run in 2016 instead of participating in the coronation of Hilary.
16
All that Trump’s campaign has to do is show the inexplicable interview Biden gave with Patt Morrison of the LA Times. Any young voter who watches it will be disgusted by Biden’s rant against the concerns that young voters have. Once again, Joe foot-in-mouth Biden’s cringeworthy past statements come back to hurt him.
8
From what I am reading here, the alternative to Biden is Warren? Another corrupt politician only this time with bad economic policies.
19
@TravelingProfessor
While I can understand policy disagreement, in what way do you find Elizabeth Warren "corrupt?"
47
Start with her lies about being native American back to her Texas BAR application. That lie gave her access to $millions in subsequent jobs. It was not a mistake; it was a serious and calculated lie for personal gain.
13
@TravelingProfessor
So who is the incorrupt non politican you would vote for?
5
Even I, a 70YO who was once a record-playing 'prodigy' -- the only 'kid' on my block to have purchased 78's (The Great Pretender by The Platters, Rock Island Line by Lonnie Donegan, and Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins) -- don't think Biden's 'election' to eschew on-line advertising in favor of 'handing out' records extolling his virtues will help him get elected.
And that's a good thing. (Give some 'kid' a chance, sez me.)
But if he could hand out a record AND a record player to everyone in every hand-shake line whose hand he shakes, maybe …..
10
The impeachment thing is going to hurt Biden as much as Trump. Which may have been the idea.
32
Further pointing out, the neoliberal paradigm which brought us here is unsustainable... and unsurvivable.
#neverBIDEN
3
Maybe the Biden campaign can send out 45 rpm records we can play on our reco players! Seriously, this indicates a serious total detatchment from 21st century life. Joe Biden is eight years older than I am yet I feel more in common with Mayor Pete.
As Bill Clinton so eloquently put it, I have "more yesterdays than tomorrows" and I want the upcoming generations to have clean water and air, health care as a right, a good education without overpowering debt and more. Sadly, I don't think that Joe Biden is capable of understanding how to achieve all that and get that message over to those younger than both of us.
12
Reading this article--I am reminded of something John Wannamaker--an early giant in the history of American advertising--once said:
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
The truism is no less applicable a century later--despite all the claims made for the analytics driven "precision" of digital advertising.
I say that based on both professional experience--I worked in advertising for nearly three decades--and personal experience.
I share an IP address with my partner--her searches register the same as mine--and vice versa--hence my online experience is filled with digital ads for women's shoes and athletic wear (neither of which I ever buy)--while hers are filled with ads for power tools and polymeric sand--which are equally of no interest to her.
The telling line is this article was the statement:
"Candidates rarely withdraw so much money from their online campaigns unless they are seeing weak results in online fund-raising, according to interviews with digital strategists."
If you make your living as a "digital strategist"--in seems only logical to respond to the campaign cutting its digital advertising as compelling evidence that the campaign's media strategists are unhappy with the channel's ROI.
The stretch--for me at least--is to conclude from that, that the Biden campaign is therefore in trouble and taking on water.
It could be his team has discovered a different channel works better for fundraising.
10
We’re two retired folks who want to help flip Florida in 2020. We cut the tv cord some time ago and the way to reach us is social media. We have yet to see either Biden or Warren in our feeds although we have seen the others.
We prefer Warren and figure Biden is a dull caretaker but has a more realistic choice of winning next year. But cutting spending like this he won’t.
11
Biden's focus on TV is a reflection of both his appeal and the contemporary television audience; both are shrinking, and comprised primarily of people over 55.
When younger people watch 'television' it's almost always streaming video, leaving them blissfully out of reach – for now – of most advertisers. The times they do watch broadcast or mainstream cable, it's always with a 'second screen' – their phone, tablet, or computer – in their lap.
Trump's tweets (and fifth column of Russian bots) notwithstanding, he too is fundamentally a product of TV whose appeal is limited to the remaining, shrinking TV audience.
I'm no apologist for 'digital' – the unchecked rise of social media, more than anything other single factor is what got us into the current mess. But by cutting his digital investment, Biden's admitting that his appeal is rooted in the past, not the future.
