Sanders is the Pied Piper of Chaos. He yells to his followers, "I'll make it Free". This selfish rebel has absolutely no qualms about leading the young and the desperate over the cliff of financial anarchy. He drums his "my way or the highway" dogma, just like Trump!
Biden with Warren or Bloomberg would make a winning ticket. The heros of the Impeachment trial Rep Adam Schiff and Rep Jason Crow would be a most powerful combo and younger
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Democrats should vote for one of the three remaining candidates who've has actually accomplished something in the public service jobs they have held: Biden, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg.
Each of these three have many solid wins on substantive, significant topics that move the ball forward in protecting the American public.
Senators Sanders and Warren haven't accomplished a thing in the Senate. They are very unpopular as legislators, proposing out of this world projects incapable of being funded. Which does not matter to them. And which is confusing, since being a leader should be about getting things done in the jobs you have. Not making speeches about stuff you dream about doing, without any clue nor care about how to actually accomplish what you preach.
Biden, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg....three excellent choices for American democrats. They've been getting it done for years. And would do more of the same as President.
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Joe Biden had a strong victory and an eloquent speech, post-victory in South Carolina. Whether he can summon the energy and focus (and money) to keep that momentum in the punishing coming primaries will be important to assess. If 'fight' is a main category for the Democratic candidate for President why doesn't Elizabeth Warren get more of a mention? Quick on her feet, informed, with an ability to go for the weak spot in opponents' histories without lying or bloviating, I would love to see her go up against Trump in a debate. Bernie is certainly feisty but his issues are limited. I'm not convinced he has the intellectual depth and policy breadth of Warren who has listened hard to the electorate and can adjust her positions/plans to reflect what varied voters articulate as their priorities. Informed flexibility is not a bad trait.
The key question is who survives the Big Tuesday: Biden or Bloomberg. The winner of the fight will make it to the convention and with the superdelegates and DNC on their side....
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@Kai that"ll never play
Let Sanders lose. And then exit. No more presidential runs - he is too divisive.
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My sister voted for Donald Trump. I voted for Hillary Clinton.
I spoke with my sister today. I like Elizabeth Warren. But we both would vote for Joe Biden if he’s the nominee.
Super Tuesday is turning into Reality Check Tuesday for the Democratic Party.
Let’s not blow it. Climate change, income inequality, healthcare, the Constitution, the importance of facts and truth are all critical issues. But in my mind, the No.1 and Only issue is removing Donald Trump from the White House. If he remains, nothing will be done about the others.
I have no absolute knowledge of who is best positioned to beat Mr. Trump. If I were voting on Tuesday, it would be tough. I have my gut, my conscience, and a general sense of how people vote based on working at a mid-level for a few state campaigns.
I have been right, and I have been wrong. I tend to be too idealistic, and think what is clear to me is the same for others. It’s not.
I usually say, vote your conscience. But we’re in a different paradigm. Clocks are ticking loudly, particularly on climate change. That makes practicality equally important.
When the Affordable Care Act passsed, President Obama said, “This is what change looks like.” It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t everything many had hoped for, but it was a step in the right direction. It bent the arc. It kept a door open.
So I say, vote to keep the door open. If it feels like a compromise, it’s also the nature of democracy. Then we’ll move forward from there.
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@Alan Because your sisiter would vote for Joe Biden means what exactly.
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@Alan
Except you haven't "moved it forward" from there.
The ACA was nothing more than a feel-good incentive legally bound to fall apart, no different that George W. Bush's incentives for people to sign on to subprime loans.
It's hunky dory when your loan payments are low, and then you get hit in the face with the balloon payment you can't make and wind up losing your house. But hey, those low mortgage payments were fantastic while they lasted, right?
If voting for your conscience and voting for Biden are not the same thing, you have to admit that you (and Biden) have no values. The "clock" is ticking on a lot more important and pressing things than climate change - not that Biden will do anything for climate change either.
How did his cancer moonshot program go, by the way? In what measurable way did he make ANY progress on that front?
Biden is not a doctor or medical researcher. He was a legislator. He could have helped families struck with cancer by modifying his draconian bankruptcy bill. But he didn't do that, and didn't even try. Why?
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@Alan "I usually say, vote your conscience. But we’re in a different paradigm."
