Some time ago I photographed Mr. Biden at a local event for supporters and politicians. At the end he approached me, a reliable tool for such occasions, shook my hand and thanked me for my work, and then asked one of his staff to grab my camera and take a picture of me and him in front of the flags and blue backdrop. There was a special human touch in his gesture that has left a lasting impression. No one ever did something like this before and since, I get paid for producing reliable results and for showing up, period. The world has become a nasty and cold place in my lifetime, a President Biden couldn’t change that alone, but he would make a difference, perception matters for people who have a beating heart in their chest that is not just filled with hate and resentment.
284
I had a similar experience. Work brought us together. He was working the room and drew close to me. I introduced myself. He grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go. My momentary reaction to this prolonged hand shake with the then VP was exactly what I’ve heard mischaracterized by various people as overly touchy. So he puts his mouth to my ears and he says, “If I had hair like yours, I’d be President right now.” I cracked up and I was speechless. Not a usual state for me.
Biden has a sense of humor, and he’s a deep human being, who also happens to be a politician. I like him as a person and a man, and I sense that in this campaign, he is carrying the cross to Calvary. I feel sorry for him.
16
@R. Sokol He's a veteran politician, man. He left that event and probably had a schedule full of meetings with corporate and big dollar donors about how to strip Social Security from people like you and in your wealth class. That's what these guys do, years of people experience.
13
@R. Sokol respectfully, what you describe is a competent retail-politician. We can do better. We must do better.
12
While Biden et al. fight it out and diminish their appeal in the primary game, Bloomberg is circling high above the fray, ready to step in, the Trump killer. The country wants a hero who can clean up dodge.
10
The lights are on, but there’s no one home.
4
All I can say is: Vote blue, no matter who.
13
Pretty decent analysis, but do remember nice guys finish last.
In the top tier candidates we only have one original, and that is Bernie, he is forward looking and the antithesis of the current occupant of White House. DJT is dishonest and a liar, whereas Bernie is an honest and upright America loving individual. He did not commit the sins of supporting Wars of Iraq and Yemen etc. Joe has a litany of terrible decisions he took including Iraq War and his unending support of the Military Industrial Complex etc.
It is time we bring in people who care for people and vote for the benefit of the people of this country.
With that said, I am ready to support any democratic nominee for President of the United States of America to restore the dignity of the Office of the Presidency of these United States.
8
Nope. I will never vote for Joe Biden. He humiliated and gaslighted Anita Hill, and by extension, every woman who has been sexually harassed at work. I will never forget the rage, disgust and disillusionment I felt during those hearings. I was in my 20s, and learning for the first time that there are men - not all men, thank God - who think they’re entitled to grab women wherever and make any “joke” they like, and that other men who consider themselves decent and God-fearing will go to any length to defend abusers.
He’s not a nice guy. He’s an entitled jerk. If he’s the nominee, I’ll sit out the election.
10
"Does it matter if a President has no moral compass?" Yes, it does.
Who is financing Biden's campaign? That, too, matters.
9
I can not understand how you can avoid Biden’s elephant in the room. How can you not understand that Biden did nothing to stop his son from taking a job with a gas company in Ukraine. Hunter was hired for ONE reason,his father was Vice President of the United States. Biden then went on a trip with his son Hunter to China and while there Hunter secured a deal for an investment that in the future will reap him millions. This attitude that I have done nothing wrong if alike to laughing at the American people for being so stupid. Biden is as phony as a five dollar bill. With that don’t go there attitude when questions arrive. You just do not do things like that when your VicePresident of the United States. You tell your son this is ridiculous and you stare it public ally if he doesn’t listen. The American people have no shame backing Biden and on the other side Trump. Where are the thinking people of this nation. You don’t need an education to see what’s going on. To rescue us from this dilemma I recommend a serious look at a practical man.Mr Bloomberg,who started with 0 and has a great track record bringing smart people together to solve problems. Stop with this America political theater of jokes and shame about our candidates and form option on facts. If Trump remains president the Debt being created buy consumers and corporations will cause a deep recession in a couple of years unless we put on some brakes. You can have your cake and eat it but to much will make you sick.
7
This year will be an election and a choice between good and evil. And both parties see themselves as good. Though Trump's people are nihilists who can't be reasoned with. You might as well argue with a possum in your backyard....
6
The truth is that Biden is short-tempered, sexist and arrogant. He’s a nicer guy than POTUS, but so is a rabid wolf. Just the other day Biden referred to a female African-American reporter as “bright,” which is right up there with the condescending “clean and articulate” labels he attached to Obama in 2008. He thinks he should be president for no other reason than it’s his turn. I’d be happy to sniff his hair, but I won’t be voting for him in the primary.
9
I am hoping the really nice guy gets the nomination, with the really nice gay as veep.
2
Nice? Really? I’ve seen clips of him insulting voters and behaving like a spoiled, petulant, entitled old man. He’s a two-time loser about to become a three-time loser.
9
I don’t think I’ll read Bruni anymore. He’s been so aggressive in pushing who he thinks should be the candidate. It’s off putting.
6
This sort of analysis is entirely useless.
9
Let Biden run if he's strong enough to inspire and chew up Trump in the debates. Let Bloomberg run -- if he can manage to get the nomination he can really manage the office. Let Bernie run if he inspires enough people and if he doesn't get the nomination, let his followers vote D. Any of the older nominees should pick unifying running mates and appear to be ready to hand over power after one term. Then we'll have our country back from the evil slugs who lie even to their "base" and who would continue to destroy the fabric of our laws, our relations in the world, our environment and our love of country. And, oh yes, we need coattails strong enough to wipe Mitch's smile off the face of this man who, when walking out of the Senate chamber after the witness vote was cast, was clearly happy when there was nothing to celebrate except the empty victory that ignores the evisceration of the Senate the impeachment farce left us with. I'm sorry, when Hitler gathered all power to himself, there was nothing left for anyone especially the sycophants who reveled temporarily in smiling glory. Democrats: simply unite and resoundingly VOTE THEM OUT.
8
Joe is only candidate who hasn’t ignored the white middle class worker.
He’s not just nice.
He’s smart.
And that is why he needs to be the candidate.
And the Dem party needs to wake up and grow up and stop being like some sort of politics club on a college campus.
596
@Jane "Joe is only candidate who hasn’t ignored the white middle class worker." - I assume you're not familiar with Bernie Sanders and his 30+ years of consistently pro-labor, pro-working class positions?
159
@Jane Maybe for the first time in a couple of generations, the Democratic party is making a plea to the middle class with healthcare, childcare, college affordability, etc. We were once a country of ideals, where democrats stood for blue collar working class causes, unions, social security, unemployment protections, air, water and soil safety. Biden is a safe option, if the goal is to merely fill a vacancy; however, his lack of imagination, his rhetorical fumbles, his overall regressive/passive approach puts him at odds with modern Dem voters, who do not see Biden as the smartest, toughest candidate of the field. We don't want a legacy candidate who's merely a nice, guy. Big ideas = big turnout.
42
@Jane Good grief. Joe was front in center in the "New Democrat" takeover of the Democratic party that completely slammed the working class, in favor of Wall Street. Which is why he continues to be a darling of Wall Street donors. I don't know about you, but I have never met a single Wall Street type who gives a fig about the "middle class worker," whatever that is. And I don't expect they're sending their not-so-hard-earned money to Joe because he thinks he is going to represent the interests of working Americans in any real or meaningful way. But he is white, and Christian, and male, so I suppose that is what you mean by "middle class worker."
I'll be voting for the guy who understands that the working class has color, and that any appeal to support one segment of the working class against the rest is exactly what it has always been: reactionary to the core.
39
"His record as a senator for almost four decades is full of questionable judgment calls, messy compromises, expedient affiliations."
We have to settle for this? No way! Any of the Democratic candidates will "calm down" the nation. Biden's weak, he's lethargic on the stump, he's lost in the past. And he loves humanity but he likes money from big banks and the insurance industry and Wall Street more, so when it comes down to it, like the Bankruptcy bill, he sells out humanity for his own reelection.
762
@allseriousnessaside
Exactly correct. Biden may be a decent person, but he has a long record to be attacked, many questionable decisions, and some of his behavior seems to indicate that perhaps he should retire.
52
@allseriousnessaside
"His record as a senator for almost four decades is full of questionable judgment calls, messy compromises, expedient affiliations."
You can say that for any of the top candidates. No one is pure.
Bernie won't calm down the nation. Neither will Warren. Both are flamethrowers and the Republicans will throw right back. Plus they won't accomplish 5% of what they're advocating for.
Yeah, I want calm. Biden will give us that. He will also give us intelligence, judgment and compassion.
Bruni described Biden as "powerful" on the stump. You say he's weak and lethargic. Bruni is actually there. Are you?
45
@allseriousnessaside
What I find interesting is that even John Kerry, who supports Biden, knows what a terrible candidate Biden is.
Kerry was overheard saying _he_ might run for president himself. And you know where that is heading -- to a brokered convention to keep Warren or Sanders out of the running, with a savior such as Kerry (in his wildest dreams) or Bloomberg to save the day.
I fear this is not going to end well for the Democratic party.
27
Candidate Carter promised a "government as good as its people", and that message resonated in the Iowa Caucus of 1976 as he doubled Birch Bayh's count and trounced Morris Udall, Scoop Jackson, Fred Harris, and Sargent Shriver. Why did the decency/honesty message resonate in such a startling way with the ascendancy of Candidate Carter? My guess is that it was the lies of Johnson, the lies and crimes of Nixon, Kennedy's Chappaquiddick scandal, and Ford's pardon of Nixon.
If decency was a winning message in 1976 - in Iowa, yes - but especially in the general election, then, how cannot it not be the foundation of the Democratic victory in 2020 when lies and scandal have been the lifetime swamp that Trump wallows in?
President Obama exuded decency, fairness, and wisdom. Senator Biden was selected as his running mate for those same qualities. He has spent a lifetime putting others first. For single parents, for families experiencing tragic loss, for those who have faced life threatening disease and injury, and for women, minorities, and working class folks, Vice President Biden has been and continues to be their champion.
There are huge challenges facing our democracy and our fragile world. What a revolutionary change it will be to have a person of values and decency leading us again.
2
Any of the Democratic candidates are people of values and decency.
2
Voters will choose whichever candidate seems to have the best rainbow of colors as viewed through their personal prism.
I don't think there is a wrong choice here but hearts should not exclusively prevail over the hard realities.
Biden: Steady, experienced and decent but seems to be lacking a clear vision on how to move forward from the Obama years.
Sanders: Visionary ideas with genuine compassion for the peoples struggles but no explanation on how medicare for all can become the law of the land since it requires Congress to legislate it in to law.
Warren: Highly intelligent, energetic, problem solving with plans outlined in detail on Excel but same problem as Bernie for medicare vision and other policy goals.
Buttigieg: A+ debater who can think on his feet and more impressively with cogent answers but can a novice Tug boat captain navigate the seas that were traveled by the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria?
Klobuchar: Gobs of Washington experience, a moderate who can best unite divisions and bring swing state voters back to the democrat ticket but is she likeable and have enough celebrity is the question for some reason and a recent poll indicates 50% don't even know who she is.
3
The United Nations has reported we (the human species) has a little over ten years to address this climate crisis with any agency or it's game over.
Nice isn't enough. We need someone who is going to fight for the Green New Deal (which also provides good-paying jobs for the working class). We need Bernie Sanders. Bernie gets it.
Joe, nice as he is, does not understand the urgency of climate change. Biden said we can't get to zero emissions by 2030. But we must.
9
Turns out that Joe Biden has also told many lies throughout his political career, but almost more than that is what he did to Anita Hill. Not the person I want to help change this nation to serve the needs of the majority of us.
GO BERNIE!
22
@sheila
Do you really think enough people will vote for a Jewish socialist to defeat Trump?
Nothing else matters as much as getting rid of the "stable genius."
This is his third attempt, and he will fair even worse than the last two: he will lose. Joe is great as a vice...nothing else :)
8
I strongly prefer Bernie Sanders, for numerous and sundry reasons. That said, if the nominee is Biden or anyone else with a D after his or her name, that person will be my choice. I've never been phased by ageism, sexism, or any other ism and almost always hold my nose and pick D in a national election. With Sanders, I wouldn't be holding my nose.
Trump must be defeated. This is imperative, every which way but Sunday.
9
Joe Biden will not get the voter turnout we need to get rid of trump. Only someone who inspires people, who can offer the young people some hope for their future, will beat trump. And it is infuriating to me that so many think that Klobuchar is "nice", a good choice, etc. I live in MN. She is a phony. Klobuchar is not nice. She has the worst record of environmental positions of all of the Democrats running, earning her a "D". She continually supports big mining and big Ag in MN and does not care that the majority of MN voters are opposed to her positions. She is pushing copper sulfide mining in the BWCA, delisting of the gray wolf, promoting increasing mining that will threaten Lake Superior, etc. She does not listen to her voters or any groups she does not agree with. Have heard this numerous times from other sources and have experienced this also. The AP year long investigation that came out this week on how she seemly indicted an innocent black teenager to life in prison has been all over the news in MN, but the story has not be covered nationally. It is tragic. She is the ONLY Democrat I will not vote for, because she is really a Republican, posing as a Democrat.
5
Wasn’t Obama just that? And we trashed him. Why would we think this would work again now?
2
We get it. You want an establishment candidate and that’s Biden. Forget that more people will die here and abroad with him president over say Sanders or Warren, and the healthcare crisis will worsen and the defense budget will go up. He’s got “character” and he makes you misty. What a privileged position to be in.
12
What good does it do us if Biden is "nice" if he votes for war with Iraq, botches the Anita Hill trial, and represented DuPont and the Big Banks, not the masses throughout his senatorial career?
16
Wow there is a lot of comment spam here. I assume the Times notices this and I assume that it is only going to get worse as this election year continues.
After the impeachment farce and the years of obstruction against Obama and garbage fires like "birtherism" and the previous three years of predictable / purposeful incompetence and venality on the part of Trump and his enablers, I'd like the country to elect a Democrat that is ready to play similarly Machiavellian politics to enact policies that actually benefit all Americans. Niceness and nostalgia don't really play to those qualities. I'd also argue that nostalgia is dangerous and the country is already awash in it. (E.g., climate change denial / inaction is a form of nostalgia.)
3
Bloomberg?
1
@JS: If you want a Democrat with a Machavellian approach, then arguably the only way to go is....Mike Bloomberg. Like it, or not; he is the only one who can beat Trump at his own game. He knows how to push Trump's buttons. Bloonberg. is not only capable of standing up to Reoublicsns like Trump and McConnell; he can. (in a manner of speaking) knock them down like a 7-10 split.
2
I always take Frank's writings very seriously, and this one certainly lays out the very core of decency in Joe Biden. Only one thing troubles me: there is NO WAY we can go back to the Obama years, the Obama decency, the Obama character. We can't GO BACK TO ANYTHING! If Joe wants to strive to guide and lead the future, more power to him. Trump ditheringly promised a "RETURN TO THE GOOD OL DAYS" - the good ol days have been gone since the 60s, 70s, on up to 2020. We desperately need a leader who has enough insight to look beyond the next four or ten years! We have major problems that need solving, and a "nice guy" unless he's got great people surrounding him, and the presence to look to the future is just another nice guy. I'm nearing 80, and I want A PRESIDENT WHO ISN'T STUCK IN 1984 - if that's Biden, so be it, but I cannot abide one more word of Donald the Empty Vessel taking us back to the days that will NEVER COME BACK! Trump is HISTORY, in thought, word and deed. And an awfully bad example of it!
6
I don't care about nice. I want a tiger. A political warrior. Because this is war.
9
But if Joe actually gets elected, won't he then be impeached for his actions in the Ukraine?
1
I see in a sidebar story that you folks at the Times are once again displaying a prediction graphic, about who is expected to win ... given events of three years ago, what most impresses me about such an endeavour is the size of your journalistic stones.
3
Compared to our Tsar Trump the Terrible, all the Dem candidates have excellent character, of course!
As for Biden's 'nice guy' image---- what a clueless column. Frank should go back to restaurant reviewing for the NYT.
Or some kind of public relations work, where his verbal skills would come in handy.
Biden was known as Mr. MBNA. He sided with big credit card companies in Delaware and against consumers who needed laws to protect them, and agencies to represent the interests of ordinary citizens.
Eliz Warren was on the side of public, setting up the Consumer Protection Agency against predatory practices by banks. Has Frank Bruni heard of any of this?
Then Biden told a group of big donors for 2020 that they'd have nothing to worry about if he's elected.
Gosh, how stupid does Bruni think readers are?
5
Biden is yesterday mashed potatoes, ten years ago! No thanks!
8
The biggest mistake voters could make this time around is to elect a 'nice guy'. What's that? Somebody who won't address problems, confront adversaries, just tell it like it really is. America both needs and wants Mr. Trump; the time had come for bull in the china shop--he's it; sit back and enjoy it.
1
Yes, of course, decent, honest, empathic; add seasoned, thoughtful, intelligent, patient.
Trump will eat him alive; a KFC nugget in his line of sight will last longer than Joe.
The reality that generic Democrat v. Trump outperforms each of the individual candidates says more about the pathology infecting our electorate and electoral system than any pluses or minuses in Joe's column.
The problem with putting electability first in the primary is that everyone thinks his or her own candidate is electable. I know mine is.
1
I'm struck, reading comments on this article, that Sanders and Warren are often mentioned, but not Pete. He strikes me as sincerely "nice" as is sharp as a tack, too. My choice, by far.
5
I agree that Sanders is the Trump of the Democratic Party. He appears to be a stubborn ideologue who wants to re order the economic system in this country. Some body has to pay for all his “ free” stuff.
I agree health care needs to be fixed, student debt needs to be reduced and the GOP has zero answers, but I have to say I may not vote either of Sanders is the nominee. And by the way I am not rich. One extreme to another.
2
Mr Sanders and his voters do not want free stuff. all Mr Sanders and his voters want is for the United States to spend more money on health care than nuclear weapons, give more money to families in need than CEOs in mansions, and rewrite the tax code so that those who have benefited the most from a working society give the most back to help it keep working. I do not want free stuff, and that is not why I'm voting for Mr Sanders. I am voting for Mr Sanders because I am tired of having human rights like health care, housing, and education, which would be provided in any other halfway civilized country from a government, as quote unquote free stuff.
16
@JJR
If Trump is re-elected, you will not only get none of what you want, but we will have Trump unleashed from all restraints.
1
You already pay for other people’s “free healthcare” for unpaid ER visits and medical bankruptcy write-offs in the form of higher insurance rates and deductibles. How can you seriously not see that but accuse a system where we’d all be paying into somehow as “free”???
3
Nobody cares about character. They care about it even less than about climate change. They only care about one thing. Getting better paying jobs. They will vote for the candidate they think can get them better paying jobs. Period. There simply is no other issue that matters. Ever.
2
Trump and his kooky side-kick, Rudy Guilliani, have trashed Joe Biden's reputation for months. Despite his actions in Ukraine being legal and within stated US and international policy, all I've heard Joe say in his defense is, "Hunter has done nothing wrong…".
I'll vote blue, no matter who, and I'll undoubtedly vote Biden if he is the nominee. Though I believe it is the opposite, one thing Trump has managed to gaslight his supporters into believing is that he'll fight for them. Biden, on the other hand, has yet to mount an aggressive defense of his reputation.
We all like a nice guy, but I have a hard time seeing how Americans will believe he'll fight for them if he doesn't defend himself.
8
It seems like the word settle is coming into the vernacular as we are at the first stop in a long journey.
I am sorry but Biden is not enough. I respect the Vice President but sadly he will not be able to go toe to toe with DJT.
Biden can not intellectual out fence him and once Trump focus his entire attention span; which ain't much and if Biden was to win the nomination, he will simply mop the floor with him.
Voters need to have the candidate that will do more than simply be a "moral compass"...plus half the country could care less about Trump's morality.
They actually prefer a self serving narcissist.
We need a marathon runner who can go the distance against Trump and push Trump in ways no elected official has never been able to.
It will be up hill everyday and we need that person to know that down to their very essence.
Wearing Trump down is the only way the White House will flip and folks it's gonna get even uglier.
5
Sorry, but I could never cast a vote for a Democratic presidential candidate who’d seriously consider having a Republican as a running mate.
Sanders 2020
9
"His sentences wobbling toward some destination other than the initially intended one".
Some of Biden's "wobbling" is due to his stutter. As a sister stutterer I know that sometimes we find different words to avoid those that are most problematic for us. With me it's often the letter "d" and so I look for synomyms beginning with another letter.
Let's be patient wih Biden's speech problems, as I always hope people with be with me, and not judge him. Overall he usually does just fine.
4
"Biden, 77, has been unimpressive, his energy palpably diminished, his sentences wobbling toward some destination other than the initially intended one."
Buttigieg, who you barely mentioned, has all the honesty, decency, empathy, humanity, goodness, and character that you mentioned, plus the brilliance and intelligence to set this country back on course after being driven off the rails for the past four years by that insane sociopath in the White House. Perhaps most important, Pete doesn't let the issues "flit by" in his campaign speeches, nor does he let them wobble towards an unintended destination. And although he may not have "battle for the soul of a nation" plastered all over his bus, his goal has always been "reconnecting America with the best of itself."
2
My only problem with the mayor, is the same I had with them Senator Obama, lack of political experience. That said, I think whomever is nominated, assuming it’s not Pete, would be a fool not to have him as a running mate. Then President Pete should have ACO for a running mate. I only hope I live long enough to see it.
1
I am really tired of hearing about Biden's great character. When I was 23, I watched him lead the Judiciary Committee's horrifying questioning of Anita Hill, and I will never forget it. The overall lesson that I (and I would guess many other young women) took from those hearings was that it is useless to call out someone for sexual harassment. Biden only expressed regret for his behavior towards Professor Hill once he decided to run for president. If he truly regretted his actions, he would have apologized long ago.
If he is the party's nominee I will of course still vote for him. His character is certainly better than Trump's. However, I will not be happy about it.
11
Michelle, surely in your 40 years you may have made a decision that in hindsight was wrong or warranted a do-over. Is Biden not worthy of forgiveness or understanding his missteps especially when his overall character and service to the country are exemplary.
Other than Bloomberg, Biden is the one that can go toe to toe with that disgrace in the Oval. Trump’s minions have forgiven his black hole where his soul was; surely we can forgive and support Biden if he wins the nomination.
1
@Stephan As I said, if he wins the nomination I will vote for him. The Anita Hill hearings are far from his only character lapse. Others in this comments section have listed the personal bankruptcy bill, his waffling views on social security and many other problems over the years. One I really remember is the plagiarism that caused him to drop out of the 1988 presidential campaign. Currently, he has received lots of contributions from people in the insurance and financial industries. How hard is he going to try to regulate the people who are financing his campaign?
I also believe that, in general, it is much easier for men to "forgive and forget" the Thomas/Hill fiasco than it is for women.
3
I won’t forgive him as long as Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court.
1
Frank! What is up with you?
Yes, Biden is a nice fellow. But why do we have to settle for going back to the same old, same old?
If he gets the nomination, I will surely vote for him, but he is way down on the list for me.
I say to my fellow Democrats that in the primary they should not worry about who is electable. Vote your true hearts.
If your candidate does not win then just vote for whoever does win in the general election. Easy peasy.
3
As far as I am concerned, electability is the main thing. Then, who comes in to fill all the jobs that Tump hasn't? I guess from a practical standpoint, Biden might be adequate. he would have connections to the folks that were there when Obama was president. Biden would probably drag in Harris as VP... leading to that reality of Biden gets unable to handle the role. Sounds great, huh!
It's a shame that we can't be both inspired and "safe."
1
Is he even a nice guy? I've seen countless videos of him unnecessarily touching, fondling, sniffing, or poking visibly uncomfortable women and girls. Many other times, he has become hostile when questioned or challenged by voters. He easily resorts to name calling or telling people to vote for Trump.
We can do better.
6
This, like the Times other opinions, is so, so relevant. Candidates positions and personalities are starting to coalesce. I subscribed to the Times a few months ago and I'm starting to fall in love with journalism again.
1
The best, and only really, thing that Biden has going for him is that he is the best chance to beat Trump...with a large assist from Obama.
Other than that.... which is a LOT...he is a mediocre candidate, well past his prime...which at it's peak was never that great.
That said, I would vote for him in a heartbeat if the alternative is another four years of the Trump nightmare...
2
Sanders has sponsored and passed into law three bills. 3. https://www.congress.gov/member/bernard-sanders/S000033?q=%7B%22bill-status%22%3A%22law%22%2C%22sponsorship%22%3A%22sponsored%22%7D
He has no foreign policy experience. He never worked a paying job that could support his family until he was 40 years old. He has admirable ideas that have virtually no chance of passing into law. He is an angry, "my way or the highway" sort. Lastly, with his heart condition he is unlikely to to even live long enough to make any impact.
The Democrats need to grow up and vote for the only candidate that can and will be Trump.
6
If Joe Biden would just say something like this, I wouldn't doubt his honesty or integrity: "What my son did was legal ... but it wasn't right. He's sorry he did it, and I'm sorry he did it. If I'm elected, it won't happen again."
Instead, replying to Savannah Guthrie's question about Hunter's Ukrainian job in her interview with him yesterday, he avoided answering her question honestly and gave a weaselly, mealy-mouthed response.
2
“It’s about honesty, decency, empathy, humanity.” Only a campaign that actually argues for policies conducive to those goals, policies like a living wage, universal healthcare, opposition to senseless wars...can make that claim. There IS such a campaign but it’s not Biden’s, it’s Sanders’.
2
"A Really Nice Guy for President...Is it what voters want?"
I want a cranky old man for President. Someone who will get things done and not pander to Republicans.
5
@Mexico Mike
If you don't pander somewhat to anti-Trump Republicans, Trump will win--period.
Trump has a solid lock on 40% give or take of the electorate. Without those in the middle, it's another loss.
Trying to sell “he’s a nice guy” is tough to do when he is also losing his marbles, old and the poster boy for entrenched, crooked politicians.
4
Frank you mean nice and crooked. The Ukranians gave the Bidens $3.1 million. What were the Ukranians expecting and did the Bidens provide it?
3
Biden is a really nice guy.
But the lights are on, but nobody is home.
2
all the dirty tricks and negative coverage won't stop bernie's roll this time hopefully.
forget about the 'nice guy'...he's a potato anyway!
2
Joe Biden is a liar, and a hypocrite. What he falsely accuses Trump of doing in Ukraine, he and his son Hunter actually did in spades. And they got away with it. When will Democrats, liberals and progressives take off their blinders and realize that while Trump may have entertained a quid pro quo and then decided to provide the foreign aid that Ukraine was voted by Congress without any Ukraine investigation into Hunter Biden, Joe Biden actually, on tape, told the Ukraine that they would not receive U.S. foreign aid to the tune of $1 billion unless the Ukraine lead prosecutor investigating his son and his role on the board of Burisma was immediately terminated? Talk about hypocrisy. But that is nothing new for the Democrat party.
2
Nice guy? He is a arrogant pompous guy with a sense of entitlement. Also, he lies, a lot.
8
I think people need to hear and believe that this is not a binary choice-- that to have a good economy you have to bite the bullet and elect a faithless, unethical, dimwit.
“It’s about honesty, decency, empathy, humanity’....how does that relate to pimping your son for jobs he was completely unqualified for? Biden should have been impeached for influence peddling.
3
Nice guy. Ask the thousands of American families whose sons or daughters died in Iraq or the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead if they want such a nice guy to become president
4
A career politician who plays nice guy. I do not trust him. We do not need a reptilian swamp dweller for President.
4
A wise philosopher once observed that nice guys finish last.
