If you haven't read through Bernie Sanders's resume from the good old days of his fresh elevation to mayor of "the largest city in Vermont," now available online, then you might not be able to assess just how incredibly un-accomplished this underachiever actually is.
No wonder he needs buoying up by crowds of children worshiping at his feet at rallies reminiscent of those made notorious by Donald Trump.
Bernie Sanders carried his epic-level underachievement into the Senate, with results that speak for very publicly for themselves. Others have covered this ground sufficiently, so no need to rehearse them here. Suffice it to say just this:
Bernie Sanders claims as accomplishments all of the CAUSES he has championed--claims them AS IF he had actually DONE SOMETHING about them.
But instead of bills passed, all he can really show for all his claims is hot air passed from his mouth--perhaps to fill in for the breathlessness of his teenaged crowds.
Does anyone here teach college? High school? Even if it's technically not PC to admit it, do you seriously, privately, not register, day in, day out, how easy it is to impress children in your classrooms? Yes, they're that ignorant. Even promising children remain children until such time as they might individually, accidentally, get some actual education in critical thinking.
Bernie kidded himself when the roaring crowds at his rallies reflected back to him his own overblown self-image.
It's a disaster we can't afford again.
22
My generation and the ones following it have gotten the shaft in nearly every regard, and the boomers are once again starting their condescending lectures. First, you came for our lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Both parties. You pushed the deregulation that helped your 401Ks but enabled the financial crisis, right as our generation was entering the job market and taking out our first mortgages. Both parties. Now you tell us that the basic right to human healthcare is a bridge too far and something we have to hide our belief in. Both parties. You've decimated the Earth and tell us a new green deal is a liberal pipe dream. Both parties. Why do you suddenly believe Trump when he says who he prefers?
39
> But increasingly there’s a sense that in practice the real “change candidate” may be Joe Biden — because he has a better chance of winning the presidency and helping to elect a Democratic Congress — and that’s why he was the big winner on Super Tuesday.
Well, then, maybe we should just cut to the chase and eliminate the primary in the first place? Just have the brahmins of the DNC and the NYT editorial page decide which candidate has "the best chance" of winning and let the plebes enjoy their charade in November. That's pretty much how it works already.
8
Personally, I think Biden can pull it off. All depends who he has for his Veep. Warren might be the answer, then again Klobuchar might be also, and having a woman on the ticket, especially either of these two would keep trump busy, and every time he opened his mouth with a derogatory comment either one of them could show him as the ignorant bully he is.
14
If the younger generation's want Sanders, go to his Rally's to party, cheer, talk him up, get mad at the establishment, etc. What happened yesterday? According to Bernie, young people did not turn out and actually vote. Duh. No one will take you seriously unless you vote, kid's.
13
Let's take a minute to think about Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president. He was tested early when his wife and offspring died in an accideent,,,and tested again when his son Beau died in his forties. Yes he has made mistakes, handling of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill - Supreme court nomination hearings but even his mistakes were not due to his inner mean spirtedness. Sometimes he gaffed when facing the cameras saying things that might have sounded confusing (haven't we all said something dumg or foolish). Barach Obama was a smart, educated candidate for president in 2008 and he took him on as vice president and Joe didn't disappoint in his 8 years as VP.. What you see is what you get in Biden - a man in his 70's running for president, not a genius, nor is Joe all about himself, not a narcissistic bone in his body, not driven by a debilitating ego, nor is he likely to put unqualified people in cabinet jobs or "yes" men in the white house. Who knows, maybe Joe will ask Barack Obama to be HIS vice president....wouldn't that be a hoot.
One thing's for sure and that is Joe is not going to tweet us to death nor will he be demeaning to the Republicans in 2021. Seems like a pretty good candidate to restore the office of the president to the way the founders intended.
26
If we're going to be saddled with a centrist, can we maybe get a do-over? I'm a Bernie supporter, but heck, I'd feel a lot more confident about the outcome of this election with a candidate like Beto (charismatic) Joaquin Castro (eloquent) or Amy Klobuchar (tough)--all of whom can actually form coherent sentences. Biden is a disaster.
6
Biden is simply another failure in a long list of failures put forth by the Democratic Party. Trump will win another 4 years if Biden is in fact the nominee. Perhaps the pathetic Democrats might win both Senate and House races as a result. I'll wager Bernie will end up running as an Independent given the dirty pool dems are playing. Personally, I'd take 4 more years of Trump to perhaps 8 years of sleepy old Joe and establishment nonsense. But Bernie may yet pull it off!
5
I remember that four years ago you said that Hillary was the safe candidate and that the hugely popular Bernie would somehow suffer the fate of Goldwater and McGovern. As if the world has not changed since then. As if the voters were not saying that they hated both lying political parties now. So you advocated the plodding and boring Hillary as the safe bet. How did that work out for you?
And now that the world is even more changed you again parrot the same brainless fear mongering and advocate the plodding and disorganized Biden over Bernie with his even larger base of passionate followers. They say it is insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, but in the case of pundits it is simply what they are paid to do. Push the status quo and collect a paycheck. Ignore the clear voice of the people saying that they do not want any establishment Republican or Democrat. Trump is not a Republican, that is why he won. Biden is a Democrat, that is why he will lose. Bernie still exists as the people’s choice for a representative on the left to balance the people on the right. Running a bland stumble bum sack of flour is not the answer to the people’s prayers, it is simply bowing to the irrational fear of the moderate cowards. Trumps energized base will romp over the uninspired electorate holding their nose to vote for Biden. How many losses will it take for people like you to wise up?
9
Biden a "change candidate"!? Good Lord, Mr. Kristof, surely you must be joking.
9
There was no mention whatsoever in the article of Joe Biden's quite obvious age-related cognitive decline. Is that mentionable? It seems a relevant concern.
7
Why does The Times continue to keep California out of the "Sanders wins" column when Sanders is ahead by 8.7 percent with 87 percent of the vote counted? The Times awarded Biden a lot more states on narrower percentages. It seems as if a bias for Biden is apparent at The Times.
Mr. Kristof, don't you wonder how Biden can be the Change Candidate when Wall Street pouring money into his campaign?
8
Not a single word in the article about Biden's obviously decline in mental acuity.
And these are not like his old gaffes, and has nothing to do with a stutter.
The DNC putting all their eggs in the Biden basket is a huge risk.
6
Donald Trump makes me feel like I'm trapped in a burning building where all the doors and windows are boarded up.
I don't think I'm alone.
I didn't support Biden until Saturday. Hopefully he's electable and I want everyone to come together behind one candidate and take back our country.
Biden wasn't my first choice.
But hopefully he has an axe and a hose.
16
Biden won some primaries..........but not really. He won by having Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar withdraw from the race and give him strong recommendations.
What cabinet seats or top Federal appointments will Buttigieg and Klobuchar get? (Just please don't appoint O'Rourke to anything!)
This was not a Democratic primary election.....nothing democratic about it.
5
What are Biden’s positions? I’ve never heard him bring them up.
6
Its time for the rest of the democrat candidates to drop out and rally around Biden. Hint, hint Bernie and Warren.
2
If America elects Biden, get set for the upcoming Chinese century.
If you don't think so, just listen to him say that China "isn't a threat" and "they’re not competition for us."
Ask the Uighurs and Tibetans how having the Chinese communists run the show has worked out for them?!
4
If there was just a conservative Republican in the White House and not an incompetent , ignorant narcissist, then I believe we could take a chance on a liberal revolution. I like a lot of what Bernie stands for and he has surely been consistent.
We just can not take that chance. not now. Biden may bit be perfect, but he might be almost perfect for this moment. The time is not to be idealistic , the time is get Trump out, before he destroys more of this country.
2
Those who voted for Biden out of fear or listening to pundit propaganda are going to have a sick case of buyer's remorse as we go along toward November. Joe Biden can't open his mouth without stumbling or putting his foot in it. He's going to be an embarrassment.
5
Well, duh. Nothing that Bernie and Liz Warren promise could ever happen in the United States Congress, even if either could get elected, which neither can. I gave up on their dreams, and mine, when Obama couldn’t get a public option.
Still, I’m gobsmacked by Biden’s equally dreamy promises to work with Republicans. What on earth is he thinking? He spent eight years as vice president watching the GOP turn into a vector of fascism and then the nationwide organ of fascism. I’ll vote for him, of course, but with the dread of electing another Democratic sucker.
6
Biden?! The Change Candidate?! From your own newspaper:
"Wall Street, Encouraged by Biden’s Wins, Breaks Out Its Checkbooks"
Seems like politics as usual to me. Of course Biden is all for incremental change. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
7
I hope Biden chooses Stacey Abrams for his VP, not Amy Klobuchar.
