My first thought when thinking of Joe Biden is “creepy uncle Joe” who can’t keep his hands to himself. Then I think of the stumbling responses and the tons of baggage he drags along with him.
I sincerely sympathize with the life tragedies that he has suffered but that isn’t a valid reason to make want to vote for him.
3
l Biden is the choice of the old, entitled, boomer generation. That is blatantly clear to us. Those who "got theirs" and think everyone else is just less deserving or bought too many coffees.
3
When I was younger, more than 50 years ago, I was swayed by the idealism of youth and endorsed candidates who advocated liberal policies and ideas. There was 1968 and McCarthy’s anti-war crusade and McGovern’s 1972 progressive agenda. My votes went for nought and resulted in Nixon’s victories. In 1980 I ignored warnings to the contrary and voted for the third party candidate John Anderson, and the country reaped Reagan and 12 years of Republican Reaganism and the first Bush.
Having a Democratic candidate who is passionate (for example, Elizabeth Warren), or who favors policies how to redistribute wealth and provide universal health care and free tuition (Bernie Sanders) is great, but only the first step and not controlling or determinative in choosing this party’s candidate because, unlike myself or other progressive “Martina like” voters out there, there are millions of others in Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, and Pennsylvania who have other priorities, prejudices, and voting proclivities that need to be appealed to. To sway those voters and to gain the electoral college vote from those 6 or 7 “toss up” states is the challenge. Many writers here criticize “ centrists.” Swaying those centrists is how we need to win in November. Choosing a candidate based on idealism may be heroic, but without a sense of pragmatism does not equate to winning. And, here with Trump and his warts , fleas, and corruption, winning is the goal.
3
I voted for Gore once, Obama twice, and Clinton once. Now I am 18 years into my voting life and I truly have a millennial question about the candidates. Why is Biden trumped as old, but Bernie not, even though he is older? I really don’t view age in my consideration of candidates, just experience, knowledge, and the ability to heal America after this chaotic administration. I would vote for either Biden or Sanders in the general election over Trump, though my preferences are Klobuchar or Mayor Pete in the primary.
3
I like Biden. I was a registered Republican for over 50 years and during that time voted for LBJ over Goldwater, both HHH and McGovern over Nixon, Perot over both Clinton and GHW Bush, and Obama in 2012. Then the Republicans nominated Trump in 2016 and I reluctantly changed party registration and voted for Hillary, whom I despised but less so than I despised Trump. 5 Democrats, 7 Republicans and 1 "fie on both your houses" probably makes me an independent. It's a contest, folks, and you always have to consider the alternative. And by the way, it's a bit like recruiting good people to work for you. I set the bar high and made offers to people who qualified without waiting to see the whole field of potential candidates, because good enough is fine. Biden is good enough.
6
@Chris Wyser-Pratte I remember when my dad lived in Dallas, Texas in the early 90s and many people had a a "Ross for Boss" T-Shirt. As a local businessman, he was gaining a lot of support there. I never understood what Mr. Perot was about until years later, but I will never forget that slogan.
Joe’s tired and going through the motions but he doesn’t really want to be president, he just doesn’t want Trump as president. A compassionate man who’s been through a lot but sympathy is not going win the election.
2
Just to balance the comments from the quick-response division of Bernie headquarters, I will say that considering the motley group of Democratic primary candidates, none of whom is very interesting, Joe Biden is the person I least dislike. Okay, I will go further and say that I like Joe even though I don’t have confidence that he will be the greatest President in history—that title has already been claimed by the incumbent.
What I do have is total confidence that Joe is miles ahead of the demagogic Sanders, who seems to have cornered the cult-follower market once again, and light years better than the vulgarian who currently inhabits the White House.
Furthermore, despite the media efforts to discredit Joe because he’s not good copy for selling newspapers or winning viewers, he is still the only candidate who has a chance of defeating Trump in the general election.
4
He doesn’t want a revolution. He doesn’t have a movement. He could still win this thing.
God help us.
PS: Doesn't want a revolution, doesn't have a movement. Is it just me, or does this description remind you of any recent Democratic candidates for President?
How did that turn out for the candidate? For our country?
2
Our President is both head of state and chief executive. This election will be a morality play, good v evil (Trump corruption). There is no greater symbol of good decent behavior than Joe Biden. As chief executive, Joe will be able to bring forth the best ideas from all wings of the party, as well as any remaining pragmatic ideas, eg carbon trading and national park preservation, founded
in conservative philosophy as originally understood.
3
It's going to be a long time before we have another "rock-star" type candidate, with the charisma that Obama had. Unforunately that will be the comparison for a long time.
Right now, the party needs to pick someone from the so-called "center" and let's just get on with it. Pick up the rockstar VP candidate from the large pool of people available. Stacy Abrams or Kamala Harris would add the electricity that's needed to get people to the polls. There are others.
Here's the message for the Biden campagn: patriotism to our democracy and its survival as the Founders intended. It's the American experiment. We're not done. We are striving. All candidates, and the Democratic machine, standing in lock-step behind the candidate, striving for decency and fairness.
Are we not all horrified enough by what has the happened the last 4 years, not just with Trump, but an entire Republican Senate willing to give give frightened fealty to a mobster criminal and abandoning their sworn oaths?
Biden should embrace what he can most easily sell, the idea of an honest, free and fair American democracy, even if we have never quite reached those goals, that is what we are all about. The ship needs to be righted, and we must press ahead with our goals. Our lives and our democracy depend upon it.
Get involved in your local voter registration movements, and get people registered, and ready to vote. Support the candidate, no matter who it is.
Get. Out. The. Vote.
3
Joe Biden will never get the nomination. He thought he was above scrutiny when his son joined the board of Burisma.
A Biden presidency would bring on our country’s fourth “legitimate” impeachment hearings from day 1. Our country does not deserve another nightmare.
3
Just read the comments - Biden doesn't have support. Maybe NYT readers aren't representative but I doubt it.
@Broadkill
Joe doesn’t *seem* to have support because the Sanders quick-response team is out in force, standing by their keyboards to make everyone think Sanders is leading. He is not. Biden and Sanders are even in Iowa. Biden has a major lead in the electoral college states that will decide the election.
4
Every faction of the Democratic Party MUST united behind their candidate. trump MUST be defeated!
2
All Joe needs to bring is a bar of soap.
2
Mark Leibovich is usually an outstanding writer. And at first, I thought that he was just pulling his punches, to try to go easy on the old man. But, by the end of this article, I came to realize that Leibovich was subtly telling us that Joe really is a nice but coddled old pol, a tired man who relies on ancient stories that really aren't all that touching or amusing, and someone who is only still in contention because of the appalling nature of his Democrat opposition. But not someone who could successfully be President. Sad but true.
1
Leibovich mentions several times the lack of anger in Biden's campaign.
I'm of Biden's generation -- and I'm angry. Angry that despite all the efforts we're leaving this horrible world to my kids and grandkids (and, by the way, to YOURS too). Are YOU really comfortable with that? Don't you feel the urgency felt by those much younger? If you don't, you haven't been paying attention, and, like Joe, you think that just being okay is good enough.
It's not!
3
This is s dispiriting article. Three days before Trump’s “acquittal” (which is depressing enough) and then to read about what may likely be the Democratic response: the insipid vision of Joe Biden.
So, Biden’s campaign slogan (take your pick) might be: “Good Enough,” or “Why Not?” or “You’ve Heard of Me.” Seriously? How about “Milquetoast,” or “Lesser of Two Evils”?
Or maybe it could be something around the notion of “united” - “It’s the United States of America. It doesn’t work without the ‘united’.” But, Biden fails to see the glaring irony in his passion to unify the country. He offers nothing to unify it around. Biden’s message seems to be: “We will unify around unifying” – a circular vortex of “nothing.” What do we do? Wave a magic wand? Hold hands and say the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer (both of which are offensive to some people)? Or maybe we just have a big kumbaya fest – hugs all around – or maybe we can unite around the “grief” in our lives.
Or my favorite of all: we can unite around the fantasy that Republicans will “have an ‘epiphany’ and suddenly be willing to reach across the aisle again.”
After the moral disaster of the impeachment, who would think it could get any worse? We are living deep in the craters of Trump’s bombs, and we should go with a candidate who wants to be “transitional” rather than offering a plan for getting us out of the craters?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t like the view from the bottom of a crater.
3
Biden name Klobuchar/Harris VP Bloomberg money = best Dem chance.
6
"He doesn’t want a revolution. He doesn’t have a movement. He could still win this thing." Pathetic. This is why the democrats have failed.
8
Biden is a horrible candidate that stands for basically nothing. The Dems are taking it easy on him now, but Trump will tear him apart and he will not excite anyone in the general election.
9
Joe Biden infamously crashed and burned on takeoff in his 1988 and 2008 quests to become President.
Because Biden is a creature of the Senate without the ruthless executive skills and principled policy positions and knowledge and intellect to be POTUS.
8
I trust Biden and expect his presidency to resemble that if Obama whom I loved
2
@Bertram Ladner Your view is shared, I believe, by many. But nostalgia tickets don't do well.
1
Joe missed the opportunity to project strength and show himself worthy & presidential during the impeachment. He needed to step up and show leadership and proclaim he WANTS the opportunity to address the Senate. Differentiate himself from the corrupt coward hiding behind his office! And IF something is going to come out, we need to hear it now, not in the final stretch. He could have seized the moment, instead he stayed low. Lead or get out of the way, Joe!
6
No, he won’t do.
5
He’s just same old same old Joe.
Revolution? We don’t need no stinking revolution! He’s in my generation, which won’t feel the effects of his business as usual.
1
If the Corporate DNC drags Biden across the finish line as with Clinton he will go down in flames. It almost seems to me that the corporate dems try to lose.
7
If you think our current healthcare system (or rather the lack thereof -- something you're familiar with if you've had reason to use it) is great, Biden's your man.
If you think climate change is a non-issue, Biden's your guy.
If you think Banker run governments are fantastic, he's perfect.
If you like seeing people run out of their homes by Fed policy decisions, Biden is your guy.
Enjoy watching your hard earned tax money go to the killing of people throughout the middle east and enriching the accounts of Lockheed Martin execs instead of actually doing some good in this country? Biden is perfect for you!
5
@David Veale Please explain to me how Biden is a climate change denier. Cite sources, please.
1
Beating Trump is Biden’s job but, like Hillary there’s a whiff of ‘my turn’ as a rationale.
4
I just can’t imagine Biden holding up in a debate with Trump. He always sounds like he’s whining.
6
A Biden candidacy in 2016 would have been a slam dunk.
In 2020, it’s just a missed free throw.
5
Even a rock would be better than trump.
And Joe Biden is far better than a rock.
7
The DNC is changing the rules to push Bloomberg. That tells you all you need to know about how much they believe in Biden’s chances.
4
I watched some pundits on TV this week debate whether Joe Biden would turn out to be a Jeb Bush or a John Kerry. They meant this in terms of 'the guy who loses in the primary or the guy who becomes the party's candidate.'
Because they were Biden/moderate candidate boosters, they didn't finish the thought. Guess what, folks? THEY BOTH LOST! Neither of those boring, status quo candidates became president. THAT is the takeaway and the reason we need Warren or Sanders. ( I say Warren. Less 'socialist' baggage).
3
I'll never understand why black people support this guy. He helped promote the various wars on the poor and especially blacks for most of his career. All of his "crossing the aisle" contributed to the merciless march to the right in this country. He told some guy in Iowa "don't vote for me" when asked a question about climate change. Here we are in the Democratic Party dealing with a half century long schism and Biden says this. This is not what I want in a leader. At All. For him to say that is tantamount to bullying, which would fit right into his ancient worldview right along with his 70's era misogyny. Biden is the Neoliberal great white hope. We should try to do better, but you know, money talks so there he is, representing bankers and wall street and lord knows what other special interest. So, he told that guy, "Vote for somebody else". Come on everybody, do what Joe says. I've often said I would vote for a toaster over Trump. Joe Biden is that toaster.....