5
@Mark Gardiner
"But by cutting his digital investment, Biden's admitting that his appeal is rooted in the past, not the future."
You could tell that by looking at his rallies. His support among those under 35 is virtually non-existent.
He has promised the wealthiest people in America that nothing will fundamentally change under a Biden presidency.
7
If he wins, Biden is the accepted or default choice, not the inspirational choice. That would be Warren. Either will win!
1
@Bosox rule
Progressives who follow the news mostly favor Bernie. Warren's spent too much time getting close to the Dem establishment and Clinton acolytes. MSNBC recently smeared Sanders supporters as sexist Warren supporters but the truth is we worry she'll pivot hard to the center in the general election and cave on major issues while Bernie has been far more consistent over time.
1
No. Warren can’t win. She is amazingly boring and pedantic. #draftGavin
5
Let’s be honest. It doesn’t matter that nothing has happened re Ukraine, the Biden campaign is over. It has to be.
Now as to the question of our bought and paid for electors? That’s a scandal well worth pursuing. Trump did not win the election last time, but his electors performed and have been paid to do so again.
On top of all of these problems is that the news outlets in republican states deliberately fail to report Trump’s mendacity and misfeasance so, in a lot of places, readers think he did nothing wrong...
9
Not interested in more of the same, so I won't be voting for Joe Biden. I'm not sure he's more electable than Harris or Warren, anyway.
We've had 45 Presidents since this country's founding, 243 years ago. All of them have been male. How about we try something new?
7
I'm sure college-educated white liberals will agree with you, but that is not enough to win an election.
@Jason
I plan to vote for Warren, either as the Democratic nominee or as a write-in. I'm voting due to her position on the issues, not on gender. Same reason I voted for the first time in 1984 for Geraldine Ferraro.
@Concerned Citizen
Badly, because it was all about HER
I’d almost pay to see a Trump v Biden debate where they stumble around the ring faking jabs and either forgetting or denying what they just said, or what they did 40 years ago.
18
So then why am I getting a daily text from Team Joe?
8
Because they already have your mobile number — perhaps directly from you or perhaps from the old Obama lists. Social media is used to get to all of those people who are not yet on his phone and email list, which is most of us. That includes me.
It was the digital realm that gave us Trump — so much Russian spewed hat and fake news.
Time to pull the plug on this fake medium.
The millennials who spend as you say “half their lives” on these fake media probably won’t even go vote — not unless zickerberg makes an app for that too, which the Russians would hack.
5
Buying ads online can only get you so far.
Andrew Yang has a fraction of the money that Biden has, but his online following on reddit, Twitter, YouTube etc is unmatched both in size and enthusiasm.
13
I like Andrew Yang because he is focused on solving problems rather than ideology. I think his approach is refreshing and is why he is appealing to voters on both sides of the bipartisan divide.
4
Great, but Yang won't be the next president
@Eric
Lol...
While I do like the enthusiasm...
This "unmatched" claim, isn't even remotely true.
Reddit: Yang-69K, Sanders-315K
YouTube: Yang-99K, Sanders-223K
Twitter: Yang-893K, Sanders-9.72MILLION~!
No candidate running comes close to Bernie Sanders small donors #'s, small donor donations, or volunteers.
If Andrew does dropout of the running, I'd hope many of his enthusiastic cohorts would give Bernie a look, a listen, and a vote.
1
Warren hit a home run in the last debate when she pointed out that she doesn't know anyone who loves his/her insurance company.
77
@sthomas1957
Sure...that must be why she's weaseling in her discussions of M4A. Using her lawyerese of "access" and now, it's just a "framework". She can't even admit that taxes will increase, while overall costs will go down.
Heck, read the eager centrists in the comments here waiting for Warrens pivot. Everyone knows Warren isn't a progressive. It's just a gimmick to undercut her Left.
She's in Biden's lane and she's waiting to drink his milkshake.
1
@sthomas1957 Whether someone loves their insurance company is irrelevant. No other industrialized country with universal health makes it illegal to have private health insurance. Any general election candidate who runs on making private health insurance illegal (Warren & Sanders are clear on this) will lose.