4
You have made a very good case for Elizabeth Warren.
4
I agree that Joe Biden is not a spell-binding orator, but “uncharismatic” seems off the mark.
2
I thought Nick Kristof had guts. Apparently I was wrong. The sad slide toward Biden shows why the party is ultimately doomed.
6
I cringe when I think of Biden against Trump in a debate. I see Trump interrupting repeatedly, shooting off brutal one liners as Biden stumbles over his words. It will be ugly.
5
Biden is not Sanders, BUT, as president, Biden will surely undo all the horribly destructive regulation changes that trump has encouraged the corporate prostitutes he put in charge of the EPA, Interior, etc. to enact. With Biden we will no longer be shrinking OUR national monuments and public lands so that oil, gas, and coal companies can destroy and poison them. With Biden, we will not have to read about his relatives gleefully selling themselves to hunters so another endangered animal can be slaughtered. With Biden regulations that allow mountain top destruction and the poisoning of rivers and streams will be reversed. And that expensive, environmentally dangerous, stupid wall will come down. And, undoubtedly, children will no longer be put in cages, and and a massive effort will be made to return them to their parents. Surely to god, those are reasons to vote for Biden.
45
Memo to Neocentrics:
You need Bernie supporters more than they need you.
They have adjusted to the existential crisis.
You have not.
8
"the theme of CPAC this year was “America vs. Socialism” — is laughable if Biden is on top of the ticket"
Has this man been living under a rock for the last 30 years? Oh the CPAC won't do that because it will be hypocritical and all we will have to do is point that out and they will burn up like a vampire in the sun!
No. The Dems could nominate a Zombie Reagan/Zombie Ayn Rand ticket and the Republicans will still call them socialists with a strait face.
5
Trump will try to trash Biden and his dopey son at every turn. In the end, Biden will win because voters want decency, even those that voted Trump.
And Trump will refuse to leave.
Well, I certainly hope the rabid Bernie Bros won't do to Joe Biden what they did to Hillary Clinton: Cross their arms on their chests, stick out their lower lips in a pout, and stay home.
7
How pathetically low our standards have become that Nicholas Kristof is calling Joe "Super Thursday" the "change candidate. Yes, I'll vote for him--as long as he gets my son a six-figure job.
5
I noticed a new column, "NYT Replies". I like this addition. It enabled the columnist to further clarify his position. It shows that Kristoff takes this issue very seriously, and cares enough to dialogue with his readers.
1
The NYT headline says it all, "Wall Street Breaks Out Checkbooks for Biden and Stocks Surge". The Biden surge has given new hope to the 1% who are in a panic over the popularity of Senator Bernie Sanders.
25
First and foremost he voted for and pushed the Iraq War. Nothing will ever make that decision okay. Blood on his hands.
2
solid working-class credentials??
-restructuring the bankruptcy laws to favor the banks (1990s). people are suffering for decades because of that.
-restructuring the laws to favor mass incarceration of colored peoples and the prison industrial complex. (1990s). more suffering of real people decades later.
-bailing out the big banks after they orchestrated the financial collapse of at the expense of everyone but the wealthy (2000s). more suffering of real people into the present.
-voting for the war in Iraq when it was pretty clear the evidence was sketchy (2000s). nuf said.
Anita Hill. nuf said. (no, he does not get a pass until he formally apologizes and does something meaningful to help women)
Let's not kid ourselves that Biden cares about the Working Class in any meaningful way. He was Obama's #2 and managed most of the time to keep his foot out of his mouth for eight years, which is hardly ringing cred to make me want to see him in the Oval, but ... I would vote for Al Capone if it would get trump out of office. My heart is with Bernie, but I know what we must do in November. bummer.
2
"Trump’s tweets suggested that he was terrified of Biden and Mike Bloomberg..."
Yes, we should really take Trump's tweets at face value. Uh huh.
1
I have to confess, I was for Biden before I was against him. It was the continual Hunter, Burisma, Hunter, Burisma from the Republicans. Everyone knows that Hunter’s highly paid board job at Burisma was at best, very fishy. I switched to Bloomberg who also had some baggage as in the NDA discussions. But now I agree with you, Biden is the candidate of change. We hopefully will see an African American VP candidate whose name might be Stacy who was born in Madison WI and has parents who are both Methodist Ministers.An openly gay veteran as Secretary of Defense whose name might be Pete. A very smart Secretary of HHS whose name might be Hakeem and whose dad was a substance abuse counselor. And maybe a Dude named Beto at Interior. Lastly, a true patriot named Mitt as Secretary of State who has been onto the Russians for at least a decade. What a change from Trump mayhem to Biden competence. They say that you are judged by the company you keep. Go Joe go!
2
Wow, kill us with your imaginative ability Mr Kristof!
What a dreary, deadened vision of the world. I tried to listen to this article using the text-to-speech function but it would only come out in the voice of the parents on Peanuts' specials.
I'll tell you right now, this is no way to encourage people to vote for Biden.
2
Electing Biden will lead to a dictatorship run by Pelosi and The Squad. Remember Biden in the early debates -- that is the real Joe Biden. The person on stage now has benn scripted and schooled by the DNC which forced competitors to withdtaw rather than let the process play out
Biden? How could anybody be hopeful about CHANGE with him? This is ridiculous...
4
If it turns out to be Biden.... remember-
1. You're not just voting for President.
2. You're voting for who replaces RBG on the Supreme Court.
3. You're voting for the next Secretary of Education.
4. You're voting for federal judges.
5. You're voting for the rule of law.
6. You're voting for saving national parks.
7. You're voting for letting kids out of cages.
8. You're voting for clean air and clean water.
9. You're voting for scientists to be allowed to speak about climate change.
10. You're voting for what a President says and does on Twitter.
11. You're voting for housing rights.
12. You're voting for LGBTQ people to be treated with dignity.
13. You're voting for non-Christians to be able to adopt and to feel like full citizens.
14. You're voting for Dreamers.
15. You're voting so that there will be Social Security and Medicare when you retire.
16. You're voting for veterans to get the care they deserve.
17. You're voting for rural hospitals.
18. You're voting so that someone else can have health insurance.
19. You're voting for the preservation of PBS.
20. You're voting to have a President who doesn't embarrass this country every time she or he attends an international meeting.
21. You're voting against allowing the USA to become yet another authoritarian regime.
22. You're voting for sensible gun laws.
No Democrat is perfect.
20
Biden will accomplish nothing.
maybe you should read the New York Times article released a few hours ago.
Joe Biden’s Success Shows We Gave Obama a Free Pass
We refuse to talk about how President Obama’s failure to deliver transformational changes may have fed voter disaffection in 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opinion/Biden-Obama-2020.html
In 2014, he cut nearly $9 billion from food stamps, for example, because Republicans had argued for cutting up to $40 billion. For those who relied on food stamps, this was a devil’s bargain.
By the end of Mr. Obama’s first term, 95 percent of the financial gains of his economic recovery plan had gone to the richest 1 percent of the county.
During his tenure, Democrats lost some 970 seats in state legislatures, 11 governorships, 13 Senate seats and 69 House seats. More Democratic state legislative seats were lost during Mr. Obama’s presidency than under any other president in modern history.
this is the writer....
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@KeeangaYamahtta), an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton, is the author of, most recently, “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership.”
4
And now it starts -- Clinton-Democrat elites like Kristof will righteously coalesce around Biden, and completely ignore or at least deliberately downplay Biden's many negatives, from an obvious, continuing decline in cognitive abilities -- i.e. just mixing up his wife with his sister -- to brewing investigations into brother James Biden and son Hunter, the past support for the war in Iraq, for being the dutiful campaign-contribution enriched patron of credit card companies, etc. Not exactly an inspiring figure.
How can this candidate be the best that the Democrats, with their sheep-like, passive, clueless voters voting en mass in the primaries, have to nominate? What a dearth of talent -- a commentary on the pathetic state of the party's inability to produce quality leaders.