4
We tried 'safe' with Hillary.
The country rejected her
Let's go bold in 2020
8
Joe Biden is like the helicopater parent who says they want their kid to succeed, but then sabotages their initiatives.
“My dad used to kid,” Biden told me. “He said: ‘Joey, don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.’ ”
Yes Joe, compare yourself to the alternative Democratic candidates. You just admitted that your campaign is basically a vote of no confidence in those candidates. A lack of faith in their ability to get the job done. THAT is the problem.
5
I think Joe Biden is not at all what the country needs right now. His policy record is troubling, to say the least.
But now that it's clear Republicans are going to give Trump a pass for his egregious conduct, I will cast a vote for Joe Biden out of sheer spite against Republicans' mendacity!
4
Any chance he could get me a job? I have no qualifications-I need about $80,000 a month.
6
For a very elderly man with cognitive brain issues, he’s good enough for me.
What is he here for? Can’t recall and neither can he.....
3
What if he had grabbed a woman’s jacket lapels? Poked a disapproving finger in her ribs? I’m caucusing on Monday for the one most likely to put him to rest once and for all-anyone but him.
6
You can look at history, Old War Horses don't win. Bush-1, Dole, McCain, Hillary. The Dems win with fresh faces (Kenndy, Clinton, Obama).
So of the primary candidates with some chance, that leaves Buttigieg but he's too young without experience and Klobuchar who would beat Trump hands down.
Klobuchar says she would win the 'swing' states and she is right plus all of the states that will go Democratic no matter what. Women especially would have a tough time pulling the handle for Trump when Klobuchar iss on the ballot.
4
@Norman You're absolutely correct. But CNN and MSNBC have deemed Klobuchar mean (which you would think would be a positive in going against Trump) and have torpedoed her campaign. They will regret it the morning after the election.
A tree trunk should be good enough if your objective is to get Trump out.
1
Rep Eric Swalwell had it right: "pass the torch Joe".
6
Beating Trump will be enough of a revolution for now, that we don't need much more, immediately. Sure, bring in a Warren at VP. Or perhaps a PeteB or AmyK. Good enough Joe may just be good enough to get it done.
5
Biden is a decent, caring and experienced candidate.
What a refreshing change of pace - someone actually qualified by experience, training and temperament to be President of the United States/
The American people are looking for a real president - not a carny wrestler like the incumbent; not a flash-in-the-pan with no resume or experience; not a counter-revolutionary who will further entrench division and hatred into our culture.
A genuine healer ... a Commander-In-Chief not only for our military but for our national soul.
14
Joe Biden is lame. I know that debate performance isn’t everything but have any of you been watching? We want a decisive and convincing candidate with an agenda that fights for ordinary people, not a wishy washy bumbler who presents as a person of questionable competence.
5
Biden and Bloomberg have the best chance to beat Trump.
2
What makes Biden relevant is the lack of any outstanding outstanding candidate in the Democratic field from the center-left, no Bill Clinton, no Barack Obama, no Hillary Clinton, no John Kerry, no Al Gore. Like Gore, Biden was vice-president for 8 years and that gives him a big advantage. And Biden appeared to have a successful vice presidency. If the Republicans were not running a white supremacist autocrat for president probably Biden would not be running. But fascism is in the air, you can see it at Trump rallies, you can hear it in the actions and speeches of Republicans. Biden may in fact be the best hope of preserving a democratic republic against the forces of hate and disregard for truth that have been unleashed by right wing media and right wing politicians.
5
Biden has at least two things going for him.
1-He is not Trump.
2-Of the three things that killed Hillary in middle America, ie identity obsession, social engineering obsession and neo con views on things like wars, Biden does not suffer from the first two.
3-Bernie is close behind but he fails on pt one and two.
4
Joe Biden is a decent, honorable man and a dedicated public servant. If he had run against Donald Trump in 2016 instead of Hillary Clinton, he likely would have won. Trump would have tried, but I doubt that he would have trashed Joe's reputation the way he did Hillary's.
But it is 2020. Loaded with a $1B campaign war chest, and encouraged from the Senate's failure to impeach him, Trump has built up a head of steam heading into the election. He has demonstrated that he will stop at nothing to win.
Trump and his kooky side-kick, Rudy, have trashed Joe Biden's reputation for months. Despite his actions in Ukraine being legal and within stated US policy, all I've heard Joe say in his defense is, "Hunter has done nothing wrong…".
That's not going to cut it.
For the past several months, Joe should have been on a media blitz: going on all of the news talk shows defending his honor and admitting that, though legal, his son's actions in Ukraine were foolish and wrong.
I'll vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in less than a heartbeat. Among all of the candidates, he'll work to bring decency back to political discourse and restore our country's reputation on the world stage. But the 2020 election will not be about honor, and Trump has demonstrated that he is dishonorable and indecent. Unfortunately, I don't think Joe is electable.
2
@Mark His handlers can't risk Joe going on any news shows, least of all a blitz of them. He would babble himself into ruination.
The Democrats have gone easy on Biden. He is wide open to charges of corruption, particularly China business connections, and you know Trump won't go easy on it if Biden wins the nomination.
A nastier primary fight would probably better serve the party because they need to know now if the average voter is as blase with this sort of soft, legal corruption as the political class is. They might not be.
3
I will vote for Biden if he lands me a job that pays $50000 a month. I am tried of all hypocrisy and wants something for myself. If not then my vote is for Bernie, Warren or Pete or any other democratic candidate.
2
"The perennially left-for-dead former vice president is not a socialist, and he is not Trump."
But, he is a plagiarist. However, we apparently no longer care about such things. You know, ripping off large chunks of someone else's work for law review article, and claiming it as your own.
It would get him kicked out of most reputable undergraduate institutions. But the presidency, no problem.
Biden is a fundamentally dishonest candidate. From this, to his refusal to acknowledge his own past positions on Social Security, to his unwillingness to discuss Hunter's remarkable career good fortune despite his complete lack of qualification. Joe Knows Nothing. That's the mantra, and he's sticking to it.
1
Are you kidding? Look at what is going on today, not just the impeachment, but all the Republican overreaches, as well as the effects of the Republican party's policies for the last 20 years or more ... Biden doesn't even mention it, except in the vaguest of terms. Biden will make a placeholder President Republicans will kick around as they with Obama. We need an injection of people power, and sunlight to this government rotting to its core.
2
Yes, let's put in Biden and go back to the Obama years. Which led to losing the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and finally the White House. But they sold record amounts of weapons while giving excuses as to why they couldn't end the war in Afghanistan or close Gitmo as they promised on the campaign trail. And they bailed out the banks after they took your life savings and your homes.
Yes, please, more!!
2
Trump will be vicious almost beyond imagining if Biden is the Democratic candidate. But I have become fatalistic. If the majority of voters really think Trump is better than Biden, given the stark contrast in terms of policies and as human beings, then it is game-over for the country and not due to any problems with Biden.
1
The best Democratic ticket in the Midwestern Swing States is Biden/Klobuchar. PA, WI and MI are the states that elected trump over Clinton.
5
@Bill Gordon Ummm, I hate to break it to you, but Sanders won the Democratic primary in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. He crushed Clinton in Wisconsin, in fact. Your claim that Biden/Klobuchar is the best bet to win those states is pure conjecture without evidence to back it.
2
Sanders only won those states because the Clinton campaign made the strategic mistake of taking them for granted and not campaigning there. Voters hate being taken for granted. The candidates this time around have heeded that lesson, and are not making the same mistake. So assuming Sanders will sweep there again is flawed.
Biden has been in Washington for 40 yrs, he’s part of the problem. All these career politicians on both sides have never solved an issue, they only create more, raise our taxes, start new wars, destabilize countries, spend money we don’t have, and they get filthy rich. Their kids get rich too. Trump will win the popular vote this time. No one else has a plan.
1
When will Democrats stop their fratricide? By continuing to fall (or leap) into the chasm of letting the perfect get in the way of the good, they're making it all the more likely that trumputin will again steal an election that should be a wipeout.
Independents and moderate Democrats hold the keys to the victory. I have three Millennial daughters who are excited by Sanders. That's good and expected. My 50+ years of being a political junkie have taught me that while younger generations can supply the heat if they don't turn turn out en masse, that energy is for naught.
The philosophical and policy gap between Biden and the Warren/Sanders flank pales in comparison to the real status quo.
If 45 becomes 46, we've not just lost an election, but an entire system of self-government. If some other Democrat can win the nomination, so be it.I'll work for him/her. Yet, even during this early primary season, the focus should be on first and foremost restoring our true American values. When your house is on fire, do you really care which fire department comes to put it out?
We're at an existential crossroads. Democrats should adhere to this slogan: VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!
6
Let's face it. The primary job of our next president will be to correct and set right all the things that Trump has fouled up. The foreign picture alone will be four years worth of effort. Who better than Biden, who already has the respect of our allies, to set this course on track. Add to this the environment, infrastructure, taxes, climate and staffing and how can you imagine a better and more experienced and respected candidate than Joe Biden.
11
I absolutely agree! Years of experience and deep institutional knowledge are an absolute asset under these circumstances. We don’t need a novice who will spend the first few months learning the ropes. We need someone who can walk in the door and put our government back together on Day 1. Someone who can pick up the phone to foreign leaders and restore our standing in the world. No one else in the Democratic field is qualified and prepared to do that except Joe Biden.
I will be, hope I can be voting for the one whose values are in line with our American Values. I do still believe that is Senator Kamala Harris who ran out of money. Yet, Biden focuses with strength on American Values of apt justice, fairness, mercy, understanding with discernment and respect. American ideals, I believe, will most animate voters in the election. America is being forced to look in the mirror and figure out who we want to be. It seems to me that many of the Democratic candidates consider those basic moral values as individual choices, apart from leadership or generally merely avoid mentioning basic values.
Coalescing my thoughts, many wise black voters have steadfastly remained with Biden; Biden is feared and hated by Trump more than any other candidate; Biden does identify kindly without disparagement. And Biden is more likely to beat Trump than any other candidate.
Now we hear many alternatives, but once we succeed at ousting the mob, we can find some semblance of agreement in pride of our democracy. Then feeling more secure, women and color may come into leadership. Biden will be refreshing as our President.
12
I really hope that all those people being polled who are saying "Biden" actually mean that they are "undecided." If Biden is the nominee, we can plan for four more years of Trump.
20
@Sam I agree. Nothing makes me more apathetic about voting in the next presidential election than a Biden-Trump choice.
9
@PD
you people are ready to vote for anybody except the one guy who will actually kick Trump out of office... BIDEN '020
2
@PD
Sorry if the prospect of 4 more years of Trump make you apathetic. The price of your apathy and those of similar sentiment is way too high for the rest of us.
4
Biden is good enought for me. And I think for a majority of left of center moderates. More important though, in this election, are the independents and the few, but critical moderate or sometimes Republicans, those same that voted in 2018 finally delivering a win and a majority in the House, and now yearning for a way to support anyone decent so we can all throw Fearless Leader into the dumpster of history.
“This country has never needed his compassion more than it does right now.” (Cindy Norton)
13
I am from Scranton Pa and will vote for Mr Biden. The Dems need to start showing the videos McConnel the Grand old Polluter/GOP made saying when they are in charge they will cut big Social Security . Just yesterday Trump gave Medicare to the states and the NYT’s article said that means there will be less on that program. States with the GOP leaders tend to be greedy . Where is that video of Mitch bragging they will cut Social security . That needs to be played today on to show his GOP supporters there is dark side to there hero’s.