Exactly. This election is not about health care, income inequality, or education. This is a single issue election; our democracy depends on ousting Trump.
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Obviously Biden made a "compelling case" in SC, to receive so hi a % of the vote there, but anyone would be hard-pressed to articulate what that case was, other than the Sanders-alternative. Joe hardly has a positive vision in an age where Dems are looking to vote against "the Great Divider" Trump and now Bernie. That's why I was hoping the sensible majority of Dems would coalesce around someone like Buttigieg, who has a knack for convincing voters who engage him to vote for him--unlike Biden and Bloomberg.
I'm at that late life stage where the world really seems to be going to hell in the proverbial handbasket and would like better evidence that it's not. Where can we "sensible" Dems put our hope in 2020? Any of our candidates can beat our national disgrace of a president--given a bit of wisdom that we can't count on--but it's hard to argue that Bernie isn't more of a burden on our larger party aims than a help. Reminder: there aren't enuf Dems in the country--either registered or in the weeds--to beat Trump. We have to bring along most independents.
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@Tom I do think Sanders a Sanders nomination poses it's own set of risks, but all those candidates are flawed in several ways. Bernie's stated strategy hinges on record turnout of the youngest voters - historically proven to be the most unreliable demographic with regard to showing up to vote. That indeed could go wrong.
But on the flip side, Biden's nomination would all but guarantee even less young voters would participate and not just when it comes to voting, but volunteering and activism which are essential in GOTV efforts in battleground states.
Buttigieg? For someone I'd continually heard and read was supposed to be a visionary and coalition builder, I was disappointed to to see his continual refrain of how Sanders and even Warren are somehow so far out of his definition of what's "acceptable" for a Democratic Party nominee despite the two of them holding down more than 40% of the votes in several states. It doesn't surprise me that He's lost ground.
I also think that should serve as a cautionary tale for the remaining candidates when it comes to how to go at Sanders. Whoever does emerge out of Milwaukee is going to need not only his support but that if his fervent base and that's going to be much tougher to do if most or all of them continue to insusr he's some kind of loser when the polls overwhelmingly show him doing as well and in many cases better against Trump.
They need to make a case for their candidacies - Not against his.
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@Tom Trump's poll numbers among indies are consistently pretty horrible. It seems a forgone conclusion, outside of a miracle, that Sanders will be the nominee. Not my choice, but he'll win CA and probably TX and others on Tuesday. The Bernie bros. will need to be as committed to getting young people to vote in the swing states as they have been to strong rhetoric on social media
Bloomberg is boring, but as the great Peter Drucker once wrote, the greatest "charisma" personalities of the 20th century were Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, but Roosevelt and Churchill were the saviors. We need someone to emerge in the Democratic fray who can heal, unite and get practical things accomplished that help Americans. Biden winning in SC helps to put up an alternative, and the moderates need to coalesce around one candidate who presents the right things to do, can get it done, and is electable. We will know more after Super Tuesday, and hopefully last night is not a blip. We need a choice that is not between extremists. Barry Goldwater looks like a statesman when comparing to the possibility now looming in November, i.e., Trump vs Sanders.
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I’ll vote for whoever wins the Dem nomination to stop the slide toward the authoritarian regime Trump signals with every move and statement would be the danger of his having a second term. With all due respect to Biden and Sanders, both of whom I believe are fine men with good hearts, I can’t help feeling that once again the best candidate - the smartest and most able to get things actually done in government to benefit the average American - is a woman. But we know how that goes. As my primary isn’t until June, I have little choice but to support Elizabeth Warren from afar and watch as this turns into an old white man contest like historically it nearly always has been.
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Perhaps populations who have been the recipients of broken promises, and thus having learned from experience, have more common sense and are less susceptible to pandering and unrealistic campaign promises. If this is the lesson of South Carolina - that voters are able to judge candidates based on reality and their records - then it bodes well for Biden, and perhaps Bloomberg.
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@LTJ
What's Biden promising, exactly? "Decency" is not a tangible thing. Vague reforms to ACA that he won't even specify? Again, not a thing you can evaluate.
Biden is not my choice but he should be congratulated on a hard fought well deserved win and hopefully all the other Democratic candidates will do so. He seems to be a good person who would be a fine president.
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I think Joe Biden keeps the door open fr more people to join in rejecting Trump. Bernie is a good man, but he will not be acceptable to many more moderate and conservative voters.