4
This columnist is living in the Emerald City. I guess is you work for this newspaper, you have the luxury of deluding yourself. Joe Biden, the weakest candidate to ever run for president -- well, since George W. Bush, I conceded that -- was so out classed by most of the other candidates and that included Mike Bloomberg, with all his baggage. Biden has done nothing, and he isn't representing blacks. What does this guy say about Biden's throwing Anita Hill under the bus? There were witnesses who would have corroborated her story, but Biden YES BIDEN cut a deal to silence those witnesses, thus we are saddled forever with one of the most conservative supreme court justices who isn't even very bright. Who do you think suffers the most with Biden's having pushed for the bankruptcy "reform" -- oh yeah, a grand idea that helped his son's lucrative job in the credit card industry. The guy not only is more GOP than most of the GOP, he's hopelessly turns the other cheek when his kid does something overtly unethical. This column is an insult to our intelligence. But worst, it is an illusion that America was saved -- I am sure that when the dust settles there will be a much voter remorse and the result will be a re-election of Trump because the DNC powers that be couldn't bear to have their fat cat buddies and their corporate pals pay more in taxes.
2
Change as in changing a diaper, but that's about it.
3
I wonder what $50,000/month job Hunter Biden will get if or when Joe Biden becomes President. Wall Street is already drooling with eagerness at Biden's candidacy, according to your own newspaper (Wall Street, Encouraged by Biden's Wins, Breaks Out Its Checkbooks 3/4/20). Lord only knows what legalized corruptions await.
Not my idea of change.
2
Biden’s disgraceful treatment of Anita Hill disqualifies him from the Democratic nomination. He’s just another old, rich , white man who believes that he is entitled to be President.
1
Biden's record. He cooperates well with Republicans.
1991 – attacked Anita Hill
1994 – wrote “disastrous” crime bill
1995 – wrote omnibus counter-terrorism act > Patriot Act
1996 – voted against gay marriage
1999 – repealed Glass-Stegall Act
2001- voted for Patriot act
2002 – voted for Iraq war
2005 – voted to end bankruptcy protections for students
4
The fact that you, and all of the pundit class, are ignoring that Biden is in cognitive decline is horrifying to me. I can't go a day without seeing him mix up his wife with his sister, say that he's trying to increase healthcare premiums, or forget the constitution.
Do you all really think that the NYT will be able to cover for Biden in the general against Trump? This will be an unmitigated disaster if Biden is the nominee - and we'll all point to you and every opinion writer at the NYT - for being part of the problem, not the solution.
2
Biden “is the Change Candidate”?
Some statements just leave you shaking your head.
3
New title for this column: "Hey America, let's dream of mediocrity!"
2
"Why Biden Is the Change Candidate"
This is quite frankly insulting to those who envision a better America for all people. And more evidence of the NYT's pundits bias and aversion to change.
1
Biden a candidate of change?
A ludicrous hope on its face. One of the best-ever columnists has just thrown objective reporting out the door to write perhaps his worst ever column.
Biden, the worst of all poss. Dem. candidates, now leading due to backroom dealing = Dem. Party kaput = Trump in 2020, or some worse Republican, in 2024 will win = wreckage of America to continue.
1
From ‘Hope and Change’ to ‘Longing for Old Status Quo’ in 12 years. How the mighty have fallen! Biden is no change. Just an old style corrupt politico. No one is buying him as change agent no matter how hard NYT spin doctors try.
PS: The Hunter albatross is not going away. NYT better start another one of its campaigns to boost that ‘bright young man’ who appears as adept in oil business as in investing. Perhaps, you guys could do a feature presenting him as a rare combination of Rockefeller and Buffet.
3
A first!
What a decent journalist Nicholas Kristof is! He not only reads readers opinions but answers them. Not all of them of course; that would be impractical.
It made my day.
2
Beyond the discussion about who’s better at bringing “change”, which the left apparently thinks it’s a must, what’s shocking is the revival of the old Marxist red herring that prosperity is a finite resource and getting it is a zero-sum game between “the workers” and “the rich”. That idea died of natural death in the 1890s, when the second industrial revolution increased prosperity and the Social-Democrats separated from the Communists.
Today I doubt many of the Bernie Bros know how to spell Karl Marx correctly (seriously, I’ve seen it spelled Carl in one of the NYT comments) but the revolutionary fury is back. Apparently, the only way to improve the life of ordinary people is to eliminate billionaires.
This is what you get when you replace in school study of actual history with “social justice”.
1
Grand hope vs no hope! Vote Bernie!
2
In 2005, for 30 pieces of silver ($500,000 in article below) Biden voted for a bill backed by the banks that caused great harms to millions of Americans regarding bankruptcy and student loans.
Then Sen Obama, Sanders, and Ted Kennedy voted against the bill.
From the left wing "The Guardian" Dec 2019:
'“Biden was one of the most powerful people who could have said no, who could have changed this. Instead he used his leadership role to limit the ability of other Democrats who had concerns and who wanted the bill softened,” said Melissa Jacoby, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill specialising in bankruptcy.
Other leading Democrats and consumer advocates did say no. In the Senate debate on the 2005 bill, Ted Kennedy was scathing about its implications.
“This legislation breaks the bond that unites America, it sacrifices Americans to the rampant greed of the credit card industry,” he said. Kennedy warned that even before the new provision kicked in young people were dropping out of college “because of the costs of student loans – they can’t pay them”.'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/02/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-2005-act-2020
The article states that Biden received $500,000 from banks. Also noted (then) Harvard Law bankruptcy expert Warren spoke out against the bill.
JFK and brother Ted would roll in their graves to see "Judas" Biden as the Democratic Candidate.
Why, why would anyone want this man to be our President?
4
What? Biden, a change candidate? Nic Kristoff has been in this game too long. Biden will do NOTHING. We can count on 2 things from Biden: 1. No more incessant tweeting by an orange faced insult comic dog 2. Things will stay exactly the same as they are - carp healthcare, high corruption, horrible public education, symbolic environmental blather, more or same wars, etc. etc. Biden as a change candidate - what utter nonsense.
3
Maybe Kristof is right, and Bernie is done. I'm a Bernie supporter, so I'm feeling pretty dejected today. And since I'm also an NYT subscriber, I go through the daily masochistic exercise of reading week after week columns from Kristof, Goldberg, Brooks, Douthat, Leonhardt, Bruni, Collins, and Krugman all saying the same thing--that Bernie is nothing more than an unelectable, grumpy, old man whose ideas are just too unrealistic.
Whatever. Hoping for a more diverse opinion panel from the NYT is like hoping that Fox News will suddenly air more progressive voices. It ain't happening.
What I will say is this. That Biden has a very progressive platform at all is a testament to progressive stalwarts like Warren and Sanders. That we're talking about Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, an end to American imperial foreign policy (it wasn't Sanders who voted for the Iraq War), curtailing the perverse student loan industry, increasing taxes on Wall Street speculation, or any other number of progressive platforms is largely thanks to people like Sanders and Warren.
So if Biden is the nominee, I'll pinch my nose and vote for him. But I'll fondly remember Sanders as someone who filled me with genuine hope about what government can do.
879
@Vince
To your list of pundits I would add Dowd, Egan, Friedman, and Stephens. That makes 12 in all opposed to Bernie, all staunchly echoing each other.
No need to ask which side they're on.
It's quite a spectacle.
147
@Vince Yes, I think you're right that Sanders pulled the party to the left, but I'd also give a lot of credit on that front to Elizabeth Warren. She's a policy wonk, and Sanders is not. Warren's policies are carefully crafted with input from the best experts, and I think they have been genuinely influential in policy circles. The discussion about wealth taxes, for example, owes a great deal to Warren's detailed proposal for one. If we get a wealth tax, that will be a credit to Warren more than to Sanders.
674
@Nicholas Kristof
What you're not understanding is that the lens through which you're analyzing this is one most Americans don't have access to. Warren's policy wonkishness is influential for other senators and representatives—people with power. Sanders' style is trying to impress the voters, who have little power at all. So Warren seems, to you, like the one who brought openness to liberalism to the mainstream because you are part of the powerful classes. And Sanders seems, to us, like the one who did it because we are the powerless. Don't get me wrong, they're both great, I'm just pointing out that you're analyzing this from a very rare perspective.
48
And Biden gives us absolutely no hopes besides beating Trump. Then what? Nada
My God.
Biden is the LOSE candidate.
3
Biden the change candidate. What a joke that is.
3
I hope you and your fellow journalists will be asking Biden about his lying about his educational credentials and getting arrested trying to visit Mandela; about his inappropriate touching of women over the years that is caught on video in all its grossness; about his giddy friendships with southern segregationists, and the elephant in the room, his cognitive functioning which the world sees unravel a little bit more each day. And get ready for Burisma 2, as the senate ramps up hearings. This American does think Hunter’s $50,000/month job was swampy and the fact that Joe let it go on a serious lapse in judgment. Why does the press give him a pass on this stuff?
1
I remember when "moderates" chose the "most electable candidate" that lost to an "unelectable candidate".
Now we're literally marching towards fascism as a country and....Democrats want to try and do the same thing again and are expecting different results.