1
Much of the criticism of Joe Bidden reminds me of what pundits said about FDR during his 1932 campaign. Walter Lippmann thought FDR was an intellectual lightweight. One presidential historian recently wrote: "his prescriptions for the country were so bland—that some commentators questioned his capabilities and his grasp of the serious challenges confronting the United States." FDR didn't promise a revolution but merely "better days ahead". He mentioned the words "new deal" but gave little hint of how revolutionary a president he'd be.
2
I like Buttigieg—progressive ideas, strong policies, intelligent, young and yes, nice. I hope Iowa’s good to him.
4
The Ukraine Scandal is an issue not only for Trump but also for Biden. If he would become the candidate, he will be fiercely attacked by the Trump side with this as well as with "his energy palpably diminished." No hope.
3
For the thinking voter who pays attention to the news there is no subject that has been more completely explored and proven to go against Trump and the conspiracy theory behind trumps abuse of power and threats to our national security. Biden can actually run personally on the foundation of all the damage that was done to trump during the arguments made in the Ukraine scandal.
If the economy continues as it is, Trump will be reelected. There maybe be many problems with this "expanding" economy, but these problems may make voters hesitant to "change horses in the middle of a stream". This is tragic of course since in addition to cruising on Obama's recovery, a President should be judged on their ability to provide solutions to future problems.
The main issue to me is which candidate will help Democrats retain or take over the senate and get rid of McConnell.
1
The democratic establishment will make a BIG mistake if they favor one candidate over another without listening to the people. People, this time around, want revenge. They want all the had things Trump did, reversed ASAP. If a Bernie, or an Elizabeth is the people's choice and the D Establishment extinguishes that by some maneuvering, Hillary will make Trump victorious again.
4
@Jamal I’m not the “establishment” but I’m also not a supporter of Sanders or Warren. It doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy if Sanders and Warren don’t win. And I think a lot of voters out there who agree with me.
9
Well said. Thank you.
This morning before I went to bed the last thing I listened to was either the BBC or Sky News but it told me everything everybody should know about why Trump and who might beat Trump.
England's white working class cannot compete and like in all conservative societies they know that hope must be invested in radical change not same old same old.
The immigrants to Britain and its middle-class will determine the future, the working class will not get the education or the support they need to enter that segment of society that aspires to more secure, wealthier, more productive and more rewarding lives this is true for the English working class and it is true for America as well. When even driving truck is beyond your dreams Biden offers nothing of the hope and change even Obama promised.
England and America offer nothing but despair to those on the wrong side of the gap as they are our the least conducive to upward mobility. They start off behind and they fall further back as their lives continue and they know it.
2
I'm not excited by Biden, but for the Sanders supporters, while I like Sanders' economic focus, WHAT has he accomplished in his decades as a senator? I'm not interested in ideologues.
12
You can always take 5 minutes of your time and look up his Senate history. You should also do that with every candidate.
That’s why we should all support Warren. Her record is amazing.
1
What we need in this country right now is a nice guy. I like Mayor Peter, but his time is not yet here. Bernie seems angry and well... socialist. I loved Elizabeth in the beginning, but she seems a bit lost with her plans. The rest don't matter, because they can't win. What Biden represents is experience, and a transition. From this hateful presidency, perhaps to normalcy. I sincerely wished this for Warren, but right now we need to lick our wounds and win. After actually seeing Trump get away with his impeachable offences, I'll be happy to see anyone in office except him. If the democrats don't get it together, we will lose in November. That's the end of this country, I swear. We are the last great hope for this world. China is sinking under Coronavirus, Britain is diving down a tunnel with Brexit. Canada is too small to save us. Russia...which has no sense of humour... is laughing at us. Let's just elect a nice guy, to show young people what that is.
6
Yes the guy who voted for the Iraq war. The guy getting millions from the banking industry. He does seem like a nice man, but he sold the majority of us out. He is leaps and bounds in character beyond trump. But you know what? We don’t want to hold our nose again to vote. We really would like a leader to represent us. Yes US.
13
High school teacher here. Small sample, but Biden had as few votes as McAfee and Steyer in my endorsement assignment completed by 93 AP English students. Sanders, Warren, & Yang were the winners.
8
Whether Biden is "nice guy", "a great centrist" etc matters not because of this uncomfortable fact: Joe Biden has lost mental capacity. Watch the last debate, the August debate or read his interview in this paper. His stumbles and non sequiturs are not those of a stutterer; they are those of a person who has difficulty focusing and forming a coherent analytical sentence under pressure.
Joe Biden is demonstrably unfit to be President, and nominating him would not only be political suicide but an embarrassing and painful debacle.
9
Other candidates are 'nice' too. Why is that the criteria? Joe's time is past. I have no intention of voting for him in the primary; he doesn't carry the urgency that is required for these times, and he has the idea that he could 'work across the aisle'. It is not 1987, and doesn't he remember how hard it was for his old boss, Obama, to do the same. They made it impossible, in fact. No to Joe.
7
Sorry, but "can't we all just get along" is enough when so much is at stake. Climate change is real. Crushing student debt is real. Big Pharma monopolies are real. Time for a change.
9
Biden IS a nice guy. He's a good man. But, he's also too old to take on the role of President, has zero charisma, and is not a compelling speaker in the least. Quite honesty, none of the Democratic candidates are "exciting"... but Buttigieg and Klobucher are compelling enough to hold ones attention. And they are both moderate enough to attract independent voters.
3
Biden's case for decency would be more compelling if he wern't so corrupt, arranging for his son to have a a job for which he wasn't qualified, yet was paid a large salary for, simply because the father was the most important voice influencing American policy toward Ukraine at the time. I don't say Biden did anything illegal or that there was a specific quid pro quo, but it definitely leaves a bad aftertaste.
14
@Jenifer
It seems there are different standards here: Donald Trump and his opportunistic family are making money directly from abusing the Oval Office. His unqualified kids are holding positions that affect our national security.. Trump had to override the protocols of security clearance to put them in those jobs. You want nepotism... ????
Joe Biden did not get that position for his son ; it was offered to him as far as I understand. Did Hunter benefit because his father was Vice President?.. Yes he did. But it is nothing compared to the corrupt grifters who occupy the White House now. They are parasites
6
This is pure Russian propaganda. Biden did not “arrange” for his son to get this job —he tried to talk him out of it. Biden was implementing Obama’s policy in Ukraine, which was to get rid of corrupt bureaucrats like Sorkin, who is trying to make a comeback by feeding lies to Giuliani. Sorkin refused to investigate Burisma or any other company, which was why Ambassador Yovanovich recommended his removal.
All of our European allies wanted to see Sorkin removed. Once that happened, the new prosecutor general actually investigated Burisma.
So a) Biden was implementing Obama’s policy, not his own b) Sorkin was a corrupt prosecutor general who refused to investigate Burisma c) Burisma was investigated by the new prosecutor, thanks to the anti-corruption efforts of Biden and our European allies, and d) Biden has nothing to do with his son’s getting the job and tried to talk him out of it.
I hate to see false propaganda spread around the internet so please forgive my outrage. Biden is one of the most decent, honest men in public service. He deserves better than this.
7
Thank you. Allowing Trump’s claims to be spread without correction simply helps him peddle his lies.
1
"What voters should choose, then, is someone with values and a temperament they trust."
I'm unimpressed. ALL of the Dem candidates have values and temperaments I trust more than Trump. I want a candidate with policy ideas that will make the USA a better place. I know they won't be able to get all of their ideas enacted into law, but I hope some of them will be. I like the ideas of Sanders and Warren.
11
Trump and the Republican leadership have repeatedly crashed through the guardrails of our constitutional system. They're about to do it again this week by their sham trial in the Senate. You can describe character issues as the fuzzy, gooey side of presidential campaigning, but we're looking up close and personal at what happens when our country elects a president without morals, empathy, or respect for the rule of law. He's inflicting real damage on our institutions and the U.S.'s reputation in the world.
7
@DJY
Get a grip. The House did not even charge Trump with specific crimes.
RE: He's inflicting real damage on...the U.S.'s reputation in the world. Don't worry all our "allies" e.g. dependents will continue to accept the billion$ in aid we provide.
The country will not transition from Trump back to normal. It will take time to get back from Oz. Biden knows how the system works and he has contacts all over the world. Biden for a one term restoration, then his VP for moving forward.
7
I don’t know the answer and yours, Frank, makes a great deal of sense. Whatever and whoever must be determined. So...
Job 1 - defeat the criminal trump
Job 2 - restore confidence in an honest administration and reestablish relationships with allies
Everything else in due time
The Democrat’s candidate MUST be electable and I’m ok with that even if she or he is not my first choice.
8
Let it Be, Folks. Tomorrow will be the end of the beginning, and the actual race will start. The LAST thing we need is infighting, that only helps THEM.
Seriously.
15
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Must be Iowa caucus night. Seems like there’s a flood of fake infighting tonight on the board, and not all of THEM are domestic.
4
@Vicki
Yeah, I thought I was just getting paranoid. But I’ve really noticed a big uptick in the last Week.
2
Biden. He can win. He has character. He has a conscience. He He has experience. He has my vote.
10
The myth of American exceptionalism is what drives people to candidates line Biden, and Trump. They're stuck on that old notion that nothing could be better than life here. But if they could really, really see what life is like in other westernized countries that actually have a functioning middle class with health care, jobs, etc., they'd think twice about supporting a progressive candidate.
4
I take it you mean they’d be more open to a progressive candidate? If so, then I agree.
8
I’ve lived in Europe and I don’t believe we have the best government. That’s why I’m committed to a progressive agenda. I want someone with the ability and a history of shepherding progressive legislation through Congress.
Only Biden has that proven ability.
2
Biden and progressive is ridiculous.
All his support comes from voters 60 who are completely out of touch with the reality for many non-seniors.
1
While Biden was deciding whether he would run or not, Warren knocked out one thought out plan another (over 70 of them) She's smart, transparent, fearless, and exactly what I'd want in an employee or President. What she isn't is "male and nice" which is apparently the only low bar one has to pass to be seen as electable.
9
Remember - only 77,000 votes gave Trump the White House, out of more than 136 million cast. That was the combined total of votes that turned Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan red in 2016.
The key is to boost voter turnout, which always helps Democrats and hurts Republicans. Get to the polls and vote. If someone you know needs a voter ID, help them get it. Volunteer for registration drives.
Take back the castle.
6
I've said this before in other posts. I'll repeat it again:
First, you re-take the castle.
Then you can redecorate it.
The #1 goal of Democrats (and the large block of undecided independents) in November should be (to paraphrase Mitch McConnell), "to make Donald Trump a one-term president."
Whoever gets the most delegates should be supported by every Democrat. It's one thing to debate policies like expanding Medicare, reigning in healthcare and prescription drug costs, and coming up with a sane immigration policy.
But it's all just noise if you don't have the White House AND the Senate. That should take precedence over everything else.
Repeat as often as necessary: First, you retake the castle. Then, you redecorate...
11
Ok, but how do you take the castle?
Recall that the people gave the castle to the guy in it now. You have to make a good case, give them a reason to take it from him and give it to you. And promising to make things just like they were when those people gave the castle to him (to Trump), seems like a very bad plan.
2
Doesn't matter things are such a mess nothing is going to get done anyway so keep the eye one the prize and get Trump out of there. Biden has been through so much he will have the compassion to lead the country and I am for Amy K. VP. All the people running have integrity and are better than Trump but the dems have to get it together because Trump has so much going for him.
5
If this were a contest between Biden and Trump, then you could run nice against nasty and see what happens.
But it isn't.
The GOP is an entrenched network of largely white, right wing, constituents struggling to survive as the demography, climate, and economy of the United States shifts. They're losing. So they're cheating: gerrymandering districts, pushing the boundaries of campaign finance afforded by Citizen's United, stacking the courts before they can't push the scales, or get caught.
We don't need a nice man with a murky ideology to temporarily stall a waning majority suffocated in their own irrelevant nostalgia. We need a candidate to define the new frontiers for democracy.
14
That’s interesting that you would say that because I used to be a Republican voter and now I wouldn’t be caught dead voting for a Republican. I see what kind of Faustian bargain every Republican has made and I want no part of that evil deal. Your numbers are dwindling and even the use of every cheating technique that the Republicans can employ cannot stem the tide of change for the better.

1
A logical strategy for Democrats would be to decide among themselves which two candidates are the strongest and team up to run in the primaries as a team. I never liked the idea of the Veep being a mystery until the end of the process. This way, further support would grow over the months for the team as opposed to a singular candidate. Both would reinforce each other's messages and standing.
8
If Democrats take the White House and retain control of the House, it is the Republicans who have to work with US! Why do we always have to give ground, and they never?
11
My wife and I attended a Joe rally here in Reno in mid-January, along with a crowd of folks who squarely share our demographic – in their 50s/60s/above, white, comfortable, almost certainly Obama voters who dream of the "old" Democratic party and its middling, predictable ways — and who, to an atom, despise Trump and what he's doing, in real time, to the American system of fair play (ahem) and rule of law. Like Mr. Bruni we walked away with a warm, fuzzy feeling that, to be honest, wore off in a few days, if not hours, like the memory of a decent rom-com. Biden does get his nice guy ethic across, and he's genuine. He truly believes he's the guy to save America from certain destruction, if only as a one-term placeholder. His heart is in the right place, but is that the place we truly need? The Baby Boomer me, who just wants a break, says yes. But as I stare down my 60th birthday and listen to my two post-millennial daughters tout Bernie with a cold eye to their ever-dimming economic future –backed not just by passion, but by admirable research into their guy, and those who challenge him through this interminable primary season, with Biden the biggest object of their scorn – I'm just about ready to throw caution to the wind and back a table-flipper like Sanders or Warren. I'll be out of the picture in 20 years anyway, so it's time to set aside all the rosy back-glancing and turn forward, scary as it is, to pull a brighter picture for our kids and grandkids out of the wreckage.
19
@ Vic
Thank you. That’s a courageous thing to say.
I wished more of the boomer generation would come around and put the needs of their children and grandchildren ahead of themselves.
But I’m not hopeful. They call them the “most selfish generation” for a reason and just look at what Boomer “leadership” has led us to: Trump.
7
@Vic but if neither wins the nomination, please still vote for the nominee. Too many did not do so the last time.
People like you give me hope. Thanks for this.
1
America doesn't WANT any more warm, fuzzy hopey feelings anymore. We are waaay passed that point. We need REAL CHANGE. Bernie is the one that sees that. BERNIE 2020.
12
If Bernie can accomplish anything at all; his proposals are too far left for almost all of the Democrats in Congress, not to mention others. I still might vote for him because I WANT his ideas to happen; as someone from D.C. who has many windows into how things really work, I do think it’s probably WISER to imagine more actually being possible under Biden, sort of ironically.
3
@ATK without control of the Senate, we got nothin’. And please, if some else is the nominee, please still vote for that person. Too many did not last time.
The "problem" with the candidates is that the "metric" is first you need to be able to beat Trump. None of the candidates have that yet. You would think with the trials and impeachment and charges that people would rather vote for a ham sandwich but they won't. They admire Trump for standing up to the career politicians and winning, over and over again. Most of America hates politicians, I mean really hates politicians. People will come out for Trump in droves because he is seen as sticking it to the politicians. How can a huge group of politicians accuse Trump of being a liar? Politicians and liars and lawyers are painted with the same brush. And for good reason. All it takes is money to buy one.
3
@Mark and if you think Trump is not enriching himself and his family, I have some sea side property for you.
1
I guess we might have to ask ourselves:
How does the negativity of Biden's bad/poor decisions over his decades of public service compare with Trump's in only 3 years of public office.
Yeah. No comparison.
Biden/Klobuchar in November.
5
@KMEC
Great comparison. Biden/Klobuchar 2020.
Biden asks, “Does it matter if a president has no moral compass?” Good point, and I agree Trump has no moral compass, but there is a dark side to Biden. In his opening video he basically called Trump a racist, seriously distorting his "good people on both sides" remark. It was slimy and wrong. Biden has a good smile and seems easy-going, but Obama came in on a similar promise to reduce racial tension, but he made it worse. I cannot fall in love with Biden, who seems to be making the same plea Hillary made, "It's my turn."
2
Seriously? We all heard Trump’s “good people on both sides” comment after the Nazi rally in Charlottesville—after a woman was savagely run over by a neo-Nazi.
What do you think he meant?
I agree with first things first -- ousting the criminal Trump.
Thus we must rally behind whoever can beat him.
Throw out your purity tests and hold your nose if you must.
I really can't stand Biden but if that's what it takes, so be it.
Send Trump packing first. Then we can work on putting rule of law and decency back together.
3
Forget the Great White Moderate (i.e., Wall St.) Hope. No matter how "nice" he is, he is toast. According to the Charleston paper, he's even collapsing in black SC! Biden (falling from 45%) 25%; Bernie 20%; Steyer 17%. Sanders is the Trump of the Dems. He's going to crush the fat cats with voters the same way Trump crushed the Republicans'. The Democratic Establishment is not afraid Bernie can't beat Trump. They are terrified that he can and will. Rich people in either party will do just fine with Trump in power. With Bernie, not so much. It's hilarious to watch the commentators on MSNBC going nuts on camera over the prospect that Bernie is going to be nominated.
7
"His pitch in Iowa couldn’t be simpler. Is it what voters want?"
The only thing we want is someone to beat Trump. Biden just needs to highlight the real success and re-energizing of our economy of the Obama/Biden years vs 3 years of lies and deception and deficit spending under Trump.
3
Money owns everything. The reason Trump bends to Russia and Biden has son issues.
Vote for Trump-- he gets one vote more.
Vote for a sideshow candidate-- Trump gets one more vote.
Stay home because you "know" they're all the same-- Trump gets one more vote.
Etcetera
4
Key point, the Clinton's found out very quickly during the first WJC term how lovely it is to be 'piggies at the trough' - an art form perfected by the GOP during St Ronnie's years at the Whitehouse.
We have always been a greedy culture but the GOP owns this and most Dems, including 'good ol' boy Joe, would rather graze with the 1% than work for the rest of us.
Same old story, those with the power do not have the problems and those with the problems do not have the power.
Sanders or Warren are not going to turn us into 'communists' or even socialists but either might blunt the greed that is destroying us and the Earth we all share. Either is our best chance.
Anther establishment 'cat' - Biden, Bloomberg, even Klobuchar - is not gong to turn the tide even if he or she beats Trump.
Better to put the raw choice - them the 1% and their lackiess vs. us the people - on the card and find out who we really are. Sanders or Warren, either way I am okay !
6
If you don’t win the election, you get nothing.
I find it discouraging that I see progressives falling into false equivalences, seeing no difference between Republicans and Democrats. Any of the Democratic candidates is a thousand times better than Trump.
If Sanders wins I’ll vote for him. I hope and trust you’ll do the same if your preferred candidate doesn’t win the nomination.
IMO those who sat out the last election put progressive causes back decades.
I wish that you had considered Amy and her smile.
@James Moule Klobuchar is not what she is portrayed in the media. She has the worst record of environmental positions of all of the Democrats running, earning her a "D". She continually supports big mining and big Ag in MN and does not care that the majority of MN voters are opposed to her positions. She is pushing copper sulfide mining in the BWCA, delisting of the gray wolf, promoting increasing mining that will threaten Lake Superior, etc. She does not listen to her voters or any groups she does not agree with. Have heard this numerous times from other sources and have experienced this also. She is the ONLY Democrat I will not vote for, because she is really a Republican, posing as a Democrat.
1
I've had enough of bullies in grade school. I can't imagine WHY the supposed "president" of the United States hasn't been knocked down by the "grown ups" when he acts like a spoiled brat all the time. ALL the GOP Senators appear to be wealthy so it can't simply be they are afraid to lose their jobs, right?
I think it's WAY past time we had a human being in the White House again, don't you?
3
The Biden’s really need to come clean regards the Ukraine mess they allowed to occur on Joes V.P. Watch, and even demand they be thoroughly investigated by a private law firm with total access to all government agencies, Emails and correspondence. Bet you that Trump would even pay the cost of the investigation.....
4
A nice guy? Let's see. He opposed busing as a mechanism for the integration of public schools. He's been lying for 50 years about his participation in civil rights protests. He voted for the Iraq War. He voted to make it harder for people to shed student loans if they go bankrupt. He touches people, particularly women, in a creepy way. Now, on the campaign trail, he cannot complete sentences, and when people question him, he bellows at them to go vote for someone else or challenges them to feats of strength. People see through the pitch, and that's why he's taking on water.
8
I’m really tired of these silly claims. Yes, he’s an incredibly decent man. I thought we’d dropped the nonsense about Biden hugging people. As a woman, I’m well aware of the difference between compassion and lust. I would be offended by someone like Trump touching me because I know he has no compassion.
Biden supported the Use of Force Resolution (not the invasion) which he regrets, just as Sanders regrets his votes against the Brady bill and his vote to immunize gun manufacturers and dealers from civil suits. Both men have made mistakes, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t decent men.
And Biden has always been a strong supporter of civil rights. You really can’t misrepresent him. Harris, btw, agreed with Biden after the debate that there were better ways to achieve integration than busing, although both she and Biden support busing in communities that welcome it.
I hope and pray that Biden wins. I like Bernie Sanders a lot, but he is too European to win here in the US. "You mean everyone should have health care? Why should I pay for that? That's Socialism! I'm not paying for strangers!" Biden is the person who will and should win. Socialism can come later and it will. Just in time for Buttigieg. Now is Biden's time. He can beat Trump and that is the only thing that matters. Removing Trump from the White House, hopefully kicking and screaming.
2
I don’t know why so many comments say that Bernie is so electable. I want Trump gone more than you could possibly imagine. But I dislike Sanders almost as much. And I doubt I am alone. He is a very unlikeable person. And coming from a blue state I have to say that I am seriously considering not voting for the first time in my life if Sanders is on the ballot. He is an opportunist. He said he’d run as a Democrat for Senator if we supported him in 2016. He lied. I don’t trust either him or his wife (of family) with money. His campaign used some unethical methods in 2016. Like using pictures of popular people in their literature without their consent in a presumption of an endorsement. There were & still are complaints of sexual harassment in the campaigns. I vetted him well in 2016 and came up with some shady things. No matter what you think of Clinton, I do not approve of the way the Bernie Bros treated her or, especially her supporters. There were threats. I don’t think, when it comes down to it, that Bernie, or his supporters are Democrats at all. They are just taking advantage of the existence of a well organized political party. That is when they aren’t criticizing everything about it. I had to hear, for the umpteenth time, on social media, about how unfair the DNC was to Bernie in 2016. But when I politely asked what exactly did they do in their policies to hurt him and give an unfair advantage to Clinton, no one could even give me an answer. I’m sick of Sanders!
8
This time around, it’s not about who Trump is or who Biden is. Nor about taxes or social structure. This time it’s about who you, the voter, are as a human being.
6
"Is it what voters want?"
NO!
2
I met Joe Biden a few years ago while stuffing care packages for first responders as a 9/11 thing.
He glided into the room, hugged and squeezed all the women, told a couple of slightly off-color jokes, then posed for pictures.
Except for his trim figure and amazing teeth, he did not seem very bright. I came away convinced that Joe Biden was an ‘amiable dunce.’
11
That sounds very unlikely.
"Biden is about dousing the flames with passion."
But does the country want those flames extinguished?
Will folks vote to end scorchingly hot stock prices, searingly low unemployment, sizzling wages and a return to heated levels of illegal immigration?
1
Sizzling wages? On what planet?
1
My absolute favourite media slang is "electability" as a way to praise a candidate.
Electability. Exactly what the heck is that? Is it even a positive trait? In my mind it should be taken, as an insult, not a praise, as it describes a candidate being so simple, so opaque and so malleable that an overwhelming majority of people will choose to like him (or her) as opposed to not and vote accordingly.
Experience, trustworthiness, let alone intelligence, foresight and a clear mind doesn't weigh as much, as 'electability'.
Sheesh.
Like 'did you like Brad Pitt in that (fill in the blanks here)'?
"the movie was junk, but he was great'.
Electability isn’t the only important asset, but it’s the first one. Without it your policies don’t matter. This is as true in Canada as here.
OMG! Biden is the least credible of ALL the candidates for the Democratic nomination. Please, anybody but this bumbling, tongue tied and flawed candidate. Anita Hill, Iraq war, Son Hunter, “handsy” and his obvious decline with age. Let’s move on from the old, tired Democratic Party and elect someone who can inspire this country.
4
A creature of the finance industry, Big Pharma, and the military industrial complex. A _really_ nice guy!
5
realistically, nice guys don't stand a chance against Trump
1
Biden comes in a strong fourth.
1
Whatever can beat trump. That's all that mattes.
1
Biden the same guy who is constantly getting into fights with voters, even addressing one as "fat" is the nice guy?
2
Never happened, nor would it. I think you know that’s a huge distortion of one incident, where Biden understandably pushed back against a man who insulted him and his surviving son. He would never engage in personal insults.
I can’t help but wonder why these comments are being swarmed by disinformation. Someone seems to be afraid of Biden.
Another day, another Times piece praising establishment Democrats. But, hey, what’s the problem with complicity in massive income and wealth inequality when they’re such “nice guys”?
4
In the words of Sondheim's Little Red Riding Hood:
"Nice Is Different Than Good"
1
Biden ran for President twice before and lost. Hillary and Romney lost nominations then ran and lost. Recycled candidates seldom win.
I thought Bloomberg would have a chance, but half the Left is brainwashed to hate rich people. Every Dem candidate is thrown under the bus by groups on the Left, the current field is a bunch of socialist miscreants who don't have a chance.
1
Sorry Frank, Joe Biden is not a nice guy. Well, he's the kind of nice guy who will hold your hand and tell you how much he cares about you while his friends are stealing your wallet.
Nice guy with vicious, devastating policies:
- pro Iraq War (and all of Obama's wars, Libya, Syria, etc)
- pro school to prison pipeline
- responsible for the inescapability of student debt
- Clarence Thomas
These are the good old days policies that Biden wants us to return to. I mean, despite the fact that he clearly is a bumbling old fool now.
6
"Electability"
Please. Remember what NYT and the rest of the media thought of Trumps "Electability"?
2
“...it’s about character — his and the country’s. It’s about honesty, decency, empathy, humanity.”
Honesty? Why won’t he admit that for decades he has promoted Social Security cuts?
Decency? His plagiarism derailed is first try at the White House.
Empathy and humanity? He called a voter an idiot and challenged him to a push-up contest.
3
No, he’s never supported Social Security cuts. The Sanders campaign made some dishonest claims about Biden and Social Security, quoting him out of context in one speech he gave. The full context of that speech is that Biden was warning that the GOP’s strategy was to run up the debt to force cuts to Social Security. He wants to make sure that never happens.
Biden wants to raise the cap on wages subject to FICA taxes and expand Social Security. Go to his web site to read his policies.
Please don’t spread disinformation.
1
Really nice guy - but in the pocket of big donors
NYT
"As Biden Rakes In Big Money, Will There Be a Political Cost?"
NYT 5-21-2019
For me : Yes. The interest of the rich is not the interest of the working class
2
I wonder if the victims of the 1994 racist crime bill, or children bombed in the Iraq War such as Ali Ismail Abbas think of Biden as a nice guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Ismail_Abbas
Bernie voted for the crime bill too.
Remember that that’s the bill that placed a temporary ban on assault weapons and included funding for community policing. Both men regret their vote, but the end bill was a compromise, as all bills are unless you have a supermajority in the Senate.
My Goodness - Biden puff piece, Boot-edge-edge puff piece, Warren puff piece..
No Sanders, no Yang, no Tulsi. Well - I guess someone got the DNC memo.
3
There was a good one on getting “Yanged” a few days ago, btw.