10
The problem with Joe is best described as an answer to a previous comment about having a dependable old car you can rely on to get you there.
I couldn't agree more if this were not a fast moving, evolving domestic and global environment we are living in.
A reliable old klinker is just not my idea of meeting the challenges that new race tracks and more dedicated competitors confront our country and our interests.
I must admit that challenging a heckler to a push-up contest is cute in the short Sprint but hardly convincing in a long run.
6
So Biden would not be running if Romney was President ... says it all really.
I have no doubt Sanders would still be running. A center right pro-corporate status quo President like Romney or Biden would still be taking the country down the wrong path, they would just be moving a little slower.
15
Biden, assuming a free and fair election, is the most likely
Democratic candidate to dislodge Trump from the White House in the 2020 presidential election. This election, more than any in recent history is not about democratic verses republicans.
The election is more about government of the people and for the people (American People) verses government of the few and for the few ( American Oligarchs).
At this juncture, the People have a choice. Either stand-up and protect American democracy like the future of our children and generations to come depend on it, because it does. The other choice is to let the democracy come to a slow demise and await the arrival of a much more dangerous demagogue than Trump.
8
@Dearson And may I also add that its about decency.
5
David Brooks said on PBS tonight that a poll shows 52% of Bernie Bros will not vote for a different Dem nominee. (Or only 52% will, I forget but it makes little difference).
2
@Rodgerlodger I seriously doubt that so many people are going to drink poison when something some what better is available.
@Rodgerlodger
the Bernie Bro's can do whatever they want... Biden will thrash Trump in the general election with our without them.
1
This is so sad to watch. I'm an Independent who used to be a Democrat. I voted for Clinton twice & voted for Obama first time around, although before casting that vote I supported Hillary. Like I said, I am now an Independent. To be honest, I don't even recognize the Democratic party. It's not the same party that I remember.....that I supported so passionately.
It is so sad to watch the line of potential nominees...most especially Joe Biden. He is definitely not good enough. His integrity is in question.....Big Time. Who can say 'good ole joe' is not corrupt after his nepotistic actions have exposed such blatant corruption. He is indicative of the problems in DC & the reason Trump was elected in 2016.
10
@nisiroo Nepotism and blatant corruption? I think you are mistaking Biden for the current resident of the White House.
4
@nisiroo I agree. I was once Democrat and now am Independent. The Democrats are seemingly incompetent/corrupt. The Republics are seemingly immoral/corrupt. Biden is a continuation of incompetent/corrupt.
I would happy to turn the clock back to 2016 and have four more years of the Obama administration. Normal would be a good step into the future. I am tired of waking up to shocking news of Trump's latest "issues".
I would love to discuss wonderful new initiatives. But first we need to win the election. It will not matter if there are 5 million more votes for the Democratic candidate if they are in coastal states that are already in the Democrats electoral column. Clinton lost by 77,744 votes spread over Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
RBG is not getting any younger. We need to win!
8
@Jay Americans need relief from the private aspirations of both major political parties.
If you are an older American needing Social Security and Medicare, Joe Biden is the last Democrat to support for president. Over the years Biden has repeatedly supported cutting these programs. If elected president, his first "reach across the aisle" would likely be to join Republicans in diminishing them. This is a life-and-death pocketbook issue.
8
A long report on Biden and no mention of Social Security- and with good reason.
For three decades Biden has joined Republicans in advocating cuts to Social Security, all amply documented on YouTube. How did Joe, given his last minute change of heart (candidate Biden now wants to expand SS), deal with this dissonance?
He denied three decades of calls for cuts and said the YouTube videos were, get this, “doctored”.
That’s not presidential.
9
I find all the Democratic candidates (except Gabbard) attractive for one reason or another. They all have distinct assets, not to mention the unifying attribute that they are not the person in office now. Some easily fall into the "able-to-sleep-at-night" category and Biden is one of them. As to the video mentioned below, maybe the NYT or snopes.com can see whether that is a true rendition. But the FIRST thing, people, that we have to do is whenever we read a quote or - even more so - see a video that seems out of character is to be HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS and skeptical. If a clip turns out to be accurate, okay. But, folks, you cannot suspend your disbelief at every turn. It is SO easy to create fake videos. Remember Hillary's Parkinson's? And that was a crude and obvious one. Think of all the special effects you see in movies. A lot of those tricks can be done on a laptop and are not discernible to a layman. You've heard the warnings about interference in our election. Those dirty tricks can range from sophisticated foreign players to creeps (creepy, but effective) like Roger Stone. You can't be swayed by the very last thing you saw or heard, especially when it's counter-intuitive. You have to THINK!
8
Unlike Sanders and Trump, Biden does not depend on anger to fuel his appearances. That's a relief. What is uncertain is: do voters need an anger "high" to go out and vote for a candidate?
2
What does he depend on? On the habit of old Dems to vote for Dem? it may be not enough now, as it was not enough in 2016. What does he stands for?
My expensive for profit insurance almost killed me. My elder friends ration their meds if they want to eat 3 meals. In January I received two GoFundMe requests to help pay medical bills. They won’t be the last. Yesterday a mother at CVS gasped and left the medicine for her sick child on the counter. I have done the same.
I’m angry.
1
Trump's ascendancy has demonstrated that U.S. elections have jumped the shark from identifying and elevating the smartest, most highly qualified person to whoever can generate the most clicks, whoever excites the media and the voters. The 2016 election was, essentially, a sideshow with the media happily playing the barker that gets the crowds fired up. Does anyone really think Uncle Joe here is going to generate the excitement needed to attract disaffected Dems or those independents-- by far, the largest voting block in the country -- who aren't racist nut-cases, but truly though Trump might bring change to a system they had been left out of? And who, BTW, hated HRC with a white-hot passion, so what other choice did they have? My reaction to Trump's election was "I'm not happy but I'm not surprised" and I've got the queasy feeling I'll be pulling that one out again come November.
3
If Biden wins there will be no practical difference for the people of the US between him and Trump getting another 4 years.
4
Joe Biden, to this 40-something hard-core Democrat, is an extremely underwhelming candidate.
And, I can do more push ups than him.
12
It is well established that college students who tend to support Bernie are left of the general electorate and, history tells us, a good deal left to where they themselves will be once they earn their degree and get more experience with life. More experienced people know that from their own lives and tolerate the views of college students, but college students do not elect presidents because they lack a lot of experience with life.
2
@David I am with you, David. The thing is that my college-age daughter and her cohorts, inexperienced as they may be, strongly - probably even desperately - feel that their generation simply cannot wait another four or perhaps even eight years before the US takes drastic action on climate change. They want the most dramatic change they can get. And that, right now, is Bernie Sanders.
Personally, I am not sure what to tell my daughter. We both have valid points. I am probably right in saying that Bernie would too decisive a figure - much like Trump, but for different, much more benign reasons - to get much done as President, including action on climate change, which will require buy-in from all of the major players. And she's probably right in arguing that anything less than immediate, drastic change is insufficient to address climate change.
Since I will only be around for so much longer and she has her whole life ahead of her, I am inclined to say that, maybe, just maybe, we, the older generation, should step out of the way and let the younger generations take a stab at it. Sure, there'll be failures along their way, but at least they will be their own failures, not ours. People learn much better from their own failures.
7
@David I was more centrist in my youth. Even voted for many Republicans. I've been fortunate, financially speaking, but as I "got more experience in life", I began to see that the system wasn't working as well for many people as it had for me. More and more people are being left behind. The game is rigged. As I gain more experience in life, I move farther left.
5
@David
Obama won in a landslide (which he needed because he won against DNC fav Clinton) how'd he do it?
He had the youth vote for one thing
And when they say youth vote, they mean people under 40.
2
In these comments, I see a lot of political fantasy. No, Biden is not corrupt; if he had been, there would have been a vast library of WaPo stories about it. I get it that Biden has voted for a lot of bills that today’s very progressive Democrats do not like. But if we apply retroactive purity tests to every Democrat, we’ll get nowhere. Biden was a mainstream Democrat in the early stages of his career; in fact, he was more progressive than many. He and his Democratic contemporaries were laboring in the political trenches long before a lot of his twenty-first century detractors were even born. I get it that a lot of today’s progressives don’t like the Democrats who lived and worked back in the twentieth century, but they should at least try to see where they were coming from.
And about Biden as a candidate: I really liked Obama, and I would vote for him again if I could. But this time, I want a candidate who doesn’t require on-the-job training in the White House.
24
“Very progressive”? We investing our tax dollars in our health care is “very progressive “? Imposing a small tax on Wall Street transactions to ensure that all young people get a start in life with free community college or vocational education is “very progressive “?
God forbid Americans have what citizens of every other first world nation have had for decades. But spending trillions on a bloated military industrial complex while homeless line the streets and children are hungry, that’s just fine.
1
@Constance Warner
BIden was to the right of most democrats, not early in his career, but throughout his career.
This is not a purity test! Your life, at 77 is comprised of what you have made of it.
2
Was he more progressive? Because he, definitely, does not press this point. He seems to think that pleasing the racists as Eastland is more his forte.
In some sense, the whole election will be down to AZ, WI, MI and two Congressional districts. We do not need motivational candidates to inspire us to oust the Goodfeathers, we need someone who will not scare away too many swing state voters.
There is a good chance Klobuchar would do better than Biden in the swing states and have more energy for the presidency, but there is little chance she could beat Bernie et al. in the primaries.
We are not tasked with finding the best president among 300 million people, we are tasked with finding someone who can be competent, forward-looking and ethical and stay that way while they actually win an election.
16
People. We've got bigger problems facing us now than bashing Joe Biden.
Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate have just given Donald Trump the license to do anything he wants and get away with it -- even if that means going against the U.S. Constitution and setting a precedent for any president to do the exact same thing further down the road.
If Democrats don't get it together instead of taking aim at one another, the fate and future of this country will suffer as much as millions of Americans are already suffering because the jobs haven't come back, the economy is slowing down, Food Stamps and government assistance programs are on the chopping block, and the environment is under threat just like our national security.
At this point, good enough is better than what we have now.
For it to get better, we all have to be on board -- no matter who we vote for.
And we're not there yet.
36
@N. Smith
Agree.
And we may to make it to November because this president and his lackey colleagues in the Senate are undermining our democracy at every turn.
Nonetheless, this is a primary.
We need everyone to take a chill and a comfortable old car that moves down a familiar highway at the speed limit is just what the doctors have ordered.
23
@Mad Moderate
That will not generate the voter turnout needed to defeat Donald Trump. People are scared to take a risk. That's not going to work when the times demand a change to the status quo. There is a real risk here that Democrats won't win because too many people are afraid to lose.
1
@Mad Moderate God no. We can't chill right now. Rome is burning. We need someone with a big, young brain who can stay up all night reading and strategizing how to fix the domestic and global crises created by Trump and his sycophants. I'm not religious and I don't like it when candidates quote scripture, but in Buttigieg's case, I do appreciate the fact that he is well read and educated on so called Christian values as these values have been twisted and distorted to serve the money grubbing GOP. We really do not need "comfy" right now. We need someone who is utterly unstoppable, fresh and ready to do battle. Jo Biden is only running for President because of his ego. If he really cared about our country, truly cared, he would campaign for someone who has energy, intellect and integrity. Jo has zero energy. It's cringeworthy to watch him talk.
We already had Joe Biden as a candidate, but his name then was Clinton, and he lost. Many, many of us predicted his/her loss then, but we were drowned out by the same voices cheering him/her on today. The 2016 election was primarily a rejection of the status quo in Washington, something Biden/Clinton can't even pretend to want.