1
Hi, I’m Joe Biden. I’m taking a lot of flak for being old and out of touch. You know, I feel hurt when wave the flag of inclusion and simultaneously denounce me for being out of it. Remember, Barrack himself said I was “out over his skis” on the gay marriage thing. Ageism? Sure! But I am kind of out of touch. It’s true, I came of age in the time of the phonograph. But guess what? I was young full of ideas once, too. I was the sixth youngest senator in history. Once I was the smartest guy in the room! I have tremendous respect for the youth in the party. Man, I envy them. I’ve been around long enough to make a lot of errors. But let me tell you about one of my biggest errors: If I knew then, what I know now, maybe I wouldn’t have been so cocky and arrogant. Life has a way of humbling people. And it brings wisdom. Guess what? I don’t really want the job. Man, I’m tired. I’ve suffered so much loss. By now, I should be writing my memoirs and padding my grandkids’ trust funds with honoraria and sipping single malt with Pat Leahy. But I really do believe America needs help right now - not tomorrow. So there are two maybe old fashioned reasons to vote for me - wisdom and duty. Buttigieg, Harris, and the Squad... they may be the future of the Democratic Party, but America needs help today. Sometimes I feel like I’m carrying the cross to Calvary. Or I’m like Frodo. I don’t really want the burden. Maybe that makes me the best guy for the job after all.
14
@Stevie. Very enjoyable read! But *OUCH*!
3
That’s the first thing I’ve read that makes me consider joe Biden. Still wouldn’t switch from warren but it made me pause.
5
Biden is an integral reason we got to the point of unsustainability and unsurvivability.
No, Joe is not the man for the job.
And, all this talk of how ‘nice’ he is... disrespectfully invading women’s space, to use as props for one’s shtick to portray oneself as a great guy... is not nice. It’s a power move.
#NeverBiden
5
Joe Biden is a nice guy. Joe Biden is also living in the past and is not our future nor the future of the Democratic Party.
94
@Don P.
I agree with everything you wrote except that Biden is a nice guy. There is basically no evidence of this.
He's touched multiple women inappropriately and defended the rights of credit card companies based in his state over the needs of the working people. His family shamelessly profits off his name.
The Ukraine thing is evidence not of Biden's corruption, but of the do-nothing jobs members of his family have secured to (hopefully) have their companies secure better terms from industry regulators.
5
@Concerned Citizen
It's not his age, it's his old ideas.
Which is why most of the younger candidates don't ignite, nor inspire the 17-40aged cohort of the electorate.
Care to guess whom our future votes for?
Candidate Bernard Sanders.
2
@D W
He also falsely accused the truck driver involved in the 1972 car accident of being drunk, which he wasn't. We don't hear much about that . . . .
Each time a Biden ad shows up on my Facebook feed, I place this comment -
Joe, you are a kindly good man, and I thank you for your long service, but it is time for you to leave this race, gracefully and graciously, with dignity and good humor. It is time to let younger and more diverse voices be heard. It is time to make the choice to step aside. Please Joe, do that.
Then I report the ads to Facebook as repetitive and uninteresting
67
Biden's problem is that's he's moderate, it's that he hasn't come up with a message that's inspirational.
27
@Megan
His speeches are full of 'let's-come-together' nonsense and no policy substance.
After telling billionaires in Manhattan that he did not intend to fundamentally change the status quo shouldn't we be concerned that his centrism is a cover for blind loyalty to corporate interests?
8
Joe Biden should just throw the towel in now. Its Warren/Clinton 2020 one way or the other so get out of the way Joe.
3
@GregP
I agree that Joe should get out of the way, but a Clinton on the ticket would sink the Democrats all across the country.
Warren/Sanders for the workers 2020 has a sales appeal in middle America Clinton could never hope to have.
4
@Concerned Citizen
Not if you know how badly she is drawn to this flame. She is behind this attack on Biden and has something over Warren to use if she doesn't get that spot as the number 2. Of course she sinks the ticket but she doesn't know that and she still has lots of strings left to pull on.
1
I think I just snorted my cornflakes out my nose! Thanks for the laugh but it hurts!
A “status quo” campaign and platform won’t do it in 2020. The Biden campaign must know that notwithstanding the low unemployment rate, middle class families are living on credit cards.