Bernie doesn't talk about healing our nation and the "Bernie Bros" are just as militant as Trump minions.
I'll take Biden's character, commitment to the common good along w years of experience anyday compared to Bernie.
4
People respond to simple, clear messages. Bernie and Joe know this, and don't fill our heads with too many details. I believe Warren is the best person for the needs of the country now and will vote for her in the primary. But I will happily give Biden my vote if he is the nominee. Decency counts for a lot, especially these days. Bernie, bless his heart, is not my candidate, and I think, young voters notwithstanding, he is truly unelectable nationwide. If he is the nominee (and doesn't have another heart attack), Trump and the GOP will eviscerate him.
2
I am a Canadian who fears neither saint nor sinner in my political leaders. I fear the direction of America and any Democrat would be a relief from the perfidy of Trump and his minions.
I remember Kennedy saying "We are all Berliners". I have no problem with America First but perfidy endangers Canada and all liberal democracies. So far Ukraine has been lucky in only losing a few of its citizens to two double dealing , dishonourable and amoral military superpowers.
I have no faith that America is redeemable. I wish America well but I trust very little in a country whose only question is what is in it for me and whose Jesus conspires with men of low degree and unquestionable devotion to greed and acquisition. I don't pretend to believe there is anyone that can save America from its desire for self destruction.
I live close to the Vermont border but we have a right of center conservative government where even Bernie Sanders is a social conservative and a moderate fiscal centrist. Bernie's socialism was 20th century socialism and is part and parcel of all 20th century liberal democracy and in Quebec's case a wildly successful private sector that works with our necessary public sector.
America was great when it led us to a better future not a mythical past.
3
Is Joe Biden really the candidate for a return to normalcy? Many people were upset and felt cheated out by 40 years of pro-free trade and economically conservative policies under both democrats and republicans.
I dislike Joe’s positions over the years, question his compromising mindset which repeatedly resulted in vary poor decisions. I honestly believe he will be a bad president, certainly not the one to handle a “Cuba missile” crisis situation so well defused by JFK. And I support Elizabeth Warren. His candidacy is weak, with bar far the biggest baggage of any democratic candidate.
But, Franklin Bruni is right. There is a demand by a large chunk of the American people for a return to normalcy, a yearning for taking a breath, particularly among older Americans. A sense of returning to deeply held values that have been turned upside down under Trump. We will find out soon enough.
If Biden makes it, and if he wants to win, he must unite the base he does not hhave and rally the progressive wing and the younger vote, without which he will not win. Unlike most other readers clamouring for a redundant Biden/Klobuchar ticket, the smart play here is a Biden/Warren ticket. A true unity ticket.
4
"America in 2016 elected a president bereft of those traits, . . ." Are we seriously considering the real, yet disturbing possibility that this is the real America and that Trump is merely the symptom and not the cause? Two more related points. The ability/capacity to defeat Trump is the only consideration for level-headed US citizens who have the right to vote. Second, I would only hope that the Democratic billionaires currently running for the "privilege" of running against Trump would withdraw from the race and spend their $$$ getting out the vote and putting new people on the voting rolls. I may be naive, but this is the only way to defeat Trump: Give all American citizens the vote to which they are entitled, allow those voters to protect the rights of non-citizens, and save this country from destruction of its foundational values and institutions.
6
Nice guy? Look at his instincts. Remember the Clarence Thomas hearings? Remember the crime bill? More recently, when there was talk of having him testify along with Bolton, he said he would not comply with a subpoena because it would be nothing more than a fishing expedition. That was exactly what Trump and his lawyers used as the justification for ignoring House subpoenas and gave rise to the second article of Trump's impeachment.
Sorry, but I want someone who instinctively does the right thing when it matters.
5
@Howard Biden is a “nice guy” who voted for and actively campaigned for the War on Iraq. About a million people died in that war and we squandered trillions there. This is nice?
1
@Linda McKim-Bell Did you read my post? We're in agreement.
Many Democrats believe that electability is the most important issue this time around, but what about the day after inauguration? We will need an intelligent, decent, humane president with good ideas about how to fix what Trump has broken and how to move the country forward instead of backward as Trump has done. That person also needs to be able to unite the country and heal the wounds. Is it Mr. Biden? I don't know. We could do worse, such as re-electing Trump. But we may also be able to do better.
6
Biden's not my first choice but if he's the nominee, I will vote for him. When it comes right down to it, we need our government and Constitiution back. If the Dems get the House, Senate and Presidency in 2021, we their supporters are not going to be able just to sit back and let 'democracy' take it's course. We're going to have to fight for every meaningfull reform and correction to be enacted into law. And that means holding our elected officials feet to the fire.
4
Bernie Sanders supporters love to hate Joe Biden not because he represents business-as-usual politics, but because he's a legitimate threat to Bernie winning the nomination. It's that simple. Look folks, socialism does not have broad appeal in America. For all the hoopla about Sanders campaign, his popularity and support has barely moved over the course of his candidacy. He sits right about 20-27% support among Democrats. That's not a majority people. Or a plurality. Or anything resembling a "mandate from the people". Newsflash for Trump and Sanders supporters - being the loudest in the room or having the most tweets doesn't mean you have popular support to back you up.
Plus, no one here cares a whit what works in Sweden or Denmark. Cherry picking places where democratic socialism seems to work while ignoring the places where it has been an abject failure is a trick of the trade, but not effective in convincing people that they should trade their right to a "choice" for a government mandate.
9
@John
"For all the hoopla about Sanders campaign, his popularity and support has barely moved over the course of his candidacy. He sits right about 20-27% support among Democrats. That's not a majority people."
He sits right where Biden sits. In fact, his numbers have increased a bit where Biden's have lost ground.
News flash: nobody has anything close to a majority, including Biden. He's struggling to get there, despite a consistent sales job by the NY Times and other news outlets to push a moderate to the forefront.
8
Capitalism has been an abominable failure in as many nations as socialism has.
5
Here's the question younger voter are asking themselves...do we want to have a candidate that has had too many "OK Boomer" moments?
3
@KB
If that's your litmus test I suggest you stay home and help us all out by not voting at all. Thank you.
1
I read a short story years ago. By a French author, Saint-Exupery. About airplane pilots who (among other adventures) go down in the Sahara and are thirsting for water--dreaming of water--longing for water.
Mr. Bruni, I haven't weighed (in any careful way) what this or that Democratic candidate says he or she will do. Or won't do. What his or her program promises or doesn't promise or shouldn't promise.
But like those French airplane pilots I am thirsting to see some decency in the White House. I am dreaming of decency in the White House. I am longing to see decency in the White House.
If Mr. Biden can deliver it, then he's got my vote. But what am I saying? ANY of those Democratic candidates has got my vote.
I do wish Bernie Sanders didn't look and sound so ANGRY all the time. But no matter. If they nominate him, he's got my vote.
Ditto Ms. Warren. Ditto Mr. Buttigieg. Ditto anyone.
Videos and photographs of Mr. Obama give me such pain. It was only three years ago--and we had a President we could be proud of. A President who didn't make one cringe whenever he opened his mouth. A President whom foreign leaders didn't mock behind his back--
--or to his face.
Decency, Mr. Bruni. Dear Lord in Heaven, it matters.
Like the guy said--
--it matters.
9
Bless you! My deepest wish is that everyone who is against Trump (Democrat’s and others) will be willing to vote for ANYONE on the Democratic ticket. We need to be ready immediately to come together as in common cause.
2
He's not one of my top Democratic candidates.
But if he is the Democratic nominee, I'll vote for him, and if he wins, I will weep tears of joy and relief.
9
Biden is the kind of candidate who appeals to a block of senior citizens who don't demand much from a president except that he/she makes them feel good.
I really wish we had an understanding and a tradition in this country that acknowledges that seniors should be voting for the future, for their grandkids, instead of who they feel most comfortable with. If you're over 65, it really isn't about you anymore.
12
It’s about all of us, including those over 65. We’re going to be around for a couple more decades, so we have a stake in this country.
But I’m voting on the issues too. I like Biden’s plan to strengthen and expand the ACA. I like adding a public option. I want to see preexisting conditions protected—one of my top priorities—and I want to see candidates talking about it. Biden does.
I like his climate plan and his plan to strengthen unions. Most of all I like that he’s demonstrated the ability to push legislation through Congress.
As Krugman said, there won’t be much difference in what Democratic candidates accomplish in office. They’ll all work under the same constraints. The more important factor in getting progressive legislation passed is the composition of Congress.
3
Every democratic president in the last 50 years started when he was no older than 55 years of age. Biden may have experience and certainly is honest, decent, has empathy and humanity. But unfortunately, he is just too old. Buttigieg is the only one left, based on that criteria, who can win.
1
He was real nice when he called a voter a damn liar and challenged him to a street fight. He was real nice to Anita Hill. His vote for the Iraq war was real nice. Sleepy Joe. What a nice guy. How much did his PR firm pay the NYTimes to run this article aka advertisement?
10
@Eric
Yup, it's all a conspiracy. Big corporations, PR firms, billionaires and the "punditry class" are working together to fix the election. Keep telling yourself that Eric and maybe, just maybe, you'll wake up to the reality that Biden is the front-runner because he's genuinely liked and lauded for his service to this Country.
4
@John
Let's see where we are in a month, John. I don't think you'll be happy.
1
@John I live among politically involved folks and have yet to meet someone who supports Biden. Warren, Yang, Bloomberg, Tulsi, Bernie, Pete, yes. Not one Biden. But we also dont tend to still have landlines or answer telemarketing calls (i.e. pollsters).
Enrollment in higher education enrollment has been steadily declining . Over the past eight years, college enrollment nationwide has fallen about 11%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Student debt now posts an incredible one Trillion dollars and college graduates are remarkably underemployed. Nice won’t cut it. Fido is also nice and also not Trump, and probably much better than Trump, but that’s not what a demoralized country and a “world in disarray “ requires right now. VP Biden seems like a very decent and vigorous man with a distinguished career, but we need a game changer.
4
Joe’s a good guy. And I will gladly vote for him if he’s the nominee. But this idea that we can somehow defeat the Republicans and the corrupt, nativist, greedy drives they represent with a return to collegiality is the height of naïveté. They are fighting a war and they are fighting to win and there is no skullduggery and criminality that is beneath them. What the Republican Party has become must be rooted out and destroyed. The Democrats need to bring the fight and have no illusions about the nature of their opposition.
10
With respect for your excellent writing, Frank, I think this piece is a little out-of-touch.
The kind of relief people feel after hearing Biden is a temporary relief—a cozy Center-Left happy place for people who are exhausted enough by the criminal underperformance of the current administration that they’d rather just elect a familiar face (even one whose mouth uttered praise of people like Strom Thurmond, a proud, outspoken racist) than bother sorting out strikingly similar yet differently-articulated policies such as those of Sanders and Warren.
The kind of relief people feel after hearing Biden is not a relief for all, or even for very many. You might feel tired of Trump, even marginalized by his homo- and transphobic agenda (as I do), and ache for those Obama-era good spirits.
But for hundreds of thousands of people, a return to pre-Trump life is not enough. Americans without a permanent home, Americans who cannot afford to go to the hospital, Americans at constant risk of murder by a prejudiced police force—those people won’t be helped by a nice man whose cardinal appeal is that he’s not Trump. Those people need revolutionary change, and we owe them, our fellow citizens, the act of voting for someone who can enact it.
14
Biden is promising real progress, not simply a return to pre-Trump America. He’s promising to make that hospital trip affordable—and that college degree too. Gun safety legislation and zero emissions by 2050. Read his platform on his web site.
If he were elected we would see experience in foreign affairs—a president who really could right our ship of state—and real, substantial change domestically.
2
Thanks for this nostalgic trip back to 1976 when we elected an honest, decent, empathetic farmer to replace the disgraced Nixon/Ford administration.
Frank probably doesn't remember, but the peanut farmer served one term and was replaced by an B movie actor. Lord, don't drag us through that nightmare again.
3
Ugh. Why do pundits fall so hard for zero substance?
Biden is a centrist Dem, who helped lay the foundation for Trump. Endless wars, uncontrolled banks and big business, constantly growing income inequality... why wasn’t a minimum wage increase job 1 of Joe’s administration? Why wasn’t raising the cap on Social Security taxes on the table? Why did Joe sponsor a bankruptcy bill that hurt average folks? Why was Joe’s first campaign event a large corporate fundraiser?
Stop the silliness. Biden is a decent guy with all the wrong solutions.
We don’t need a return to normalcy. Normalcy is what got us here. Normalcy is what people voted against in 2016. We need a dramatic change.
Either Democrats will offer change or voters will chose the maniacal change maker in the White House.
18
Biden is a progressive. He always has been. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour IS one of his top issues. So is raising the income cap on taxes for Social Security and reversing Trumps donor tax cut.
You don’t have to guess about his policies. Read them on his web site.
3
@SandraH.Biden, Biden was just Vice President.
His administration proposed cuts to Social Security benefits. The cap on Social Security taxes was not removed. The minimum wage remained unchanged.
The Iraq war was progressive? The bankruptcy bill was progressive? Letting banks off the hook after they crashed the economy was progressive? A big corporate fundraiser to kick off his campaign was progressive?
Hardly.
You are right that I don’t have to guess at Biden’s policies. I can look at his record.
Biden is no progressive.
1
America is at a vital crossroad. If you allow Mr. Trump to retain power you are dispensing with morality, truth, decency, ethics, and integrity. Joe Biden is absolutely correct, the very soul of this great nation is in peril. The Constitution of The United States, which has already been disrespected and crippled by this self centered narcissist, will be further degraded to the point it's only value will be that of toilet paper.
I care and will do all I can to prevent this. While I don't have a vote, the implications of this election will also alter my future and that of the rest of the world. After November, if this corrupt individual is still in office, America will irrevocably shrink to what is contained with in her borders. Your current allies will not align themselves with the countries that Trump admires so much.
Mr. Trump has never tried to mask his intentions to the rest of the world. He uses bullying and intimidation to get what he wants rather than what is good for your nation. With this amoral president you will become a dictatorship with allies like Russia, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. This man places no value on truth, integrity or allegiances and has no inclination to defend any stance but that which benefits himself.
It's a truly bleak picture and one I hope never comes about! Your future is in your hands, and there has never been a more important time in history for the United States since Independence Day.
8
They all sound better than Trump to me.
Pick one, I'm voting for that person because any one of them is electable, and Trump is indictable.
11
NPR had a long piece this morning interviewing Iowans. One farmer has been hurt financial by Trump's tariffs and stated he would not vote for him again, but, he added, he would not vote for Biden either because Biden got away with his dirty dealings in Ukraine. He thought he might not vote for any presidential candidate.
Trump's scheme has worked. Biden is no longer a viable candidate. And in spite of my son's defense of Bernie, the country will not elect a man who calls himself and democratic socialist. The young have proven over and over again that they will gather in crowds, but they do not vote.
What a mess. I hope Klobachar or Warren can withstand all the slime that will be thrown at them.
5
@Janet
With that attitude, it's amazing we accomplished many things that 'would not happen'. Things like a forty hour work week, social security, and the women's right to vote, all had folks saying Americans would never vote for somebody like ______.
We should be very careful looking at historical precedent judging by America's morally and ethically checked past.
1
Having watched democrats get pushed around by republicans for decades, I have no confidence that Joe Biden with his lousy voting record or republican Bloomberg will serve our interests. We need someone who will fight for democracy, not a corporate patsy.
8
One only need look at the statistics involving civilian casualties and rapes of Iraqis that resulted from Biden happily handing over his Constitutionally-granted war powers to a manchild desperate to be a "wartime president" in order to view Biden's idea of "morality."
We are our actions, not our words. Biden's actions -- as many millions of us predicted -- led to the murders of over a hundred thousand, and the rapes of tens of thousands (many of them children).
This man -- like the last Democratic candidate -- has no morality beyond political gain. Trump is an awful person, but his body count doesn't begin to approach "Nice Guy" Joe Biden's.
Neither of them deserve our votes.
6
What is so "nice" about a former senator, chair of the judiciary committee, who allowed the sexist, racist abuse of Anita Hill in order to "do business" with Republicans, and whose best apology, years on and only as he was aspiring to the presidency, was "I'm sorry about what happened to her," as if this was an act of nature rather than of his chairmanship. What is so "nice" about a Senator who voted for George Bush's phony war? I just don't get this publicity machine and its fuel of amnesia. I'll vote for the Democratic nominee whoever he or she is. But Mr. Biden will draw no enthusiasm and only faint confident from me. Better than Trump is the best I can say and that's a pretty low bar
7
In these horrific times, when the Republican party is led by people apparently intent on undermining democracy, we don't need a nice guy. We need someone who will stand up to these people, and fight them.
We need someone who has no illusions about reaching across the aisle to work in camaradarie with those who would destroy us --- and him.
Anyone can pretend that a "nice guy" in office will restore normalcy in America (though honestly, I fail to see what's nice about cutting Social Security, the crime bill, Anita Hill's treatment, and the gutting of bankruptcy protections).
But the reality is that that same nice guy is already being raked over the coals by his former colleagues. Anyone who believes that electing him will make the Republican party snap out of it is fooling him- or herself. Being nice to thugs just encourages them.
We need a leader who will stand up to the Republican party and its followers and tell them, NO, you can't continue to destroy this nation. Biden is not the man for that job.
10
Biden is Dole 2.0. Like Dole, he probably wouldn't even win his home state.
7
Dole won Kansas. And the winner overall was a center left democrat, Bill Clinton. So there’s two lessons there.
I admit that with the impeachment heading toward its apparently inevitable whimper-not-bang, this proud member of the anti-Trump choir would rather hear the remaining dulcet affirmations of principles this country is supposed to be founded on: rule of law, the importance of deliberative body playing their role in the "checks and balances" with earnestness and integrity (including the importance of their oath, an under-emphasized point in this), and the hazards or autocracy and tyranny. Not that Uncle Joe is a nice guy. As to him (ostensible niceness and all, I look forward to saying "good riddance."
How can such a man claim to offer "moral leadership" to a nation suffering so much from the lack thereof (indeed, its substitution by leadership in immorality, this presidency's ultimate scourge), if he couldn't muster the moral leadership in his own family to dissuade (or at least discourage) his own son from trading on his family's name to partake of an inherently corrupt no-work $90,000 per month sinecure, a job having no role other than to paint corruption respectable by bastardization-Burismazation of the Biden name?
There is no getting around the taint of not only the Hunter-Burisma relationship and Joe Biden's apparent acceptance of it, but the "It wasn't illegal" defense.
If you need to resort to "an it wasn't illegal defense" in such a smelly situation, you are already lost.
Hopefully a reinvigorated Democratic party will rise Phoenix-like, but hopefully Biden-less.
2
(Sorry for my sloppy punctuation -incl. misplaced or omitted parentheses, etc.)
Speaking of rebirth from defeats, in such moments it's critical to remember that all great achievements accept setbacks as necessary stages in a bigger process/project: "The arc of history bends toward justice," said MLK.
This entails figuring out what we got right, what we got wrong, but especially reaffirming/renewing the core principles. I find especially pertinent to this the song of renewed hope amid defeat, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade anthem "Valley in Spain Called Jarama," very relevant to these times in so, so many ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hBe-s40q4&t=25s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGRVSp8r_yE
It's a song about idealism, but also misplaced idealism that needs to re-examine itself. The first front line opposition to the fascists in the 1930s were the communists; these brave Americans, black & white smiling & training & fighting *together* when anything like that was rare, show the democratic, idealistic spirit at its best, "fighting the good fight." Their lyric "no place in our valley for these fascists" is the right spirit: know the true enemy & don't seek peace with him (at least till he recants).
But the song is bittersweet: mistakes were made, only worsened if you don't learn. The communism was noble principle taken too far, however worthily it inspired this action. That political spirit - economic justice - must be tweaked to win the next battles.
1
Every time a conservative talks about Hunter Biden, Hunter is given more money and his job becomes easier. Hunter is going to be richer than Ivanka and retired in their imaginary world shortly.
1
@Yeah
Great point. I love how they scream that Hunter was making $50,000 a month, while conveniently ignoring the fact that Don Jr got the same amount to simply make a speech.
1
Nice? If "nice" is the qualifier for POTUS, then why didn't the Dems recruit Mr. Rogers?
"Nice" implies every other nation can run roughshod over this country with no consequences.
Which the Left wants since we're such a "racist imperialist" country, so we deserve to be taken advantage of, right?
I'll take Trump as a leader who puts America first, not some smiley milquetoast who'd sell this country down the river in a heartbeat.
2
That's pretty funny, Elizabeth, being as Trump has sold this country down the river from the time he announced his candidacy.
He sold it right down the river to Putin.
I guess Fox News leaves that part out.
I don't believe a call for revolution is a winning strategy. Nor do I think that being a decent man is sufficient -- even if it wins the White House -- given the magnitude of the issues we face.
The Democrats need to both win (the Presidency and the Senate) and win with someone who is committed to moving rapidly on climate change, restoring nuclear treaties, moving toward good healthcare and education for all, taxing Amazon and the wealthy, getting balanced trade with China, restoring our relations with allies, and gaining control of our borders. A full plate for anyone!
3
I will vote for a Democrat no matter who it is. Truth to be told, I'd vote for a paper bag over the current occupant of the White House.
I do like Biden and think he would do a fine job as president, but I just can't see him getting the nomination. I think Sanders will get the nomination, to the dismay of the Democratic party establishment. He has the appeal of the younger generation and his campaign/networking is head and shoulders above the other candidates. Whether Sanders can defeat Trump in a general election is another question.
3
Would be great to have a president who puts America first and not Putin's Russia. Biden is an honest man. The contrast with Trump could not be starker.
7
I am worried the Democrats are going to implode. Read these comments and you'll find people who love Bernie and detest Biden, others who love Biden and detest Bernie. Right now it is hard to see this fractured party coming together behind one candidate and beating Trump.
4
Seriously...can we investigate the man and the conflict of interest he had while VP? He will miss out on quite a few votes until the very real issue is put to rest.
2
@Kimbo It was written about at the time. President Obama should have made clear that Hunter Biden was not to serve on the Burisma board, just as he should have made clear that Hillary Clinton was not to conduct her official state department business on a private e-mail server. He did not do those things and the party continues to suffer the fallout. There still seems no evidence that Burisma's attempts to compromise Joe Biden worked to alter U.S. foreign policy at the time. Other Americans besides Hunter served (and may continue to serve) on the Burisma board. Energy Secretary Perry reportedly took names of Americans to Ukraine on his trip there to recommend for board service in its oil industry. Obama and Joe Biden showed bad judgment in their unwillingness to instruct Hunter Biden to either not take the position with Burisma or resign from it after they learned of it. I would nonethless suggest the actions and cover-ups of the Trump administration are infinitely more dangerous than Hunter Biden's board service, and it is surprising to me that so many Trump supporters can defend his lawlessness while attacking the Biden family.
2
I like Joe okay, but if he says "I will beat Trump like a drum." one more time I'm gonna scream!
4
Decency is the sword that the Democrats will use to snicker-snack he-who-shall-not-be-named. All of our Democratic candidates are fundamentally decent.
2
Is Biden the decent Jimmy Carter the country needed after the corrupt Nixon?
1
@Mary What line of business did Carters' children get into?
This election, there is only one issue, getting rid of Trump. He is evil and destructive. As voters have their say it will be clearer who can toss Trump out.
1
This election is about much more than "feeling good" about your favorite candidate.
The 2020 presidential election will be decided by the candidate who is supported by the majority of center of the road conservative Democratic and moderate Republican voters in six key states-- Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and North Carolina. They are the same group of voters who helped elect a Democratic House of Representatives in 2018.
I don't tend to agree with the moderate center of the road views -- I believe that the country needs very dramatic change. But I know that a candidate who agrees with my views cannot be elected president in 2020, and it would be a disaster, maybe even the end of our democracy, if the monster Trump is reelected.
Biden certainly has many flaws, along with his 40 plus years of accomplishments. But he has the best chance of attracting middle of the road voters in key states, and for that reason alone I am supporting him.
3
@ Benjamin
“Biden certainly has many flaws, along with his 40 plus years of accomplishments.”
Please provide ANY accomplishment by Biden besides getting re-elected to the Senate.
Is the Iraq War an accomplishment? The Patriot Act? The Crime Bill? The Bankruptcy Bill?
What EXACTLY do you consider a Biden accomplishment?
Thank you.
10
@Chris
His accomplishments include helping Obama become the first African American president and working for his policies for eight years, the defeat of Bork as Supreme Court nominee, the assault weapons ban (expired and not renewed by GOP), the violence against women act and its implementation, strong support of NATO, sponsorship of legislation to provide funds for computer education for young people, support of women's right to choose.
1
@ Benjamin
So basically not a single, positive signature achievement in 40 years.
Does that outweigh his negative” achievements, some of which have been signature Biden legislation like the Bankruptcy Bill?
I don’t think so.
Have you examined his record?
Biden voted for the Iraq war, supported all regime change wars, promulgated the drug war, promoted his 'Crime bill' that helped build the incarceration state, backed up bailing out Wall Street and not 'main street,' supported getting rid of Glass-Steagall and backed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which led to the 2008 meltdown, loves the 'droneabombers,' once supported segregation and opposed busing, liked NAFTA, likes the death penalty, protected credit card companies, bungled the Anita Hill hearing, loves the Patriot Act and the NSA, is against "Medicare for All," free college and the $15 minimum wage. The Obama/Biden legacy - on top of giving us Trump - is a right-wing Heritage Foundation health care"plan, 5 more new wars, more domestic spying, more drone strikes, no torture prosecutions, no bankster prosecutions instead kicking out homeowners, Bush tax cuts permanent, the largest transfer of wealth in history to the rich, an increased "defense" budget, nuclear armament escalation to the tune of a trillion plus, an attempt to kill SS and Medicare in a "grand bargain", whistleblowers prosecuted, fracking galore, drilling in the Arctic, a stolen Supreme Court seat, a broke DNC, and a loss of 1000 legislative seats.
1
Bloomberg will get my vote on Super Tuesday. I believe he is the only one who can unseat Trump. And, he would make an excellent president.
He is almost the Bizarro World version of Trump: decent, an *actual* business titan and self-made man, hyper-competent, data-driven, non-ideological almost to a fault, boring. An exhausted American people want these traits right now.
His recent ads, including those during the Super Bowl, show me he knows how to speak to the *whole country* which will need to be persuaded in the general election. He is linking healthcare and other practical, bread and butter issues to their moral urgency without beating anyone over the head with calls to revolution.
I believe Biden will look much weaker over the next couple of months than the powers-that-be have been telling us he is, and Bloomberg will helicopter in to give Democrats' not just the moderate they want, but the candidate who can win.
4
Joe Biden is the affable uncle called in to be executor of the estate for what is left of our democracy. Perhaps he can comfort and cheer us, but he can't make make things right again. Nevertheless, he is what we need if we are ever to hobble onward with the business of government. Let's just hope the election is free and fair.
4
Biden may be the best choice. The first two years of a Democratic presidency will primarily be spent restoring order and stability to our federal government, especially State and Justice, which are now in chaos and confusion.
Biden has had the most administrative experience at the national level.
3
It's not about how nice Biden is, or how radical Sanders is. It's about who can beat Trump. I will vote for whomever that may be and vote my political/social beliefs at a safer time.
6
Biden is not articulate, authentic or believable. He has no vision. He wants power, he wants to be elected but offers nothing. His judgement is flawed, witness the Burisma scandal. He has been in Washington the past 40 years but is now the person who clean things up and sets our moral compass. I don't think so.
17
@John And he is protected by his party. Suspiciously well protected.
1
There is one extremely simple reason to back Biden. Poll after poll has shown that he has the best chance of beating Trump. And in this election this is ALL that matters!