The knock on Biden is that he has lost a step, is not sharp enough, to be president. To me, that is not a valid point and not relevant to the way presidents make policy decisions.
Presidents don't make snap decisions--unless it is Trump deciding to fire people or pull American troops out of Syria.
Presidents have 1000's of advisors to help them understand the benefits and threats of various alternatives. Someone with years of experience governing, like Joe Biden, is perfectly equipped in that context to chose the best solution.
Biden is also the candidate Republicans fear most. Can there be any doubt about that?
They fear Biden because they know how easily Biden could shut down their whole ballpark and end the game they have been playing for years.
Biden is the best candidate to turn out Trump and flip the Senate. Both are needed for Democrats to make the changes we need to safeguard our democracy, restore our institutions, and renew our foreign alliances.
Bernie's message has apparently convinced many who don't understand or respect the fears moderates and conservatives have about the message of taxing people to pay for social programs.
Pitting one side of our society against the other side is not a prescription for the healing our country needs now.
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@Dennis
"The knock on Biden is that he has lost a step, is not sharp enough, to be president. To me, that is not a valid point and not relevant to the way presidents make policy decisions."
While one hopes this would be the case, history shows that it is merely that, hope.
Personally I think another doddery liar making easily disproved claims who's prone to trailing off about how people ought to let the record player play for their kids at night when talking about national policy is not going to help.
This is a man who claims under him "nothing fundamentally will change" and then in the next breath attacks Sanders for talking revolution and not "real change".
Biden is as stereotypically shallow and two-faced as any of his cloned colleagues. That's why Bernie's message is resonating where Biden's isn't.
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@Dennis There is a reason Trump fears Biden. That was even before the impeachment. Now Biden also represents the impeachment. Between Bloomberg's billions and that, Trump must be in turmoil right now. I hate to make fun of a serious situation but a lot of people will be saying pass the popcorn as Trump is tormented by both Biden and Bloomberg. Even if your chosen candidate is someone else, you have to appreciate that.
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Biden's win was just a stay of execution, in a one off state where he had long standing relationships. I could never vote for Trump, but in a debate with Biden, Trump would use put down lines akin to a first rate stand up comedian dealing with a heckler and Biden isn't quick enough to stand up to it. My take is either Bernie or Bloomberg could, because they are from the same back yard and can deal reflexively with a gutter fighter like Trump. The rest of the field might as well line up their cable news commentator gigs or play nice for a VP slot, because after Super Tuesday the money is going to start drying up.
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The democratic party establishment will clearly do anything it needs to in order to have Biden win the nomination, regardless of what democratic voters want. This is what happened in 2016 and we all know where that went. South Carolina is one data point, not a trend. Can they accept the voter's choice if Sanders cleans up on super tuesday? We'll have to see.
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I sadly think bloomy's army of ads will ensure that neither Bernie nor "It is over" Biden gets that win. He's swamped the Super Tuesday states, and in New York I'd forgive you if you thought bloomy the ONLY one running.
He blew one debate and improved on another, but from the start he knew that buying media attention, and the wealthy's, matters more. His company is all about that.
@Doug Biden is leading Sanders in the cumulative popular vote of the primaries so far.
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@Doug No matter how much "clean up," a plurality at the convention would not qualify as a majority. Part of the dissatisfaction of many with the current moment is flouting of rules. Those are the rules that were agreed to.
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It would be nice if reporters showed some skepticism and objectivity regarding corporate Democrats’ claims that they want to head off Sanders because he “isn’t electable.” Particularly given the lack of evidence for the claim.
Sanders and Warren are running to share the wealth more fairly in our country. Maybe Biden and Bloomberg are running to maintain the economic status quo.
I know we don’t have economic classes in the United States. But wouldn’t some simple reporting on the economic policies these“moderate” candidates have supported in the past be informative?
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There's ample attitudinal data from the last 20+ years which show that African-Americans, on average, tend to be antisemitic and homophobic at higher rates than the American average. This is especially the case among older African-Americans in the South.
So, it's hard not to believe this wasn't a factor for Sanders and Buttigieg in the 2020 primary in SC (and for Sanders in the 2016 primaries across the South). Sad, but arguably true.