4
what an incredibly mediocre piece to write - and from someone who by now should have such insights into politics/systems and the problems that the world faces through years of travel...
"biden may be the real candidate of change"? really?
2
The man who put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, voted for the Iraq war and was the poster boy for the Credit Card companies is not a "change" candidate. Biden's BFF, "Barrack" was a Rockefeller Republican. Biden is often incoherent, a gaffe machine and a corporate shill. Politically incorrect to point out the nepotism of his son (and brother) trading on the family name for filthy lucre, but I will do it anyway. Our problems are far too large to put this man in office. We need a new paradigm
2
"Nothing would fundamentally change."
- Joe Biden
2
I am so disappointed in you Mr. Kristof. You now sound like "them". Joe Biden is an old, forgetful, status quo guy. He will do nothing if he is elected. And how could he even be elected - Trump will eat him and Hunter alive. Is this really how he wants to end his legacy? Shame on you and the DNC. The system is rigged.
2
Biden won't really change anything, but he can take on Trump.
Really?
In 2008 Obama won. The first black president (Elvis doesn't count). He had the Senate & the house. What did he do...peanuts.
I am so tired of peanuts.
1
Mr. Kristof, could you be any more naive? The "change" candidate? This is the same Joe Biden who:
-> Has done more than any active politician to put the drug war, and thus mass incarceration, police brutality and racist law enforcement into hyper-drive
-> Has (quietly) advocated cutting Social Security for decades
-> Voted for the Iraq War and every massive spending increase for the DoD
-> Has carried water for predatory banking institutions his entire career
-> Has fond memories of consorting with the most pernicious racists in Congress to stop school integration
-> This list is hardly exhaustive
Sure he says he's seen the light now and all these positions were wrong. He's a POLITICIAN, so of course he's going to say anything to get elected, secure in the knowledge that he'll get away with lying to credulous, gullible and uninformed voters. I guess Mr. Kristof belongs to that group.
2
Bernie sanders, good man with a good heart and an incorrigible political parasite, co-opting the Democtatic Party every election season, for his own personal ambitions. Disruptor of the worst kind. Bernie, if you really, I mean REALLY want to help this great nation of ours, form your OWN socialist party, draw people away from both Grump and Joe, send the presidential decison to the House of Reps and install Biden in the Oval office and send the shameless DT packing off to Florida. Else, you are merely enabling DT like the worst of them...
2
I blame the media 100% for Biden’s resurgence. All based on the idea that he is “more electable”. Trump proves that the media’s idea of electability is nonsense, but surely all of the “low information voters” bought it. So thanks a lot NYT for pushing republican lite on us. “Liberal media”. Ha! What a joke.
2
Disillusioned to see what a corporation man you truly have become, Nick.
1
Then you vote for him. This article is pathetic. The majority of people are struggling and this writer, like Biden, offer nothing more than platitudes and token gestures.
2
The last great American social improvement legislation in my lifetime was not Obamacare - a patchwork quilt solution heavily tilted toward the desires of the health insurance industry that gave two of our freelance-working kids crappier coverage at higher cost - but LBJ’s Great Society achievements: Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, etc. I was 13 years old.
I’m now 67, and apparently should be grateful for a Biden v. Trump matchup because everyone just wants Trump out. That’s the goal. That’s the whole of our collective progressive wish list. Oh, and justice Ginsburg can retire, assured of a liberal replacement.
Unbelievable.
1
Change - if you live in 1992, I have no clue what the NYT opinion writers are thinking.
The we get rid of these old, discredited Opinion writers and just hire some young, hustling journalists.
1
I've been saying the last four years that black Southern Democrats gave Hillary the nomination, NOT "rigged" primaries as the "Bernie or Bust" crowd (amplified by Comrade Putin) claims. Now, it seems they're steering Biden to the nomination. Expect the Russian trolls & bots, already out there, to turn out in even greater force with more dubious "rigged election" claims.
2
Two Democrats could have stopped the Iraq War in 2002-2003: Pelosi as Ranking Member of the US Congress Intelligence Committee, and Senator Biden as chair of the US Senate Foreign Relation Committee. Both knew that Bush lied about Weapons Of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and condoned the usage of torture ordered from the top.
Not only Pelosi and Biden let the lies stand, but Biden led the charge to give all war powers to Bush. “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat,” he told Meet the Press. 77 Senators then voted for invading Iraq (Oct 11, 2002).
133 US Congress Representatives voted against the Iraq Invasion authorization. Bernie Sanders was one of them.
Now this is serious: Von Ribbentrop, Hitler's Foreign Relation guy, was hanged at Nuremberg under a single chief of accusation: war of aggression. Right, it killed many millions, and the Iraq Invasion killed only 2.4 million Iraqis (last count). Still, the Iraq invasion was a war of aggression.
As this gets to be known (and the details are extensive and gory), it will become clear that, in this and other matters, Biden was just a henchman of the establishment. Not only that will make Biden easy to demolish by Trump (who turned against the invasion of Iraq at the time, and has clean hands on this)... But also it's unlikely that the youth, when alerted to the fact that they are asked to vote for an alleged war criminal, will proceed to do so.
I certainly will not, because it would be of the highest immorality.
Finally something shocking and unexpected from the predictable, corporate financed Times: N. Kristoff himself shies away from the courage true change requires. Shame.
Biden was at the scene of the many crimes for thirty years as the neo-liberal Democrats tried to prove they were better for wall street than the Russian Republicans. He is part of the problem. But I am sure he will be able to work with his good old boy racist GOP pals to get things done — right after their hearings on hunter Biden. Pathetic nonsense.
1
Southern black voters were never going to vote for a Jew. I predicted this outcome before the campaign began.
At Jennifer Finney Boylan: "Bernie Angry. Bernie Smash!"
Taunting Bernie supporters is not only bad sportsmanship, it's politically reckless, considering the dangerous person currently in the whitehouse.
2
Biden is the no-change, status quo, everything is fine, right guys? candidate. A doddering old neoliberal grandpa selling the same empty nothing that Hillary Clinton was.
The Dems are well and truly finished, having rendered themselves totally irrelevant to the governing of the nation through their cynical, milquetoast cowardice.
They will never get another one of my pity votes. I'm through with them...and what difference does it make? The damage is already done. We're a fascist kleptocracy now, and it looks like that will be the status quo for the next few decades.
But go ahead, keep pretending sundowning old Uncle Joe can save us. Pathetic.
1
Biden has nothing new to offer. To think otherwise is foolish.
1
Biden would be much better off with Warren as a running mate.
1
say what you want about sanders (i'm in the warren tribe), joe biden is a trimmer. he only takes a plunge when the tide is already coming in.
stand and fight? hey, ask anita hill how that worked for her!
you misjudge how much of the party apparatus rushed into action, broke the glass on the sanders alarm, rang up the establishment fire brigade and cashed in every chit to turn out the endorsements, squeeze the competitors with sweet promises, and front load the commentariat with the meme of the "two man race."
and, of course, we know how well "decent people" and handsy amateur grief counselors will wade into a real tussle and fight for what they believe. fightin' joe! that's what they call him in the senate lunchroom.
"not as soaring as you'd like"? biden can barely get out of bed. he will not bring any substantive change that isn't well cooked and glazed by special interests.
and hear you are, like a good veterinarian, stroking our throat to make us swallow the pill. "biden won't taste so bad, once you swallow!"
2
We are making a grave mistake if we fail to recognize Sanders' Jewishness as a factor in his failures in the South last election and this, particularly among black voters.
Biden Is the Change Candidate????
Have you looked who finances his campaign??
"Top Biden Donors Gather Amid Storm Clouds Over Campaign"
NY TImes Oct 5, 2019
"As Biden Rakes In Big Money, Will There Be a Political Cost"
NY Times, May 21, 2019 -
Big Money does not like change.
1
Best quote, and summation of Super Tuesday election results:
“Expecting a lot of breaking news about Burisma, Ukraine, and Hunter Biden in the next few days.” Mona Charen, Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC)
Vote blue, no matter who.
2
Kristof, are Cabinet positions consolations prizes? What cabinet position should Mayor Pete, South Bend population just barely over 6 figures get?
Secretary of State? What's his experience in foreign policy? Yeah I speak several languages fluently too, so what?
Defense? Because he served briefly in the military? See above, plus managing a (far too high) budget currently above 2/3rds of a trillion?
Treasury? Eminently unqualified, is this going to be Trump redux?
AG? Barr's an infected hemorrhoid, at least he has a law degree, which should be revoked.