Trump is playing from a position of weakness -- he lost the popular vote by a very wide margin, and hasn't picked up single vote since 2016 (while losing many).
Biden is the only Dem candidate whose history of corporate pandering makes Trump a potential winner. The Establishment was rejected in 2016; I can't imagine why anyone paying attention thinks that it can win today.
78
@Michael-in-Vegas "Trump is playing from a position of weakness -- he lost the popular vote by a very wide margin, and hasn't picked up single vote since 2016 (while losing many)."
Actually, Hillary's excess over Trump came entirely from California (which does not insist on an ID to vote). Over the other 49 states, Trump received 400,000 more votes than Hillary did.
1
@Michael-in-Vegas Biden is not the same as Clinton. While not perfect, he’s a decent, honest, and compassionate person. Sanders and his socialist ‘federal jobs guarantee’ will not survive a general election.
5
@Michael-in-Vegas Well, Biden is not Clinton. For starters he is a man, not a woman. Whether we like it or not, it is much, much harder for a woman to ascend to the presidency. Just look at what is happening to Warren right now. What's more, Clinton failed to attract enough voters only in a handful of Midwestern states, states in which Biden polls very well (though he's trailing Sanders in Iowa). And let's not forget that Clinton won the popular vote - by three million votes. This is not a rejection of the Democratic establishment.
If there was any rejection of the establishment in 2016, it was the election of Donald Trump. Republican voters by a wide margin chose to throw their support behind a billionaire populist running on white nationalism. And it is difficult to see whether the Republican will be able to nominate a more moderate candidate again in the foreseeable future.
To avoid the same fate, Democrats need to resist to swing too far to the left. They need to go with the candidate who has the best chance both to win against Trump AND to begin to unite the country. Without some regained sense of unity, we will get nothing done and will continue to drift aimlessly while Washington is bogged down in political gridlock and the right and left are flaming each other online.
4
In short: no.
The problematic bitter exchanges with some voters, the struggle to finish thoughts, the lack of an agenda, the baggage (not in the least Hunter), ... there are just too many issues with him.
82
@Fred Not to mention that looming coup de grace: Attacks on the election from the Russians.
Centrists Democrats are what brought us Trump in the first place. The Dems abandoned the working class. Maybe it’s time for a third party.
30
@Zejee
I agree, one thing this presidential campaign has shown is that moderate and progressive need to go their separate ways. The Democratic Party tent is too big to accommodate both points of view and still have a cohesive focus.
3
@Zejee I agree it must be time for a third party, because I've been hearing that for over 60 years.
@Zejee The 3rd party brought us Trump. Thanks Jill.
1
A centrist can't win. Obama was a centrist after campaigning on "hope and change". He did nothing but put the system back together at taxpayer's expense and he didn't even have the good grace to dump Bush's tax cuts that funded the Iraq war. People are hurting. Going back to normal won't cut it.
33
@Pig2
"A centrist can't win."
Obama won twice, and so did Clinton. Understanding politics is not your superpower.
@Pig2 Obama won twice. Hillary also won. I’m all for universal health insurance, public education and unions but let’s get real. The country is further right than I am.
He's 77.
Whom does he plan to choose as his Vice Presidential candidate?
4
I suggest Senator Warren
Color me cynical, but I don’t know how a good moderate candidate like Biden with a lifelong dedication to workers can win with a so called ‘leftist progressive’ motivated base spouting labels and buzzwords they don’t even know the meaning of. I had been there myself once way back in the day proclaiming the mantras of Bakunin and Kropotkin with a certain zeal until I spent a year or two studying the Greek philosophers. Just saying.
16
If you like a salesman, vote for Trump. If you like a debater, vote for Ted Cruz. If you want ideological purity, vote for Sanders or Warren. If you want someone who can bring together an all-ticket winning coalition of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans with a conscience, vote for Biden, stutter and all. The evidence of 2018 is clear.
35
@Bruce - Sorry but I already voted for Biden/Obama twice and have never felt more deceived in my life. Still waiting for Gitmo to close, still waiting for the war in Afghanistan to end.
And Biden wants to reach across the aisle and work with Graham, McConnell, et. al.
The fact that I have yet to hear Obama or Clinton endorse Biden speaks volumes. Make any excuses you want for them but when your own administration isn't jumping up and down over your candidacy, neither will I.
8
@Bruce
No way!
At this point in the horror story that is the Trump presidency, I will vote for anyone the Democratic party sees fit to run.
So will a great many of my friends.
31
@dog lover I will, too, and so will my friends. But we're people of a certain age, who realize that a second choice is also acceptable and sometimes even turns out to be the best choice. Anybody ever go to their "second-choice" college and spent four happy years there? But I heard (haven't verified) that there was a poll that showed that many Bernie voters would NOT vote for the Democratic candidate if it isn't Bernie. That killed us last time and it could do the same thing this time, unless, of course, he's the nominee.
3
The fact that the Republicans and Trump have agreed that Biden must be impugned even if it means ignoring the Constitution so another candidate will be nominated, is all voters need to know about Biden.
31
Joe's dad had it right. But now it's Joe who we can't compare to the Almighty (be it Sanders or Warren or Buttigieg or any other deified candidate). Instead, if we're smart, we'll compare him to the alternative. The one in November. The "unimpeachable" one.
14
In 1988, Biden ran for President & got nowhere. He had to leave the race when it came out that he had plagiarized British politician’s speech.
In 2008, he dropped out after finishing 5th in Iowa.
His habit of hugging and sniffing women is disturbing to say the least.
Never eloquent, he now shows signs of aging in his confused, rambling anecdotes. When trying to comfort the nation after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, he sent sympathy to the people of Houston & Michigan.
In short, I cannot imagine a worse candidate to take on Trump. I support Sanders and then Warren; Biden would be my last choice.
(From NYTimes biased coverage, you might assume I’m a Millennial; I am a 67 year old retired teacher.)
55
@Oh Please Let's see when or if Trump ever answers spontaneous questions at a press conference (!). And Trump and women - really?
@Oh Please
Same. It also freaks me out that Biden lies pathologically. There's a NY Times story about him losing in 1988 because he kept lying about being involved int he civil rights movement. Even his staff was begging him to stop telling that lie (he had also said in an interview he had never been part of it-- it seems to depend on who he is talking to). Then last week in a black church he starts bragging about marching in the civil rights movement. He is liberal Trump.
1
Biden voted for the Iraq war. That says it all for me. When I think of all the dead and injured soldiers, women and children as a result of this disaster, I will never change my mind. Biden had an obligation to search the truth before voting.
28
So maybe he will win. But he moved down in my list of presidential possibilities with his attack on Sanders for not being a Democrat. And no, it's not a partisan thing for me. It's a fairness thing.
Why do the Democrats allow Sanders entrée into the election? Simple: He is strong enough to dilute the vote for Democrats if he runs as an Independent. But if they are going to do that, there should be no dirty tricks of the sort the Democratic National Party used to hurt his campaign in 2016. If he has entrée, he should be treated with the same respect as every other candidate.
I frankly don't care what party he is from. At this point, our priority should be saving our country, and it is extremely disappointing that Joe Biden is willing to put party above that goal. And Democrats would be fools not to work with Sanders if he is the people's choice. We are on the Titanic at this point, and I think it unwise to be quibbling about the relative merits of the different champagnes we're drinking as we sink into the sea.
20
@NormaMcL But the DNC is now freaked out enough over a Bernie nomination to loosen debate rules, and allow Bloomberg an easy pass ...
2
@Norma McL
What dirty tricks by the DNC cost Bernie the nomination in 2016? The super delegates? Those were pledged to Clinton from the start and Bernie was well aware of that. But it never stopped him from whining about it and whipping his followers into a frenzy over the “unfairness”. Bernie is a curmudgeon whose views are as rigid now as they were 25 years ago. Take a look at his interviews with the NYT Editorial Board, both 2016 and a few weeks ago. Bernie isn’t interested in governing and has a foreign policy that is confusing and undisciplined. He could easily crash the economy, same as Warren. This isn’t the election for restructuring our government, we need to get rid of Trump, period. He won’t get my vote and neither will Warren.
1
These comments fill me with dread. If you ask enough democrats you eventually come to the conclusion that all of the candidates are terrible and no one can win. Well listen up people, maybe all the Democrats are indeed terrible but when compared to Trumpthey are all spectacular!! Each and every one. Do not forget who the baseline is, Trump.
We hardly need to seduce "moderates" or "independents". We just need a clean campaign and every bod has to vote for the nominee regardless of who they are. Everybody! The democrats need to maintain momentum through and beyond the primaries and get out and vote. If any of us fail to advocate for the party nominee, or pout, or protest, or stay home on election day we are sunk.
41
Biden is the only candidate resilient enough to combat Trump on the election trail and win. And beating Trump must be the primary goal of this election. I can't imagine how Sanders or Warren can possibly find a majority with the Socialist label attached to them; the word is toxic in the USA, especially when it is misapplied in Republican propaganda. A Biden/ Klobuchar ticket would provide a bit for every Democrat and offer a more compassionate healthcare strategy for all the population. Wherever Joe takes America it will a lot more appealing that Trumpworld...
29
@kevin sullivan - I can't possibly imagine how Biden can find a majority with Hunter attached to him.
And why would I want to go backwards to the Obama era? He lost the House, the Senate, Supreme Court nominees, judges, and thanks to his Sec of State, the White House. He is on record as having been at war longer than any other U.S. president making record weapons sales even though he campaigned to end the war in Afghanistan and close Gitmo. He bailed out the bankers after they ripped off Americans.
If you want to waste your vote on Biden, go ahead. But I'm not voting for the guy...period. Or Klobuchar. I would sooner vote for her SNL character. At least she is good to her own staff. But she assures the Times she will be better. And I'm sure Creepy Uncle Joe will keep his hands off the ladies.
This is - what? - Biden's 5th run for the nomination?
He'll soon be 80.
Trump's spent a year viciously attacking Biden & his son - who aren't criminals but certainly aren't paragons of ethics, candor & character.
Biden pushed through the 2005 bankruptcy bill that contained favors to the credit cards companies that privileged those companies getting paid in bankruptcy ahead of women - often elderly women & women w/ young children - who'd been awarded alimony to survive & take care of themselves & their families. Why was that good policy for credit card companies instead of families?
Biden's made a political career of always putting the interests of financial institutions ahead of human beings.
If Biden's the nominee, Trump will batter him. Biden has recently not shown the gumption, strategy or drive to withstand Trump's attacks on him, much less his vulnerable son.
Joe needs to go home & let someone who hasn't already run for the nomination 5 times have a chance to present the country w/ new, fresh ideas, not more of his same advantageous treatment of banks & corporations.
In Biden's case that would be foreign policy failures like the Iraq War & domestic disasters like his Crime Bill that unfairly incarcerated a generation of young African Americans & financial legislation that was a gift to banks & corporations - which have always been Biden's biggest supporters because Biden made a career out of protecting & privileging them over 4 decades of public life.
23
Biden is anything but safe. A relic from a different era, out of touch with the times, whose sole recommendation is that he can win. A guy who would most likely appeal not for what he can do, but for what he wouldn't be able to do. A guy with a tendency to overstate his accomplishments, who didn't have the presence of mind or inclination to tell his kid to stay away from the board of a corrupt Ukranian company. Who shows flashes of anger.
I find his charm inexplicable. To me it is complete vanity and arrogance to be running once again (third time's the charm?) - coasting on the nostalgia for Barack Obama, when there are so many other candidates.
16
Joe Biden will hurt the democrats' chances. he's nice, decent and well meaning but thoroughly mediocre. he doesn't have the awareness or self knowledge to withdraw. too bad.