11
“Character matters — maybe here more than anywhere.”
Take out the "maybe." Actually, just the first two words are all you need or want. And they will fit nicely on a baseball cap.
8
You observe: "You’re supposed to leave a Sanders or Warren rally suffused with righteous anger. You leave a Biden rally sort of misty and choked up."
This could work. And the righteous anger of Sanders and Warren will only energize President Trump.
The country is ready for a rest. Mr. Trump wears a lot of people out, including me. I've always devoured the Times daily. Lately, I've been reading less.
Mr. Trump thrives on this type of relentlessly negative energy (including his core base), amd a lot of people don't. They're ready for a change.
Joe Biden isn't perfect (who amongst us are?), yet at his core, he's a decent human being.
13
@T Norris
And he will appoint people who are not only competent, but care about Americans and our country.
2
We need the healing balm of a one-term President Biden (or Bloomberg?) to bind up the nation's partisan wounds, to get all eyes on the prize of the greater good ... and then inaugurate a new progressive age with the election in 2024 of a now seasoned Vice-President Stacey Abrams?
2
So what did he say about guns? and climate change? How do his views differ from those of Sanders or the other candidates? Please report on this rather than who is the "reall nice guy" or woman.
10
Joe Biden is a nice man but not presidential material. I think he should enjoy his retirement as he has earned it.
8
The office of President is about being effective first and moral a distant second. The struggle to be moral is admirable but begs the point: people want money, peace, the American Dream. These are quality of life issues more than moral issues. Yes, real politik versus human rights. If real politik and morality collide then praise the Lord. If not, don't sweat the cynicism. In this increasingly dangerous world, would you rather be effective or moral? Yes the two are often at odds, but will morality combat the encroachment of the Chinese? North Koreans? Radical Islam? Biden is not up to the job. Far from being up to the job. Nice guys finish last---where they deserve to be if they're not really thought out. Bloomberg is up to the job----in spades. But no one will beat Trump.
No one, though
This country desperately needs Adam Schiff to run for President. He is so smart, eloquent, courageous, decent, ethical. He is what we need in this toxic state of affairs in the US at this time. He is completely trustworthy, and has the ability to bring this country together, and then we could see our way to kicking Donald Trump out of office.
5
“Someone who can work with Republicans”
This sentiment appears throughout these comments. To give it any credence you have to be deaf, dumb and blind. – and you have to ignore the whole Obama Presidency. Obama spent eight years trying to work with Republicans. They blocked everything he offered.
When he put Social Security and Medicare on the table in a budget deal they even blocked that. Trying to get Republican support for a health care plan passed, he opposed Single-Payer and abandoned a public option. Instead he put forward a Republican health care plan that garnered one Republican vote.
Does the phrase, “Make him a one-term president” ring a bell?
Since the election of Trump it’s gotten worse. They have abandoned all pretense. The entire party is corrupt from top to bottom and they seem to be proud of it.
20
Nice would be nice, for a change.
3
@Jim Anderson
What does nice have to do with it? He's not running for next door neighbor.
2
Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore were all nice guys too. I'm not so sure I want a nice guy anymore. Democrats playing nice with the opposition that cheats to win, (see David Leonhardt's column) haven't done so well the past decade. How about one that knows how to fight dirty? Or at least expects the fight to get dirty.
14
@Steve W
You conveniently left out the other two-term nice guys: Obama and Bill Clinton.
5
I am a former Democrat, now an Independent.
I believe that Obama was a good president, but not perfect. One of the mistakes he made was granting Dreamers a reprieve from deportation without approval from Congress.
Yes, I believe that Dreamers should probably get an eventual path to citizenship. But Obama should have respected the Constitution, and worked to improve the status of Dreamers by following rules set up by the Constitution.
According to the Constitution, it is the legislature that enacts laws about immigration. The executive simply enforces the laws achieved through debate in the legislature.
Arguments within congress which lead to compromise are better than civil disobedience (or even worse civil war) to achieve what cannot be achieved through debate.
Of course, Trump has made things much worse. The actual issues, such as immigration, were not discussed much during the 2016 campaigns. Instead, what we heard about was "Access Hollywood" and Bill Clinton's alleged affairs.
We need a return to politics din which candidates express approaches to issues, such as immigration.
Maybe a middle of the road candidate like Joe Biden or Mike Bloomberg is necessary as the first step of restoring "decency" to government.
But it is certainly not a "success" to destroy the Republican Party in the next election.
It is better to restore a healthy two-party system which values disagreement as a means to compromises which we can live with, in spite of their defects.
3
If you think any Democrat will beat Trump in November and that Trump will clear out his desk and actually leave in January 2021, then feel free to vote your preference in the primary. If you like the nice guy, vote for the nice guy.
If you can envision Trump winning against the wrong candidate, or Trump pulling every trick in the book to remain in office despite an electoral defeat, then you should actually take these things into account in supporting a candidate in the primary. Pick a candidate who can win and actually displace Trump in the White House.
If you would vote for any Democrat in November 2020, then you should accept that your vote will not make the difference between winning and losing. Instead, we need to figure out who can get the most votes from people uncommitted to voting Blue, No Matter Who.
We also need to figure out who has the spine to displace Trump should he refuse to leave. The Al Gore / 2000 approach is only going to leave us an autocracy.
What's the argument that Uncle Joe is that candidate?
5
I will say I'm getting tired of all the worrying. We just need to put our hearts into it and leave it all out on the field like those KC Chiefs last night.
Ain't no way we can lose. This is the most unpopular minority President of all time.
8
First things first. All the viable Democratic candidates are honest, decent, empathic, humane - people of good character. For a Democratic president to use their power to help us fix our broken moral compass (& compasses - broken at the individual level (close to half of us) and societal level) will no doubt require good intentions, and the ability to evoke those intentions in others. It will require, more importantly, a competent leader, exceptionally competent, in leadership and governance, for us to succeed, given the small chance we have, in rescuing the democracy we are carelessly throwing away.
8
@riverrunner
Nice words but we need someone who will WIN!
Why do you think trump invested some much in investigating joe in the Ukraine.
Unfortunately, Biden has no real substance to offer us in our need to combat the Oligarchy of the wealthy, the corporations and the Military Industrial COmplex. He's already too compromised, he's Republican lite. We don't need another Democratic president to preside over the loss of our democracy in small pieces. We need someone who will fight for us and for the environment from the unstoppable greed of the powerful.
11
Instead of trying to see whether Joe Biden’s a good guy or a despicable human being, let’s take a look at his policy positions & voting record.
Biden voted for the Iraq war, supported all regime change wars, promulgated the drug war, promoted his 'Crime bill' that helped build the incarceration state, backed up bailing out Wall Street and not 'main street,' supported getting rid of Glass-Steagall and backed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which led to the 2008 meltdown, loves the 'droneabombers,' once supported segregation and opposed busing, liked NAFTA, likes the death penalty, protected credit card companies, bungled the Anita Hill hearing, loves the Patriot Act and the NSA, is against "Medicare for All," free college and the $15 minimum wage.
The Obama/Biden legacy - on top of giving us Trump - is a right-wing Heritage Foundation health care"plan, 5 more new wars, more domestic spying, more drone strikes, no torture prosecutions, no bankster prosecutions instead kicking out homeowners, Bush tax cuts permanent, the largest transfer of wealth in history to the rich, an increased "defense" budget, nuclear armament escalation to the tune of a trillion plus, an attempt to kill SS and Medicare in a "grand bargain", whistleblowers prosecuted, fracking galore, drilling in the Arctic, a stolen Supreme Court seat, a broke DNC, and a loss of 1000 legislative seats.
Nobody in their right mind wants to return to the good old days of Obamaism and Bidenism.
That gave us Trump.
22
Joe Biden represents "normal." He offers a return to the status quo that prevailed before Trump started smashing things.
The problem is that voters in 2016 showed they were sick and tired of "normal" and the status quo. That status quo meant a rigged economic system that continually increased the wealth corporations, their CEOs, and their wealthiest investors, while everyone else stagnated (if they were lucky) or were increasingly impoverished. It also meant a political system that exclusively serves the wealthiest beneficiaries of the rigged economic system and ignored everyone else.
Republican voters rejected the "normal" offered by Jeb!, Rubio, and Cruz. They chose a masterful con man who recognized that voters were fed up with "normal," and ran a populist campaign that promised (with fingers crossed) to "drain the swamp" and "be their voice." Democratic voters in 22 states chose a self-proclaimed socialist who offered an alternative to the rigged economy and took no money from the party fundraisers. But "normal" prevailed with the candidate the donors had anointed. Then enough voters in the right states put the con man in the White House.
Voters don't want "normal." They want someone who will at least try to make their lives better, rather than perpetuating the "normal" rigged system. And if anything, voter disgust with "normal" has only increased since 2016. If the Democratic Party once again gives us "normal," the result will be the same as it was in 2016.
13
@Ted
That's right. Voters will vote for change even if it's against their interests. They want energy and action, even if it fails. They want someone who will fight, even if they lose. They don't want slow and in the way Biden from the last millennium.
Who's going to stand in line to vote for Biden? Heck, who'd get out of bed for Biden?
12
@Fourteen14
I'm not fond of any of the candidates. That said,
change for the sake of change is just plain stupid.
1
@EFM
If you can't put together a long list of things that need to change in order to make this country a better place to live and work, you haven't been paying attention. Or you're a wealthy Republican.
3
Does Joe Biden even know what year he is in??
9
We can beat all of these people in the Senate and House. Amy McGrath will be the Senator from Kentucky replacing Mitch McConnell.
7
Biden certainly wasn't "nice" to Anita Hill when he repeatedly cut off her testimony and supported Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. We're still paying for it. Biden chose sexism that go 'round. Sexual harassment was still okay then. And Bernie Sanders' points are no more revolutionary than were FDR's. What he espouses nearly every single developed nation but our own already has and has had since right after WW II. Buttigieg is shamelessly ageist. Experience should count for something. Re: Biden, do we really need yet another centrist/corporatist so that we can keep moving to the right?
14
Yes, and obviously the good people at Burisma really liked Joe and his son Hunter, too.
8
Bernie wins and we become just like Venezuela.
2
This 60 year-old white Republican Never Trumper (and cheapskate) just made the very first donation to a campaign of his life to Joe Biden's -- it's all hands on deck to beat Trump!
11
Nice guys finish last.
4
Uh, about this niceness:
I can't tell you how much I want to believe it. And I do believe he is the most electable candidate.
But I will remain haunted by the portrait of Joe Biden drawn in George Packer's tour de force "The Unwinding."
Oh, I'll vote for him without question. I even HOPE he's the nominee.
Let's just be realistic and respect his complexity as a human being before we anoint him the King of Nice.
The trouble with this analysis is that Biden isn’t really a nice guy.
If you listen to his tone as he badgered Elizabeth Warren when she was testifying in support of the CFPB (which threatened Joe’s funding) or during the Bork confirmation, you can hear the anger and disrespect in his voice. Just watch the video from his recent confrontation with the Trump supporter in Iowa who asked about Hunter and Burisma - Joe’s head almost exploded. These are signs of someone who has internalized a lot and operates just below boiling.
Maybe there are good reasons for that underlying anger, but let’s not pretend that Joe is the “nice guy” he tries to paint himself as. He is the opposite of calm and collected. Trump has already tapped into his negative energy, and will have a field day if Biden is the nominee.
12
I love to read the comments. I sometimes offer one myself. I'm starting to notice that, as I read comments with which I generally agree, I'm chuckling nervously under my breath, signalling the complete disengagement I'm feeling at the time, not with the writers but with the system about which they're writing.
Is this like "hitting bottom" for someone addicted. An intelligent person knows his addiction isn't helping, yet continues much as I continue to gather thoughts about what needs to be done about my country.
America, the democratic Republic part of it, has been conquered for now. I think my nervous chuckling reflects the uneasiness of the vanquished. Everywhere I turn, there's someone saying something completely untenable about where we stand today, like it's a good thing and I cry inside.
This is a sad state of affairs. Were it in close and personal, I'm afraid I'd be in the eye gouging stage. But since it's systemic and lawyer driven, we have to listen to opinions that tie the truth in knots and prevent any careful examination of facts. What?
This isn't like accepting difference. This is witnessing disaster. Any psychologist will tell you, trauma often manifests in physical symptoms. I get it.
5
@dove Didn't you write all this last week ?
Biden is offering restoration to what? To times when, as people in the cities know, homeless population multiplied. (Didn’t that happen during Obama years?)
And restoration to times when Wall Street could get away with crimes.
And restoration to times when college and healthcare debt is growing burden on more and more US citizens.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Obama, but isn’t US ready for next step in solving some underlying social challenges of 21st century?
Are you advocating for yet another guy who we might like to have a beer with?
One thing we yet need to hear from American pundits is answer to Bernie’s question “why all developed countries can have what US can’t?”
16
No, the Democrats did not ruin the country for the working class. Where have you been for the past 3 years and before that infinitum? We've had a Republican party without empathy or morality who have blocked progress at every turn for the working class and now the middle class is taking the hits. I am retired and for the first time I owed IRS $800 with the same income. I was fortunate to be able to pay my extra medical bills but not able to deduct, nor was I able to deduct my charitable contributions. But, hooray, great tax cut for the upper 1%. This was not on account of the Dems but the Republican's callous regard for the middle class that may be fast disappearing.
15
Joe Biden is for "Restoration," which makes his campaign strategy the same as Trump's in 2016, one which leverages for political advantage the classic myth (story) of the Eternal Return."
The Eternal Return is a fascinating story genetically encoded into the hearts and minds of people which promises to return them individually and collectively to a state of empowerment, fulfillment and eternal happiness. Elect me, and it will all happen -- paradise will reemerge and the land will flow with milk, honey and justice. Who wouldn't want that?
As good as this story is, the realpolitic of it all is that we don't want to elect a story as president, we want to elect someone with the charisma, guts, wisdom and vision to actually restore some sense democracy, fairness and sanity to our nation. Joe Biden is not this person. As kind as he is on an individual level, he's not the person to engage with the entrenched, moneyed interests that daily destroy our nation.
Trump offered people the myth of the eternal return and succeeded. He has returned us to the state of Neanderthal Man, a people ruled my crude appetites and lusts and nothing more.
We prefer a return to a spiritual civilization -- one based on diversity, respect, democracy, fairness, military restraint, collegiality, dignity,
It will take someone with advocacy experience to make it happen.
We want Sanders or Warren, with help from Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
We do not want Biden or Bloomberg,
6
@Kip Leitner 'We do not want...."
Are you speaking just for yourself or for all the Kips in America ?
4
We? Who's 'we'? Because you certainly don't speak for me or anyone I know. And I know a lot of people.
This appears to be the issue for those on the fringes of the Democratic party. They claim to speak for a much broader coalition than they truly represent. They certainly make a lot of noise.
@kenneth -- I am speaking representing the voice of millions of Americans who don't have time to argue details on the NY Times:
Bernie Sanders is the #1 most popular Senator in the United States:
https://morningconsult.com/2019/01/10/americas-most-and-least-popular-senators-q4-2018/
Bernie Sanders is the #1 most popular Candidate for President among young people (who increased their voting strength by 14% in the 2018 midterms)
https://boingboing.net/2020/01/14/none-of-the-above-party.html
Check it.
1
I like VP Biden. He is indeed a very kind man. I too like all the other Democratic candidates. They're smart, serious, competent. Which makes it even more crazy Trump is still standing with unchanged poll numbers. None of these candidates seem to be in a position to take Trump on in a manner to beat him. Trump is going to the gutter in this election. It'll be a street fight. If no Democratic candidate is prepared to beat Trump senseless in that type of fight, Trump will win. When someone like Trump calls your wife ugly; makes fun of your handicap kid; calls you a criminal without evidence; makes fun of your appearance; etc., you have to do what it takes to stop him!
Enter Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg has already set up a "War Room" to combat Trump and all of his craziness. In the past 24 hours, Trump derided Bloomberg's physical height falsely creating an issue involving the debates. Bloomberg's team immediately shot back about Trump's fake hair, sprayed tan, and lying about his obesity. Anyone who thinks this doesn't bother Trump, doesn't know what it takes to beat Trump. Trump is extremely weak and cannot handle this kind of criticism.
This display from Bloomberg's campaign is a signal he is willing to go and kick Trump's behind. If that means fighting fire with fire, so be it.
I can get behind that approach 56 billion %. I'm black, gay, and progressive.
I like Mayor Bloomberg's approach to Trump and look forward to learning more about the former Mayor of NYC.
12
Bloomberg has no chance
4
@Bill ---- Bloomberg will never get the black vote. He may pay some black consultants to tell him otherwise, but as a ex-New Yorker who is a black man and who won a large settlement from the City of New York due to Bloomberg's "Stop and Frisk" policy, I assure you, people like myself will be working in overdrive to support anyone other than Bloomberg, and that includes Trump.
@Jonathan
You say you care about the black community and yet you would so much as consider supporting Trump who is clearly racist?
This is a man who believes in privatizing the penal system. Read up on privatized prisons if you don't know how they work. They use any excuse to keep people incarcerated as long as possible so they can they milk the profits.
1
There aren't many nice guys in politics. We need more.
2
No, what we need is a leader. Being a nice guy is an added plus. But if my choices are competent, capable and maybe not do nice, I’ll take is as opposed to a great guy who cannot get the job done.
6
Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.
The Malignant Narcissist will win in November because the Dems will nominate someone who cannot beat him.
And all the Bernie Bros will vote for Trump again.
3
If Trump is to be defeated, the present working class will need a working class hero to look up to, that is Joe Biden. He will be able to make sense of all of this without all the aggression they have become accustomed to; they need to calm down.
Biden can do it with some reasoning and familiarity, an awareness of what it is like to be the same as they are, something that Trump is not. Trump's appeal is to their anger. He rattled cages, and still does.
Biden appeals to the good nature in people. This is what we need to re-unite this country. Perhaps in the future we could use someone different, but for now, we need to heal.
I believe that once we get to the root of our people, those who built this country, in our cities, towns, and in our rural areas, everyone, everywhere, once we calm down and see what we need to do, we all will look around, see what damage has been done, and begin to pick up the pieces together to re-build this nation in cooperation.
2
Biden is unlikely to win, he’s about as inspiring as 3 day old leftovers. If people aren’t excited for him, they just won’t show up. And Trump wins.
7
@Smilodon7 If he is indeed the nominee, and they don't show up, then it is on them, period. We need to heal, and we need to get up and out of this mess that Trump has gotten up mixed up in. We need a leader that others can respect.
Sometimes, if warmed up properly, 3 day old leftovers can really be appealing. I come from a family of chefs, and have a good imagination and know how. One needs to work with what we have.
A lovely sentiment that I agree with is on display in this article, but if you want a man of principle, who has remained true to his values through thick and thin, that man is Bernie Sanders. When Biden was running against integration, Sanders was standing, often literally, with the black community. While Biden waited until gay rights became politically advantageous to support, Sanders was there at Stonewall. You may disagree with his values, but you cannot deny he has always stood up for them, even when it was dangerous to. That's the moral fiber we need after a president that values nothing.
8
What's that old adage about "nice guys finish last".
When it comes to personality traits, I don't think there is a candidate that could be as pungent and repulsive as the current guy who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and yet, this knucklehead was elected.
So, so much for "a really nice guy" being the tipping point between who gets in vs. who doesn't.
Sure, I would love to see someone do a slam dunk and beat Trump at the presidential debates. But what will motivate and steer me in the right direction is where she or he stands on policies like global warming, beefing up cyber-security in this country, foreign policy, just to name a few.
It's always been about the issues for me more than about personality. Would I like to see a kinder, more compassionate, more empathetic, and more common sense driven person running the country? Heck yes!
But the candidate better have a solid handle on what they are talking about and how they intend to go forward first and foremost. Being a "nice guy or gal" is the cherry on top.
4
"Joe Biden: A Really Nice Guy for President"
...and where do nice guys usually finish?
6
@SpotCheckBilly...
President Obama was a pretty nice guy too.
He got himself elected twice.
The so called scrappers in the Democratic primary have yet to win even one Democratic primary.
So let's not let our own personal political biases blind us to our own political history.
2
So he’s Jimmy Carter with baggage.
5
Is that the best you can come up with?
2
@A Duncan
Biden is a centrist who talks out of both sides of his mouth. He's an old-school con-man oldster with a con-man's smile.
He sponsored (and is proud of it) the mass incarceration of blacks and non-violent drug offenders with his 1994 Crime Bill.
He voted for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill, not to mention the Iraq War. He does not have the three qualities of a President: judgment, integrity, and character.
He did not allow the other three witnesses to testify in support of Anita Hill and sat back as the rest piled on. Why would any woman vote for him?
He loves to touchy-feely women. Here's nine times he's caught in the act:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/02/9-times-joe-biden-whispered-in-womens-ears.html
In the 1970s he was an anti-busing proponent, which hurt blacks. Why would any black vote for him?
In 1988 he canceled his candidacy for President because of his plagiarism in law school. Later, he plagiarized three people in his speeches.
Hunter Biden got $50,000/month for being a Biden kid - that's legalized corruption.
Biden is a weasley pol who collaborates with the Republicans; he is Hillary redux. Sleepy Joe is good but Sleazy Joe is better.
"Lunch-Bucket Joe" is his fake persona - but he's never swung a hammer or worked in a factory - he's been a privileged lawyer and Washington insider and politician his entire life.
He belongs back in the stone age of the last millennium from whence he came.
4
@Fourteen14
Hunter Biden got $50,000/month for being a Biden kid - that's legalized corruption.
And Fat Donnie's kid Junior got $50,000 for a single speech.
And your point was?
Joe. trump picked on you to enhance his election cheating.
You should not have run. Your son is getting raked over
coals. You're old, you look old. You should have quit
while you were ahead - a beloved American Elder Statesman.
3
Heard on one of the Sunday shows that 52% of Bernie voters would not vote or would vote for Trump if their guy isn't nominated. Depressing but it makes total sense if you recall 2016 polling. Bernie was better than status quo Hillary (Biden is so like her only with a warm hug). To me, Prof. Warren is ideal but like so many others I'll vote for whomever even though in a Blue state it doesn't even matter.
How many of those voters are people who would normally consider a Democrat anyway? I would propose that there are not many.
1
In all seriousness, what is so "nice" about Biden? He seems to have a short fuse, has poor boundaries, seems a little creepy at times. But he seems to have a good publicist!
10
@Eliza If you know more, you really ought to tell us.
Where's the outrage at "How the Biden Kids Have Profited Off Their Dad's Vice-Presidency"?? BTW - I took an actual NYT headline and replaced Trump with Biden. But regardless of political party you should be outraged that politicians and their families profit directly off their positions.
9
In politics as in life I think we all know where nice guys finish.
2
@Dean S Scott
And yet everyone relies on them when they need help.
Says something about people doesn't?
1% Corporate America, including their "mainstream media" and the New York Times, are wringing their hands, terrified over Bernie Sanders, champion of we, the 99%, who are sick, tired & fed up over corporate status quo championed by Biden & Warren. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! GO BERNIE!
17
I wouldn’t mind 4-8 years of a completely boring President, a scenario that might encourage me to focus on the life in front of me instead of some distant spectacle. I’d be annoyed though if, after embracing such an opportunity to vacate and recharge, in 2024 or 2028 bizarro America decides its time yet again to elect another Republican rodeo clown.
3
With a much loved older car nicknamed Joe that maybe you bought almost-new, at some point you must decide: Do you continue to patch it with $1,500+ fixes 4x/year? Or do you donate old Joe go to a non-profit and buy a new one? Likewise, in the Uncle Joe house, do you keep keep blow-drying shrink wrap over single pane windows or finally replace them? Or the 20 year old roof or the knob and tube wiring that keeps tripping the breakers?
Revolution would be a chopper and a yurt. Structural change would be a new car and renovations that will add value, save money in the long term and keep everyone safe and warm in the near term.
2
I seriously hope the Democratic Party will forever abandon their pitch as the "Party of Inclusiveness".
After all, the only leading candidates they can offer up are elderly white people.
Dems, you have no credibility.
2
Really? Last time I checked they were the only political party in the US who ran a black man for president twice, and won.
1
Have fun voting for Trump then.
Funny, I just don't seem to get Joe Biden's act. To me, his candidacy in 2020 seems to be basically "a noun, a verb and Barack Obama". As to his character, really, who knows? He certainly wasn't too empathetic when an elderly man questioned him recently at a town hall event and he responded by calling him "a damn liar". His history of trying to find middle ground with the Republicans gave us Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and an endorsement of the Bush administration's rush to invade Iraq. Add in his prominent role in passing the 2005 bankruptcy legislation (BAPCPA) to help creditors squeeze debtors and one really must start to wonder about his endlessly professed love for the "little guy". He may be a decent man, but he had his 3 shots at the presidency and went nowhere every time. He's not going anywhere this time but home.
11
When Mr. Bruni notes "how completely Republican lawmakers have surrendered their integrity" to Trump, I have to wonder about the nature of integrity itself: is it true that it can be surrendered, and under what circumstances would someone surrender it? If it's for purely political reasons - to keep one's seat in the House or Senate - then I wouldn't call it "integrity" to begin with. Self-interest can sometimes intersect with the public good, but not so when it comes to anything to do with Trump. I say, vote then all out.
3
What makes his character so worthy? He certainly knows personal loss first hand but surely that isn’t enough. And he is foolish to think Burisma won’t haunt a potential candidacy. Was it really okay to have his son sit on a board known to be corrupt while, as Vice President, he was working to rid that same country of corruption? We need someone with a spark of forward direction. When does the message get through: you had your chance and you didn’t make it. We desperately need someone to inspire and motivate. We need a winner.
14
@Bobbinx Agree! I feel like there is a narrative being pushed that he is such a "good, decent guy." He seems as hollow and blindly ambitious as anyone else in either party.
8
@Bobbinx - Biden didn't have his son sit on the board of Burisma. His son is not an extension of him. He's a separate person, they each make their own decisions...
1
Does America want a nice president? A gay president? A woman president? A progressive president? Younger? Older? A ham on rye, or my red-haired poodle Lucy, speaker of three languages including Alexa and Woof?
Yes! Yes. If it's alive (or at least, not yet moldy) - and it isn't Current Occupant - then we'll take it. Despite every pundit writing every "the fractured Dems" articles before our candidate has even been selected, we will all, in the end...
Vote Blue - No Matter Who
The Senate, Too
Thanks for asking.
10
@Susan B. A.
Thank you for the best laugh of the morning. Indeed we will all (hopefully) vote Blue.
4
I would vote for Lucy!
2
Well said and true. Biden has been my choice from the beginning.
1
Americans must understand that politicians are natural born con men, able to affect a veneer of compelling affability and trustworthiness at a moment’s notice.
When Obama first came on the scene and my sons and their friends were overcome by him, I urged them to remember that he was, first and foremost, a politician. But in time, I, too, was persuaded by his equanimity and intelligence. The ruthlessness, the disrespect would reveal itself in brief moments that now seem like klieg lights: when he swam with his daughter in an oil polluted Gulf to prove it was safe; when he drank from the lead polluted waters of Flint, MI, again to — prematurely—reassure citizens; when he blithely conceded we tortured “some folks.”
Don’t forget the secret drone wars, his lies about NSA surveillance on Americans, the prosecution on journalists unsurpassed by all preceding administrations put together.
Obama was a moderate whose allegiance was to corporate interests and a surveillance state run amuck. Will Biden and his profoundly blemished record be any different? Of course not.
They talk a good game, but their allegiance is not to the people of this country. Be moved by their rhetoric if you must, but don’t confuse personality, even charisma, with character. They are not the same
9
@Cecelie Berry
Thank you for this. I wholeheartedly agree. Democrats need to remove their rose-colored glasses about Obama.