Agriculture, Interior, Health and Human Services, Labor, Energy, Commerce, Education, VA? Just because Trump's cabinet is unqualified doesn't mean it should set a precedent.
Well we know every Democratic NYT Opinion writer wanted a moderate, even the gay ones. Because that's what helped with "you've come a long way, baby," the centrism.
Are their bonuses tied to stock prices and number of subscriptions? Asking for a friend, Les Moonves, formerly of CBS.
PS. Here, in a nutshell, is all we need to know about Joe Biden, the "change" csandidate:
"Wall Street, Encouraged by Biden’s Wins, Breaks Out Its Checkbooks" (today's NYT)
The parasites in the health insurance "industry" know precisely what sort of "change" is on offer in a Biden presidency.
1
NK: “...and Klobuchar may end up Biden’s running mate...”
I realize that Mr. Kristof has been putting in long hours lately, what with the primaries and Coronavirus and TV appearances. But he should have thought that one through. A Democratic presidential ticket with two white moderates?
Sure, like who needs the support of young voters, African-Americans and the Latinx community!?!
1
The impoverishment of the working class and the destruction of the labor movement will not be reversed by a neo-liberal like Biden any more than Trump. The rich, having defeated the Sanders Socialist Movement, will now drastically accelerate inequality. As the social crisis deepens, the Republicans will blame Mexican immigrants, while the Democrats will blame the Russians and demand a big, new war. From the ashes of the old, capitalist Democratic Party will arise a new, Socialist Party to challenge the Republicans gone Fascist . . . .
5
Just saw two Sanders commercials here in Florida. He’s turned nasty towards Biden. I didn’t expect him to do that. He’s also running a commercial with Obama complimenting him. It didn’t work for Bloomberg so why do this kind of advertising. Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
2
Sanders, despite being the most clearly progressive candidate, to me means the Status Quo, or worse, because the effect of his candidacy would be to allow a corrupt and incompetent President to remain in power another four years and for the Senate to remain in the hands of his corrupt, sycophantic apologists.
I couldn't agree with the article more: the heart may shout Sanders, but the brain calmly says Biden, and the brain has the higher IQ.
2
How many people will be assigned to pulling Joe's foot out of his mouth every time he puts it in?
1
I disagree. When Sanders wins the nomination, he will swing the Senate and expand the House majority. Just as Trump has transformed the Repugs, Sanders will transform the Dems like FDR did. I feel the Bern. Sanders may be the best hope for justice, not just here in America, but around the world, from the plight of the Palestinians to the US domination of Latin America. For too long, America's spy agencies have manipulated the media with Operation Mockingbird and disinformation. It's clear the fix is in and I think only a Sanders presidency can make America decent again. We need to expand natural individual rights and curtail the power of corporations and governments. I think Sanders is the only one who stands a chance of doing it.
1
Can we please ask the pundits to skip this nonsense about Biden being a candidate of change? It is insulting to our intelligence.
2
Message to Sanders supporters: The Trump dumpster fire needs to be extinguished first. Then, we can debate the revolution.
25
Oh good lord, dare to dream about universal single payer healthcare for all.
2
“Biden’s rescuers weren’t party elders but a marginalized constituency that is often taken for granted: Southern blacks.” Thank you for saying that. The Bernie “establishment” charge sums up in one word a key problem with Bernie’s campaign: Bernie’s campaign: Bernie’s tendency to steam roll over complexity and detail in favor of slogans like “Wall Street” and “establishment” and even “green new deal.” Nobody quite knows what Bernie means by these terms because he is never pressured to define them. And so, painting with the broadest of brushes, he makes it impossible for his followers to distinguish between Democratic Wall Street Bankers, neo-fascist Billionaire Trump backers, establishment legislators like Lindsey Graham and Nancy Pelosi, and Black voters earning a fraction of Bernie’s own income. Biden falls into a bit of the same trap when he throws around terms like “middle class.” But the slogans are Bernie’s entire message. The core of Biden’s message, by contrast, is his call for healing—to beat Trump like a drum, but not become like him in the process.
4
From a distance and up close, Biden's physicality, warm upbeat nature, and knowledge far and away exceed Trump, a man who can hardly walk, slouches and pouts, and who's ignorant anger is always present. More Americans like a "sleepy Uncle Joe" who is decent and caring, but avoid that mean cranky "Uncle Don" spewing hate only stopping to leer at a young woman. If there is a problem or threat to the family, who would you want to be around?
4
The bots are out in force today.
"Voting for Biden is like voting for a Republican."
"We need a true anti-establishment candidate to inspire people to get the huge increase in turn-out needed to win."
"People who support Biden just want to go back in time."
Enough, bots!! Begone!
Sanders can't inspire enough of his supporters to go to the polls and produce wins in primaries. What on earth makes you think he will inspire some huge turn-out in November?
And why do you think it's even necessary? Hillary Clinton, for all of her shortcomings as a candidate, WON the popular vote in 2016. Having a candidate who can win big in New York and New Jersey and California is meaningless if those are the only 3 states he or she wins. Getting a lot of votes isn't enough -- they have to come from the right places in the right proportions.
Sanders cannot win a national election. He apparently can't even win many primaries. He's getting less support this year than in 2016, and voter turn-out is down, not up.
If this were normal times, I'd say "sure, nominate him, let him be trounced, and maybe people will learn from that." But we just can't take that risk this year. We cannot afford four years of the current administration unbound.
4
It is completely indiscernible why this columnist's opinion has any relevance, weight or importance. He has no expertise in the area of politics. He provides no facts.
The only explanation is that Kristof is yet another "apologist" for the establishment--those who love high ideals, but prefer they do not curb the profit end of things.
Kristof claims to be closer to Sanders's positions in many cases, but just can't seem to see how Bernie's ideas are possible.
Kristof is that guy who says he is for equitable treatment but still swears that he has talked with Uber drivers that love their jobs. This regardless of the fact that amount the faux liberal is handing over doesn't provide for minimum wage after depreciation, dead time and variable costs.
Biden's proposal are not only not soaring, they are non existent. He is offering to do nothing--quite tempting to those who have already benefited from the decline of real wages and general equality since Carter.
2
Bernie finished himself off by making his heart attack public BEFORE he won the presidency
Joe can start repairing our Trump-damaged country from the get go.
"Republicans sometimes seemed giddy about the prospect of a Sanders nomination."
"Republican rhetoric about Democrats as socialists — the theme of CPAC this year was “America vs. Socialism” — is laughable if Biden is on top of the ticket."
At the behest of legacy media pundits (for example Kristof, here) democrats are running scared, reacting to Republicans actions. How much respect is granted here to Republicans (i.e., the underlying belief that the Republicans surely know more than Dems do)!
Dems, stop trying to read and react to Republican whims and fancies! Remember, elected Republicans are largely liars. Trying to read and react to liars is a waste of time. What victory was ever awarded to rabbits running scared?
1
ROFL....
NYT! Stop it!!! The race is not over!!!!!
"Real change is impossible so no change is really change. Suck it up and vote for Biden." That's Kristof's message. Trump's victory is now assured. The message now is: "vote for less corruption instead of more corruption" Biden more than anyone else is responsible for Clarence Thomas being on the Court, and has a history of voting to bail out Wall Street, support the prison industrial complex, roll back social welfare and support America's never-ending wars.
2
Good luck moderates.I have never missed voting in any election since 1976.Have always voted Democrat.I voted for "her" in 2016,only to continually hear bashing of progressives and Bernie.He campaigned for her.He asked all of his supporters to vote for her.More of us did than Hillary supporters voted for Obama in 2008.
I'll continue to vote for all other Democrats running,but if Biden is nominated through a brokered convention,I will write in Bernie...unless there is a recognition to the %40 of us progressives,and there is a concerted effort to support some of our objectives.I will continue to send him contributions.
You cannot win without us.You put more effort in garnering Republicans.You are turning your backs on our younger generation. I'm 63,I'm not playing your game anymore.If trump is re-elected because you put a senile neoliberal favorite of the healthcare ,pharmaceutical,fossil fuel and chemical industries,Wall St and beholden to all of their lobbyist,don't blame me.Look in the mirror and re-assess your decision that you have yours and the hell with your fellow citizens that are suffering.
1
Kristof seems to make the argument that the party “establishment” means “party elders.” But that argument is either deliberately myopic or deliberately disingenuous. What about those legions LF establishment media figures throughout the likes of the NYT and WaPo who argued day after day about Bernie’s “unelectability?” Funny how, in all the major media commentary I’ve read since yesterday, none of it owns up to its own role in shooting down the hopes of those who want more than just the same old same old.