16
I don’t get this “decency” thing with Biden.
The crime bill, the Iraq war, Anita Hill, “the Senator from MasterCard,” his aggressiveness when people ask questions he doesn’t like ... none of these things show “decency.”
I understand that some people seek a return to the old status quo. To them, I ask, have you considered that the status quo you’re nostalgic for was and is toxic for millions of Americans? That it helped put us where we are today?
It’s time for something different.
33
@Valerie He also came out first in support of gay marriage. you give him no credit for that?
@Valerie
You got something different, in the last election..
@Ellen Freilich, this is actually part of the problem with Republican-lite Democrats. They’re happy to throw out a few pieces of social justice so long as they don’t affect the tax status of corporations and the very wealthy.
I’m all for gay marriage. But I also recognize that it’s nowhere near enough, and it isn’t a cover for wanting to cut Social Security while feeding the prison system, etc.
Joe Biden is the man to beat Trump. Don’t forget that.
Run, Joe, run...you’ve got my vote.
18
Wow! You sound so convincing!
What's wrong with years of experience (as VP and senator), documented accomplishment both in the Senate and as VP, an ability to actually get things done and get laws passed (not just opine about them), and a proven ability to get votes, especially among people who voted for Trump in 2016?
WHY is that not "good enough"?
THE USA doesn't need some media-created "revolution"! We need an honest and competent president! And we desperately need someone who can actually get elected and rid us of the scourge of Trump and Trumpism! That's more than "good enough" for me!
79
@NYer
Looking at who appears electable now - the candidate with the most name recognition - is like giving a verdict before the defense rests.
I do not accept that Biden is the most electable candidate at all. And are you suggesting the other candidates aren't honest and competent?
The Democratic candidate is the leader of the Democratic party. What does it say about the party if the best they could come up with is yesterday's warmed up leftovers? It reminds me of when Mondale was selected to replace Paul Wellstone in Minnesota. Good on paper.
Biden should be using his considerable credibility with voters of a certain age to endorse a new crop of politicians. He had his turn.
14
@NYer The "Mighty US" lags behind almost every industrial nation in health care, education, infant and maternal mortality, wealth equity, housing, etc. So, YES, we are in need of a revolution.
8
@NYer, things he got done included a disastrous crime bill and the smothering of Anita Hill.
Things he helped get done were the invasion of Iraq on made-up non-evidence, predatory credit card practices, and the gutting of bankruptcy protections.
Add to that that he's nearly incoherent and that he gets disturbingly aggressive when people ask tough questions about his policies.
In short, he helped put us where we are. And no, that's not good enough for me.
5
Once again, the Democratic Establishment is going to follow the long-standing but failed tactic of trying to appeal to the voters on the basis of "We're not as bad as that awful other guy. but otherwise, we'll mostly maintain the status quo, so you big donors don't have anything to worry about."
It didn't work in 2000, 2004, or 2016.
Remember Al Gore agreeing with nearly everything G.W. Bush said and otherwise mouthing vague platitudes?
When I saw Kerry in person (twice), he seemed unenthusiastic about his own candidacy, and his website was downright wonkish and communicated nothing to the non-wonk.
Hillary Clinton was going to win in 2016 on the votes of Republican women and the cash of Wall Street donors.
As Dr. Phil (I'm not a fan of his except for this question) is known to say, "How's that workin' for ya?"
People want to vote FOR something, not just against the Republican.
What I want to see this time around is a primary process in which the DNC steps back and actually lets the voters decide.
I want to see the DNC prioritizing grassroots enthusiasm over Wall Street dollars.
54
@Pdxtran
Actually, I’d be happy with any of the Democratic candidates.
Voting against DT is the whole point.
8
@Kate
Actually it's NOT the whole point. It's not even half the point or a quarter of the point.
There’s this guy named Bernie Sanders...
Biden reminds me of the Elton John song "I'm Still Standing." He's not flashy or the shiny new thing, but may be exactly what America needs right now to defeat Trump and help unify the divided country.
Mike Bloomberg is rising in the polls, and one reason is Democrats are increasingly nervous that Trump will win if their nominee is too far left-of-center. I don't think most Democrats are interested in another billionaire in the White House, so don't count Biden out.
24
Biden has so much baggage from his far-too-long Washington career. We didn’t want him the last times he ran. I also have concerns about his faculties. Some remarks seem odd and out of touch. I don’t want want anyone in his late seventies including the independent (not Democrat) Sanders or the also aging billionaire, Bloomberg. I blame the DNC for keeping the lesser known candidates off the debate stage. There were some good candidates who, for lack of exposure, were forced out too early.
15
@Linda So easy to blame the DNC. Last time it rallied behind one incredibly qualified candidate and they were blamed for that. This time they came up with a plan to put lots of candidates through a debate process with their participation based on a credible (albeit modest) showing in polls and financial support from small contributors. But that's not good enough either. Some of the candidates who dropped out like Corey Booker and Kamala Harris did not suffer from lack of exposure. We are very familiar with them but their campaign didn't catch fire. There is only one nomination. At one point the field has to narrow from 16 or 14 people.
7
Today the DNC dropped the requirement for a threshold of individual donors. Special rule for Bloomberg?
"Unlike his more ideological rivals, 'movement' candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Biden does not have an easily identifiable 'why' associated with his endeavor-- other than the necessity of a Donald Trump defeat."
That seems to succinctly summarize the Biden candidacy. This article reinforces my suspicion that Biden is running as a favor to long-time donors who feel threatened by Sanders and Warren's defiance of the Shareholder Value Capitalism that has served them so well. Donors representing the medical-industrial complex feel particularly threatened by Sanders and Warren's calls for focusing on health care for patients rather than wealth care for CEOs and shareholders. For them, Biden offers a return to the "business as usual" that prevailed before Trump. That seems to be the "why" of Biden's campaign.
The problem is that voters justifiably feel that "business as usual" is failing them. The economy is leaving them further and further behind, and the political system is too busy catering to wealthy donors to care about anyone else. In 2016, Republicans rejected the "business as usual" offered by Jeb!, Cruz, and Rubio. Then a sufficient number of voters in the right places rejected the "business as usual" offered by Hillary Clinton.
We got Trump because voters don't want "business as usual." If Biden becomes another donors'-choice nominee who stands for a return to "business as usual," Trump's second term is all but guaranteed.
38
He has a great “why”
To be a sound and pragmatic steward of incremental and necessary improvements for our country. To ensure we cover far more people under healthcare instead of promising madness, and to bring the Trump defectors back into the Democratic tent.
14
@Ted We got Trump because he was a reality TV star. Americans watch their reality TV shows much more than they read their newspapers.
We got Trump because lazy Americans believe TV is reality. Wow! We are in BIG trouble!
I found this piece incredibly touching. Like many, I like Joe Biden, particularly his essential decency.
Of course, all the Democratic candidates have basic decency, but for them, and for Joe, it's a given, not a platform.
And yet, I still think like his announcement campaign ad, Joe personifies the question on every voter's mind, can he beat Donald Trump?
Is this the most important question? Frankly I think it is. Pushing grand policies that aren't popular among the key target audiences that will decide this election, is futile. I'd rather have a candidate that doesn't beat around the bush, whose main goal is to deny Trump a second term.
Nobody has a crystal ball, but I will say this: Biden may be "safe," Biden maybe "flawed," but when Biden says he knows what his most important issue is, I believe him.
64
The majority of Americans want and need Medicare for All. The majority of Americans can’t afford expensive for profit health care. The majority of Americans want and need free college education. The majority of Americans struggle to pay high interest student debt.
17
on my list, he's 3rd behind Sanders and Warren. Bloomberg may take his #3 spot.
Unlike 2016, we have real choices, though.
1
@ChristineMcM he’s also the only one that knows anything about foreign policy.
The real question is whether Biden would be able to deal with the twin crises of our times, global warming and extreme economic inequality. There is not much in his record to get me confidence that he could.
49
I like Joe Biden but it is not the time for a milquetoast centrist. And certainly not one with fantasies of turning the clock back several decades to when decorum prevailed and the parties could get along. It's an admirable wish but also a dangerous approach in the current climate. Just look at Obama, who had fantasies of Republican support throughout his first term. Look at how they treated him. And look at how they elected the original Birther to replace him. Sorry Joe, the world has passed you by. Probably for worse but it's still the case.
34
My two least favorites, Sanders and Biden, are leading in the polls. This fact contributes to myself and everyone I know feeling hopeless as the corrupt, insane figure of Trump looms.
Leave it to the Democrats to throw this election and anoint Trump a true King who does not have the threat of reelection to reign him in.
8
Nobody under 40 will vote for Biden. They simply won’t vote and will accept that Trump is already guaranteed a second term.
28
@Andy I am under 40 and have regular conversations about this with friends and peers and I can assure you that, at least with this sample, we will absolutely vote and vote for the Democratic nominee, whoever it is and how begrudgingly it might feel. Let's hope we are not a minority.
37
Of course we will!
He's not a stellar candidate. But if ends up becoming the Democratic nominee, those of us who believe Trump should not be president must do our damndest to get Biden elected. (His contenders for the nomination will all need to put everything they have behind him, as well.) And if someone else gets the 2020 Democratic nomination, then, in the same way, we all have to make sure that person gets elected. Period.
29
@Ess Yes, this is true. I am in my 50s, and would rather vote for any other dem candidate (except for GOP warrior princess Gabbard) than Biden. But, if he ends up being the nominee, I will stifle my gag reflex and vote for him. I will probably also cry a few tears of despair at our misogynistic racist dem voters that only want to elect an old centrist white guy, but if Trump is defeated, I will ultimately be OK with it.
9
What exactly is Biden going to do to reverse the trend lines, which have been trending for some time now, as Sanders constantly rises and Biden constantly falls? A friend of mine noted the huge optimism about our economy he saw in a poll today, assuming that would doom Sanders. Not so fast. Could be the classic sign of a market top, and any serious fall in stock prices will just help Sanders even more. The main thing people are missing about the rise of Bernie is the inconvenient truth that we are at the start of the largest generational power shift in American history. The past forty political years have been dominated by economically conservative Boomers, at first yuppies voting Reagan and Clinton, now geezers who simply are the Trump base. But Boomers are literally dying out at any ever increasing rate. Voters over 65 now are only 15% of the electorate. The next forty years will be dominated by the largest and most progressive generation of American voters in history, the Millennials, who now make up fully 30% of the electorate--double the Boomers. Bernie will ride this generational shift to victory over the very last Boomer next fall. And that will be just the beginning. Progressive Millennials will hold all the cards virtually as far as our eyes can see, especially because Bernie has neutered the rich donors by showing how to raise staggering amounts from the masses, if they love you. Sorry, dying Kochs and Trumps. You're finished.
22
As a 64 year old progressive, I pray that you are right.
Biden has no platform, nothing at all. Just a promise of “civility “. Well, for the millions of us living on and over the edge of poverty—that was brought about by politicians like Biden—that is absolutely inadequate.
I’m deeply disappointed with the failed “democracy “ in the US that has brought us to this point.
14
@Fred White
So if Bernie doesn’t get the nomination you’re going to do what to defeat Trump?
“In all likelihood, Biden told me, he would not be running if it were, say, President Mitt Romney seeking re-election this year.”
This should completely disqualify Biden as a candidate. Does he intend to communicate that all of his campaigning against Romney and his policies in 2012 was insincere? That he didn’t really care about the policy differences between Obama, his boss whom he now loves to name-check at every opportunity, and Romney the corporate raider?
Or perhaps he means that America would be safer in Romney’s hands than Trump’s. If so, how fallacious! No one who aspires to lead the party should promote the idea that America will ever be safe in GOP hands—spray-tanned or not.