Beyond that, it's clear that the "Democratic establishment" -- defined in my thinking as Democrats who prefer the status quo -- much prefers Biden now, just as they did Clinton in 2016.
What the news media and these status quo Democrats don't get is that the most critical division in the electorate today isn't between "left" and "right," but between those who feel they're getting the raw end of things as a result of the status quo vs those who are content with the status quo (because they're the ones benefiting from it).
The voters most in play for the general election are those who want a president who's not beholden to the status quo and who will look out for the interests of average Americans. Sure, it's easy to say that Trump hasn't lived up to his promises to these folks (because he hasn't), but for the voter who feels the system is rigged against them, my expectation/fear is that too many of them will still vote for Trump again over Biden (but, would, instead, vote for Sanders if he were the Democratic nominee.
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Appreciate I am outsider as non US, but had it not been for the super delegates shutting Bernie out he would have one last time. Given how Hilary performed, it’s arguable he should have been given a go.
Perhaps the only way to beat a disrupter is with another one
Warren is the only candidate that can truly unite the Party, but because the press has created a blackout of her and her candidacy (something Bloomberg could easily fund and arrange for), and instead keeps the focus on Biden and Sanders, voters have to make a concerted effort to factor her in. Her moderate background, her commitment to helping working families, and solution-oriented approach is what working families need. She can obviously take on Trump - the only baggage she has is the “Pocahantas” deal – which polls have shown repeatedly, voters don’t care about this. Instead the press including fivethirtyeight has been driving a Biden vs Sanders narrative, even though both will have serious problems in the general. Biden is a complete folly; all of his baggage is ripe for Trump and his machine to make mincemeat out of. His baggage is also fertile ground for foreign actors to use in interfering with our election. Add to that Biden’s obvious cognitive decline / likely dementia, he ends up creating an endless stream of new material for Trump to exploit. Sanders too has his own set of baggage making for fertile ground to exploit; on the plus side, despite his age, his cognitive function is well-intact and functioning at a high level, so he can hold his own with anything Trump tries to throw his way. That said, if the press were to stop manipulating the narrative to leave Warren out, I think she would have been pulling a lot more votes by now.
Biden is the past, you never revisit.
Sanders is the future. He isn't perfect, he'll learn.
JFK in the beginning wasn't JFK at the end--huge learning curve. You are voting for someone who learns not stagnant.
Biden is stagnant-avoid.
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Type for Klobuchar and her Midwest focused campaign to drop out. We've had enough of a president who thinks he needs only to focus on those in geographies he likes.
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Why this little old white lady is with the youth on the issue of progressivism...
Joe Biden is not the best choice for what ails us. He is, in fact, the very personification of what ails us.
https://www.salon.com/2016/04/30/clintonism_screwed_the_democrats_how_bill_hillary_and_the_democratic_leadership_council_gutted_progressivism/
A good read.
This article articulates well my personal viewpoint that failed Democratic polices stemming from centrists, from incrementalism, is what waylaid long-standing Democratic progressivism; what failed the people and the country; and landed us all squarely in Trump country — the result as much of Democratic failure as it is of Republican success.
Which is why I personally am not in favor of a middler. We are in radical times and we need what can only be labeled as a radical power to correct what has gone so terribly awry, to give all Americans hope that we can be agile and responsive in times of crisis, which clearly we are in. Everyday Americans both red and blue have been harmed by the American economic experiment, the experiment put in place by the powerful, left and right.
Progressives are very much swimming against a tsunami of Democratic institutional resistance and media resistance. It is penned well here, though not described in the language I use.
Just my POV.
If you’re curious about some cogent thoughts penned four years ago, a couple months before Hillary became the 2016 nominee, your call. It’s a bit of slog to read.
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Biden's victory in South Carolina doesn't mean much, barring SC going blue, which is unthinkable. Electability is overrated. Who is electable? The one who is elected. That's the only person who matters. The idea that we should vote for someone we don't believe in the hopes that other people might also vote for them because they are somehow more electable is ridiculous. My vote is my voice, not someone else's. Once my vote becomes my neighbor's, the media's, or the party's, it counts for nothing.
He cannot cherry pick the past.
If Biden is Obama-Biden
He is also Anita Hill-Biden
And that's the problem
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Wednesday morning, we'll know.