The country desperately needs structural reform which Mr. Biden seems allergic to even consider the possibility, let alone providing a blue print. That won’t and is not working. We can see how his lead is being systematically eroding. Add to this, the Ukraine mess, which, although Mr. Biden and his son appear to be innocent, nonetheless it brings back to mind the incredible corruption that lead to the 2008 Great Recession, Mrs. Clinton’s flawed campaign and the lack of capital markets regulatory reform under Mr. Obama which got us Trump.
To be able to afford Medicare expansion, we need jobs and here Mr. Biden has no tangible plan. Jobs, jobs, jobs should be the primary concern. Didn’t VP’s father ever say to him: “Joey, create jobs”.
11
Speaking as a person who has never, and will never be on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform out there, I'll be the first to say it's no big "thing" if Biden (or any other candidate) decides to cut back on the digital messages because it's not the only way to appeal to voters -- and let's face it, when you're going up against foreign governments and deep-pocketed organizations and individuals with a counter opinion, it won't be long before the well starts to run dry.
Besides, in the end it's the message -- and not necessarily the medium.
46
@N. Smith
With all due respect, I disagree with everything you say. The medium does matter and if younger voters aren't finding him engaging they're less likely to turn out should he get the nomination. Those votes will be needed next year.
39
@N. Smith
But what is Biden's message?
16
@DennisMcG Online campaign ads are overrated and as far as young people voting, historically they do not go the polls as much as other groups.
11
The most likely alternative to Biden isn't Warren, Sanders or Mayor Pete; it's four more years of Donald Trump.
10
@Jeff I thought so too, but I’m having second thoughts. Warren is running a terrific campaign. I want to see her numbers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, MI and Wisconsin. If she continues to bear Trump in those states, I think she is a viable candidate. A Warren/Castro ticket, for example, would be a strong ticket.
Trump is not winning. Regardless of whether he survives an impeachment, he is mortally wounded politically.
Democrats need to be realistic, but also need to be smart. We need to watch the polls and see who is running the most effective campaign. If that means changing our strategy, we should change it. If the electorate is favoring Warren, and she can win in battleground states, then regardless of how we feel about Biden – and I admire him - Warren should be the candidate
18
Other than the "/Castro", I agree RCT.
2
@Concerned Citizen
Correction, Warren is winning the White, wealthy, educated polls.
Hard-left liberals? No. Sanders has them.
Warren is attracting leftish moderates, the Hillaryites. Everyone knows she's about to pivot. The Leftish gimmick has run it's course.
1
I am tech-savvy, centrist, and irritated by ads that pop up on my social media feed. So, good for Biden for re-channeling his resources. Desperation? I don’t think so. More like, strategic deployment.
Come on, New York Times, you make it very clear you don’t want Biden as Pres. Why? Will it be too boring to have a sane, normal person in the White House? Subscriptions will drop off?
Biden-Warren 2020!
16
@JE
Biden and Warren are not ideologically aligned. Biden supports the interests of the corporate class ahead of all and therefore will always be an enemy of the CFPB which Warren championed.
Besides Centrism will accomplish nothing just as Obama did the last six years of his term. REMEMBER! There are no Republican centrists - they will not cooperate for the greater good. There isn't a candidate the dems could field that will cause Republicans to abandon their donors and cross the aisle. It just not happening.
Joe Biden represents status-quo normalcy that was untenable in 2016.
Warren-Sanders 2020.
6
They are using those dollars now for Morse Code, smoke signal and tin cans tied with string communications.
18
Are these the same democratic wunderkind marketing geniuses that had Hillary in a landslide in 2016? Any chance they don't know what they are talking about? Any chance they are arrogant, know-it-alls that never leave their little echo chamber inside the beltway? Why believe these people again?
9
Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian business dealings may be legal but boy does it look bad. Joe Biden should have recognized that this would become a big problem for him before he entered the race.
95
@Pigenfrafyn
And if Hunter Bidens ( perfectly legal) dealings with Ukraine "look bad" -- what do you call Paul Manafort's??
1
@N. Smith --sure Manafort's worse, and Trump's worse, etc etc. So? We need not only better than Trump, but also better than Biden.