5
True. However, Obama did also get some things right (preexisting conditions) and he was a whole lot better than the current inhabitant of the White House. He wasn’t all bad,
1
This would be a weak argument for Biden if it were true. But this is the guy who literally said he had "no empathy" for millennials. And his rambling, unidiomatic speeches lack any kind of clarity, moral or otherwise.
8
With Joe and Don, it would be the first content-free debates ever! That would just ensure more drift towards policies that do not help middle class America.
8
The most important quality in the eventual democratic nominee is the ability to bring along everyone but the die-hard maga people. That and being able to remember to be a positive role model. Policy matters very little at this point. Rallying voters for the general election is far more important than any particular policy. I don't know who has that quality. I can only hope for the best.
I am so tired of the caricatures of Bernie Sanders promoted in these pages. Sanders is passionate, not angry. He is consistent, not fanatical. He is thoughtful, not dangerous. Most of all, he is genuine. Biden, by contrast, has cultivated an image as a “regular Joe” friend of the working man, while spearheading legislation that left millions of middle class Americans mired in debt.
The caricatures of Sanders supporters are just as bad. We are fed up with leaders who never even try for meaningful change. We are informed and thoughtful critics of the status quo, not angry, irrational “bros” and certainly not mirror images of the screaming MAGA hats.
I am also sick of the meme that Sanders hasn’t been vetted and the Republicans will make mincemeat of him if he is nominated. The Republicans will lie and cheat and smear their opponent, no matter who it is. And if you think the Republicans made hay with Hillary’s emails, wait and see what they do with Hunter Biden and Burisma.
Vote for the candidate whose policies will bring back the middle class and protect the environment. That candidate is who is most likely to defeat Trump, because that is what the people want.
27
This sort of denial of obvious reality is precisely what leaves me unhappy about the idea of voting for St. Bernie, and for the life of me I can’t see what’s “thoughtful,” about stuff like swearing to voters that you’re never going to compromise, you’re going to get them a Medicare for All plan that’s politically impossible, financially irresponsible, and seriously lacking in details.
The fact that my own politics happen to be pretty much democratic socialist doesn’t change the fact that your Saint yells a lot, has quite the habit of lecturing black folks and women on what they ought to think (it mostly comes out of what we used to call, “vulgar marxism,” the theory that everything human reduces to the economic base), doesn’t seem to have much of a track record of working with Congress as a whole, and is in fact a politician.
It also doesn’t change the fact that the Berniacs are a real thing, which is what your polite but very dogmatic post shows.
So if your boy gets the nomination, he gets my vote. Period. And then, I will wait for the results, very much hoping that I am completely wrong and we don’t get clobbered.
I also think it would be nice, if we do get clobbered, for you lot to take a good hard look on the mirror, starting with the propensity for blaming everybody but yourselves.
4
@Bruce Crabtree
I'm with you. And I'm afraid the reply that refers to "obvious reality" is part of the problem with most of the media commentary on the candidates.
3
Working with Congress. How nice. What makes you think Congress will work with a Democrat? Were you asleep for Obama’s entire term?
4
You know who made the same argument Joe Biden is making now - one far less grounded in policy proposals and much more in the danger Trump poses and the importance of character? Who made it all about Trump and not about how to fix the real problems people face in their daily lives?
Hillary Clinton.
Is that the path we want to travel again?
12
The Democratic race is aspirational, at this point. The front runners in the primary are unknown quantities to voters who see them as a less safe bet when compared to an incumbent running with a rock solid base and the force multipliers of unlimited money and a social media machine. After the so-called Senate trial, it's obvious there is nothing congress, the justice department or the courts will do to stop Trump's bad/illegal behavior in the coming election. Best to focus on taking the senate and holding the legislature.
1
I'm with you, Bruni, because we need Biden. That doesn't sound forceful and it isn't. To keep my own sanity, I need freedom, democracy, truth, honor for our Constitution and relief from all we've been suffering. I need a kind, nice president filled with a desire for justice and mercy. A sane America. We can deal with everything else later. Lord, let us breathe. Please.
2
I believe that decency and a moral compass is sorely needed today. Trump has made me ashamed to be an American.
Biden may be old but that transats to experienced. I think a Biden/Buttegige ticket would be the way to go. They are both centrist and people complain that one is too old and the other too young. Combined I think they could go far.
@Michaell
Two wrongs don't make a right.
2
@Fourteen14
It's not a matter of either of them being "wrong" but each having weaknesses that the other could counter balance.
Thank you, Frank Bruni, for your insightful piece.
Joe Biden isn't perfect. Like most of us, he has many flaws. But he has decency and empathy--traits that Donald Trump lacks.
I've said for quite some time that Joe Biden appears to be the person most likely to beat Trump. That's still the case. Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg are a bit behind Joe.
I realize that a lot of people aren't wild about Joe, but I hope all of us would be proud to have him as our President instead of the current one.
3
@Brian
Bernie is not behind Biden. He is ahead in the latest polls to beat Trump nationally. Also beats Trump in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.
Bernie is going up, Biden is going down.
5
Biden and Bloomberg are my two least favorite Democratic candidates. "Nice" isn't enough for me. If we must have a moderate, can people please look at Amy Klobuchar?
2
@Fatema Karim Klobuchar is not nice. She has the worst record of environmental positions of all of the Democrats running, earning her a "D". She continually supports big mining and big Ag in MN and does not care that the majority of MN voters are opposed to her positions. She is pushing copper sulfide mining in the BWCA, delisting of the gray wolf, promoting increasing mining that will threaten Lake Superior, etc. She does not listen to her voters or any groups she does not agree with. Have heard this numerous times from other sources and have experienced this also. She is the ONLY Democrat I will not vote for, because she is really a Republican, posing as a Democrat.
4
@Sue M.
Good info! I did not know all that. I've never liked her snide sneer.
3
Ask Savannah Guthrie if she thinks Joe Biden is "a nice guy".
4
It’s been said by many that people make buying decisions emotionally, then justify them with logic. If so, Joe’s on to something. I’m just not connecting with the other candidates the same way. Four years ago Bernie really got my attention, and may have won if the super delegates were not in his way, but this this is a different time and place. I supported the impeachment trial to hold Trump accountable as he gave us no other choice, but knew the Senate would stop it. A platform that leans too far left will not appeal to middle America. If Joe wins the nomination he will balance it with rejuvenation and perhaps a bit of revolution, and hopefully that will be enough.
2
It won’t be enough. Joe Biden is uninspiring and has a lot of baggage, and has done little to help struggling Americans. He’s just one more of the same moderate, get little done, concede everything to the Republicans politicians that is all we are ever allowed to choose.
4
Maybe the Burisma board appointment was meant to keep tabs on the company. No one has spectated about that.
1
What's up with the nice guy for President? We need a nice gal for a change.
2
The problem the Dems have is that there are no electrifying candidates....no John Kennedys out there.
They are SO boring....
1. Bernie: Angry, elderly socialist stabbing his finger in your face repeatedly while trying to make his case
2. Warren: College professor
3. Biden: The lights are on, but no one is home
4. Pete: A not ready for prime time player
And they are SO WHITE.
The Democratic party who claims to be SO INCLUSIVE flushed Kamala and Cory.
Trump wins 2020. Game over.
3
I can’t believe that most Americans can vote for a cruel, vulgar and mentally unbalanced Trump. Trump supporters are either Russian agents or imbeciles. I’ll vote for anyone opposing our criminal President.
1
@The Premier Comandante
"Sanders is passionate, not angry. He is consistent, not fanatical. He is thoughtful, not dangerous. Most of all, he is genuine." - Bruce Crabtree
That's why he's been the most popular politician in America for many years. And why the latest polls have him beating Trump nationally.
4
So skin color should be the primary consideration here? You gonna stay home and hand the victory to a genuine racist because the candidates of color did not win this time?
Sorry but I’m going to vote for whoever is competent, intelligent, capable and cares about the welfare of Americans. I don’t care what color they are.
1
I'm tired of liars, cheats and schmoozers and crave transparency in politics (tad unrealistic, I know.) I feel Biden, as nice as he is, is the above. Too much is being revealed about his past plagiarism, civil rights "walks" and other gaffes, I am not inclined to vote for him.
8
At nearing 66 years old I find it hard to say Biden is too old. I do believe he is a person that considers issues while our President schemes his reelection. I think being a Nice Guy does matter.
Donald Trump does not know that Kansas City is not in Kansas. There is being too stupid to be President.
4
I like Joe Biden. He's more than nice enough and I'd support him if he wins the nomination. But in my opinion his age shows and he's clearly lost a step or two. I doubt he has enough spunk and mental alacrity for a bare knuckle fight with Donald Trump. It's a fight that will take place twenty times a day at the speed of Twitter.
Donald Trump and his allies here and abroad will do everything in their power to knock the Democratic nominee down. We certainly know there's no tactic too low, no lie too outrageous, no claim too thinly substantiated for a Trump campaign. Micro-targeted Facebook ads will also try to stoke divisions in the Democratic coalition. Offshore bots and trolls will amplify attacks and generate their own wedges.
And the Trump lies, misstatements, and misrepresentations won't stop. Trump is already focus group testing them at his incessant rallies. While at his core Trump is an uninformed, incurious, boorish lout, he does have a sociopaths talent for insults. He's quick on his feet, and he'll find a way to turn even his impeachment into a weapon.
The fact that there are a lot of Biden angles to exploit is not a reason to avoid nominating him. But it is a reality to consider, particularly if electability is the Democratic standard. I don't vote until March and will support whichever moderate OR progressive that can best campaign AND then govern. Hopefully that will be more clear by then, but so far it probably won't be Biden or Sanders.
This is the one aspect of other candidates’ pitches to voters that is noticeably missing. America needs healing. It needs someone who is willing to work across the aisle. It needs a uniter. The other candidates may have excellent policy ideas, but they have not (in my view) appealed to the desire of many voters to replace Trump’s bluster and divisive tactics with a steady hand at the tiller. I don’t know if Biden’s age or lack of revolutionary ideas will prevent him from striking the right chord with primary voters. But the other candidates would do well to echo his calls for a measure of stability, which will be a key requirement for erasing the damage Trump has done and truly making America great again.
3
@David D.
No, we don't need healing. We're not sissies. Just need Trump gone and a reversal of his anti-people policies.
The majority of Americans will never meet Joe Biden, the nice guy. They will only meet Joe Biden, the TV version, and so think of him as "unimpressive, . . . energy palpably diminished," And they will remember that Joe all the way to the polls.
Question is, then, who projects enough energy and enough vitality to beat Trump?
2
He's not such a nice guy. Watch him argue with Elizabeth Warren against bankruptcy relief for poor people and, in particular, his smarmy patronizing of Senator Warren, who actually fights for middle class families, not credit card companies.
16
Biden stumbles over his words in debates and seems to be in the beginning stages of dementia -- you'll find few people who've watched his performances who can't help but wonder about his mental faculties.
He has repeatedly told people who've disagreed with his policy stances to vote for someone else.
He's cozy with credit card companies in Delaware who wrote a disastrous bankruptcy bill.
He was among the most vociferous promoters of invading Iraq, our worst foreign policy blunder.
He has a history of advocating cuts to Social Security, documented in videos from the 80's - 10's.
He has a history of lying, whether on marching for civil rights, advocacy for SS cuts, plagiarizing others' work. Johnny Carson joked in a monologue about his history of lying. His lies derailed one of his past runs for the presidency.
He allowed Anita Hill to be undermined in the Senate debates over the Thomas SCOTUS nom.
He and Obama presided over the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in our history.
He was a primary proponent of the racist, authoritarian crime bill in the 90's.
He has a documented history of inappropriately touching women and girls: smelling hair, kissing noses, getting in faces, putting his hands all over their bodies.
His campaign is losing supporters, especially Boomers and African-Americans. There isn't much enthusiasm among those pledging to vote for him. His rallies are quiet affairs.
He is the opposite of the candidate we need for the White House.
17
Joe Biden is living in the past. He is not capable of moving the nation forward.
8
I'm a white female senior citizen, lifelong Democrat, and the constant mainstream media drumbeat for Biden depresses and angers me beyond measure. Centrism, trying to get along with everyone, is what got us Trump. Wasn't that Obama's mantra? After the past 12 years, it seems incredibly self-defeating and cowardly. The farther right the GOP goes, the farther in its direction the Dems are pulled, in the vain hope that the right wing will compromise. Don't people get it by now? The right will never compromise. If you give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile. That's why I find it inspiring to hear candidates like Sanders and Warren and AOC who are willing to frame the debate and move the Overton window - not wait for the right to stake a position and then just react, trying vainly to pull us back to some imagined "center". I get that Biden's persona is as a blue-collar type of guy, but it's just a persona. The bankruptcy law he championed hurt working people, and the Obama administration he was part of ended up doing the bidding of the big banks while failing to give needed relief to those hurt by them. Time to wake up and realize that we need to fight.
16
What will kill the Democratic candidate, without exception, will be the irate, ignorant, regressive, pseudo-liberal dingbat who says: "If my guy or gal doesn't get the nomination, then I am going to sit it out." It is that attitude, so pervasive in the American Left, that will hand DJT the election. I don't see much in the way of anyone on the stump barking hard on this point. It is literally the only way it will be won.
Furthermore, if you, and I actually mean you, who happen to be reading this comment, know someone who will sit out the election if their candidate is not on the ballot, then you, and yes I mean you, have a moral obligation to convince, cajole, connive, insult, praise, beg, and demand them to vote no matter what. That person must be convinced to vote. Those people should be easily convinced, especially if you state that they will no longer be your friend if they sit home and help Trump win. That they are some kind of Trump supporter in disguise.
You think Conservatives DON'T do this? Of course they do. They are exquisitely good at socially pressuring their friends and family to get in line and vote.
And if you know someone like this and DON'T do this to them, then you too, may be a Trump-leaner, and you probably don't think he's as bad as all that, since those Republicans must have "some nice people" too.
So, if you ACTUALLY believe that DJT is bad, and you DON'T work to get reluctant friends to vote. Then DJT's re-election is also your fault, too.
3
@Jason Kendall : Maybe Hillary needs to stop complaining about the Democratic candidates and suggesting that *she* won't vote for a particular candidate if that candidate should get the nomination.
Also, let's be clear about *who* is threatening to sit out the election if *their* candidate isn't the one on the menu:
1. Centrists and Center-Right Democrats who refuse to vote for a progressive Democrat. I personally know people who are saying they will stay home -- or vote for a 3rd-party candidate -- if Sanders or Warren gets the nomination.
2. Anti-establishment independents who support Sanders. They are the sort of people who wouldn't have voted without someone they wanted to vote for.
3. People who voted for Trump but who prefer the anti-establishment platform of Sanders to the anti-establishment platform of Trump. These aren't Democrats who are willing to vote for Trump -- they are Trump supporters who actually prefer someone else. And yeah, they may vote for Trump if Sanders doesn't get the Democratic nomination.
4. Center and Center-Right independents who hate Trump but who refuse to vote for Sanders or Warren. They are threatening to stay home or vote third-party.
The question is, who can you talk reason into? I know the people in #4 but so far, they are utterly unwilling to budge.
3
@Jason Kendall
If removing Trump is you primary objective then I agree with your prescription, But here's the thing, Trump is the symptom, not the disease. The actual objective of achieving a democratic presidency is to enact a platform of democratic beliefs which are reasonably agreed to---economic fairness, social justice, reproductive rights, action on climate change and reversal of a kleptocratic corporate state, and voting for another centrist, status quo, nibble on the margins coward does not achieve that aim, paradoxically it makes it more difficult. Trump is toxic, dangerous, ignorant and corrupt and causes near universal disgust and pain on the left, he serves as an obvious contrast to progressive ideas, if the Left cannot win now then my hope is that Trump does as I feel it will hasten the time toward a more just and fair politics in this country sorry as that strategy is.
2
Trump will leave chaos behind when he leaves, we need more than a colorless establishment middle of the road Republican light. I would like a real Democrat with real convictions, and Biden is not the man. The party was no more than the left-wing of the Republican party, no real opposition but bipartisan when it came to cut benefits like raising the retirement age for SS and changing it from pay-go to fund the SSTF which is being used by the government as if it were a standard federal tax and not working peoples retirement insurance. When Obama wanted to extend the 2% FICA tax cut for a year the Republicans said no and made the Bush tax cuts for the higher income people permanent and the Democrats went along in silence.
Biden is just more of the same.
4
I have never understood why centrists continue to cling to Biden, who has tons of political baggage and clearly suffers from dementia onset (no, it's not just "stuttering") when other centrists like Klobachar, Buttigieg, and even that ex-Republican-keynote-speaker-for-George-W-Bush billionaire Bloomberg are available. But then again, I have never understood why centrists cling to the belief that only one of their camp can beat Trump when the elections since 2008 have demonstrated so conclusively that "Republican-lite" Democrats cannot win. The so-called "center" is gone. Voters on both the right and the left are completely fed up with the status quo and a government that only tends to the needs of the one per cent instead of ordinary people. If the Democrats refuse to address that and insist on "take-half-a-loaf-when-it’s-offered politics," voters will continue to turn, as they did in 2016, to the xenophobic and racist siren songs of the Trumpian far right Republicans. The "half-a-loaf" centrists who think that can work if they just keep attacking Trump are the same Democrats who insisted that the Mueller investigation would bring him down, insisted that impeachment over the Ukraine, of all things, was our "constitutional duty" even though acquittal was a foregone conclusion, and that passing Trump's signature USMCA replacement for NAFTA that enables him to depict himself as labor's champion and his Space Force were somehow smart politics. Pathetic and tragic.
5
A "nice guy" doesn't spend decades trying to cut Social Security. A "nice guy" doesn't saddle thousands of college students with debt that cannot be discharged. A "nice guy" doesn't court big money donors while ignoring ordinary Americans (or obnoxiously telling them to "vote for the other guy." I hope the DNC backs off and stops pushing this myth of "electability". Like many, I will hold my nose and pull the lever if he is the nominee but he is very low on my list of choices.
15
How about a nice gal instead. I’m for Amy K!
6
@Ray Z - just don't use your comb to eat a salad.
2
@Ray Z Klobuchar is not nice. She has the worst record of environmental positions of all of the Democrats running, earning her a "D". She continually supports big mining and big Ag in MN and does not care that the majority of MN voters are opposed to her positions. She is pushing copper sulfide mining in the BWCA, delisting of the gray wolf, promoting increasing mining that will threaten Lake Superior, etc. She does not listen to her voters or any groups she does not agree with. Have heard this numerous times from other sources and have experienced this also. She is the ONLY Democrat I will not vote for, because she is really a Republican, posing as a Democrat.
2
@Sue M. Very informative Sue. I will check your comments out. How has she been elected? Moreover is she worse than trump?
Relative to the presidency and the current president in the local newspaper this morning was an article headlined: "Empathy is a potent force for reconciliation with others."
Within the article was a picture of protesters with one of the protesters having a sign reading: "God hates proud sinners 'PA:16 - 5.' " The protesters were protesting at the Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis LGTBQ + Center in Indianapolis in 2016."
I wondered if the protester with the sign was a current supporter of this president and if he were, how he would square his sign with the current president's proud actions and tweets that might rise to the level of sins.
One other point is that implies he knows what God is thinking.
Does any one of the 7 billion + inhabitants living on this planet know what God is thinking?
Good luck getting a single voter under 65 with this pitch.
9
This is a scary article. A Character Case for Joe Biden? The Biden family has prospered by tens -- possibly hundreds -- of millions of dollars in contracts, board seats, and slices of the pie ( think 10% of BHR in China) with no direct link but Joe Biden's public service jobs. Heckuva a nice guy whose family has had very little income or success for over 47 years without parasitically feeding off of Joe Biden's areas of influence in Congress and as Vice President. Since "Character Matters," what about plagiarizing Neil Kinnock and Bobby Kennedy in his speeches in the 1980's? Please, Frank Bruni, say it ain't so! You know better. Trump is one of the very, very few people Biden can look good against. Joe's "chips" are invested in his massive credit with the predatory moneylenders domiciled in Delaware, in his son's "sweetheart" financial dealings with Burisma, and with BHR in China, and in other places where Joe Biden has previously held important policy positions and assignments that were exploited by Biden family members.
7
What "Nice Guy" named Joe Biden are you referring to Mr. Bruni? The one running for President has repeatedly told voters he is supposedly courting to go vote for someone else. He called a questioner at a Town Hall fat. There are several videos of Joe Biden poking and pushing potential voters when they had the audacity to ask a question he did not like. In one video he appears to be grabbing the coat collar of one reporter. In this video he mocks the reporter by repeating the word "why" over and over again. Senator Biden was such a nice guy that he campaigned against busing and came up with a voter proof scheme to save his own political skin while kicking millions of elderly and disabled people off of Social Security. Mr. Bruni ever wonder why student loan debt can NEVER be discharged? That too was a gift from really "nice guy" Joe Biden. He slipped that in the bill even though nobody was asking for it. I really don't think that America will be able to survive and thrive Joe Biden's toxic brand of "nice" after these 4 chaotic and mean spirited years of Donald Trump.
8
YES. Character, intelligence, patriotism, honesty, forthrightness and compassion do matter. Now—more than ever.
Iowa is over 90% white. Not representative of our country’s diversity.
There will be other primaries. Watch Joe. If you are in the states voting in early primaries, vote for Joe.
1
"Good v. Evil" is a pretty good campaign slogan.
5
"the country ... has been in a moral free fall"
Well, that's not what most Americans believe.
Instead, they understand that our current President, no matter how loud, or how obstreperous, represents a mortal blow to the boliviating political class - and that is a great thing.
Until they (you) receive that message, you will continue to lose, and be confused / confounded by that fact.
Welcome to the future, it is not you.
2
@Geronimo
Watch what you say about *most* Americans.
Indeed, *most* Americans can't stand Trump.
The only 'mortal blow' he's going to deliver will be to our once-great country.
Nobody bloviates worse than the Republicans.
There are a host of reasons that Biden is (one of) the worst Dem(s) running in the primary.
Uncle Joe is the walking talking embodiment of the depraved indifference and corruption of the Democratic Party, just as Hillary was.
He is the past, a relic of the centrist coup in the Dem party that has enabled the Republicans and their allies, the oligarchic corporate and wealthy classes, to completely take over and run the country as their own giant estate, with the rest of us cast as their serfs.
Biden is grievously implicated in the majority of political developments within the past 30 years of US history which had made it a worse place to live for working people.
He has no political vision to improve the country, and even if he did, it would not be credible in the least because of his dismal record.
Why would anyone support Biden, a multiple time presidential candidate loser, who never met a credit card company, war or a healthcare lobbyist he didn’t like, and who rivals even Donald Trump when it comes to incoherent babbling?
A Biden vs Trump election would be more of the same lesser evil vs greater evil as before, as if decades of choosing the lesser evil hadn't driven the US away from post-war prosperity and down to its current state of decay.
Joe Biden is the guy for wealthy, old, head-in-the-sand limousine liberals, moderate old Republicans and low-information voters who go by name recognition.
Nobody left of center that actually knows Joe’s voting record will vote for him.
18
@Chris
Great comment and analysis of what Joe Biden is, and represents.
He never stood a chance, despite the mainstream media attempts to bolster him; astonishing how the Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer democrats still refuse to accept their reign is over.
I believe Bernie Sanders will be the nominee, and he will deal Trump a resounding defeat in November.
11
@ Mel
Thanks. Usually I get accused of being a Russian troll for not wanting Biden to lose to Trump.
The “Crush Bernie” movement is just getting started, but you can tell the Resistance isn’t diddling around.
Hillary Clinton officially launched her national “Nobody Likes Bernie” campaign at the star-studded 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Influential Jewish journalists like Bari Weiss and Jeffrey Goldberg, and Ronald Lauder’s newly-founded Anti-Semitism Accountability Project, have been Hitlerizing him, or, rather, Corbynizing him.
Obama has promised to “stop him,” if necessary.
MSNBC anchor Joy Reid brought on a professional “body language expert” to phrenologize Sanders “live” on the air.
Every columnist and Editorial Board member at the NYTimes seems to hate Bernie.
Nera Tanden over at CAP has it out for him.
Tom Perez just stacked the nomination committee with Wall Street stooges, Israel Firsters, and warmongering types of the worst kind, who all happen to be somehow connected to the corrupt Clinton and Obama cabals.
… and, as I said, they’re just getting started.
In my opinion the Democratic Party is a highly-effective elite-managed institution dedicated to the stymying of the Left.
The Democratic Party has been dead to me ever since it became clear that Obama did not intend to use the mandate we gave him, dis-assembled the machine he built to win and carried out a pro-war, pro-Wall Str. Republican agenda.
11
@Chris Great post! I have been hearing the attacks against Sanders campaign, but your list shows it more widespread than I thought. It feels to me like this smear campaign is a direct assault against democracy.
5
Every last Democratic candidate has more character, decency, intelligence and compassion than Donald Trump and any Republican in Congress. Why single out Biden for the Nobel Character Prize? The question before Democratic voters is not "Who has the best character?" but who can stand up to the bullies and fight for us little guys? Democrats haven't had a real fighter in the ring for a long time and the bullies just keep getting stronger and nastier.
6
With the exception of Harry S. Truman and George Bush the elder none of our Post-War Presidents had a “strong moral compass”. Neither observing marital fidelity or keeping the nation out of needless Wars. We elect Presidents not because of their “moral compass” but to protect our nation when nation when required as Commander in Chief and secondarily to extend the benefits of Democratic governance to our varied population. Neither Truman nor Bush the elder enriched themselves after office nor wrote books enshrining their activities. Both Truman and Bush the elder would have made fine dinner guests. By most accounts they were indeed “honorable men and husbands”. And set a good standard. Both served distinction in our military. They, not Biden, a career politician, ought be our “standard”.
Sure, Biden is implicitly promising to return us to the pre-2016 status quo. And while that may sound wonderful to a lot of people, it's also the status quo that made Trump possible.
Biden is also not an inspiring candidate. And while your mileage may vary when it comes to whether or not a candidate needs to be inspiring, our current and most recent former president's election victories came largely as a result of their ability to inspire large numbers of people to take a chance on them. Biden promises a correction of sorts - that may be enough given who is in the White House, but then again, it may not.
And in any case, if Biden gets the nod, we know how the campaign is going to go: Trump will talk about nothing other than Hunter Biden, corruption and Ukraine. It's this year's "secret emails." And the media will of course eat it all up, overshadowing all other coverage, because that's what the American media does.
I'm frankly a bit surprised his support hasn't cratered yet. Methinks the Democrats will make a big mistake if they give him the nod - he's already got the air of a John Kerry or a Michael Dukakis.
8
As in 2016, the Democrats are going to spend most of the next 9 months fighting among themselves to see who should be the candidate. Trump has been campaigning for the past 3 years. Unless you believe in miracles, get your candidate immediately and use your collective powers to defeat the menace who occupies the White House.
1
"Will Iowans find Biden as consoling as I do? Can “consoling” drive people to the polls?"
We have had consoling in the country for years, we need change. Changes to help the working and middle class keep their heads above water.
8
Democrats seem to care more about 'policial purity' and less about winning elections.
Winning in 2020 is my only goal and I am fine with any number of Democrats (and Bloomberg) being the next President.
To vote for a candidate than cannot win is simply foolish. It might make you feel good but does not help the country.
1
@Jon Republican primary voters voted for "the candidate that cannot win." Now he's president. A candidate cannot win until enough voters vote for him or her. In the right states, of course.