All I can say is, with all this palaver about how Biden is the only candidate who can possibly beat Trump, he damn well better come November. Or you haven’t seen outrage yet from the progressive wing.
@Nicholas Kristof
The status quo? Then is gaslighting 24/7 the new normal. I thought I had heard the end of Hunter, and now we will hear about the Nazis marching into Paris and all the other baggage Biden is carrying around. Maybe Cory Kamala Andrew and Julio will reconsider.
America is so ridiculous Trump is starting to make sense.
The signature accomplishment of Obama Biden was the lack of drama. Healthcare remains a privilege not a right and like the stock market inequality before the law gets progressively worse and equality of opportunity continues to be where America is number one with a bullet. We are a border crossing away and understood access to broadband needed to be a right if we believed in the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Russia is our enemy but it is not to trying to make us doubt our sanity.
It seems to me that choosing a candidate who is carrying the most disqualifying baggage is a strange way to try and win.
1
I'm trying. But it's going to take another week or two of holding my nose. The party turned down so many good, good people that its maddening. Yes, he's so much better than Trump. But this is going to hurt for a while. Also, why is he so worried about losing his hair?? Really?? Someone needs to tell him it's okay to go bald. It's even sexy. My terrific BIL is bald, attractive and a great thinker. It makes you wonder about Biden's good sense!
We have a liar president, do we want another one? I’ve lived long enough to remember that valid accusations of plagiarism sank Biden’s boat during his first run for the presidency and lies about his participation in civil rights actions marred his second run. Now we have his false statements about being arrested in South Africa. And his prevarications around his support of the war in Iraq. What the?
If Biden can win and flip the Senate (a truly formidable and not terribly realistic task,) a Democratic Congress will do what’s necessary to improve health care, housing, education, taxes, etc. if the Senate remains Republican, he’s not likely to nominate right wing nut jobs for lifetime positions on the Federal courts.
2
Biden's accomplishments are more achievable?
Is Mitch McConnell going to die?
Obama didn't get much done, neither will Biden. But things will be calmer. The stock market, clearly the only thing that really matters, won't crash on inauguration day. Woo hoo.
What all of this is making crystal clear is that America is a right-wing country with a bunch of socialists in it. Overton window, whathaveyou... the tea party moved everything to the right and that's where we are now. If we're not electing anyone who will drag it back to the left then it's Bidens and Trumps all the way down.
The Dems need to get a clue. Status quo does not serve young people, recent immigrants, people making less than $63,000/year, nor does it serve the environment. It was this extreme dissatisfaction that led to Trump. How do the Dems not "get" this???
Pure non-sense. Not one concrete, valid point made here.
I used to think that Nicholas Kristof was a humanist from previous columns, such as his heartfelt and heartbreaking descriptions of Yemeni children, victims of Mohammed Bin Salman's war.
Surely, Kristof knows of the hundreds of thousands of innocents killed in the Iraq War -- a regime change war supported by Biden. If we take reality into consideration, I find it hard to understand Kristof's claim of Biden's decency.
I consider the extermination of innocents -- evil. Did Biden not know that that would result from the Iraq War?
Kristof has written some fine columns in his time, but today's column reveals that he's merely a pretend humanist.
I will not vote for anyone other than Trump.
That being said, Biden is cognitively deteriorating before our eyes and is the prefect establishment candidate, he can be manipulated to their needs. Call it the weekend at Bernies candidate.
He called Chris Wallace “Chuck” last week during a one on one interview, twice, even after being politely corrected. He is not fit for the office
1
Kristoff writes " it’s no accident that Republicans were calling for investigations into the Biden family rather than into allegations about the Sanders family and Burlington College." This links to another article from this very publication which clearly states that "the top Trump campaign official in Vermont filed a complaint, leading to a federal inquiry that examined whether Ms. Sanders had inflated donor commitments to secure a bank loan for the property, and whether her husband had pressured the bank to make the loan." Unless I'm missing something, the Times is allowing its editorial content to directly contradict its own reporting.
A change candidate! Surely you jest?
Biden only stands for the status quo and more republican policies.
1
Biden voted multiple times to cut social security and Medicare. He authored the bill that made it impossible to get rid of student debt. He voted for the war in Iraq. He voted for Clinton’s disastrous welfare reform. He went hat in hand to Anita Hill. He voted for the trade agreements that gutted the economy of the rust belt. He let his son Hunter capitalize on his name in China and Ukraine. He fumbled the debates, and will do the same with Trump. He is Hillary redux. The black vote in the South traditionally goes to the establishment in the primaries. As it did for Hillary. But black voter turnout in the South has declined and the entire South goes Republican in the general election. Bernie’s shot at a “significant plurality” is gone. Unless Biden gets a majority of delegates in the primary, a very long shot, the DLC neoliberals will nominate him on the second ballot. “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” Say hello to four more years, cowards. You get the government you deserve.
Sanders “grand hopes” have in 4 years already gone from what people called crazy ideas, to being embraced by the party, millions of Americans, and in some cases a reality. The $15 minimum wage was thought insane. Now that living wage has become a reality, and in your own state Nick! Bernies ideas are absolutely now the party platform, so I think your column is dead wrong. But then again like cops on the highway making their weekly ticket quota, the Times opinion writers seem to have a quota of Bernie-bashing to fill.
1
This is the first time that I could recall where the so called Democrats and the corporate media are sharing the talking points steadfastly like the Republicans about Bernie. Very disappointed at Nicholas Kristof sharing the comments especially about Bernie not doing anything of significance. One example is the funding of community health centers as I know of a lot of people that have benefited from this. I am very sure that Nicholas Kristoff does not really know of anyone directly who has benefited from the community health centers. To me there is no mention of Biden's embellishments like being arrested in South Africa while trying to see Mandela or telling people in South Carolina that Obama was challenging the first African-American President. There is no way that he is going to get away from the Ukraine issue. Biden is Hillary 2.0 in the waiting.
"plodding and uncharismatic" -- that's one reason Biden will lose to Trump.
Biden will face someone who uses rage, fiery lies, insults and nicknames. Biden's politesse, hesitant-to-confused speech, defensiveness and shouting, many times caught on camera, is not fighting fire with fire. Sanders would fight fire with fire, simply by telling the truth.
Biden's proposals are incremental. He wants to "build on" the ACA. Millions will still lack health insurance. Health insurers and Big Pharma will still hold sway.
He is pro-fracking. Big Oil will have a seat in his administration.
Bloomberg endorsed Biden and will throw billions into Joe's election. Bloomberg will get to buy a presidency, just not his own. Doubtless his ads will lie and call Sanders a Communist and anti-Capitalist, patently not true.
Winning a presidency, via propaganda, and taking advantage of non-critical thinking voters, is, well, what Trump does.
Sanders does not lie. He's fiery and passionate, without a center right past of racism or warmongering. He's voted more with Congressional Democrats than they have. He's for a Green New Deal, urgently needed.
It will take vast numbers of voters to ignore the Bloomberg media blitz and elect Sanders -- the only man with do-able positive new plans for the U.S.
There will be no level playing field in the upcoming Bloomberg-for-Biden media onslaught, which makes clear why private money should be out of politics.
There will be little to no change under Joe Biden. Stasis is what we will get as he tries to reach out to Republicans who refuse to compromise.
Health care will continue to die away as he does nothing to try and bring us into the 21st century with health care that the rest of the civilized world seems to be able to enjoy. Oh no, we can't have that, that wouldn't be CAPITALISM!!! Perish the thought.
Everyone seems to think he is the Trump killer when it comes to the election. We shall see, we shall see. Democrats are self defeating with little to no vision for a better society and world when we continue to elect representatives who offer nothing new or creative.
Can’t we all just get over our own egos and personal favorites and agree to Vote Blue No Matter Who to wipe this plague from the White House. No one wants Medicare for All more than I do; but while Bernie has my heart, if it’s Biden in November, he’s got my vote.
2
So you have bravely decided to support a political hack who is totally indebted to the bankers and the corporations and the MIC, how brave and strong you are! Meanwhile, the Oligarchy tightens its choke hold on our democracy, destroys our environment, and marches towards endless wars. You have completely forgotten that these second rate V.P centrists always lose: Humphrey, Mondale, Gore, Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and you'll be surprised when Trump easily thumps SLeepy Joe.
We are doomed. I mean it. Biden said that we can't get to zero emissions by 2030.
Here's the deal. We need to get to zero emissions by 2030.