I like Joe Biden, but I'm not sure if it's him or his advisors that are proceeding on bad advice. First off he needs to be active on social media and more importantly Biden’s advisors have done him a major disservice by issuing warnings to the networks to not book Giuliani. This will play right into Trump’s hands. Joe Biden needs to personally get on the air on all the networks and forcibly defend his actions and call it like it is. He needs to also do this on the social media outlets as that's the source of info for many voters.If Giuliani and Trump are lying he needs to say the words. Biden needs to get out in front of this or the lies and innuendos will cripple his campaign. Telling the networks not to book someone will be seen as interfering with the free press and will be used to smear Biden even more. If Biden doesn’t personally appear on the networks he will appear weak with possibly something to hide. This warning to the networks was a bad move that needs to be rectified immediately by all methods available.
8
I'm 60 years old, a lifetime Democrat and I live about 7 miles from Joe Biden's Scranton home. He is a very decent man and I understand his "malarkey". Joe Biden is not my first choice for democratic nominee. The United States after the fundamental tyranny of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell need a new direction. Enough malarkey.
77
The odd thing here is not the Joe is spending less on a media that is not working well for him but the claim that people are spending a third to half their life on a phone? That’s a shame. But I checked and the average is just 3 hours a day so a little exaggerated there I guess. Go Joe is all I can say he’s the only hope for the dems, the others are to far left and I will vote Trump before I ever vote Warren. So good luck Joe the nation needs ya!
4
I consider myself a "techy" (albeit an older one).
I ignore *every* ad I see on Facebook....I couldn't tell you what any of the ads I saw today were about. I tune them out.
There is a thing called Information Overload. Marketing people like to dismiss this, but I think many of us grow weary of the beg-athon methodology.
47
Biden won't have any problem raising sufficient funds for his presidential campaign. So spending less on digital leaves a potential concern about young people who, as we have seen repeatedly, even including at critical times in the 2016 Sanders race, on the whole don't vote. Not to be harsh, but the voices of people who don't vote don't matter, so why spend on them? Everyone who cares knows who the leading candidates are in this race and I suspect most of them have already decided which they like and why. Trump defied conventional wisdom about how much one needs to run a campaign and how to raise for it, so if I were running I wouldn't trust anyone's playbook about what to spend and where in today's volatile and uncertain political advertising environment. Frankly it's anyone's guess. I'm very active online, and I make donations when I want to. I send all political messages automatically to spam because they waste my time and I'm busy, and when I am otherwise online I completely ignore them.
12
@Joe
Might want to update the research Joe...
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/gen-zers-millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/
1
I admire Joe Biden and his politics align with mine. However, I plan to vote for Pete Buttigieg because he's more articulate, which will be important in the debates with Trump.
Warren is too far left for me, although I like her thoughtfulness. I think that she'd clean Trump's clock in the debates. My major concern with Warren is that she hasn't renounced Sanders' call to end private insurance. That's a radioactive policy position. As Mayor Pete said, a public option is a much better route to Medicare for All since it lets people choose it rather than forcing them into it. Warren has kept her options open and she may veer towards the center on healthcare insurance for the general election.
Although I'd still be more aligned with Buttigieg, Warren would be a strong candidate against Trump if she lets people keep their insurance. Buttigieg is very young and his time will come after we've reestablished normalcy (or at least Warren's version of it).
Joe has been a national treasure, but he's always been gaffe prone and it seems to have gotten worse. Buttigieg, and maybe Warren, seem like stronger contrasts to Trump in the debates.
88
I have never ever heard anyone tell me I love my health insurance company!
19
@David
How many people would NOT drop their insurance immediately if they were able to replace it with a no co-pay, no deductible plan with every doctor in the country in-network, that covers everything their current plan does and more?
45
@Benjamin Hinkley
As attractive as no co-pays and no-deductibles sound, they're likely to lead to overuse and put strains on the system. That would increase costs overall, adding to the deficit.
I think that co-pays and/or deductibles are good for cost controls, but should be tied to income, with poor people paying much less than the wealthy. For poor people, the out-of-pocket costs should be sufficient that they'll think twice about seeking care without the costs being burdensome.