1
As in much of The Times' coverage of this primary, there is a mischaracterization of Sanders' campaign in this article. Yes, he focuses on revolution, and he energizes people by pointing out the injustices of our current political system, but the campaign's slogan is "not me, us." To say that Sanders is "fighting fire with fire" is to ignore the empathetic and compassionate basis for his policy. Not only is Bernie asking people to come together, but he is asking them to look out for one another. As opposed to Biden, who has a history of doing what he can to be liked, Sanders has a long history of looking out for underprivileged, unpopular, and underrepresented people. Is there anything kinder than that?
10
@Ruth
Absolutely correct. Bernie is no demagogue. He has never said that his is the only way; the foundational notion of his campaign, which he has repeated at almost every campaign rally, is that his supporters should not endorse a position or vote for a candidate simply because he does, but to think for themselves. Those who think that Bernie bears even a remote resemblance to Trump, who instructs his supporters not to think for themselves but to follow him blindly and who preaches exclusion and hate, while Bernie is all about inclusiveness and building coalitions and bottom-up rather than top-down movements, tells me that they either have not been paying attention or that they are blinded by their own preconceived notions and prejudices.
5
We have been a country of extremes. Trump, his rhetoric on one side of the pendulum and Sanders ( and Warren) who can be somewhat extreme as well. Joe Biden by all accounts is not perfect but just to bring a sense of “normal” could be what this country needs. My fear is that the pendulum has swung too far to upend everything and Trump will be re-elected.
2
@NEG Do you think all will be quiet and normal if Biden is in the Oval Office? Do you think Donald Trump will be quiet on the outside? Do you think Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Matt Gaetz and their fellows will stop lying and spreading conspiracy theories? You are dreaming. We need a fighter.
4
@abigail49 But in this current environment a fighter may not be elected.
@NEG
In the current environment, ONLY a fighter will be elected.
4
This year it's not about turning out more young Democratic votes in New York or California. More numbers in Blue States don't do us any good. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. That's all that matters in terms of the Electoral College. Who can win there? Maybe Biden? Four years to restore environmental regulations, voting rights and international alliances, even if Congress is gridlocked, is not a bad way to begin recovery. This is not about nostalgia, but laying the groundwork for the future. Then in four years (hopefully younger) progressives can put forth and campaign on their vision of a new America in a new world. But nothing can happen without winning those three key swing states first.
2
@Charles Towers
Biden has no chance of winning back the Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in 2016. Recall that those states had voted reliably Democratic in Presidential elections for three decades. They flipped after three decades of Democrats oferring them only empty rhetoric while voting for the agendas of their corporate donors. Trump is of course giving them nothing either, but why does anybody think they would simply flip back to blue for a candidate like Biden, who was the very author of their discontent? He was at the forefront of passing anti-union legislation, pro-bank bankruptcy "reform," the 1994 Omnibus Crime bill that began mass incarceration of black males for non-violent crimes, the repeal of Glass-Steagle -- the list goes on and on. They are not afraid of the word "socialist" in the Rust Belt -- Wisconsin was the cradle of the American socialist movement, progressivism and Fighting Bob Lafollette; Minnesota was the home of the Farmer-Labor Party. When Democrats were the party of the New Deal, they won. Bernie is the ONLY candidate who can flip those states back from Trump.
4
Donald Trump will literally set fire to our election process as well as our Constitution to stay in the White House. It's his only protection against indictment for past and future crimes he allegedly commits.
I would be more concerned about how to remove him from the White House than who is going to beat him. Especially considering he has the Justice Department and most likely SCOTUS in his back pocket.
Don't get lulled into this cocoon of our democratic electoral process fixing it all. There's a lot he can do, along with his Russian friends, to cast doubt this November.
4
Biden is "decent", with "good intentions"? LOL!
5
When I vote for the president of my country I don't necessarily want a nice guy, I'm not voting him in to be my pope. The fact that you could not remember anything he said that actually had to do with politics or what he wants to do as president is not good. If you can do nothing else but say bad things about the current president in your campaign rallies you are not anyone I want in the Whitehouse.
4
I heard Joe Biden today tell a reporter in Iowa that he would represent a 3rd term for Obama.
Yesterday I watched Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9, and saw how shabbily Obama treated the people of Flint Michigan. Essentially he made light of the water crisis. His performance in Flint was cringe inducing.
Hear Joe Biden, I thought that a 3rd Obama term may not be what people in Michigan may desire.
12
You’re desperately trying to believe the words you’re writing, Frank.
5
Are we watching the same person? There are too many times Biden seems confused, or sometimes belligerent, that I wonder about his mental well-being. I am serious about this. It almost feels cruel to keep putting him out there.
There are many reasons that I wouldn't want Biden as the candidate, chief among them that our country needs more than restoration to help all those who are hurting. But more important: I fear that Biden isn't up to the work of campaigning, and that Trump will mop up the floor with him.
12
@ Stew. Latest polls show that only Biden and Bloomberg rank ahead of Trump, though not by much. Moderates continue to outrank progressives in national polls.
4
It depends on the polls. I've seen polls where Biden, Sanders and Warren lead Trump.
5
Biden can't even beat Mitch McConnell, (Merrick Garland), let alone Donald Trump. Republicans are already vowing to impeach Biden from day one, if he is somehow elected POTUS. Yet all Biden talks about on the campaign trail is how he cares more for Republicans than he does Democrats.
This may be hard for some to hear, but Biden would get absolutely nothing done if he were President. I don't want to go BACK to the way things were when Biden was VP. Repubs would steamroll him every day. He'd drop out 4 years later, (he's already talking about just one term), at which time, Republicans would have the perfect chance of taking over again.
Biden is frail mentally and physically. During the debates, at times, it didn't appear that he was sure of where he was. Biden is at the bottom of my list. He's another disaster waiting to happen. No thanks.
IMO, Bloomberg is frightening to the orange plague. Mike hasn't been my first choice, but it seems he's the strongest opponent to Trump. I'm considering voting for Mike in the primary. I think he'd be a good, strong President.
6
@Sydney
And Mike has a bigger bankroll than Sheldon.
@Sydney Our billionaire can beat their billionaire. My, how the mighty American democracy has fallen.
2
The NYT doubles down on its tacit support of neoliberal corporate protectionism and defending the status quo of late capitalism in this country. To summarize, vote for Grandpa Joe--he's mildly demented, has no innovative ideas or policies, is substantially out of touch with current issues impacting younger generations and emerges from the boomer generation which in large part created today's mess all the while touting some fantasy bipartisan approach. And why--because he's decent and friendly? Seriously, do any centrist/moderate Dems have any idea about modern political life ? Do they not see the last 30 years of scorched earth GOP politics, the refusal to compromise or respect those that disagree, do they not see the craven self dealing, corruption, lying and Fox media machine underneath it all? Do they not see a history of moderate Dems achieving minimal improvements in the life of the working class and others in this country? They have agreed to harsh and racist criminal justice policies, tax cuts on the obscenely wealthy, failed in 2008 to hold Wall St responsible while supporting austerity policies that hurt the majority of this country and turned a blind eye to climate change while offering a watered down health care solution. So, he's not Trump, big deal. If getting Trump out means electing another weak, do nothing centrist Dem then i hope Trump wins---the pain will increase for all of us and maybe motivate some innovative and progressive politics in 2024.
8
@rsr
You do realize that if Trump wins there will be no 2024?
George Bush was a "nice guy" also. Not interested in niceness but policy.
9
" ... Biden, 77, has been unimpressive, his energy palpably diminished, his sentences wobbling ... " As an Independent, I don't think Mr. Biden is the best choice for the Democrats. He comes across as an old line, big smile politician who craves attention and says a lot of goofy stuff in that pursuit. I'm leaning toward Mr. Bloomberg, for one thing due to his pledge to support (bigtime) any candidate to remove Mr. Trump.
Has Biden stopped lying about his years long Iraq war support?
9
@Yaj
And has he stopped lying about his four-decade-long campaign to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits in order to "save" those programs?
5
@Boris Jones :
No.
He brought cutting Social Security up in that 2018 Brookings speech where he mentioned means testing Social Security.
That was the speech Krugman preposterously accused the Sanders camp of lying about in Trumpian terms. But Krugman's linking proved that Biden was indeed talking of cutting Social Security via means testing.
Means testing is code for cutting the program, because over time it would become just another welfare program for only the very poor who'd have to apply for it and prove themselves worthy.
4
@Yaj
The Professor said that because the actual quote mentioned "adjustments" in Social Security, which could mean increases. Yeah, right.
1
Yes, God please.
Given the alternative, Biden would give the public a chance to breath.
Warren and Sanders with their Medicare for All and dramatic tax revisions would only cause more conflict and consternation Can we once in this country stop jerking from far right to far left.
Don't we already have a conflict with ever-growing premium, deductibles and surprised bills that politicians are doing nothing about? Just because you don't see the resentment, it doesn't mean it is not there. Then you have a surprise as the Trump's election.
5
@Babel You have swallowed the fear mongering propaganda of the elites . Trump thanks you. And so do the corrupted dems, that kind of thinking will keep our country an oligarchy. M4all polls at 88 % with democrats and is not far left in other countries.
6
@Babel A "chance to breathe"? Republicans are not taking a breath. They are already making their plans to take down President Biden, President Sanders and President Warren and so is a defeated Donald Trump. He will not fade away like ex-presidents are supposed to.
3
I would vote for an alien invader from another planet that devours humans before I would vote for the current racist grifter in office.
12
Yeah nice guy... as in he's CREEPY and HANDSY but he's our creepy, handsy guy and our best chance to win.
2
Frankly, yes. It's that simple.
1
Honestly, when one reads comments (and even the article itself), the only thing that comes out loud and clear that people confuse decency and being a nice guy with idiotic smiles and inane sentences uttered in accompaniment.
If we cannot do better than this person as President, we are gone the same way the incomparable Swiss dramatist Durrenmatt wrote Romulus the Great about the end of the Roman Empire.
Frank Bruni is not my favorite pundit by no stretch of imagination. But please do us a favor and keep him from writing inanities like this. College admissions, gay marriage, his failing eye-sight are fine to read about. Politics and fine food are not his forte.
4
I've seen multiple instances on the campaign trail of Joe getting into nasty verbal confrontations with voters who merely disagree with his position. In one instance, he even grabbed an Iowan by the collar, told him to vote for someone else, and then pushed on the voter's chest with his finger. Joe is not a nice guy. He's a bully.
10
To answer your question: yes. I am sick of an incompetent ( expletive deleted) being president.
6
"Fat." "Too old to vote for me." "Damn liar." "Go vote for Trump."
These are some of Biden's remarks to voters on the campaign trail.
"Really nice guy"? What alternate universe are you living in, Frank?
17
Biden’s interaction with Ed Fallon in Des Moines last week is illustrative of how ‘nice’ Joe Biden really is. Biden is a pro-war, corporate Democrat who has received generous financial support from the Banking industry. This is why the DNC and corporate media like him.
Notes
1. Biden tells Des Moines activist 'vote for someone else' in tense exchange By Todd Magel & Max Diekneite Jan 29, 2020; Link: www.kcci.com/article/biden-tells-des-moines-activist-vote-for-someone-else/30705659#
2. How Biden Helped Strip Bankruptcy Protection From Millions Just Before a Recession By Luke Darby Oct 23, 2019; Link: www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-bankruptcy-bill
12
@Paul
It's maddening, isn't it; Biden is so obviously just another attempt by the Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer democrats to maintain the status quo disenfranchisement policies of their corporate masters and wealthiest donors; he actually comes across as being uninterested in the game, seemingly dazed and confused; don't know if he enjoys fishing, but I think he would give anything to be in waders, in a trout stream, with a flyrod in his hands.
His cold as ice statements advocating for Social Security benefit cuts are telling -
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2019/05/17/joe-biden-has-called-for-social-security-cuts-3-ti.aspx
6
@Mel Farr ell Great reply, I love it!
4
Yes indeed, Biden represents, as you believe, "restoration", Restoration of the Status Quo, yes, the status quo which has beggared tens of millions of Americans and is hell-bent on bringing it back until the poor and the middle-class are in a permanent listless state of near penury and economic slavery.
And that is why there is overwhelming support for the only candidate, Bernie Sanders, the honest-to-goodness American who will trounce Trump, give the poor and the middle-class a level playing field, begin the end of inequality, and "restore" in its real definition, the the honor, the integrity, the empathy, and the hope that used to be what America was all about.
Biden is seeking to gain the trust of the Americans he and his like-minded Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer democrats successfully ignored, denied, and disenfranchised, these last forty years, trying to bury his own spoken pledge of several years ago, when he not only promised to assist his Republican partners in reducing Social Security benefits, but also doubled down by clarifying that he intended to go after all other social services as well.
Excerpt and link -
"Presidential candidate Joe Biden has previously put Social Security cuts on the table -"
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2019/05/17/joe-biden-has-called-for-social-security-cuts-3-ti.aspx
8
Joe Biden is decent, and honorable man who has dedicated his life to public service. However, his political and policy mistakes have been deeply, deeply consequential and warrant that voters look past the "Joe makes me feel good right now" response.
To go where Frank ended, Joe Biden's candidacy simply misses the moment, and his character pitch and soothing appeal makes it all the more pernicious. Rising economic inequality, wage stagnation, entrenched education disparities, a decimated faith in the power of government, drug dependencies induced by economic collapse, are all very, very real and have nothing to do with one's soul or character.
To quote the rapper Mos Def, "There's hunger in the street that is hard to defeat. Many steal for sport, but more steal to eat."
Biden's campaign, erroneously in my opinion, elevates character as the highest priority for voters. However, it was Donald Trump who signed the First Step Act, It was Donald Trump who signed the tax cuts into law. Love it or hate it, those two examples enabled a lot of people to line their pockets and some to be free, all while his admin. put kids in cages - character be damned, so long as you get your piece.
Joe needs more. America needs more. Or, dare I say, America just needs a different candidate for President.
4
The comments freak me out. Dems, who ever gets the Dam nomination, vote for that nominee! The ONLY way to stop another right wing SCOTUS replacement (not to mention the stockpiling of conservatives appointed to the courts) is to vote Trump out of office! Can we just agree this is too important to be divisive after the nominee is selected?
2
@Eric NO, those days are over, will never ever vote for a corporate shill again, the DNC are the ones that need to change.
2
@Eric
No, we cannot agree. Millions of progressives and independents are not going to be fear-mongered, faux-shamed or brow-beaten into voting for yet another neoliberal centrist nominee by invocation of the Trump bogeyman. Such a candidate cannot win; even worse, if such a candidate were somehow elected, four years of a disillusioning administration of "reaching across the aisle" to fanatical GOP legislators seeking to dismantle civil rights, the New Deal and enshrining the almighty dollar as the highest form of "speech," and of moderate, ineffectual efforts to deal with climate change, the crumbling infrastructure and the polarizing wealth gap would only move the country even further to the right, to a President far smarter and cunning than Trump, who would lock in the rule of the Wall Street and one per cent oligarchy and the end of our democracy for good. Wake up.
2
One more try.
The NYTimes appears to suppress comments that point readers to one of their own articles from 1987.
Sept. 24, 1987
"Biden Withdraws Bid For President In Wake Of Furor"
The above article details Biden's penchant for plagiarism and his outright lies regarding his academic history....leading to his withdrawal from the 1987 race.
Let's see if the moderators post this comment which highlights the 1987 article...and directly contradicts Bruni's 2020 "Nice Guy" analysis.
6
Joe's recored speaks to his character and I have three huge issues of how is record impacted millions of people adversley.
1. He was the major sponsor of racist laws that pull millions of African Americans into jail for small-time drug infractions causing many of those young black men and their families to suffer for decades and putting some away for life. You can read about in a NY Times article entitled '‘Lock the S.O.B.s Up’: Joe Biden and the Era of Mass Incarceration.
2. He was the leading Democrat pushing for the bill that turned much of American into debt slaves while massively profit the TBTF and all the Deleware Banks that have made giant outsized profits as results. Joe has always been a representative for the TBTF banks.
3. He backed the Iraq wars and believed the lies Bush and Cheney were putting out. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians died in that war, the Iraqi civil infrastructure was destroyed and never propperly rebuilit, and by our behavior using torture and other actions, we actually brought Al-Qaeda and later ISIS/ISIL to the region as a result of our illegal war based on lies.
Nice doesn't mean "he's got your back." "Nice" doesn't mean anything. What matters to me is someone who actually fights for the little guy and not the TBTF and the military and prison industrial complexes.
Like Hillary, I see Joe is a pure establishment figurehead for those interests and corporatists in general. He is just the Democratic version of Bush.
7
Compared to Trump Joe Biden is a saint.
Really, you don’t know what Joe Biden supports? Shoring up and expanding Obamacare, pulling troops out wherever possible, minimum wage laws, union and labor protection , strengthening social security, strong environmental regulations, equality, justice reform, medical and scientific research (see-cancer moonshot), quality education and massive infrastructure investments. The only real difference between Biden and Bernie is that Joe knows how to make progress towards getting at least some of his programs passed and implemented. Beware those who promise everything tomorrow and all for free, you’ll be guaranteed nothing more than a major series of disappointments. Reality always wins out in the end.
2
Frank, you accurately write, "Recent voter surveys give the edge in the caucuses to Bernie Sanders, who also leads in New Hampshire, could wind up winning the first two Democratic contests ..."
I’m, and ‘WE the American people’/“US” are not defeated and neither is BERNIE:
While many may say that Biden’s campaign is based on just
waging a “battle for the soul of the nation.” — Bernie Sanders’
revolutionary battle for the American people will beat Emperor Trump, which is the seminal and most important demand of all thinking and sane Americans.
As my new double-sided signs simply say:
“Our Revolution”
to Dump
Emperor Trump
and on the other side:
Get ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ the
EMPIRE
2
...except when he's calling voters fat
I finally watched that "look, fat" video on youtube. I put it on thinking it would be funny, but instead, I was shocked by Joe's bitterness and his inability to handle a simple question about Ukraine--a question that Trump will surely force him to answer in the general election.
Media coverage of that incident has been silly and light hearted. My initial thought was, "haha, uncle Joe's at it again." But if you actually watch the video, it spells trouble for the he's a "really nice guy" argument. It also raises serious doubts about his ability to handle tough questions.
For me, it was proof that Trump would eat him alive.
Look, fat! *awkward pause*
Biden 2020
6
@-brian Biden has been so isolated from real people for so long that he no longer knows how to talk to us one on one. Particularly someone who voices disagreement
Nice guy, but while in charge of the Obama Admin’s Ukraine policy, also known for grifting a job for his ne’er-do-well son on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company.
7
@EGD
Speaking of ne'er-do-wells, have you talked to Don Jr lately?
I hear he's been grifting like mad - along with his siblings.
Plagiarist, incompetent, out of touch. Say anything to get elected. Yup, he's the perfect Democrat.
5
I never really liked Joe Biden.
Too smarmy.
The grin kinda scares me a little.
I do not understand how anyone under the age of 70 supports this guy.
The DNC political machine is about to be destroyed....and then the Democrats can rebuild their party with out all the back room cigar smoke deals between the Chicago Gang(Clinotn, Emmanuel, Daley's, Obama) and the Kennedy Klan(Kennedy's and Joe Biden).
5
The NYT shilling for Biden?
I thought you came all out for Warren just the other day.
Biden means corruption, nepotism, and Washington as usual, he represents the DC we have complained about for the last 30 years.
But that is the puppet the DNC wants to force feed the country, so we can have 4 more years of Washington as usual.
What happened to changing all that?
5
Biden is " Fuzzier & Gooier than that " .... this really is one of the most ridiculous essay's I ever read. Bruni left a Biden rally "all choked up" .... oh brother
6
What IS it with his fondling girls and women? The Dems had better figure that one out before this goes any further.
American is accustomed to seeing Democrat officeholders robbing third-world countries for cash, but Ukraine was in a war when he threatened them. What kind of human being does THAT?
As president, will he just make uranium deals or rare-earth exploration deals with whoever shows his son the most cash?
Will he have testimonials from the big credit-card issuers thanking him for delivering for them every time?
2
Sure, a nice guy who will weaken his own case for policy by acquiescing to racist right wingers. We really don't need to work with the evil people who support Trump. All that does is confirm the weakness and ignorance of the democrats. It is not appropriate to be nice to the KKK and the Nazis, which is what you are if you consider the GOP a partner in policy.
Consistently the democrats act like they are suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Well, at least the so called moderates, who should really label themselves conservatives.
2
This is the biggest snow job even for Bruni the zero content man.
Biden decent? Anita Hill? Clarence Thomas? Delaware corporations? Iraq Wars?
Hunter Biden? Yes his dad’s name got him jobs he is in no way qualified for. That is called nepotism. Not decency.
Plus Biden tried to run umpteen times with no results. You wonder why?
10
Yet again NYT publishes a positive Biden opinion piece while every Sanders piece is negative. Please NYT get your foot off the pro-Biden pedal and try to be fair in your coverage. Your disdain and disrespect of Sanders is crystal clear every day.
7
I don't know which prop to use reading this soppy op-ed -- a hanky or an air sickness bag. Whether you think the Bidens' behavior in Ukraine was a misstep or an act of gross nepotism, it's a little hard to ignore. He's a rank egotist, like any high level look-at-me pol.
Methinks you've killed old Joe with your faint praise here.
5
Nice? Joe Biden is the nastiest and most ruthless political operator this side of Hillary Clinton. He may play a folksy statterring greatuncle on TV, but don't let his act fool you. The guy has zero principles and is driven by pure ambition. He is like Bill Clinton but without the intellect. You know, the most dangerous type - arrogant stupid.
7
The thing is, he's not really a really nice guy, he's just playing one on TV. it doesn't take much Googling to uncover all the times he's berated or bullied people publicly or privately. And there's that whole pretending-to-be-Neil-Kinnock thing. Oh, and that fondling-women thing. And that letting-his-relatives-trade-on-his-name-and-power thing. Maybe not so nice after all.
7
The real candidate supported by the NYT is J. Biden. We knew it since long.
1
I'll keep it simple, stupid. Anyone ( Biden, Klobuchar, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Yang, Bennet, Steyer ), but Trump.
3
Biden may be "nice" compared to Trump, but that's an insidiously low bar. Biden struggles to respond constructively to people challenging him. He frequently tells people who disagree with him to just not vote for him. And I mean that's his immediate reaction. He gets aggressive with people who challenge him- he pushes them (and yes, there's video), he taunts him, he brags that he's physically fitter than they are. He likes to tell stories about threats of physical violence involving chains. He got real proactive telling younger voters they don't have anything to complain about and should suck it up, buttercup. He seems to think that running against Trump is about running his mouth. And I haven't even gotten to the part where his demographics are poor, his fundraising is poor, his policies non-existent and his pledge to the few big dollar donors he has that "nothing will change." There's a reason he's never made it out of the primaries before.
4
If you leave "a Biden rally sort of misty and choked up" you are a rube.
8
Are you going to follow up with an article on Trump's campaign called "a Foul-Mouthed Idiot for President"?
1
Really nice guy? Biden can beat Trump?
Biden is incoherent, has ridiculous confrontation with voters at his own events. Biden can not complete more than three sentences in a row and he’s the only one that can beat Trump? Does Mr. Bruni feel as pathetic as he knows he is writing this obviously pathetic support piece for the establishment?
Is the gray lady even self aware?
This is what Trump means when he says they failing New York Times. It means the NYT is failing aT its core mission. You are trying to pass off an obvious falsehood as an essential truth.....now what was the word for that when the news does it?
10
Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. It's what drives Christmas sales to the point where many companies make the bulk of their profit over the holidays. And it's certainly one of the strongest drivers of Americans who tend to lean in a conservative direction, which is a majority - while almost 40% of Americans call themselves conservative, a good chunk of "moderates" would be classified conservative based on their beliefs. So it's easy to see why "Uncle Joe" pulls such strong support: he's the candidate of many Americans who wish for the "good old days".
But were those old days really that good? If you look back over the past 40+ years, many would say no. And who was one of the people who had his hands right in the middle of all that went wrong? Joe Biden. His record is filled with "compromises" and sell outs, always choosing what the 1% and the Establishment wanted over what was best for the 99%. He is the definition of a DINO.
As much as anything, he helped shaped the policies and events that led to Trump being elected as a loud "NO!" to the Establishment. If the Democrats follow their nostalgic wishes and nominate Biden, the monster of their worst fairy tale will continue to live in the "castle" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
3
“Character matters — maybe here more than anywhere.” “Every Democratic candidate would agree with that. Only Biden is putting all of his chips there.” If Biden emerges as the Democratic nominee and uses that statement as his central message, Trump will use those words against him. Trump will run ads about Biden and his son, Hunter, claiming that the Bidens are crooked and can’t be trusted.
Trump may not be good at geography, but he’s good at labeling.
2
@Patrick
If you have to tell me who you are, you aren't.
Trump has no authority to criticize anyone. He is a liar and delusional.
No self conscious Democrat who insisted that Congress get to the bottom of the Trump corruption cannot simply pretend that the issues surrounding Joe Biden, his son and Burisma are just not true. Big mistake if they do.
9
Hunter used his name to get overpaid. Something Trump and his kids have done for years. There is no actual evidence of any wrongdoing by Either Biden. There is evidence of frauds by Trump.
1
@Michael Shows just how little you really know about the Biden's. There's a trove of information regarding the Bidens and the issues that surround Burisma that looks suspicious. If the Dems don't flesh it out and make it public you can bet your bottom dollar that the Republicans will.
2
Who on earth leaves a Warren rally "suffused with righteous anger"? Is that really how folks feel after listening to clear explanations of structural inequities and concrete plans to move us forward? Folks waiting hours upon hours in selfie lines tell a different story. No one waits in a line that long out of anger.
Call me crazy, but Warren leaves me hopeful, energized, and optimistic that we can actually effect structural change. Biden leaves me marveling, yet again, at the incredibly low bar we set for men. Simply not being a human trashcan does not qualify a person to become president.
6
Joe Biden has useful foreign policy experience.
@Michael
Like sending the mullahs's of Iran a few billions in cash in the middle of the night? That kind of experience?
2
He may be a nice guy with regards to his affect, but not through his past policy decisions. From Anita Hill, bankruptcy legislation, damaging grand bargain centrism, and a dumb and illogical belief in working with Republicans (including pride for working with segregationists) he has not been nice to the average American citizen.
4
A 40 year political career leads to a number of mistakes. So what?
Yes I could see a BIden/Kamela Harris ticket as great balm for a divided nation that Trump thrives in and fosters. Biden is a decent man ,Trump is not who do we want as our face to the world a lying corrupt fraudster or an experienced decent man.
For those worried about our economy they need to be reminded Trump is riding on the good economy he inherited from Obama/Biden. Our economy will not collapse under Biden and our institutions will be preserved and the world may have confidence in stable US leadership . Trump offers chaos and corruption, our allies are unsure of what bizzare action he may take due to his impulsive nature. Trump is riding on the sugar high of a huge tax cut that surged the stock market enriching the already rich. The deficit is over a trillion$ and rising as the tax cut did not pay for itself and Trump's trade war has bankrupted farmers while his ending of our EPA will pollute the country and the world further just so a few fossil fuel billionaires can afford trophy wives and yachts. Trump is spreading hate and violence as his nature is vile and corrupt to the core as he corrupts all in his orbit.
3
Biden's theme is reasonable and relevant-- and could be potent, if it weren't delivered by someone so frail. I'm not sure if Biden can hold it together until next November, much less eight years after that. I admire his overall vibe, but it saddens me to see him slipping physically and possibly mentally as well.
1
Bruni on Biden rhetoric: "It was also powerful, much more so than I expected."
Memo to Bruni: Like you, I and millions more also heard plain Joe Biden speak in Iowa via TV. My response was different. His voice was barely audible. Plain Joe was flat, unenthused. Emotionless. And yet he continues to win the hearts of so called moderates and pundits like Mr. Bruni. Somebody is out of step here? Me? Bruni? The moderates?