Biden is a liability and no one has any enthusiasm about his campaign, only pragmatic calculation. This is a prescription for a repeat of 2016’s disaster. Like it or not, we need a bold campaigner with bold ideas who will deliver a victory so decisive that it overcomes gerrymandering, disenfranchisement and foreign interference. And that’s not Joe.
29
@sedanchair
"Or perhaps he means that America would be safer in Romney’s hands than Trump’s. If so, how fallacious! No one who aspires to lead the party should promote the idea that America will ever be safe in GOP hands—spray-tanned or not."
This is why Dems lose
8
@GMooG Why, because we acknowledge that Romney, a man who cowers before Trump, is no better than Trump?
It feels like Joe Biden is re-litigating the 2016 election, and we remember how that worked out. Though it does seem that Donald Trump hasn't gotten over it yet.
I don't think that a promise to return to a pre-Trump society will do anything other than give us another (or the same) Trump.
I'm also not convinced that anyone should base his/her vote on how someone else might be voting.
If Trump voters (rightly or wrongly) voted to overturn the system, can we now depend on voters to say, "no, we liked it the way it was?" Maybe they won't stay home this time, or maybe they will.
It's too bad that so many Americans resist changing their minds – as though it's a sign of weakness. We desperately need the kind of change offered by Sen. Warren, and it's disingenuous to pair her with Bernie when their approaches to government are quite different. Joe Biden's okay, and maybe he could beat Donald Trump, nut I think it would just be delaying the inevitable.
3
Biden is an old school neoliberal, centrist Democrat in the mold of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. In other words, he will never excite the base of the party and will never win the presidency. We nominate him at our own peril.
The country is hungry for change, measurable and meaningful change. Biden is not capable of this because he’s embraced the status quo since his first day on the job decades ago. Warren and Sanders have agitated for big, structural change throughout their political careers. We nominate one of them and we bring in a huge surge of new voters, reclaiming the White House and Senate. However this primary shakes out, I’m voting blue no matter who!
22
Biden has lost twice before in the primaries what makes anyone think things will be different. He brings nothing new to the table, just more status quo and a naive belief there are Republicans to work with. Just look at the impeachment trial. He is gaffe prone and has had Hunter Biden hung around his neck, fair or not. He will not excite the voters. He will soothe the old folks who are afraid of change. The majority who want change will go meh.
We need someone who can stir up the voters Sanders does, Warren does, Yang does, Buttigieg maybe. I view Biden as the way to lose the election to Trump. Bloomberg is a Republican no way he should get the nomination. Steyer I also like and Klobuchar is also more of the status quo. The world needs drastic change to limit the damage of climate change, to correct the over whelming wealth gap, the effects of automation, FINALLY provide healthcare for all, and also education.
The Republicans have nothing to offer 90% of Americans except fear, hate, mistrust and tax cuts for the rich.
13
In short, the reason to vote for this guy is because he can supposedly beat Trump. That worked well in 2016 when we had to hold our nose as we voted for Clinton. The question is will Biden generate excitement and turnout in key battleground states? His lazy musings of "they know me" aren't going to do it. Not to mention his Ukrainian political baggage and inability to win over undecided voters. Trump will have a field day with this charicature. Bernie on the other hand.....
15
"He doesn't want a revolution. He doesn't have a movement."
And therein lies the problem - he doesn't want or stand for anything, aside from the status quo and business as usual, that is.
24
I like Mike.
When I watch Biden I feel like I am watching a train wreck and I am not alone.
We need someone who can beat Trump.
Neither Biden nor Sanders, the self-proclaimed Socialist, will do that for sure.
Mike will.
As always, Mike will get it done.
10
Sanders can beat Trump because American families are struggling to afford expensive for profit health care and high interest student debt.
6
@Simon Sez Truthfully, I like him, too. He's not the ONLY candidate I like. I also like Warren. But Bloomberg is smart and sober, professional, a long-time, serious and generous philanthropist, a good mayor (stop and frisk did not begin with him), a huge relief after that nasty Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg was the one who ran NYC after 9-11. He's not always in your face. He just does the work. How well I could sleep at night if he were president. I could even turn off MSNBC!
@Simon Sez
Keep yelling "Socialist" over and over and over again. That's your real boy Trump's plan also.
"In all likelihood, [Biden] would not be running if it were, say, President Mitt Romney seeking re-election this year." That's exactly why I'm not voting for Biden in the primaries. He's only in the race because he feels like he needs to be, and to me, that's not a good reason to seek a leadership role. The worst bosses are those who seek management positions for the money rather than the job and that's how I see Biden right now. If he gets the nominee, I'll vote for him, but only for the same reason he's running. I just want Trump gone.
4
Nobody here seems to understand how the Electoral College is ALL THAT MATTERS in a presidential election--especially this one; not Iowa or what the younger, rarely voting generation does or what a more "exciting" candidate may offer. Joe is by far the best hope and the only candidate that can beat Trump with our lousy, insane, outdated electoral college system, so get behind him unless you want 4 more years of a souless, mindless, self-serving child ruling the country.
20
For Biden, that ‘younger generation’ consists of pretty much everyone under 50, so most of the Democratic caucus. He will lose badly.
11
Exactly.
If Biden is elected
Health Care will remain a for profit business in the U.S.
Peoples stagnant wages will remain largely unchanged.
Our homeless population will increase.
At least we will not be dealing with total absurdity though.
I would rather pressure Biden to implament left wing ideas than beat our heads against the wall with a monster like trump.
He will be a place holder until the next republican wins without the popular vote and is worse than trump,
7
Biden is a disastrous candidate.
Nobody has any enthusiasm for him.
Trump has a lot of enthusiasm behind him from Deploristan.
I'll vote for him if he's the Democratic nominee over Impeached Individual #1, but with zero enthusiasm.
Biden is about to finish third or fourth in Iowa.
Biden will finish tied for second, maybe third, in New Hampshire.
Biden is about to be TKOed out of this race.
It's over Joe......SO OVER.
70
@Socrates Modern Democrats don't work as the past has shown.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results" as Einstein said.
9
@Socrates
Your comments are always a great read. Keep it up. And in this case, as almost always, you nailed it.
1
@Socrates
The Democrats deserve to lose if they choose Biden or another bland, ineffectual neoliberal like Buttigieg. In that case they may as well be conceding victory to Donny. Those candidates represent the status quo of the Obama years and NO ONE wants a return to the status quo. The status quo is untenable and impossible for millions of people to live under. We should strive to improve American instead of going back to doing absolutely nothing like during the Obama presidency. People are sick of the establishment and they're going to get their anti-establishment fix from Donny if the Democratic nominee isn't interested in pushing the country forward.
If the Democrats nominate Biden, I will not vote for President, and I will encourage others to do the same.
9
@Louis Anthes
That's OK. Not everybody understands math, facts, and logic.
7
@Louis Anthes And we know how well that worked out in 2016!
5
Although I prefer Sanders and Warren, I will vote for Biden if he's the nominee.
2
Excepting Gabbard, I would rather have almost any other candidate be the nominee. Biden is the past. We need a future.
10
Joe Biden has never been the sharpest knife in the Washington drawer and age has not been kind. I am still trying to understand what people think he'll be able to accomplish when all those Republicans he prattles on about working with are now all part of the "Fat, Orange, Jim Jones Cult." Biden woulda, coulda, shoulda been a candidate in 2004, 2008, or 2016. He missed his window of opportunity and now the entire political environment has changed and it is too late for him.
5
We don't need a "good enough candidate" this time around
We need someone who can beat Donald Trump before the United States of America becomes a dictatorship. We are teetering on the edge now.
4
among the leaders, is the most balanced and sane.
sadly, his families mysterious sudden massive wealth gains while he was in the White House as VP will be an albatross.
Bloomberg is therefore the only electable choice. Intelligent, balanced, competent. We certainly need competence for a change.
2
Please remember folks this is all about 80,000 voters across 5 or 6 states that will decide if we have 4 more years of Trump. How about we talk about age, excitement, progressive policies and a new way forward starting in 2024...
4
A candidate who:
*Cares about Americans, individually and collectively.
*Has the broadest appeal among the Democratic field to the U.S electorate.
*Wishes to restore capable, bipartisan governance.
*Aims to repair America’s much-battered global standing.
*Is the most experienced of the candidates on national and foreign policy.
Sounds great to me.
Biden may not be perfect, but he’s still the one to beat for some excellent reasons.
53
Good article, and title summarizes it all: "He doesn’t want a revolution. He doesn’t have a movement." Uncle Joe offers very little and he is a tarnished candidate. He has way to many vulnerabilities and very little energy / dynamism to beat Trump in his own game.
This is very clear to many people, and with primary votes coming in, it will be finally clear to the media.
16
Biden's debate performances thus far and his negative interactions with voters should really make people pause and consider his viability as a general election candidate. He polls at or near the top now solely based on name recognition. His record on issues that matter to people today is abysmal. He is deeply entrenched in the DC establishment in a historical moment when voters still clearly want someone from outside that establishment. Practically any other candidate can be argued to be more electable.
85
Good lord. Joe Biden is a corrupt hack who has as much chance of being elected President as I do dunking a basketball on Shaq. The fact that the NY Times continues taking him seriously is abusing their hopeful readers. It's over people, get over it.
210
@j
Exactly correct. And speaking of "it's over," we saw today that once again the Democratic Party had no answer to the GOP's lockstep partisanship. No ace up the sleeve, nobody riding in at the last minute to save the day.
They couldn't beat Trump in 2016 and they couldn't beat him today, which doesn't bode well for 2020. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think so.
8
@j Lotta progressive blue state voters piping up here. Guess what. The people who will decide whether or not we get another 4 years of corruption, racism and environmental destruction are moderates who live in so-called "fly-over" country. Those people will not vote for Sanders. Biden is a comfortable old shoe that they will choose over Trump.
If you want a progressive agenda put Biden on top and push progressive ideas underneath him. Get AOC clones to win in Colorado, Florida and Western Pennsylvania. Start there.
4
@j Trump’s corrupt scheme to dig up dirt on Joe Biden made it clear that he fears Biden as his opponent. We have one job in this election and it is to rid ourselves of a Trump, the master of corruption. Democrats know that.
3
There’s a new video of Joe Biden circulating the internet this evening (1/29) that shows a respectful white male asking Biden about climate change and pipelines.
Biden said “don’t vote for me” and responded in a belligerent manner, putting his hands on the man repeatedly, even though the man in no way responded with any hostility.
Now I don’t know Biden, maybe he has always been a violent, aggressive bully, but his behavior seemed so incredibly bizarre to me that I wonder if cognitive decline could possibly provide some insight into such inexplicable behavior.
I’m not a doctor, but this is absolutely no one’s idea of acceptable behavior.
And Biden had to have known that there would be cameras recording the entire episode.
Mr. Biden is not well. And if he keeps up the man handling, one of these days some guy might just punch him in the face.
Biden might need some medical attention to make sure he’s able to make the necessary neuronal connections needed for basic functioning.
92
@Annie Gramson Hill
My thoughts exactly after seeing that shocking clip. Why is Biden running if he can't take simple questions/concerns/contradictory thoughts from voters? His belligerent responses say a lot on so many levels. All the people supporting him need to question themselves. Seriously.
53
@Annie Gramson Hill That video sounds troubling, but can you be sure it is real and unedited?
19
@DB,
Fair point. I don’t know anything anymore and I wasn’t actually there.
But you can hear his female handlers in the background trying to get Mr. Biden moving, with a polite sense of urgency like they had seen this scene before.
The USA has fallen so far down the rabbit hole that I can only think of the Cheshire Cat:
“We’re all mad here.”