Biden made a compelling case with black voters in South Carolina, period. But we have known that all along. He did not make a very compelling case in Iowa, New Hampshire or Nevada. The NYT keeps pushing their agenda, a moderate, but is is we the voters that decide.
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Biden wins a DEM primary big in a red state adds up to what?
I think that black voters have misread what white voters want, if indeed that is how they vote like the NYT says they do. I mean, the NYT said that a black woman in South Carolina knows what's best for me in the Friday article. I just so happen to disagree.
See, I just dont seem to see how an 80 year old church going black woman knows anything about what I want. I sure as heck dont know anything about what she wants. She gets to enjoy retirement and Jesus while I have to deal with being a 31 year old transgender woman who believes that retirement is becoming a fantasy only rich people can achieve.
Also, how is that Biden firewall going to work out in the general election when South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and every other place lots of 80 year old black women are predominantly located that will all vote for Trump?
I see another Hillary Clinton style loss is what I see. While I'm sure that wont affect the black womans ability to go to church and live off their pension, I do see that as destroying any chance I have at a good life and similar end game (minus the church of course).
@Jaqueline Unless I'm mistaken the U.S. is not made up of overwhelming populations of 80 year old black women or 31 year old transgender women--so I see little point in pitching such a narrow view of voters who will decide the election either way--even if you were using these two kinds of folks in a metaphoric sense. One other thing, the 80 year old black woman would be affected by another 4 years of Trump given that he and the GOP are going after Social Security and Medicare.
My way of thinking for now is to just vote for who you like. I'm hoping for a certain Dem to win, but like the signs around me here in central PA say: 2020--Any Responsible Adult
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A few days ago Biden said he was running for the Senate, instead of the presidency. Last week he lied about being jailed in Soweto while visiting Nelson Mandela in a pandering attempt to win the black vote in South Carolina. Yesterday he tried to blame Trump for the Coronavirus arriving in America. He challenged an old man in Iowa to a fight for simply posing a valid question about his sons' no show big bucks job in Ukraine. Even Obama, his own running mate, will not endorse him And this is the man that Democrats may nominate for president? Laughable. Trump will eat him alive in any debate.
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Over and over we've heard from nearly everyone that black women are the base, that you can't win without the base, that the base must be enthusiastic. Didn't the base just speak?
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@Blair No just black Democrats in South Carolina. If the only base in the Democratic party is comprised of black women, what does that make the rest if us, chopped liver? Should he rest of us not vote now the the "base" has spoken.
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@Steve The party often refers to itself in those terms.
@Blair A black women majority show good common sense in elections. Not to say all vote the same way, but if a majority of black women vote a certain way, Democrats need to pay attention. We could see them as a bellwether. As a group, they know their own minds and are practical. Many of us would love to see a black woman as vice president.
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Please, How democrats vote in South Carolina has little to do with who will carry the state in the general election. The voters in that state elect people like Lindsey Graham. Biden's win means less than nothing.
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@Gregg Hodge I don't think anyone capable of using historical perspective would argue against that, but Biden's win in SC could well prove to he a catalyst in breaking the logjam of "Moderate" candidates if He could sustain any momentum into Super Tuesday.
If the establishment and the billionaires were to start funding the Biden campaign again, there's less justification for Bloomberg's continued presence and Buttigieg's ability to raise money takes a huge hit.
He'd never be my first choice for nominee, but after winning convincingly here, I think he's in a far better position than Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
@Gregg Hodge
It's nice for the Moderates, though; it's their last hurrah as they go the way of the dodo bird. So sad.
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Much disagreement from here. Biden’s win shows how Bernie Sanders has not increased any of his black supporters. Biden needed this win to show that he has a chance to be the nominee and beat Trump.
I think that there are a lot of desperate voters waiting for Biden to show more energy, more urgency, and more elect-ability. While early voting has made California a lock for Sanders (the only question is the size of the victory), in: Virginia, N.C., Alabama, Texas, etc, the South Carolina victory could give Biden the opportunity to look like the true nation-wide candidate coming out of Super Tuesday. Sanders' followers are devoted. However, many see a victory for Trump when they his proclamations of: Doing away with ALL private health insurance (most countries allow private and public to coexist), Free college for ALL, Forgiven college debt for ALL, "FREE" universal childcare for ALL, continued qualified support of Castro, etc...
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