As for me, thanks to Hilary's moderation and her tone deaf listening tour we have a successful tyrant sitting in the white house and his helpers now placed everywhere in the working federal and state governments. Alarms ought to be going off in Bruni's ears about what is at stake in 2020. Yet what we hear from the Bundi's of the world is nostalgia for the past - the self same moderation that, over the last bunch of election cycles delivered NAFTA, tax loop holes and ever more working democrats over to the Republican party. More moderation in 2020, the face of Trump emergency, is a final betrayal of working class Americans. I want none of it.
5
If Biden is the nominee for the primary, Democrat will definitely lose the election. He is a weak person and his son definitely has involved corporations. Why the Hunter Biden wooed with only Ukrainian and Chinese companies where corporation is prevalent.
I wish Bloomberg will be nominated and he may be the only one who can beat Trump.
2
You should be choosing your candidate based on your agreement with their way of thinking and or the policies they plan to try to enact.
Joe Biden Jumped The Shark when he asserted that his election would be a third term for Barack Obama another man who has never held a corporation or a person to account for the harm they have done.
4
I’ve recently seen another side of Biden. Besides being a corporatist, I no longer see him as a nice guy.
5
What I worry about with “nice” guys is that the pendulum can easily shift to the extreme when Joe tries to prove his toughness credentials in the face of an enemy. Me, I like niceness. However I also like rational and clever, maybe even a little bit crafty. Trumps gets the “little bit crafty” down pat. I hate to say it but there’s actually a need for that in our foreign-policy. One has to be careful about too much niceness or it’s extreme trying to prove one’s toughness. Very hard road to hoe. Good luck Joe.
2
Biden will work with today's Mitch McConnell Republicans on what? Lighting the White House Christmas tree (as long as he agrees to say the word "Christmas" ten times)? If Biden is so clueless as to think Republicans would work with him on anything, anything at all, then he is incompetent. Didn't he learn anything in two terms of Obama's presidency? Hasn't he watched the impeachment trial where his Republican "friends" throw him and his son under the bus and run over them repeatedly? These Republicans? Many Democratic voters are tired of our "nice guy" whimpering leaders rolling over and taking it from the bullies.
3
Of equal importance in the upcoming election is the Senate.
From the quote “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”, we can see, as we suspected, that the GOP senators are NOT good men and women.
They are not good, and they too must be removed from office. Vote them out.
And Trump: you're fired.
2
Anger can only get you so far until it starts to destroy everything around you. Just take a look at Donald Trump as his anger and hatred wreck havoc with our democracy and it's institutions, not to mention our civil discourse and our feelings and attitudes about family, friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.
It has to stop. The best way to make it stop is to elect people who aren't going to play the anger and hatred game. People who are decent human beings, who treat others with kindness and respect.
We can survive political and policy missteps and mistakes. We can't survive the total degradation of our decency as a people and a nation.
1
@Chris Better to be angry about real injustice, real suffering and real threats than cynical, depressed and hopeless. There are already too many people self-medicating their psychic pain.
2
@abigail49 I agree, Abigail. But the righteous anger should be used as a catalyst to make us help to move things in a more positive direction. It can't be a place that we are stuck and stopped in.
Martin Luther King comes to mind as a person who was able to move beyond anger and achieved great things.
1
@Chris Agree. There is will be a time for cooling the passion and coming together as a party and a country. It's just not yet. I don't agree that "hatred" is motivating the left or any of the opposition to this president and his policies. If anything it is shock and disbelief that such an immoral, unethical and inhumane person could lead our nation and command the loyalty of his party and Republican voters while ignoring the injustices, inequalities, and suffering of ordinary people. The anger is justified. If we weren't angry, that would be the crisis.
He's a default reset for America.
He's got a big huge E right on his forehead that everyone can see but him.
ESTABLISHMENT.
As evidenced worldwide the past 10 years..our country..let alone the world...is demanding that the Establishment Elite (like Biden) relent power for the rest of us to have a legitimate chance at achieving the American Dream.
Why should these entitled virtue signalling aristocrats be allowed to manage our National Decline when it doesn't have to be so.
They're right when Biden raises his hands and screams "Shout it with me!!! Go Go!! Status Quo!!! Go Go!!! Status Quo!!"
2
Mike Bloomberg is the tougher, more capable, more electable Joe Biden.
4
I would gladly vote for Bloomberg if he is the Democratic nominee.
1
So Bruni falls for the “nice old white guy” routine we can settle with while Rome is burning. Biden hasn’t been right on one consequential decision even in the last 20 years. Let alone his botched senate hearings on Thomas in the 90s and his brutal policies favoring credit card and the financial services industries. And we are supposed to live with this choice...no thanks! However, I will vote blue no matter who.
1
@PK laughable (and fitting) that you support the guy who thinks the largest city in your state...is in another state.
I’m a life long Republican who skipped voting in 2016 and will vote I or D in 2020 because Trump is such an inept child, and the upper and lower chambers have further convinced me that my party doesn’t exist anymore. Your team is falling apart, not gaining strength. Good luck.
You should just be honest with yourselves and admit that the Democrats are lacking any viable candidate. With that being said you should switch parties and just vote Donald. He will win anyway but at least we wont get all the meltdown about the electoral college vs. popular vote garbage.
2
I was struck by Biden's NYT endorsement interview, it was Trumpesque in its incomprehensibility. Apparently "I'm Joe Biden" "No Malarkey", "Come On Man" are sufficient takeways for the average voter.
3
You forgot “wanna challenge me to pushups”
2
The real question here is not about character, or lack of it. The question is how Biden will campaign. Ignoring Trump's ridiculous and insulting accusations and comments will be crucial. Biden will be called old, weak, crooked related to Hunter, forgetful, dumb and a long list of insults and personal attacks. I think he can take it, alright, but how he takes it will be critical to his campaign's success.
1
he can simply reply that he is proud to have don the con as an enemy. Just like those who were on Nixon's enemy list
I like Mr Biden, and if I have to, I will vote for him, but I will not support him in the primaries, he is too far behind what we need to do in this country.
2
Trump's vile rederick is like heroine to his salivating junkie WWE base. They love him because he tells them what they want to hear and they are angry at the past politicians that burnt them and their families for the past 40 yrs. Trump, in their misinformed Fox News watching minds, will save them all. Instead, Trump and his buddies are making off with the loot and leaving the bill to the next generation to pay. Truly sickening.
1
Sadly we are getting the POTUS we deserve for being uneducated and foolish electorate.
1
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Joe Biden
Washington reporters immediately latched on to Gates’ portrayal of Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, he said, is a nice guy — "simply impossible not to like" — but "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Ouch.
From fact checker Politifact
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/16/robert-gates/robert-gates-criticism-vice-president-joe-biden/
2
@KR
Indeed!
Let's see Frank's response to this. Oh, sorry I forgot, he is too busy to respond to commenters who actually pay his salary.
3
Touchy-feely Uncle Joe will make a great candidate !
1
“You leave a Biden rally sort of misty and choked up.”
And that’s the way you end up after reading some of Frank Bruni’s columns.
Thank you for this moving piece that summed up so eloquently the bewildering Senate trial (Republican lawmakers “surrendered their integrity” to Trump) and Biden’s worth: “He’s running to reconnect America with the best of itself.”
Very grateful you’re a writer, Mr Bruni.
Joe Biden, loyal soldier in the Kennedy Klan. So loyal, in fact, that Joe has spent a lifetime attempting to make himself look like, sound like, act like an actual Kennedy. Good Ole Joe, 77 years old, representing everything that his generation taught the next generation of politicians to Hate. Old. White. Priveledged(yet not priveledged like those Evil Republicans).
...
But the DNC, a holding company for the myriad of Tammany Hall franchises now successfully established in every urban center in america, has a problem at the national level. How to unify so many diverse special interest groups that the DNC carefully taught to hate Unity?
ie.....whiteness. ("white"...we must uncomfortably acknowledge...is the combination of all the other colors ....it is NOT the exclusion ... as we have been taught).
1
Please Iowa, come to your senses and don't let Bernie win...and then lost to Trump! Biden is the one who can beat Trump, rising about his fray!!
1
And we all know where nice guys finish.
Anita Hill, Bankruptcy law making it impossible to get out of student/credit card debt, mass incarceration law (he's proud he wrote it), voted for Iraqi War. His baggage makes Hillary's look like a purse. And every time he's run for president it's been a disaster.
Worst of all, he seems to be completely deluded in thinking that Fascist Republicans are suddenly going to cooperate once Genial Joe is president. Really? He obviously learned nothing from Obama, or he is being disingenuous.
Either way nominate Biden, get Trump.
3
Biden for me will forever be the politician who could could not verbalize what he believed in and found it necessary to plagiarize a speech by Neil Kinnock in 1987. Pretty pathetic. And to this day has no ideas of his own.
4
Biden's reasons for running are simple: more money for the family and BIG power- the ultimate aphrodisiac.
3
What dimension is this article from? Biden talks with vigor? He can barely talk above a whisper and can't string a coherent thought for more than a few minutes.
Decency - he voted for the Iraq war, and was part of the Libyan, Syrian and afghan wars. He talks in generalities and will not address Hunter.
You don't think the Republican will mention this?
Does the NYT wanr 4 more years of Trump?
4
American voters are addicted to anger in politics like a teenager is addicted to Juuls. Trump does it, Sanders does it. That's why they may face each other in the Fall. "Nice guys finish last," said a no-nonsense baseball manager eons ago; it's more true in today's America than ever in my lifetime. Joe is a nice guy. This is no longer his America.
Really nice guy?
Tell that to anyone who questions him about virtually anything.
He is an angry, snarky, defensive old man.
4
It continues to astonish me how far the Democratic Party has removed themselves from reality; despite President Trumps accomplishments (and there are MANY), this newspaper has not even once made mention of any of them! It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with your President; however, how many times has this newspaper been compelled to correct itself for misleading and, quite frankly, fabricated information replete in countless articles since 2016!? The Democratic Party has been on a Witch Hunt since his inauguration; it has been met with a 100% failure rate. It continues, surprisingly, at least in this newspaper. How acerbic and genuine is your confidence now? How many allegations have you presented that are false, not taken seriously, and not even an initial threat to the President himself? What will it take to change the essence of a Party? We will see...
Proclamations from two of the top commenters:
"...so when it comes down to it, like the Bankruptcy bill, he sells out humanity for his own reelection.”
“The air of entitlement to the nomination that he displays is stunningly palpable.”
What is WRONG with you people? Didn't you learn anything from 2016? We did not lose because we had the wrong candidate; we lost because loudmouths and idiots in our party, and duplicitous trolls in the other, convinced just enough of us that we had a bad candidate. "Entitled", "baggage", "corporatist" - the whole nine yards.
The fact is that both of the 2016 candidates were honorable people with very similar policy proposals. What was true in 2016 is true in 2020. It's fine to disagree with a candidate, fine to put forth the positive qualities of your favorite candidate. But this is NOT okay. If you can't make the case for your candidate without trashing someone else, you don't have a very good argument.
2
Biden serves corporations and banks only. We lost with the same kind of elitist candidate in 2016. Really corrupt wing of the Democratic party your greed for bribes and power is so strong that you are willing to lose again? Well I guess since you all are bribed by the same donors as the republicans, you will still get those checks. Better to lose to Trump and still get the bribes than have to give up the grift under Bernie.
3
Frank, you accurately write, "Recent voter surveys give the edge in the caucuses to Bernie Sanders, who also leads in New Hampshire, could wind up winning the first two Democratic contests ..."
I’m, and ‘WE the American people’/“US” are not defeated and neither is BERNIE:
While many may say that Biden’s campaign is based on just
waging a “battle for the soul of the nation.” — Bernie Sanders’
revolutionary battle for the American people will beat the sheet out of Emperor Trump, which is the seminal and most important demand of all thinking and sane Americans.
As my new double-sided signs simply say:
“Our Revolution”
to Dump
Emperor Trump
and on the other side:
Get ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ the
EMPIRE
1
Mr Biden’s disgraceful treatment of Anita Hill disqualifies him from the Democratic nomination or ever being considered a “ Nice Guy “.
He’s just another old, rich white man who believes that he is entitled to be President.
4
This is not the President you are looking for. *waves hand* Biden is a hard no from me dawg.
2
Nice guy. No thanks, how bout a leader?
1
Obama has refused to endorse him. What does that say? Add to the the Ukraine scandal with Hunter, Joe's past transgressions, and his slipping mental capacity, and he is NOT presidential material.
4
It would be nice if it were otherwise, but it's not: The reality is that people vote with their emotions, not their reason. If Biden triggers emotions of longing for a moral, good man to be a leader even though reason tells us he's deeply flawed, all his debilities fall by the wayside. This is what charisma means--the ability of a political leader to make people long for you.
Biden's not my choice, but I believe that in a general election he'd smash Trump.
Always, enjoy your writing, Frank Bruni! Trump’s efforts to sully Joe Biden, has led me to believe he is afraid of Joe! I wasn’t leaning towards anyone yet, but Joe Biden with Kamala Harris as VP would be an amazing ticket!!!
Of course Biden’s got more “goodness” than Trump, they all do, but “honesty”? Why won’t the New York Times report on the fact that he’s started lying again about his involvement in the civil rights movement? And “kindness”? How about the way he called that old man who questioned the ethics of his son’s “job” in Ukraine a liar and then challenged him to a push-ups contest?
Bernie is more honest, his policies are kinder, and he’s leading the only movement for actual progressive change we’ve seen in my lifetime. I wish you and the times with stop trying to undermine that movement.
1
Nice guy?
Over-hugging embarrassingly, endlessly?
Calling Sanders a liar because some of his staffers misquoted him?
Talking like a gang member when his Burisma nepotism is brought up?
The choice of president is not a beauty contest.
If it were neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton would have come close to being nominated.
Another waste of newspaper ink.
1
Joe Biden three times isn’t a charm. He’s lost his edge, he carries Obama and Clinton baggage and the Hunter Biden debacle!
1
Journalists are supposed to look beyond facile campaign framings, not write fawning columns based on them. Biden has no more “honesty, decency, empathy, humanity” than Warren or Sanders, just less substance to promote himself with.
1
This could turn out to be a "Carter moment" when the voters decide by Nov. that we have had enough of a corrupt liar and divider as Pres. and want an honest reuniter to lead us.
Hope springs eternal!!!!
It’s about honesty, decency, empathy, humanity aka Joe Biden? Let make sure son Hunter get paid, wink.
1
Nancy Bobo cited in Bruni's piece was quoted in the Washington Post on February 1st as being sad over Cory Booker dropping out of the race. How odd that Bruni found her and reported on her new allegiance to Joe Biden. Or did she seek out Bruni?
WHY! Why does the NYTs consistently run articles on the Democratic presidential candidates with irrelevant headlines. Joe BIiden is a NICE GUY, Bernie is a Socialist and so on. I don't care about such cheap Trumpian handles, and I don't think most voters do either. I (we) care about gun control, health care, drug prices, making the rich pay their share of taxes, poisons in our food, air and water, the spiraling cost of education, our ruined roads and bridges - where and when does the NYTs intend to give publish unbiased relevant content and not another poor editorial slug that has no barring on why any concerned voter would vote one way or another. The NYTs is lowering itself the Trump standard and its of no interest. Give us content please!
1
Go backwards with Biden? No, thanks.
1
"Joe Biden: A Really Nice Guy for President"
A "nice" guy...who happens to plagiarize others and lie about his academic record:
Sept. 24, 1987
"Biden Withdraws Bid For President In Wake Of Furor"
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/24/us/biden-withdraws-bid-for-president-in-wake-of-furor.html
Sounds a lot like Trump.
1
I think you've just pointed out a big hole for Bloomberg to dance through. Joe isn't "for" anything other than "let's all be nice". Bernie and Beth will antagonize too many. Mike has a proven record of getting good things done. I used to support Joe but his none campaign is a big let down, and now the green new deal isn't possible? It had better be.
Now Frank Bruni has also drunk the Kool Aid for the Establishment and Corporate Media. I previously thought more highly of his essays.
What meaningless sentimental mush. Biden masks his 50 year pattern of back room politics and servitude to corporate interests with the face paint of what we Irish recognize as a professional keener. A Keener in our tradition is a hired mourner who is paid to wail at the wake of a deceased loved one.
Biden is great at playing the schmaltzy foul weather friend, and wiping your tears. But the baggage of anti-busing, of Delaware-incorporated banksters, the loving embrace and eulogizing for old DIxiecrats like Thurman and Russell, the Clarence Thomas hearings, the war making, and the grandiose attempts to claw his way to launching a dynasty are of a piece with the disgrace of Hunter plundering in Ukraine.
Not to mention that Trump will eat old Joe alive on a debate stage.
1
We do need healing, calm, experience. Biden's not charismatic, but he's decent. With a great woman VP, the key objective is met: getting the fascists out.
1
The irony is that Trump's scorched earth policy and his attempt to blacken Biden's name will stick with Trump's followers while Trump's total corruption will not register with them. I am sure that we will hear chilling chants of 'lock him up' very soon. Attacks on Trump seem only to drive his followers into a circle the wagons mentality.
Perhaps we should stop thinking about Trump's base, but it is they who give him his power thus empowering their hero. It is as if we are watching a continuous vicious episode of 'The Apprentice'.
Perhaps Amy Klobuchar is the key, someone with the ability to appear like a small town girl while attaking like a female bull dog.
He's too old.
Say it ain't so, Joe...
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man."
“I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body...”
“The real problem with busing, is that you take [white] people who aren’t racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children’s growth, by busing them to an inferior school.”
“I voted to go into Iraq, and I’d vote to do it again”
"Look, John's [referring to Senator McCain] last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."
"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent....I'm not joking."
"I'll be blunt with you. The only vote I can think of that I ever cast in my years in the Senate that I regret...was [the repeal of] Glass Steagall." [Referring to the Financial Modernization Act of 1999]
"Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately."
“It’s not that [some parents] don’t want to help. They don’t know what quite to do: Play the radio, make sure the television… make sure you have the record player on at night.”
Cheers
Fun fact if you go bankrupt and you want to use save a little money for your kids Christmas gifts ,you cant because Biden was told by his bosses the credit card industry no so he stripped it out of the bankruptcy bill. Biden sure does what he is.told.
What about a Biden/Hillary ticket? That would be Karma for Trump.
1
Frank, while you say that Biden’s campaign is based on — just waging a “battle for the soul of the nation.” — Bernie Sanders’ revolutionary battle for the American people will beat Trump, which is the seminal and most important demand of all thinking Americans.
As my new double-sided signs simply say:
“Our Revolution”
to Dump
Emperor Trump
and on the other side:
Get ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ the
EMPIRE
1
Like H R Clinton he is a terrible candidate for one easily provable reason: he is corrupt to the core.
1
No one is a perfect candidate. The comments on this article are full of Biden haters.
“The GOP votes like a pack of wolves. The Dems vote like a herd of cats”
Stop arguing...
The unctuous uber-schmoozer, Joe would make a good greeter at the Knights of Columbus bingo night. The artifice is so ingrained, "that's just Joe." I find him too compromised to be the nation's president: banksters' pal, admitted "conservative," rationalizing dealmaker on Anita Hill, the Iraq War, incarceration mania, pot regulation... ugh. And the handsy girl-whisperer. More ugh. And another in a line of Rockefeller-Republican-in-drag centrist "Democrats." Even more ugh.
1
Clearly Mr Bruni must be joking here. Biden is as corrupt and insincere as US politicians get. His brother and son have enriched themselves at the pig's trough for many years. Joe is an ancient member of the government with little to show for it=- let's summarize: Voted for war in Irq, voted for the patriot act, half of the presidential administration that escalated drone warfare with uncountable civilian casualties, supporter of regime change in many countries,never met a war he did not like, cut welfare, waffled on abortion for decades. He is not a nice guy, insincere, corrupt, incapable of subtlety, aligned with the Clintons and a warmonger. Honesty, not fake moral grandstanding is required. Bruni, a defender of the status quo democrats and republicans and another attempt to downplay the progressive wing of the Democratic party. Boo on you Bruni.
2
Yeah, a really nice Republican guy. This is the Democratic party! The party of FDR! They need to stand and fight for something besides the middle of the road! No $tatu$ Quo Joe - EVER!!!
Trump will call him old and sleepy, call his wife ugly and spew hate till the cows come home. In the end, Trump is an insecure, cruel con man in bed with Russian oligarchs. Biden is not the one who should be doing the heavy lifting. The voters need to start doing their due dillegince
Bruni might want to pick up Schweitzer’s latest book, “Profiles in Corruption”.
Biden is as crooked as they come.
3
Oh my god. Stop already. This is no longer making me angry, it's making me uncomfortable. Job Biden a … nice guy? The man who put the bank in bankruptcy? The man who put the crime in crime bill? The man who put the …. you get my point. Please give it a rest. We get it. Anybody but Bernie. Please stop.
2
Joe Biden is an ignorant dull modest inarticulate temperate experienced back-slapping hand-shaking hugging name and face remembering old school elected politician.
Biden's two prior quests for the Oval Office failed miserably on takeoff.
The President of the United States isn't our good friend nor our favorite uncle. The President of the United States isn't a member of the legislative branch of our republic.
I 'd take an American Vladimir Putin over either a Joe Biden or a Donald Trump.
I'd take another Lyndon Johnson, Barack Obama and John Kennedy over Joe Biden.
1
Sounds like Biden's America is that of the 40th High School Reunion America.
Badly remembered.
Here is my fear: it's not enough. Trump won in 2016 and his hideousness was on full display for two years - decades to some of us paying attention to him during that time or who bothered to read the myriad articles about his relentless fraud, cruelty and piggishness. I've sadly come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter. Just this morning interviews of Trump supporters in IA confirmed that fear. It's all about the economy yada yada yada. And - they warn that - like in 2016 - people will lie to pollsters and vote for the criminal in chief without admitting it.
So, sorry Joe - "appealing to our better angels" was a failure in 2016 and will fail in 2020 - especially when your old Senate buds stand ready to smear you (Lindsey Graham).
What I suggest is turning toward Trump's incompetence and clear mental incapacity. The man is simply an idiot who is still scamming the right people in the right states who enjoy outsize electoral influence thanks to the EC and the Senate.
Someone needs to make the case that Trump is a FRAUD because there are still intelligent sounding people who think this guy knows what he's doing other than when he is committing crimes.
1
This man who allowed his son to make millions in the Ukraine and China selling his name is the moral compass of Democrats?
3
TRUMP will eat BIDEN like a burger. Nice guy, but really, the BEST we have to offer?
KLOBUCHAR and WARREN are the BEST. Get over the misogyny for G-d's sake and let's win this election!
1
Biden like Hilary will be remembered as losers.He should put his foolish ambition aside and retire with some semblance of decency.
As for his simplicity, did anyone ever laud him for being deep or substantive?
Oh lordy! A nice guy who is a crook. Why don't the voters ask him how he made all those millions he has on his senate salary of $190,000 a year! How did his son who is a loser junkie make millions?? he was even thrown out of the military. Shows what a great role model dad his father was! My god are the Democrats completely out of their mind? The answer plainly is YES!
2
Biden is the "white moderate" politician Martin Luther King Jr. had warned us about.
1
Biden can’t string together 2 sentences, remember what city he’s in, and has some very creepy stories. Hairy legs! Is this the person you think can hold his own in a debate with Trump? It would be so bad SNL will make fun of Biden.
2
Nice try Frank. If you think Sanders is too old then that qualifies Biden as beyond senile.
On the surface you might call him a wonderful father to Hunter but I call him a codependent.Political instincts terrible.Iran,Iraq Ukraine.Mass incarceration.He is old and getting senile.
There is nothing about biden that makes me think 'nice guy' ..He is ill-tempered, scattered, vacuous at times, pron tro the hideous defense, "do you know who I am??" when confronted on public transportation, and unaware of female b oundaries.. Please god, no neck rubs..Nice guy? Says who? even his stressed face, newly grown baldnness hair (see photos from ten years ago) all speak to a very impatient, discontent, and just generally treansactionally principled human..That is why we like Bernie - his principles are the same all the time, and they are left, and for the community, and will not be bought or sold..
2
Is Joe Biden Trump's Jimmie Carter? If so, who is Joe Biden's Ronald Reagan?
I'm a 68 y/o Midwestern white guy. Have always voted "D". The only way I'd vote for Biden is if he beat me in a push up contest. Just kidding...he'd also have to give me a record player and explain his logic for going to war with Iraq. If Biden is their choice, the "D's" deserve to lose one more time. What a clueless, pathetic group.
1
IF and only if, the DNC is able to continue manipulating the vote Tammany Hall Style......
Elizabeth Warren, loyal DNC politician, will be our Vice President.
Thats about all.
The DNC would like to promote Joe Biden, also a loyal DNC politician....but.....
DNC politician, Gavin Newsome, is waiting in the wings of California,,,,,a state currently locked inside of the DNC Political Machine's iron fist.
'It’s about honesty, decency, empathy, humanity.'
Along with the groping, sniffing, poking, gaffing.
2
He is pretty nice , to the credit card industry.
Like your 25% interest Card Biden
Like how Trump can go bankrupt and discharge hundreds of million of dept but you cant get rid of you student load dept.. ever, Biden.
You like soft quiet corruption , Biden
1
Here's the DNC Times's plug for the mod dem.
Does anyone really think Biden is up to the task of reversing inequality, fixing the medical system and confronting climate change? Probably not, huh?
Bernie 2020!
Joe Biden's record on Social Security: https://theintercept.com/2020/01/25/joe-biden-social-security/
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/28/joe-biden-older-voters-bernie-sanders/
As a Democrat I do not understand why we need Joe Biden to win back the Presidency from the most horrible individual to occupy the Oval Office. What is wrong with our Party, the Democrats, that Trump would be more electable than anyone we would nominate? Seriously, if we Democrats selected our nominee with a dart board and blindfolded, why wouldn't whoever or whatever that dart selected win in a landslide over Trump?
Why is our Democratic Party so unpalatable to so many Americans that we have to endlessly hand wring over selecting a specific candidate who maybe has the best chance of beating Trump? If Trump is as horrible as most think he is, and the Democratic Party is held in higher esteem than the Republican Party, then every or any potential Democratic nominee should kick Trump's butt. Correct?
It kills me how you all think Trump is corrupt. The Biden's like the Clinton's wrote the book the footnotes and the sequel.
1
Two time vote loser, second fiddle to Obama. What is to like?
2
And the DNC should get Tom Hanks a Red Cardigan and cast him in "The Oval Office"......
1
Joe Biden's campaign slogan should be:
It's all a bad dream. Let's go back to sleep.
2
As much as Bernie and Elizabeth Warren mean well, if they top the Democratic ticket we are assured of four more years of Trump and his collaborators in looting. This would leave the once-great United States a fascist backwater.
Biden? Fine with me. Let's just get Trump and his thugs out of the White House, and his lemmings out of the Senate.
1
Yeah. Too nice not to tell his son that serving on the board of Burisma was really stupid. Not the sign of a strong leader.
A light Republican!
Twelve years ago I started paying attention to the unknown Democrat with the funny name. My little contribution was part of the first million he raised. I knew from the beginning who I liked and why.
This year I just don't know. Most of us prefer clarity and this year our choices are awfully ambiguous. Mr. Bruni has written a mature and thoughtful description of our confusion. In an unsatisfying way it has the ring of truth and I appreciate it.
1
I'd be happy enough with just "really nice guy" but that's not going to get the job done ... not the job of getting elected but the job of cleaning up Trump mess.
Of the three I believe are qualified to do that, it's Biden then Bloomberg then Klobuchar. Any of the top Democrats should be able to beat Trump in a fair election but not all of them can deal with the cleanup effort afterwards.