1
Two more things. Yes, Trump Republicanism is the status quo. But the phrase also refers to the longer-term status quo since 'corporate welfare' has increased, as have loopholes for the rich. See https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ten-examples-of-welfare-for-the-rich-and-corporations_b_4589188 (NYT /Louise Story article cited) It's this long-term status quo that Biden represents. But I agree at least he would halt and possibly reverse some of Trump's damage. Depending on his VP.
But, more seriously: it's been good to see some lessening of the Dem sparring here, with increasing calls for "Vote Blue/No Matter Who" -- because, Really, No One Knows whether Biden would mean Trump or whether Bernie would mean Trump.
Yet what if it does turn out to be the former? Many of us are not just being 'crabby;' Biden losing to Trump, esp. given his debating problems, is a real possibility.
"But what if Peter hadn't caught the wolf? What then, eh?"
1
Just what is Biden for, Mr. Kristof, other than that he is not Trump.
Biden made an alarming series of gaffes and misstatements after winning the primaries. The DNC has to be worried that they picked the wrong moderate old white man - at least Bloomberg is still mentally sharp.
Once Biden is the nominee, he's going to have to go live on stage and debate Trump without coaches or handlers. This will not end well for the Democrats.
"Biden is plodding and uncharismatic" - Harsh! He's definitely not uncharismatic. The natural kindness he exudes is charisma. You don't need to be as slick as Barack to be charismatic.
It was already known that Biden's present support from older, black moderates would win him states like South Carolina, and later North Carolina, Alabama, etc. It is his wins in MA, MN, and ME to which Bernie supporters point when they talk about the effects of a coordinated move by the party's powerful moderates. But it seems you are content to imply Bernie's supporters were ignorant of the state of affairs in those Southern states, and thereby imply some sort of racist ignorance of the black demographic. Thanks for the frivolous insult. Do you think you're doing this country a service?
Biden is Clinton the “Sequel” without her intellectual. He lacks moral courage. His vote on Iraq illustrates that.
He is not much more than a Cold War liberal. He has no vision for the country.
If he is nominated he will lose as Clinton did.
End of story.
Everybody talks about change and campaigns on change. Here is the funny part. Most people really hate change.
What you call a triumph of pragmatism, I call a triumph of fear. Because why take a chance on the thing you love, when you can settle for what you like? When you play not to lose, you tend to do just that. Ask Hillary.
Gee, some of us thought "change" meant the sex of the Commander in Chief. Since 1776, when patriarchal monarchy changed to patriarchal democracy, every single President has been male. Guess it depends on what you think "change" is. Some of us think real change is ending male supremacy.
Biden is proving that Americans want stable leadership and a return to sane policies, not a revolution.
20
I don't see how Biden will do better than Hillary Clinton against Trump...using the same formula and expecting different results....
5
Biden is more the spare change candidate than the candidate for change.
4
Biden is the change candidate?
I hate to think what Sanders is.
@New World So do a lot of us.
Bernie Sanders is the guy who says "Let's go to the promised land!" but he doesn't know how to read a map and he keeps fighting with everybody else in the group so they don't get anywhere , let alone the promised land
6
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for an insightful and accurate analysis.
This, particularly, is priceless:
'And Republican rhetoric about Democrats as socialists — the theme of CPAC this year was “America vs. Socialism” — is laughable if Biden is on top of the ticket.'
Excellent observation, sir.
2
If you are a woman of a certain age who will never forget the revelations from Anita Hill about the terribly sexist work world, Joe Biden does not seem like a nice guy. He had no problem humiliating Hill in order to install a right wing, incompetent Clarence Thomas for a lifetime of bad decisions. Not so nice.
4
Biden will change nothing of his own accord. Consider that he was as close to a Republican as any Democrat could be and still hold a Democratic Party membership. His record on issues affecting African-Americans is terrible, and yet they don't seem to mind. The masses have been successfully brainwashed into accepting that "Biden is the best candidate to beat Trump". Well if you believe that, go and watch the montage of word salad that tumbles out of his mouth, and imagine how that will be used against him by Trump. Or look at his record of votes that were in the interests of the 1% and not the 99%, and realize how those will be used against him. Add it all up and he's the worst candidate to face Trump.
Of course if he gets the nomination I'll hold my nose and vote for him, and if he does beat Trump I'll be overjoyed, but I won't hold my breath waiting for any significant changes being initiated by him. The only change people expect from him is a change in his address to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
3
Biden is not the candidate of no change, perhaps, but surely the candidate of very little change. It's OK, America, you can go back to sleep. And please, this is not to suggest that one should not vote for him in November, just to say that there is no joy in Mudville.
2
The last minute Biden surge objectively feels like Dem desperation. It's hard to tell at this point whether most Biden voters are aware of his noticeable mental decline. His voting record (NAFTA, Crime Bill, Iraq) and scandals (Burisma, Anita Hill) give him similar vulnerabilities as Hillary Clinton, regarding swing state voters and nonwhite turnout in the general election. But Hillary had a strong core of enthusiastic support. Biden feels like a uniquely weak candidate, his momentum fueled by fear of who is electable, without examination of his bona fides. As a commenter said yesterday, "for those who would vote for a ham sandwich over Trump, here's your ham sandwich."
4
Nothing shocks anymore in politics but I’ve been disappointed Elizabeth Warren didn’t do better on Super Tuesday. I have a partial idea of why and it begins with a big M....
I echo others concerns regarding Biden’s mental clarity. He will need a great second and I truly hope it’s a women. So many women feel very downtrodden and ignored within politics and and it would mean a great deal for him to choose a sharp female second in command.
Bernie Sanders, I like his stance on many issues but a self professed Democratic Socialist has almost no chance with on-the-fence Conservative voters in our country, and I believe many think he’s incapable of getting all he promises actually done.
But, I will vote for Sanders if he’s the nominee; I’ll just be clinging to the martini glass on the evening of Nov. 3, 2020 like I did 4 years ago!
4
Ok, now I’m done with reading the NYT op-Ed section. This is the 4th op ed in two days to essentially put weight behind Biden. Bernie is angry?! Many Americans who support him are! I for one, am.
6
This strikes me as clear thinking. Spot on.
Biden appears to be the Democrats’ best shot at ousting the wrecker, holding onto the House and winning the Senate.
4
(Note---2 different Lynns commenting here, one in NY, one in Maine)
For those commenting below who dismiss Biden as the "status quo" candidate: have you been paying any attention at all to what the House Democrats, under Nancy Pelosi's leadership, have passed since coming into power in January 2019?
A Democratic Senate and House would pass all that and more, and a Democratic President Biden would sign it. It includes everything from in effect overturning Citizens United, to protecting and expanding the ACA, lower prescription drug costs, sustainable job-=creating infrastructure, universal background checks, protection for dreamers and their families, here's a partial and outdated list
https://www.vox.com/2019/11/29/20977735/how-many-bills-passed-house-democrats-trump
.... a long and inspiring list of accomplishments that gets far too little attention in the press.
And, of course, there are the Courts. The Clintons are much-disparaged by Sanders but note that Bill Clinton appointed RBG to the Supreme Court.
4
I sincerely hope you are right. I am terrified that you may be wrong.
2
"I think the Democrats with Biden have a good chance of winning the presidency, holding the House and perhaps taking the Senate. "
I agree.
"An economic slowdown seems likely because of the coronavirus, which also highlights Trump’s administrative incompetence. "
I did not know that Trump was the mayor of Wuhan (or of Milan). But hey, you learn something new from the New York Times every day! And oh,
"Racing to confront a growing public health threat, key lawmakers in the House and Senate reached a deal on Wednesday to provide $8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat the novel coronavirus. The House voted Wednesday to approve it, and the Senate was expected to take it up on Thursday."
Maybe the Republicans and Trump are not quite as evil as you think they are? Are Democrats NEVER going to have enough of negativity?
1
Just as in 2016 black votes in the south propelled HRC to the nomination, but couldn't deliver when it counted. Whoever can deliver Penn, Wisc, Ohio and Michigan should be nominated.
5
The health insurance companies’ stock soared today. If you are afraid of getting crushing medical bills today, the chances are good that you will still be afraid of that under a Biden administration. Better hope you don’t need hospitalization or other major care.
5
Biden, the man living in the 1970s, is a change candidate? The man who thinks he can work with the likes of McConnell and the gang? The man who thinks he can bring back the good old days? RU kidding me? I have to stop reading all news now as we seem to be delusional on both sides.
3
I'm for Bernie, not because I prefer his positions to Biden's, but because he is the most electable. Yes, about 50 years ago a very liberal candidate lost a presidential race. Since then, every establishment democratic to run has lost. Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, Hillary. Every democrat candidate who has won since then has done so with the image of an outsider. I like Joe Biden as a person, but he is an inept politician who has recently achieved success almost solely due to establishment endorsements that will mean nothing to independents and swing voters. He is a national punchline, and, I hope to God I'm wrong about this, but I fear he will be skewered by Trump and the Republican machine.