4
This is why impeachment is so fundamental to the strategy of the Democrats. The party is not confident in its slate of candidates because they are either weak or support ideas middle America doesn’t. The only way to beat Mr. Trump is to remove him from office before the 2020 election.
5
Impeachment is not a strategy. Democrats may very well hurt their 2020 chances if they go through with impeachment. As Speaker Pelosi said, they are doing it because it's the right thing to do, and it should be done quickly so Democrats can focus back on their message in the campaign.
28
@Nancy S.
Democrats have been demanding impeachment from the day Trump was elected. Even after the Mueller report fell flat Nadler couldn't let it go. The so called "impeachment inquiry " Pelosi announced is nothing but a distinction without a difference. If it's not a strategy then why did she announce it before the transcript was even released? Why was Schiff compelled to "parody" the transcripts content? And why won't democrats do the "right thing" and vote on the inquiry like the house did with Nixon and Clinton?
3
Biden is way past his expiration date. He’s not going to become any more vital before Election Day. I cannot imagine his ability to handle complex issues and new challenges four years from now. He needs to check his ego and gracefully step aside for the nation’s sake.
159
I’m also over 50 and over Joe. Joe can describe the problems with the best of them, but seems not to live in the same universe as Andrew Yang. He may be at the back of the pack, but all credit to Yang for being firmly in the 21st Century. And Warren is running circles around Joe on concrete policies.
160
Maybe Biden is learning something after all, in his old age. FaceBook adds make me angry, because they remind me how I’m being exploited by my data. Unwanted texts irritate me. I’m fed up with twitter shouting. Why would I want to vote for Candidate Robocall?
29
Biden has said he is ready for Trump because he is used to bullies. But I worry about him, not only his age and possible lapses but his record vis-a-vis normative DC self indulgence for himself and his family. Granted the Trump family is much more corrupt but we have already given Trump a pass numerous time, Biden needing one is not a good sign.
49
@n1789
NOTHING "worries" me more than the aspect of another four years of Donald Trump.
1
Biden won’t and shouldn’t win the nomination. The Bernie/Elizabeth wing of the party is far more popular and has far more electable candidates. Once one of them pulls out, their support will flow to the other, trouncing the limited support Biden has.
His zombie campaign, however, will keep shuffling on, moaning “electability, inevitability” for the next 11 months, with Biden helpfully tripping over his tongue on a regular basis and collecting lots of cash from corporate donors.
Maybe the DNC will find a way to throw him the nomination. The poobahs of the Democratic party clearly want him.
Wouldn’t that be great? Another corporate moderate Democrat running against Trump. Worked so well in 2016, why not try it again?
184
@Objectively Subjective
"the limited support Biden has."
Biden has pretty much won every poll since he ran for office. Today he's huge in Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland.
We know the Dems will win their big states such as California and New York but, to win the Electoral College, they need to perform well in the states where Biden is crushing it now.
10
@Objectively Subjective Good post. It's clear from the article that Biden's is a "Dead campaign walking". He's losing support as time goes on, and the drop in digital activity is the "canary in the coal mine".
And he's going to pay a steep price for whatever involvement he and his son had in Ukraine. Trump will make sure of that.
You're right too that the DNC poobahs are going to try and force him into the nomination as they obviously still have not learned a thing from 2016. They are the living embodiment of the "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight".
2
@Objectively Subjective
Hmm...could have sworn the "poohbahs of the Democratic Party" have backed the other "corporate moderate Democrat running"...Liz Warren.
Seems every MSM pundit talks her up.
The Wall Street, Third Way, and Corp. are all signaling they can work with Warren as the "compromise" candidate. As she is too signaling her pivot to their middle.
I'd say the establishment/super delegates would be happy with either corp. entity. Win-win.
Agreed, the self declared moderate worked so well in '16 (snicker...) the private D-Club is going to run the same play, with the same players and the same plan.
What could go wrong?!