32
Nominate Biden at your own peril, fellow Democrats. Just don't act shocked and surprised when yet another milquetoast, status quo centrist loses an election.
Biden has consistently polled in the single digits with young people in poll after poll. He generates no excitement at all. There is never going to be another "safe" election where people think they can nominate a true progressive. If you want another Trump to come along, if you want millions of people to persist in poverty and without healthcare, then by all means, vote for Biden and play it safe. Pretend Trump just fell out of the sky.
Or maybe we take a calculated risk and nominate a true progressive. Maybe we say the status quo is not working for millions and that we need to be bold for once. That in order to build the country we want, we need to have some courage for once. You don't achieve great things by electing someone like Biden. You don't fix the most persistent and fundamental issues in our society by continuing with the same old, tried and true, status quo that we have had the last few decades. It's time to be brave and shoot for the moon. There is only one candidate who can not only win the election, but unite the country and drive our nation into the future: Bernie Sanders.
181
@BReed
McGovern loses fifty years ago, and progressives haven't gotten the nomination since. Meanwhile, three of the last four milquetoast moderate Democratic nominees have lost elections the Democrats should have won, and the party is STILL bent on nominating a milquetoast moderate. It's almost as if they'd rather lose than let a progressive win.
31
@Benjamin Hinkley : Right, and the 1972 election was a matter of two generations (my parents' and grandparents' generations) trying to recreate the placid 1950s with Nixon versus my generation trying to stop the Vietnam War with McGovern.
It was an era before the oil embargo caused frightening inflation, before Reaganomics, before the devastation of America's farming communities, before skyrocketing health care costs, before the labor unions were crippled, before massive numbers of jobs were exported to low-wage countries. Middle America was doing pretty well economically.
It was a different America, and we don't live there anymore.
17
@BReed I’m not concerned that Biden polls low among young people: in 2012, the re-election year of Obama - the young people’s candidate - voters aged 18-29 represented only 19% of the electorate, while Baby Boomers represented 38%. Only 46% of Millennials voted, as compared to 72% of the Silent Generation (ages 71+). If we want to win, we need to appeal to actual voters, and so far, that’s not young people.
Factually, the future will always be there to be embraced and enhanced; we can’t escape the passage of the years. These times demand a softer, more deft touch to ease us out of dystopia and back to a present that will lead us to a future we’ll want to live in.
3
Joe Biden is the amiable face of the oligarchy who provides an affable cover for our illegal wars and the destruction of our fellow citizens.
Nixon started the drug war, but Reagan was looking to cut the budget.
It was Biden who ramped up the drug war, having decided Democrats were losing votes for being soft on crime.
“The purpose of incarceration is punishment, not rehabilitation, and you don’t have to be some kind of racist, so-called redneck to say that.”
No, Joe, you don’t have to be a racist, so-called redneck, but you do have to be a back-slapping good ol’ boy.
In 1994, Biden co-sponsored the Clinton Crime Bill, and today the USA proudly boasts the highest incarceration rate in the world, at a cost of 80 billion annually.
The prison industrial complex supports millions of people in a vast bureaucracy or with lucrative government contracts.
They require a steady stream of new prisoners.
Biden recently promised not to legalize marijuana.
But Biden’s own son is a well-documented crack cocaine user who has never been incarcerated because laws don’t apply to the elites.
The hypocrisy is so vile.
Why don’t the Democrats understand that?
145
@Annie Gramson Hill
Why don't the Democratic politicians understand their own hypocrisy? “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” --Upton Sinclair
19
@Annie Gramson Hill
They either aren't aware of that or they don't care. Biden is for all intents and purposes a "conservative" center-right politician. That's what he and most mainstream Democrats would be considered in the rest of the world, whereas the Republicans are far-right reactionaries in the vein of UKIP or the National Front. Biden is purely interested in sustaining what he perceives as the "good' aspects of the status quo, even when the status quo means family separation, police brutality, and people going bankrupt from health insurance costs (it's not like his life is directly affected by any of those issues, given that he's rich and powerful). He is NOT interested in pushing for meaningful reform and neither are of any of these weak, uninspiring neoliberal Democrats that are rightfully treated with derision by the genral public. Biden is an awful person. He's a worthless hypocrite and racist who's more beholden to corporate money than the tangible needs of his constituents.
2
@Annie Gramson Hill
Have you ever been in the Bronx, Brook Avenue, in 1994 and the several years preceding when the annual murder rate in NYC exceeded 2200? If the answer is no, you have no idea what you are talking about.
1
The two most likely to win the Dem nominee status are Biden and Sanders. Who is more likely to beat Trump? Biden.
Sanders is older and more left wing. Do we want four years of a cranky old guy who yells a lot? I do not.
Biden is decent and will not be so impulsive and dishonest as Trump. Good enough for me.
75
@Michael
Who was the last candidate who won by being “good enough”?
If the younger generations are uninspired, no one is volunteering for his campaign nobody’s donating to his campaign who isn’t old or rich do you not see a recipe for disaster?
16
@Michael
"Good enough for me": the inspiring rallying cry that brought the Democrats boundless electoral success in 1984, 1988, 2000, 2004, and 2016!
6
My family needs Medicare for All, free community college education, living wage jobs, family leave, and action on climate change. We won’t vote for Biden.
"The longer I've been around, the less that appeals to me" Biden said about the day to day job of being president.
Then why in the world is he running?
It certainly doesn't seem to be because of any policies he's eager to implement.
This article describes a man who seems tired, who's forcing it, who's still deeply & openly affected by the death of his son 3 years ago. The fact that he brings up Beau's death so often & asks the audience if they've lost anyone seems a bizarre way to run a presidential campaign. It's like Biden's running to be Consoler in Chief - which isn't a practical plan to defeat Donald Trump. Jerk that Trump is, he's also vivid, animated, combative & hungers to remain president in a way I don't see Biden feeling at any point in the future.
Maybe that anecdote about Biden & Jill just not wanting to get out of bed is the objective correlative in this story. Maybe Joe Biden is running for president because it gives him a meaningful purpose - and without it he may be exhausted & without a rudder.
So this campaign is what he has. Remember Obama said to Biden last year "Joe, you don't have to do this." Which to me sort of defines the Biden campaign. There's no joy or energy there, nothing that seems to propel him forward - except meeting other grieving people.
Perhaps its as simple as Biden needing a purpose. And that makes Joe Biden sympathetic.
But it also explains the lack of excitement and enthusiasm that surrounds this venture.
34
Leibovich is one of the very best political observers we have. In several ways this is an almost prefect article -- identifying where Biden has advantages, how he communicates with voters, where his centers of personal and political gravity are located. But the Biden family has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, lobbying payouts, and even cash and securities (from Burisma and from China's BHR, respectively) that all were generated at times when Joe Biden had public-service responsibility to the areas of activity providing enrichment to his family. This may be 100% legal, but it's a powerful reason not to make the Biden family the banner-carrying leaders for the Democratic Party. If Joe Biden is blind to the appearance of corruption in his own family, how can he possibly have a clear vision of how to serve the American people? And if he clearly sees his family's corruption and endorses it, he's a malefactor, not a public servant. Absolutely none of this argument makes Trump more attractive. But, compared with other "old guys" like Sanders and Bloomberg, Biden as a nominee would be a travesty. They have been authentic public servants. Let's not veer over to running a known trough-feeder at the top of the ticket.
22
Biden doesn't inspire passion.
His appeal is like a pair of old shoes: familiar and maybe comfortable.
But at some point the old shoes outlive their usefulness and you move on.
He has been around too long and is running on fumes at present. I find him painful to watch, like an old man trying desperately to be cool when he is not.
Bloomberg shows that one can be older ( 77) and very alive. He has more actual experience getting things done than any of the current Dem contenders.
Sanders, a man who wants us to embrace his Socialist vision, what he calls a Revolution, is a disaster in the making.
He cannot and will not win the mid west states and a national election. He is so far left that he makes Castro, whom he loudly supported ( attention Florida voters who are Hispanic and Cuban) look like George Washington.
As the alternatives to the Sanders disaster fade, Bloomberg looks better and better.
Forget Biden.
Think Bloomberg.
He will destroy Trump and help lead us into retaking our country from the Republicans.
Mike will get it done.
16
Bloomberg is a uniquely terrible candidate. He combines right wing policies that base Democrats don't like and the elitist moral scolding that base republicans don't like. No amount of ad buying is going to get people to forget all that.
23
@Ian I'm a liberal lifelong democrat and I also prefer Mike Bloomberg...he is successful, he is smart, he is a philanthropist, he is, in effect, everything that Trump is not. He is the man to beat Trump, which is, let's be honest, the only criteria that really matters. Sanders can't do it. Warren can't do it. We must nominate someone who can and will stand toe to toe with Trump and make the case. That's Mike.
12
@Simon Sez
I do like Bloomberg and I also like Biden. I could vote for either one. The only one I could not support is Sanders.
But everyone else I could.
5
This article has a strange tone, with Joe Biden sitting in a car in the cold, his eyes glassy. Decent guy, but an empty husk in the Iowa winter... This is who you want facing Trump - a President bolstered by a strong economy and rabid supporters?
51
@Scott90929
One of Donny's biggest strengths is his brash and bawdy charisma. We don't find it charming but his casual, laid-back way of speaking really gets people's attention and inspires devotion. A lot of people are enamored with his personality. Nominating a personality-devoid suit like Biden or Buttigieg would be tantamount to presenting a sacrificial goat for Donny to chow down on. Donny will be picking Biden's bones out of his teeth after he wins the election.
Biden or Bloomberg? Sanders or Warren? Can't even pick A progressive or A Centrist let alone reconcile between the Progressive and Centrists parts of your party. Bloodbath in the making for Impeachment obsessed democrats. Your candidates are getting almost no sunlight with all the Impeachment hysteria taking it away from them.
8
@GregP
Make your decision easy and vote for the incumbent. The Trump-McConnell duumviri are giving us good results.
Let’s get real! Electing a President who is over 70 years old carries with it the real risk of their dying or becoming incapacitated early in office. This is not a reason to not vote for them as I strongly support Bernie Sanders; BUT, it is a reason to hold them accountable early for the selection of their running mate. There is a much higher chance that the VP will ascend to the Presidency early. This in effect requires that you choose both your over 70 year old Presidential candidate and their VP by the same criteria that they both would be almost your equal choice for President.
This consideration would require a change in the current primary process to ask/require that an over 70 year old candidate present their short list of running mate prospects.
For example, I would not support Bernie if his running mate short list included AOC or Tulsi, people that I would never want to be President today, but would support Warren or maybe Penn Gov Tom Wolf. VP in this circumstance would no longer be perceived as a growth opportunity. Andrew Johnson was a horrendous choice for VP by Lincoln. Choose the VP as insurance against assassination. Choose someone who would wholly support your platform and priorities. Forget about balancing out your ticket to create broader appeal. Following the above new criteria, Joe Lieberman was a terrible choice by Al Gore. Your thoughts?
5
@Brighteyed So glad to learn you "wouldn't support" Sanders if he chose AOC as a running mate. Seeing as how she is Constitutionally prohibited from running for Vice-President, that is good to know.
8
@Brighteyed
If we believe press reports, Biden has twice tried to prop up his campaign by trying to get a female candidate to throw in with him right away and run as a pre-assembled ticket. First he wanted it to be Stacey Abrams - who refused. Recently the Biden campaign tried to recruit Amy Klobuchar - who also said no.
This is a desperate attempt to gin up some interest in Biden by recruiting young - or younger - women because Biden's real base is old men and older African Americans. Biden is also reportedly courting an endorsement from Kamala Harris - who has never seemed to like Joe Biden much.
Biden has literally no support from people under 40. That's because his politics are regressive and personally he's a snooze.