1
I'm with you Frank. He feels like the right choice, not the safe choice, but an antidote to the thrashing this country has taken at the hands of this administration and its cronies. We need to collectively close the door, sit in our big comfy chairs for a minute or two, collect our breaths and breath a sigh of relief, before we assess the damage and start to tackle the problems this country faces. We need to heal and in that regard, I trust Joe.
2
Dear 65+ voters warning us younger folks about the dangers of socialism:
We see you cashing those Social Security checks and enrolling in Medicare. Actions speak louder than words. If a little democratic socialism is good for you (and good for our peers in all the other 1st world countries), then it's good enough for us.
Bernie 2020 #NotMeUs
4
The most important thing for me this time around is for our country to return to decency, kindness, empathy and civil discourse and no other candidate is better suited for that than Joe Biden. I want a President who would make everyone feel that he is their President and not someone who alienates 50% of the population. Good policies can be enacted by surrounding oneself with people skillful at that. Character matters, and I hope my fellow Americans will place a high value on this more than anything else when making their choice.
Lakshmi, Minneapolis
2
@Vernon Wow and if we would have just asked Hitler nicely, World War 2 would not have happened. Evil must be fought and fought hard.
For some reason, I'm thinking of them (and their followers) as an approach to food. Biden = home-cooking (feed a family on $20). Bernie = Starbucks (at 5 bucks a cup). Klobuchar will bring her casserole. Bloomberg will pay. Warren probably doesn't eat much. The rest won't be at the meal. If it were to be a meal, my choices are Bloomberg, Biden, Klobuchar, not sure of the order. Warren would be an unknown but my guess is an unlikely.
How they appear in the minds of people in the middle of the country who don't go out to eat every night really might matter in this election.
2
If Joe Biden wins the nomination and selects Stacy Abrams from GA to run with him, trump is done.
4
@stan Nope. Don't even start. Abrams is not electable. All anyone needs to do is run clips of her campaign speeches when she tried for the GA Governor's seat. BTW - it's been 15 months, had she conceded that she lost that election yet?
Biden is mentally deficient and, especially at this age, a proven incompetent to be our next president. On certain maters, i.e. foreign policy, he's weak. Even Obama's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said that Biden has been wrong on every foreign issue. Add that to the fact that he allowed his son to profit from his family relationship, one ends up with a bad candidate for president.
5
@MCH
His son holds a law degree from Yale and was appointed to a 5-year term on the board of Amtrak by President Bush. Amtrak's annual revenue dwarf's Burisma's, and Burisma has a dozen subsidiaries and operations in four countries.
Every Republican poseur in Congress feigning outrage at Hunter's job and his pay grade knew his pay, outlandish at it sounds to average American workers, was par for the course in the corporate arena. A CEO of a fertilizer company in Ukraine earns $40K a month. In 2019, A. P. Swiger, the Senior VP of ExxonMobil, made over $270,000 a month -- a month -- in salary, and that was a fraction of his compensation.
What's more that's the kind of job a lot of those Republican phonies hope to land when they retire from Congress and peddle their prestige and government connections. What did Dick Cheney know about oil drilling when he left Congress and took the CEO job at Halliburton?
If the Democrats could've traded Biden's testimony at Trump's impeachment trial for Bolton's and Mulvaney's, they should've done it. Then they could've exposed how bogus the Republican narrative on Hunter Biden really is.
1
"what a nice guy". And a criminal. How can I say that? All career politicians are criminals: they just cannot give up the perks of power. Term limits are a must have to solve our real problems.
4
I wrote this months ago in a comment when Joe Biden first announced his intention to run, "Joe Biden will never be President." It's still true.
5
First of all Biden is not a nice guy, he is a bully, second he is a stooge for corporations and the wealthy. Seems like a large percentage of Americans are either clueless or somehow think corporations care about them and think it would be a good idea to be ruled by them. Government should protect us from business not help them to rob the country blind.
3
Nice? What does that even mean? He's a nice guy, unless being nice means voting for something that his corporate masters tell him will hurt their profits. He's nice, unless you are an innocent civilian Dick Cheney wants to sacrifice to his cause of endless war. He's nice, unless you are living on social security or your livelihood is already being impacted by climate change or you are a young kid from the projects who got arrested; then, he wants to throw you in jail for the rest of your life. You get the point.
4
Joe may be a nice guy, but the young voters in my house think he's creepy.
4
@Beanie They are correct.
1
Biden as the nominee will not ignite the base like Trump will his rabid supporters and we’ll end up back on the road to destruction.
2
Joe Biden is a nice guy made even nicer and more empathetic from the loss of his first wife and two kids in a traffic accident decades ago. President Obama was beyond smart to choose him as his Vice-President. I believe that Joe will attract far more Afro American and Latino American voters than any other Dems running for president. Although Joe is 77, he appears to be quite healthy. As for whom he might choose as his V-P, I'm hoping he chooses Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a lawyer and former prosecutor who knows how to deal with President Trump.
2
"Character matters"?
Yes, but so does interest matter?
The media cannot tolerate no drama, boredom, period.
Now, perhaps, a no drama president can have a dramatic vp.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump won and continues to dominate the media, with interest.
Obama had character, but he became, "No - drama Obama."
Part of the Democratic drama might be a new democracy wave.
"Democracy is coming to the USA" (Leonard Cohen song)
Nice guy? Don't know too many nice guys who go around poking their fingers into the chest of potential supporters then declare they should just vote for someone else. Why vote Joe when you can vote Mike? Give it to Mike think you keep the Bernie Bros? Nice guy not nearly enough to sell a dinosaur like Biden.
2
I think Joe Biden is a great candidate but, frankly, he will not necessarily beat the occupant in the Oval Office. As a NYC native, I believe former three-term NYC Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, will absolutely beat Trump ...and Trump knows it. Bloomberg was an excellent Mayor - made a few mistakes- for which he has apologized, has no scandals, is a self-made billionaire, conducts himself as the consummate professional and will not get into the mean-spirited juvenile name-calling bullying that is a hallmark of the Oval Office occupant. And intellectually, he does know that when George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware in 1776 there were no planes and "did not man the airports" as was so smugly and arrogantly purported in the occupant's 4th of July speech last year. Bloomberg will get the United States back on track from this hideously ignorant anomaly occupying the Oval Office. And even yesterday, in yet another Twitter blast, the Twit-in-Chief congratulated the winning Super Bowl Chiefs from the great state of Kansas - no, "stable genius," - the Chiefs are from Kansas City in the STATE OF MISSOURI... everyday it is a new low.
1
Oh, yeah, he's so nice, he wants to cut your social security and medicare, but denies it at every turn. So nice, he admires segregationists, and lies about his non-existent "civil rights work." So nice, he yells at people who disagree, and tells them to vote for someone else. So nice, he can't keep his hands off people. So nice, he tells rich people not to worry, nothing will change for them. So nice, he doesn't mind getting in bed with the banking industry; they call him "Credit Card Joe." This is not nice, and he should not be president. Let's not have any more pathological liars as president, hmm?
3
I’d be a lot more convinced by all these attacks on Joe Biden if they were based on something approximating facts, and contained a lot less personal attack and ridiculous supposition.
There are perfectly-sound reasons to prefer other candidates: Joe’s age, his credit card company support, his Old Guard democratic history, that vote for the Crime Bill even if it was supported generally; even the appearance of impropriety created by Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal with Burisma.
But he didn’t vote for the Iraq War; he voted for the AUMF. He didn’t vote to chop Social Security; he pushed for compromises to keep the system going. He’s not against universal medical coverage.
And so on. Oh, well. If you wanna scream at Joe for really stupid reasons,not much I can do about it. But I don’t see how that makes you much better than Trump, and I do see how it makes you one more gal or guy who doesn’t want to look at where the real probs are.
1
Sure. But Andrew Yang is a really nice guy. Elizabeth Warren is a really nice gal. So is Amy Klobuchar. Then we've got Mike Bloomberg who is not a nice guy at all, and that, according to some, is why we should put him up as the candidate as if our politics had devolved into a version of Rock-Em-Sock-Em-Robots. Posters who declare that the youth vote is absolutely essential to winning this election are on the mark. And Biden cannot bring them along. His time has passed, no matter how Iowans decide.
2
“decent, kind and loving”
Yup, just what we need to confront the corporations that are destroying this country. To confront a Congress that puts party over country. To confront threats like Russia, China, North Korea, Iran.
Not!
Give me Bernie's revolution any day. Like they say: No pain, no gain. At 61 I don't have much time to wait for the typical Democratic incrementalism to bring the change this country, this world needs to move forward.
Frank's description of Joe Biden makes him sound like Uncle Charlie from My Three Sons (boy does that reference date me!). That is not what I see, I see a pro-corporate, pro-Establishment neoliberal. Hillary Clinton 2.0 who may win the popular vote but will lose in the Electoral College.
I think of the trillions of dollars thrown into the sinkhole called the Middle East. Lots of brave young Americans lost their lives for nothing as we are not safer today. Wars that were advocated by “decent, kind and loving” Joe Biden.
Unemployed for over two years I had to file for bankruptcy a couple of years ago. While I am in better shape financially even though I am barely making it working 60 hours a week at two jobs I am still saddled with over $120K in student loans.
Thanks to “decent, kind and loving” Joe Biden I could not discharge those student loans during my bankruptcy because he decided to take care of his rich banker buddies over little people like me.
Nominating Biden means four more years of Trump.
#NotMeUs #BernieBeatsTrump
1
Biden may be a plagiarist, an exaggerator, an enabler of Clarence Thomas, a crime bill supporter, a war hawk who'd "do it all over again, and someone who warmly fantasizes about how good it felt to negotiate with racist Senators in the past, and yearns to do the same with Mitch McConnell & Co. (who will of course act in good faith after Trump is gone), and, last but not least, be open to SS & Medicare cuts--but hey, he's warm and fuzzy and we should all support him, right Mr. Bruni?
4
Voters who say – figuratively or literally - they want a “revolution”...are really saying they want the President to do their work for them; they want to slough off the hard work of healing and rebuilding the country – onto the President.
Real change, lasting and meaningful change…begins with people; begins with the boots on the ground.
The boots on the ground in this country don’t want to put down their smart phones and get to work - on a campaign, within their own communities, within their own relationships - to shift the trajectory of this once great nation.
If they did, we’d see massive demonstrations, email/text/phone campaigns to elected officials, boycotts of people and products. Just look at what the people of Hong Kong are willing to do for their freedom.
Joe Biden’s disgust at the President is real; and Joe Biden’s seen a lot of bad guys in his time. Remember, he’s been in politics for a long, long time...
...which means Joe Biden has experience, wisdom, and a fair amount of humanity and humility to offer the American people…you know, he's a human being like you and me.
Yup, he’s made mistakes. Raise your hand if you haven’t. Anyone? And the world has changed – dramatically - since Biden began his service to this nation. He's grown w/that change.
Getting Trump out of office is job #1.
Job #2 is getting off our duffs and stepping into our responsibility to recreate the country once characterized by our “Great American Spirit.” Now is the time.
1
I will never vote for any person that voted yes for the Iraq War. Sending kids to die for no reason is something I will never forgive or forget. Biden is unfit. In the biggest vote of his life he failed. No to Biden.
3
Re Biden’s atmosphere of ethics: how did a guy who’s been on the public payroll for virtually all of his adult life accumulated a fortune of $8 million? Just asking.
5
Think he'll remember his name in 6 months?
3
From another Commenter to a polling article in the Times today:
Decency indeed! Print this if you have a sense of the word.
"Did you know a provision in the Bankruptcy bill to let people keep money out to buy Christmas gifts was stripped by Biden? The 1.3 trillion in student dept is in large part Biden's doing. The reason our kids are holding off buying homes or having children. He did what he was told to do by his bosses , the credit card industry.
Who is gathering there time money and paid trolls to defeat Sanders?
The Wall Street Banks
The Big Oil
Big Pharma
The For Profit Health Insurance industry
War Profiteering Industry
Lobbyists
Billionaires
If he scares them then I know we have a winner.
The war is coming , who do you stand with? The corporations that want to enslave you and take every cent your family has earned or do you take the blue pill and lets try to make our civilization work for us the people for once."
Vote for Bernie today and always.
5
"What Biden is promising,.. He wants to make America normal again."
By normal (to all the one's "soothed" by him), it means retaining all the bad of Trump's (the tax cuts, the whacked out foreign policy that has led us to the same place we have been in for the last 50 years, the immigration problems, the health and drug problems, and especially the corruption, but all in a kinder and gentler tone, no tweets, and smiles across the isles..
As Churchill said, "we shall never surrender."
1
Fine piece on Joe Biden, Frank, but will he become our consoler in chief today? He is a man of character and fit to be president, but in these hateful trumpian times of outrage and fear, nice guys don't finish first.
@Nan Socolow
When has Biden consoled anybody that didn't stand to benefit him? Besides mawkish and hackneyed reminders about this family tragedies he doesn't console anybody. Yes, I'm sure consoling Anderson Cooper on CNN is super helpful to voters - voters who he calls fat and challenges to fights like some sad, drunk barfly.
Are families who lost family members to illness and accidents "consoled" by his draconian bankruptcy bill when they experience that loss of income that comes with a mother's death?
Are families with drug addicted children "consoled" that their kids are in prison while Biden's own drug addicted son gets cushy jobs to peddle influence and doesn't even lose his law license?
What part of Biden is "consoling", exactly?
1
Battling ". . for the soul of the nation” and 'we must work with Republicans' as he has professed are mutually exclusive concepts. Joe Biden is delusional. You can't work with people who are deliberate liars and the Republican party is full of them.
im not from Iowa, but ' Make America Normal Again' works for me.
1
In my memory, a "Nice Guy" worked for Roosevelte, Truman, Ike, Reagan, and Obama.
Joe Biden is what we usd to call a" Good Joe. No tirades, no wacky monetary promises, no baloney. Plus, he knows how to work both sides of the ever-widening aisle of separartion.
A "nice woman" for President would be Amy Klobuchar, if she keeps her chiding in check and a Minnesota smile on her face like Hubert Humphrey did.
1
What was his completely unqualified son doing on a board of a Ukrainian Gas company? Bloomberg doesn’t have this baggage.
In a recent conversation on “The Argument,” a Times weekly podcast on controversial issues of the day, Katie Kingsbury, who described herself as “among the more moderate members of the [Times Editorial] Board,” explained why she supported the Board’s decision not to endorse Biden.
https://tinyurl.com/tnfsln3
She had initially thought Biden would be “the best Democrat to be president” but began to have second thoughts, realizing “how weak a lot of the norms and institutions” that undergird our country have become, “how they really need to be reconsidered, and how our economic and political systems should at least be examined as to whether or not they need to be overhauled. And that’s not Joe Biden’s message at all. Joe Biden’s message simply is, ‘Let’s go back to normal’—whatever normal is, right?”
She went on to point out that “for a lot of Americans, normal [isn’t] working; and I think that there needs to be some recognition that, at least for some portion of the American public, the government and the economic systems [have been] failing them; and I think that is why—at least, in part—Donald Trump was elected president.” But “what Biden is offering . . . just felt like tinkering around the edges when the house is on fire; and we need to have a really close examination of what needs to change in this country. And [this] doesn’t come through when you talk to the former Vice President, that he understands that urgency, that he gets that people need something different.”
1
So many bad choices in the past......
and, sorry, but he's got a really 'creepy' vibe going around women - which he seems oblivious to and the media avoids discussing.
1
"He has ... an aura of overarching goodness that’s a tonic in the context of Donald Trump." Really? What about the bad choices he made going to war in Iraq? He should have known W was full of it. With his experience and knowledge of foreign affairs, he should never have voted for that war. Is he just dumb?
Or his weird smelling of people, notably women and his repulsive treatment of Anita Hill. Is he just insensitive as a cement block? Does he really have such horrible social skills?
His going along with vile segregationists to get along and get things done. Well, there is no excuse for that. Ask Mussolini.
His gaffes and cloudy thinking. His Hunter baggage. We should just excuse, forgive, ignore?
We have a really dumb person in the White House now. One without social skills as insensitive as they come, who does deals with devils and then reneges, who prefers evil ignoramuses to people who actually know something.
We don't need Joe. And I don't care about the smile.
4
Nice is not enough to beat Trump.
2
Now what’s that they say about “nice guys”?
1
Yes, let’s take the lessons from 2016 and make sure we nominate a boring, centrist career politician with tons of baggage. Sprinkle in a little dementia and white privilege and you got yourself our newest failure of a candidate. Joe Biden!
No. Thanks.
Let’s nominate someone who’d make a good leader. How about that? This election is far too important.
3
No one I know here in Iowa in my college town is going to caucus for Sanders. It's Klobuchar, Pete or Biden. Sanders and his Jacobin supporters have left quite a stink -- overwhelming scorched earth tactics, taking over the Biden headquarters in Des Moines last week and refusing to leave and etc. And the guy has not been vetted. Imagine what Repubs will do with this:
https://babalublog.com/2020/02/02/video-of-the-day-socialist-bernie-sanders-long-communist-history-and-why-it-matters-today/
Remember your mistake of 2016. Or repeat it again for four more years of the abyss.
1
Leo said: Nice guys finish last
As activist Shaun King has been showing, Biden has a real problem with lying ( the proper word) about his imaginary involvement with the civil rights movement. That’s not nice — it’s entitled and manipulative. Then there’s Iraq. If that kind of dishonesty and warmongering makes you feel warm and cozy — what can I say?
1
Got absolutely rolled on Solyndra...
Would be the same across several industries badly needing trustbusting, if Joe got in...
A wink, a smile, a nod - and otherwise clueless...
Which might be the beginning of the end for us...
PS
Social media being the least of our worries...
Biden may have some things going for him -- his history with Obama and the White House, this middle-of-the-road politics (which appeal to some), his support from the black community.
But nice? This guy has put his foot in this mouth over and over again with regards to women, people of color, and people with disabilities. Really, have you seen his latest instance of petting a man in a wheelchair? Condescending, touching without consent. He is missing the basics of "nice".
1
Frank, I wish you had spent some time with Klobuchar.
1
Frank, the squinty out-of-touch Joe Biden is not such a "nice guy".
And as he struts around Iowa continually bragging about his years as Vice President, he needs to be asked about the 2014 midterms and the crucial loss of the Senate, allowing the destructive obstructive Mitch McConnell to make it a branch of the White House.
[Also, he wasn't such a "nice guy" for Anita Hill.]
1
I have a lot of trouble viewing someone as "nice" when they supported a war that killed 100s of thousands of innocent people.
2
Biden is the best candidate to defeat Trump for reasons, I submit, everyone knows including Trump. But he can only win if he runs with a Black VP candidate. The more than two million Blacks who did not vote in the last election must be energized.
Nice guy? Not so nice to people who come to a Biden campaign event asking questions about things like social security, the environment, (god forbid) his son. Get ready to be called fat and go vote for Trump, after the eminence gris slowly advances toward you and pokes you in the chest. We may hope this is among the last of these puff pieces before switching over to how nice Bloomberg is.
1
In April, 2017, I wrote a quasi-academic paper about the 2016 Presidential election all titled “The Crooked River to the White House,” (crooked river referring the Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River and analogous to the import of the Great Lakes region’s electoral significance.) I concluded the paper arguing that the election was largely decided by the “3 T’s” : Trustworthiness (HRCs, deserving or not); Trade; and Third-parties.
Often times these alphabet heuristics can help make complex phenomena accessible and manageable.
Mr. Bruni’s three Rs accomplish this nicely.
Yes it's what most voters want except for the ratty group of Bernie Bros supporting Sanders. The same group of kids who say they won't support anyone else, want free college, free healthcare, and free everything else. They are bunch of freeloaders who have no idea who is paying their bills. To H with all of them including Ocasio Cortez.
1
Here’s a crazy thought....support the nominee.
2
I think Democratic voters are looking for a candidate that can go after Trump for his corruption without creating an obvious pot-calling-the-kettle-black scenario. Frank Bruni didn't really give us a reason to vote for Joe Biden, rather he tipped his hand and revealed himself as a Joe Biden cult member.
1
Filled with some "Gunk" is not the word to describe Biden's record.
"Corrupt" is the better word. He may be "kind and loving" on a personal basis, but on the financial and political matter that really count he is "corrupt." Kindness and love" I will get somewhere else thank you.
He is a neoliberal; that's the name for people like Hillary and Bill and Obama and Pelosi and Schumer and all the rest of the Democrats who dumped the working class, "ordinary" people years ago. They realized the wealthy and the corporations were coming to run the world and who passed out the big bucks to politicians; so Biden went with the crowed. He lies and is filled with deceit and supports the horrid military industrial complex (MIC). The Dems give Trump everything he wants in terms of the MIC, and in terms of the corporations and wealthy. Nothing for the unions -- in fact let's destroy the unions-- and we cannot have what every other modern country has --Medicare for All. The poor get poorer and suicides increase in America. Joe was part of all this; he is worse than a centrist and he has stated that "nothing will change when I'm president;" that's a quote you can find. He is part of the system that most of us are now calling the "decline of America." And "the increasing corruption in America."
We do not need Joe Biden in the White House or anywhere else.
5
I hear his son is good at company boards, too.
1
NIce guys finish.
Why no words today about Bloomberg's long waited super Bowl ad ?
The “really nice guy” is exceedingly corrupt.
2
Biden's stance on no malarkey should be a game-changer. /s
It's been said that nice guys finish last. But, haven't we had more than enough of a guy who most certainly isn't nice and has created nothing but chaos for the past three years. Do we rally need more of a self-serving, egotistical narcissist, a bully, a racist and a distractor (that's his strong point)? trump has dragged our country into his overflowing swamp, has insulted our allies (former allies thanks to him). He has embarrassed us time after time overseas. This "stable genius" thinks windmills will give you cancer and Climate Change is a Chinese hoax. Actually he is the hoax and we surely do not need any more of his incompetency.
Indeed, the November election will be a referendum on Donald Trump. It will be about character and trust. And Joe Biden is just the opposite of Donald Trump. Biden is a nice and honest guy compared to Trump who is a dishonest bully and a liar.
1
Joe Biden is almost last on my list of candidates due to his multiple poor choices in the past. In addition, I dread to think of him on a debate stage with Trump. Even under regular day-to-day campaigning, Joe blurts out some stupid stuff (he's famous for it). He looked silly in the debates with the very well-behaved Democratic challengers. Trump would chew him up and spit him out--not because Trump is a good debater, but because he is a bully.
All that said, I will definitely vote for Joe if he is the nominee. I will vote for any nominee the Democrats put up. And I encourage everyone of good will and concern for our republic to do the same.
Adding to NYT Picks Post, I would love to see Biden as he has good relationships with our foreign allies! We need to restore all the damage Trump has caused world wide!
1
I think the sheer simplicity of Biden’s message will carry the day for him. How many voters will actually read the fine print on all of Warren’s wonderful proposals (I don’t mean that sarcastically; they are wonderful proposals IMHO)? We live in a sound bite culture and that will matter in the end.
1
@Kinsale
Warren benefits from people not reading the fine print on all of her proposals. The only one that has received any scrutiny at all is her health care plan and it was quickly revealed to be nonsense...her campaign still hasn't recovered. The remaining plans are similarly flawed.
1
He has a moral compass. That, plus decades of political experience, is more than enough to get my vote.
Fix the cracked foundation. Everything else can wait until 2024.
There is no doubt that Joe Biden is a nice guy. A mensch. But Leo Durocher ( one time Dodger manager) infamously said “nice guys finish last”).In hockey terms can Biden be rough and tough enough in the corners? Human decency will not be enough to remove the scourge of Trump.Try Bloomberg who is rich enough and mentally tough enough and on the right side of issues like gun control and tax reform.
1
We see the same thing and arrive at a different conclusion, or opinion.
Biden does come across as a nice guy. But he also comes across, to me, as an aging gentleman trying for the third and final time to become President. It is past time for him to hang his ambitions up.
To me, Buttigieg is the one who radiates as a person of depth, integrity, and the desire to restore our democratic institutions, our freedoms, and fairness.
Buttigieg is as old, or older, than many of our most revered Founding Fathers. I long for a young, brilliant, calm President.
2
I realized that to be effective in my job performance, decades ago, my chief concern could not be if I was going to be considered nice.
If Biden is the nominee he has my vote, however he does not have my primary vote.
Why, because after these Trump years, I can see Biden making some terrible agreement with the GOP just to have effective government as President.
1
@Saints Fan Well.. Half satire, half possible..
I want a sane, compassionate, normal, human being who exhibits humanity, decency, intelligence, and the ability to work with others who are interested in working for the good of all of the people of this country and the world.
Joe Biden has demonstrated those qualities his entire life both personally and professionally as have some of the other candidates. I will vote for basic human decency -- a trait that Trump has never possessed even on his best day if he ever had one.
3
Joe Biden reminds me of the kind grandfatherly type. He loves his family and is a good role model for others. Presidential? Not so much.
1
So your argument would be that Trump’s the vicious head of a squabbling crime family who leeched over $400 mil from his own father, and this therefore qualifies him to be President.
And our country’s moral standard bearer.
Amazing.
@KMW
Apparently, to a lot of Trump supporters, “Presidential” means thrice-married, twice-divorced, groping women, threatening political with incarceration and violence, nepotism, and locking children in jails. Oh, and corrupt and in league with despotic governments and leaders. What a stand-up guy you all are in thrall of.
It doesn’t matter how great Biden is. He is tainted by the Ukraine scandal and he won’t answer any questions about Hunter without vitriol. He has insulted his audience members in Iowa. This is who we think of as kind?
And Biden’s most ardent supporters are those hoping for a one-term president because of his age. Seriously?
And frankly, he is boring, uninspiring, and old. He can’t unite the party much less the country. Maybe some moderates will come out and vote for him, but many will just stay home (which has it’s own advantage), and many of them will come vote against what they see as a Washington where it is okay to profit via influence and/ or the hypocrisy of people who have profited themselves calling other people corrupt. And this will happen in the critical electoral college states like WI. Out here in CA we will hold our noses and vote Biden if we must, but in my former WI life people won’t. Not after Ukraine.
So far, the only candidates that seem like they have a chance at beating Trump are Bloomberg and Yang. Bloomberg because he makes Trump extra defensive while undermining the Trump
Mythology and and Yang because he is pulling in Trump supporters by actually speaking to the issues that Trump spoke to in 2016 and demonstrating how despite Trump’s rhetoric he doesn’t pass legislation that actually helps the people.
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Well, you all know where nice guys finish, right? Biden will not beat Trump. Trump will tear "Sleepy", tired, really old Joe to shreds. We need somebody who is smart, tough and loaded - Bloomberg! Here's hoping that Iowa and New Hampshire are just the beginning, not the end of the primaries. Otherwise, get ready for four more years of Trump.
Trump is not a nice guy, but, unfortunately for the Democrats, he got the job done. Voters wanted jobs and now there are more jobs than job seeders. Voters wanted pay increases and now the average wage for American workers has increasing by 3% per year. They wanted illegal immigration stopped and now illegal border crossing are at a 17 year low. The people that voted for him wanted conservative judges on the bench, and Trump has added almost 200 federal judges and two conservative Supreme Court justices. The list goes on.
Biden maybe a nice guy, but he’s a politician that has mastered the ‘folksy’ language that old school politicians use to avoid talking about issues. Biden talks about Trump’s cruelty but he has was the Vice President for a man that was called ‘the ‘Deporter-in-Chief’ because Obama deported more undocumented immigrants than the last three presidents combined. Biden calls Trump corrupt but he also has a lot to explain about how is son just happened to gat a board seat in one of Ukraine’s most corrupt companies while he was point man for foreign policy there. The list goes on...
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