4
If there is anything to be learned from Trump's popularity, it is that the general public have no faith in Washington insiders. The Democrats are either too dependent on the old order, or are too ingenuous to see that. To bring in a man who is completely entrenched in the established system of big-bank empowerment, mass incarcerations, and race politics to fight an outsider is courting disaster. Unlike anyone running for President today, Biden has had so many chances to do good, and he did nothing but prop up the establishment each time, and apologize later. Nobody is going to vote for Biden just because he is a "fine man" underneath it all. It's time he stepped aside and let Warren or Sanders lead the charge.
121
@Krish Pillai
If there is anything to be learned from Trump's popularity it's that 30% of the population doesn't think things through and has a chip on their shoulder because they haven't been "treated fairly" in their own minds.
2
@Krish Pillai...but it seems millions DO think he's a fine man and will vote for him.
Biden has worked to project a fine man persona, even though many actions and statement show that's phony.
Now, being attacked by Trump may increase support for him by some voters.
1
@Krish Pillai You make such a great point. At the same time - and please don’t take this the wrong you - your closing was horribly disappointing. Both Senators Warren and Sanders are insiders. When you get a chance, please check out Andrew Yang’s campaign. That’s an outsider.
No to Old Joe. At least that's what I hear from the younger crowd. They ARE tired of the status quo and are seeking progressive change.
Big thinking is desperately needed.
Imagine, in their generation, big oil's market value must go to zero if we are to survive as a species.
Banks have preyed on college students long enough. This must end and college must be universally available to all who qualify.
Universal health care is a right and MUST be provided to all, regardless of race, creed, or color.
270
@Cal Page
Agreed, and I'd add that I find the "younger" crowd to be pretty much anyone under the age of 50. I know of not a single enthusiastic Biden supporter, and am also of the opinion he'd be chewed up and spit out by Trump's team of mud-slinging miscreants. Like most, I'll support him if he gets the nom, but I hope he doesn't.
30
@Cal Page
My mother and father are in their 80's. They support Pete Buttigieg.
They say Biden is too old.
15
@Cal Page
Everyone should remember that Biden's contribution to the student loan crisis was to make them undischargeable in bankruptcy. He is the reason that no matter how bad a situation you end up in, the lender will still have a collar on you.
I guarantee that his contribution to the healthcare crisis will be to make medical debt undischargeable in bankruptcy.
9
I haven’t noticed a large drop in FB ads from Biden. I have seen a huge increase in Warren ads recently. I don’t think FB ads are particularly effective.
18
@Sara
But Facebook ads are really cheap, and certainly a tool of most campaigns.
I don’t use Facebook, and I think it’s an odd spot to try to become informed, but lots of people spend a huge amount of time on Facebook.
7
@Sara although Facebook ads certainly are included, but assuming they are on all the major social platforms.
Biden should drop out now so as to give moderate voters a chance to get comfortable with Senator Warren who barring a totally rigged election will be our first female President.
260
@Tim Berry
Don't say things like this. It sets a tone. And it's not true. I know plenty of people in the middle of the country who don't want Elizabeth Warren.
"I" don't want Elizabeth Warren and I'm a woman. I'll vote for her if I must but she's my last choice right before Bernie Sanders.
5
@Tim Berry
The arrogance of the left is absolutely boundless. "Joe should drop out now so people can learn to agree with us."
Add to this all the ageism from the people who tell is that we shouldn't judge people.
Lastly, 15% of people who get their political information in facebook will vote. If that.
4
@Tim Berry Are you talking about the same "Elizabeth let me get a beer Warren". The person who just this weekend could not give a straight answer on whether Hunter Biden's involvement on that company board is questionable? Give me a break -- and check out Andrew Yang's campaign when you get a chance. You seem to frequent The Times, so also check Gregory Mankiw's comparison of both candidates' tax plan.
2
Curious how long it will take Dem power brokers and pundits (not to mention Biden) to understand how few people under 50 want to vote for Biden.
153
@Mford You're saying they prefer Trump? Rather than a decent, honorable man with a lot of experience who can start fixing Trump's mess from Day One?
2
@Mford I'm 67 and I won't vote for him in the NH primary nor will most of my friends. His time has passed not to mention his complete inability to learn from his mistakes.
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I'm over 50… and over Joe. we need bold policy changes, not a return to a party status quo. see you at the finish line Sen. Warren
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