Biden's campaign seems well aware Biden is unexciting and needs to add someone to the ticket right now to spice it up now before he's the nominee.
That says to me it's time to drop out.
11
To beat Trump we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just need a reasonable candidate who can right the ship. Biden can do that. Our party is being destroyed by the far left and the damage is severe. I suspect that faction will have to put Bernie up as the nominee. He will lose, of course, and then maybe by 2024 we can roll up our sleeves and get to work. Or we can just do it the easy way, with Biden.
45
@Sasha Stone
What’s the centrists don’t get is that things are so bad for the working class and people under 40 that we’re largely OK with destroying and rebuilding the Democratic Party to make it a true left-wing party.
Boomer centrists should be independents anyway. The Democratic Party has gotten away from its roots as a party of the working class. Both JFK and MLK supported single payer. Something to media often conveniently forgets.
8
@Sasha Stone
Hillary Clinton was a reasonable candidate. You're fooling yourself if you think that's enough to beat Trump.
5
There is no far left. But there are progressives and the Democratic Party could not win a single election without their votes.
6
For those worried about electability, please read the following essay. It is well-written and well-researched. It makes the case for Bernie Sanders as the strongest candidate to win against Trump in the general election: https://medium.com/@brettclt/bernie-sanders-is-the-most-electable-candidate-f9edfed715cf
Two key points from the essay:
1) Only 35% of self-identified moderates hold centrist positions on both fiscal and social policy. Many people identify as moderate because they hold both left-wing and right-wing views. Thus, they don't fit neatly into one political party.
2) Due to increased polarization, the American electorate looks less like a bell curve and more like the letter M today. Thus, more votes can be gained by moving toward a far-left or far-right position than toward the center.
Joe Biden seems like a kind person. I wish he had run in 2016. But the electorate is always changing. Gens X, Y & Z now represent over 60% of eligible voters. They outvoted Boomers & Silents in both 2016 and 2018. I don't think Joe has the best chance in 2020, and I agree with many of his supporters that we really need to get rid of Trump.
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I still think he's too old and he's got too much experience in politics for me to trust him. And, I don't believe we agree on immigration.
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Joe is my Choice, as a lifelong Democrat and Feminist. Split the difference, Uncle Joe. Ask and Beg Warren to be your VP. I’m old enough and wise enough to realize there are far too many people that will never, ever VOTE for a Woman as President. ANY Woman. So, let’s start as the VP.
As for Bernie and his Bros, I’m not surprised by them, at all. It’s the epitome of their white Male privilege. They will not be as personally damaged, scorned and controlled by Trump and his Collaborators as Women and Minorities. AT ALL. They will survive, so why not go for broke, then refuse to VOTE for the Nominee. Shame on them. Again.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
Such a laughably bad faith attack. A plurality of Bernie's support comes from women and he has the highest favorability among POC voters. But I guess in your estimation Joe Biden (the man who eulogized notorious racists James Eastland and Strom Thurmond) is not the epitome of "white male privilege".
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@Phyliss Dalmatian This just reeks of privilege and obliviousness. Bernie is polling first with Latinos and the least educated/those making the least amount of money. People who have gone bankrupt from our healthcare system or are living in poverty due to the status quo that Biden has perpetuated certainly do not love to hear you dismiss their frustrations with this country from your perch. Biden voted for the Iraq War and stripped bankruptcy protections from the most vulnerable. He is a friend of the elite and the affluent, not the common person. Many people will not survive actually unless we have real change in this country.
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Three weeks ago, I would have said, “nope! Biden needs a much younger woman of color, maybe Harris.” Now I’m thinking this would maybe be a good idea. I’m a Warren supporter, but after all the craziness coming from the Sanders campaign, I’d way rather have Biden than Bernie. BTW, I think if Harris does endorse Biden, she’s putting herself out there for VP.
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This is anecdotal, but I've knocked hundreds of doors in Iowa during this cycle and have met very, very few Biden supporters. Astonishingly few. Where are the polling numbers coming from?
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@Sarah
Because the polls are fake and are generated by asking helpful questions to voters by partisan outfits looking to nudge the public along to their desired choice.
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@Sarah - Did you check the nursing homes? Old people seem to like him. But a Democrat can't win without youth support and turnout, and Biden has no appeal there.
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@Sarah
Do you knock on doors randomly, or are they from a list of Bernie $27 donors?
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There's a certain amount of romantic idealism in Vice President Biden's campaign. As an elder statesman who's spent a life in service to his country he could enjoy retirement on the golf course and the speaking circuit. Instead, he's running one last campaign to save America from Donald Trump and Democrats from themselves.
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Trump will eat any of the Democratic candidates as a light snack. Besides the Dems being just plain dull or clearly wacky, we will have Trump's energy, the enthusiasm of his followers, the exceptional organization of his campaign, his brilliant campaign manager, his ability to entertain, his ability to freeze-frame and define opponents, a track record of success, a huge campaign war chest and an excellent economy in a country mostly at peace.The "crazy" Trump years have almost entirely to do with the media and Democrats for more than two years pushing a phony narrative of RUSSIAN COLLUSION pursued unsuccessfully by a Special Counsel who we know from his own testimony was not up to the task. Now we have an even crazier impeachment attempt that will end in failure, even if it goes on for another 2-3 months, as it now might. While it does Trump will go on being presidential while Democrats repeat the same tired story they just got finished reciting for 3 days, which has moved no one. Biden, if he wins the nomination, may only be the Democratic candidate who loses to Trump by less than the others.
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Possibly the greatest enthusiasm deficit in political history. He's the none-of-the-above made flesh.
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Bravo, Frunobulax ~
Your “none-of-the-above made flesh” gets my vote!
Cheers!
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"Biden asks for a show of hands from anyone who has lost a loved one to cancer — or in some cases, he asks about parents who have lost children."
The only thing Biden puts as much energy into as making sure voters hear about his son the cancer victim (and then hearing about it again and again) is his making sure that any sort of discussion about the antics of his other son - the sociopath - is never discussed anywhere by anybody.
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@mpound
If he cared half as much as he claims to, maybe he'd be more interested in pursuing meaningful healthcare reform. After all, getting cancer treated costs an awful lot if you're not a multi-millionaire like Biden.
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When I had cancer my expensive for profit insurance almost killed me. I will not vote for any candidate who will not support Medicare for All.
@mpound
Biden should consider the feelings of the families of the 150,000 Iraqis killed in the war that he rubber-stamped.
Kris Kristofferson said it best: " . . . feeling good was easy Lord, when he sang the blues Hey, feeling good was good enough for me, hmm hmm Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee"
Biden is competent, caring, responsible, respectable, and has experience as part of a successful White House team. Sounds divine to me!
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@NM
"Competent" and "caring?" Since when?
Is Joe Biden a political palate cleanser to wash away the bitter years of Trump? Are we then to continue on with more Joe Biden moderates for fear of re-encountering that bitter taste again? Is the fear of Trump so awesome terrible that we clutch for the most stable and securely electable candidate as if recovering from PTSD? Are we so debilitated by Trump that we have no energy to campaign hard enough to make our policy and character chosen candidate the winner in November?
As the old comic used to start out, “What’sa matter bunkie?!”
Hey Democrats, It’s time to buck up, brush off, get up again, stand up tall, and show some spine! Grit! That’s the spirit; that’s that good old fight for what you believe in that made you proud to be politically active! I can hear the old “Stars and Stripes Forever” Sousa March echoing in the background! We don’t settle! Alright then, let’s get out there and fight for what we believe in!!!
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You can tell the slant of an article that does things like refer to Sanders' endorsers as "trophies". What does that make Biden endorsers, "ribbons"?
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“The longer I’ve been around, the less that appeals to me,” Biden told me, referring to the day-to-day weight of being president. “I’ve watched up close and personal what eight years in the White House is like.”
Dude. You're running for president. Step #1 is actually wanting to be the president. This "sleepwalk your way into the White House" approach is not going to detach the parasite that currently occupies it. Get passionate, and never let a quote like this reach a major American newspaper ever again, Mr. Biden. This is shameful.
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@Brent Hannify I took that to mean that he doesn’t want it for the old “vanity” or “passion” reasons of his younger days. If he feels it’s his destiny to move our country out of the dark, that’s another perfectly good motivation.
@Brent Hannify
God save us from passionate presidents!
Biden withheld $1.5 billion of loan guarantees to Ukraine until it fired the prosecutor investigating the company his son received $1 million from. He should be in jail.
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@Steven Willis,
I believe that Burisma actually paid Hunter at least 3 million, but otherwise I agree with you.
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@Steven Willis
Hannity strikes again.
Fact: the prosecutor that was fired was NOT investigating Burisma. The prosecutor was well known for his corrupt practices to many European countries whose leaders were calling for his ouster. Please seek other sources for news other than Sean Hannity.
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@Steven Willis
Stevie, as soon as I see Trump's tax returns, I'll agree with you. There, I said it, and I have no fear that you and I will ever agree on jack.
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Joe Biden? He's okay.
@Packard I am reminded of that commercial ..."Just OK?" ...is that what democrats have to settle for? ...it will not be enough...
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@EK Trump supporters are setting for sub-par, so what's your point?
His brother, sister and brother-in-law have also become rich riding with Joe. On foreign policy Bob Gates, who is widely respected by all, wrote that he made all the wrong decisions on every major issue for 40 years. Trump is going to have Joe well defined as a slow, semi-competent junior leaguer by the time November rolls around, if he is the candidate. He's already publicly announced that he'll ban fracking, even if hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost. That is certainly going to endear him to the blue collar crowd.
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@Peter I think someone’s trying to trick you with a diversion. Let’s say his sibs have gotten rich off of Joe’s name. Does that say something bad or untoward about Joe Biden? Does it say something bad about his sibs? Can you honestly see yourself not using a connection like that to your advantage? I said “honestly,” Peter. Be honest, now, brother.
So sad, yet funny. So now we're aiming for "good enough." And this to be leader of the free world. Amazing strategy!
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@Justaperson
Considering what we have currently that would be a huge improvement.
One step at a time.
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@Justaperson
I like “good enough.” It is the ambitious passionate leaders who want to be the greatest and make a mark on history who cause all the trouble.
Better than Trump sets the bar too low for me.
A main part of the strategy is to not offend the Bernie Bros. If he keeps quiet and Bernie stays at about 35% he won't turn them off or anger them as Hillary did. Maybe they'll turn out to vote in November in larger numbers then polls say. At least in the important states. It is a strategy- might not work, but for now, let's not anger them. If someone doesn't believe this just look at the social media response when there's a change.
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I get why people say Biden is the most electable. He polls the best against Trump (slightly ahead of Sanders), but he worries me as vulnerable. There is very little excitement in his campaign and there are certain issues that Trump can hit him hard on. Most notably, you can look at his vote for the Iraq War and his votes for NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China. Trying to defend those votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania could be a disaster for democrats. Other than his record, the way his son Hunter's private career and Joe's public career have intermingled reeks of the tacit corruption that much of this country hates about Washington DC. He'd be a good candidate, but I think people are severely overestimating how rock solid that electability argument is.
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@Chris FWIW, in a NYTimes poll Buttigieg does best against Trump among Iowa voters (scroll down for this info):
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/us/politics/democratic-iowa-poll-sanders.html
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@Sarah , in Iowa, not nationally though. Nationally, Buttigieg is one of the worst performers.
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@Chris well written, here is my view on it..
Biden has at least two things going for him.
1-He is not Trump.
2-Of the three things that killed Hillary in middle America, ie identity obsession, social engineering obsession and neo con views on things like wars, Biden does not suffer from the first two.
3-Bernie is close behind but he fails on pt one and two.
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