5
If he chooses Stacey Abrams as VP then I am IN!
1
Right on!! A winning duo who balance each other across the spectrum.
2
"Biden is plodding and uncharismatic" is why Biden will lose to Trump. Polite, hesitant-to-confused speech, and few, if any, new programs for the U.S., do not get out the vote.
Biden will be up against a "Rage-Monkey", full of fiery lies, insults and nicknames. Biden's losing his words mid-debate against Trump is not a selling point.
Plus, he's an incrementalist. He wants to "build on" the ACA. Millions will still lack health insurance. Health insurers and Big Pharma will influence him.
He is pro-fracking, so Big Oil will have a seat in his administration. He's trying to re-create the Obama years, but Biden is no Obama.
Bloomberg, having endorsed Biden, will throw billions behind Joe's election. Bloomberg will get to buy a presidency, just not his own. His ads will lie about Sanders, calling him Communist.
Buying a presidency, via advertising propaganda, and taking advantage of shallow-thinking voters, is, well, equivalent to what Trump does.
Sanders does not lie. He's fiery and passionate, without a center right past of racist or warmongering tendencies. He's voted more with Congressional Democrats than they have. He's for a Green New Deal.
It will take vast numbers of progressives to elect Sanders --the guy with positive new plans for the U.S. But, will they give up in the face of Bloomberg's media propaganda for Biden?
3
"Biden is plodding and uncharismatic" is why Biden will lose to Trump. Polite, hesitant-to-confused speech, and few, if any, new programs for the U.S., do not get out the vote.
Biden will be up against a "Rage-Monkey", full of fiery lies, insults and nicknames. Biden's losing his words mid-debate against Trump is not a selling point.
Plus, he's an incrementalist. He wants to "build on" the ACA. Millions will still lack health insurance. Health insurers and Big Pharma will influence him.
He is pro-fracking, so Big Oil will have a seat in his administration. He's trying to re-create the Obama years, but Biden is no Obama.
Bloomberg, having endorsed Biden, will throw billions behind Joe's election. Bloomberg will get to buy a presidency, just not his own. His ads will lie about Sanders, calling him Communist.
Buying a presidency, via advertising propaganda, and taking advantage of shallow-thinking voters, is, well, equivalent to what Trump does.
Sanders does not lie. He's fiery and passionate, without a center right past of racist or warmongering tendencies. He's voted more with Congressional Democrats than they have. He's for a Green New Deal.
It will take vast numbers of progressives to elect Sanders --the guy with positive new plans for the U.S. But, will they give up in the face of Bloomberg's media propaganda for Biden?
Even if Trump was a progressive Democrat, I would find him unfit for office.
He lies constantly to cover his actions.
He foments hate.
He panders to dictators where suspicions of doing it for money are always at the forefront.
He denigrates our institutions when they don't conform to his selfish and self-serving desires.
He creates doubt in our justice system when they rule against him and his friends.
He makes fun of disabled people.
He cares only about enriching himself, not leading the nation.
Regardless of the fact that Joe Biden does not avidly support some of the progressive social reforms I support, he's still better than having Trump in the White House.
By the way, I'm closing in on age 70.
2
Not sure that a Biden/Abrams ticket will over come the lying and incompetency of trump but it would go along way towards bringing back faith in our government. As a super senior(88 ) I am with you!
1
So much for the “great melting pot” Our country is voting by race and religion. Maybe Trump is right about limiting the number of immigrants. We are not voting for candidates that would be best for the entire nation.
Aw, yes, I'm dreaming of the Bush Years. Uncle Joe Biden, take me back to those good old days.
Biden would not be a a policy wonk. He will appoint Warren as sec of Treasury, Stacey Abrams Atty General, smart & expert folks to the NSC, HHS, EPA and judges. It is silly to pretend a Sanders presidency would automatically accomplish M4All, et al.
The only realistic hope is to stop the a Trump hemorrhage, kill off the metastasis of his malignant degradation of sound governance. If Biden picks Klobuchar, Booker, Harris or even Buttigieg for VP- he can relegate legislative agendas.
We are not electing a bold visionary with a million plans; we are stabilizing a severely ill country.
3
Like your cabinet suggestions.Get competency with pros who know how to compromise .
Biden the candidate of change? Hardly. He doesn't even have a platform as I sure the majority of commenters here could not conjure up even one.
It's gonna be business as usual with Biden just like it with his former boss. Neo-liberalism is the real fundamental reason that the middle class is fractured and in decline as both political parties could care less what America may look like in 10-15 years.
It's all about winner take all politics and then once you win do nothing.
The irony is that for Southern African Americans Obama was a complete and utter disappointment when it came to trying to fracture the racial divided in our country, that clearly existed during his two terms, and which now has exploded in ways not seen since Segregation during the Trump Presidency.
For moderate Democrats please ask yourself this.
Is this as good as it gets?
If Biden is the candidate I will hold my nose and vote for him, but expect me to be out in the streets a lot the next few years if the Democrats are all smoke and mirrors.
IMO "angry Bernie voters" are about as likely to be trolls on the payroll of a foreign power as they are to be fellow citizens with authentic political disagreements.
1
Here's hoping that Bernie and Warren show up on the stage today and Warren declares her support for Bernie, and Bernie declares he will choose Warren as his VP if elected. Progressives Unite, win the majority of Dem delegates, and crush "the disaster" in November. The polls make it clear, if the Dems show up in November WE WIN.
Bernie & Betsy or Bust!
@jcranesong If the ticket is Bernie & Betsy, be prepared for Bust.
Dear Betsy,
We still hardly know ye. I appreciate that, as Professor and Senator Liz Warren, you keenly understand and challenge the siren call of money and power in Washington. However, I prefer to see you as Betsy from Oklahoma because it speaks more directly to your life-long experience in “the last mile” of our society where most of humanity live and struggle. You, among the remaining candidates seeking to unify our country in a senior capacity, are uniquely qualified to institutionalize trust in our corridors of power by rebooting capitalism. Stay the course in whatever capacity you best determine.
Dear Nicholas
I am one of your loyal follower of your column which I look forward to read every day. However, at this time, I disagree with you. I believe that Mr. Biden was a good Vice President but he was not the one who was able to stand up for people´s rights and many times was a follower and be nice even abandoned principles. For instance, he voted for the confirmation of Mr. Thomas for the Supreme Court and he did not care about Ms. Hill´s allegations of Sexual harrasement. I strongly believe that his campaign sounds as
John Kerry and will fail in gaining the presidency. He lacks leadership skills and not able to fight for the good causes.
Same old same old is not the way to go.
@Devin Smith When the alternative is nihilistic destruction, it's the only way to go.
I used to think that Nicholas Kristof was a humanist from previous columns, such as his heartfelt and heartbreaking descriptions of Yemeni children, victims of Mohammed Bin Salman's war.
Surely, Kristof knows of the hundreds of thousands of innocents killed in the Iraq War -- a regime change war supported by Biden. I find it hard to understand Kristof's claim of Biden's decency in view of his support of atrocity.
The killings and bombings of innocents is evil. Didn't Biden know that that would result?
Kristof has written some fine articles, but today's column reveals that he's a humanist of convenience.
2
An entire article on why Biden is the “change candidate" without any discussion of his platform or what changes would take place under a Biden Presidency? After reading the article I have no idea why Mr Biden would be a “change candidate.”
Because we would change presidents, from a corrupt sociopath to a decent, hard-working person.
Due to his age, Biden needs to pick a vice president who is an original thinker and problem solver with a progressive vision for the future. Amy Klobuchar does not fit the bill.
Status quo, schmatus quo. What we're talking about here is democracy versus kakistocracy. Criminality versus law and order.
Truth versus lies. This probably will be the last chance many of us will ever get in our lifetimes. Even if you have to hold your nose, vote for Biden and breathe free again. The fact that there's even a question of Biden's electability versus Bernie's is a dangerous fool's game.
2
Economic inequality increased during both the Clinton and Obama administrations. Big bankers were appointed to key government economic positions and the priority of the Obama administration was clearly to prop up the banks rather than help homeowners. There is no reason at all to suppose that things would be different under Biden - he is not going to get Republicans to agree to progressive measures, but he is very likely to agree to do what they want, since he has promised that he will get along with them. A return to the economic status quo of the last 50 years is apparently fine with the major media and its writers and talking heads, and they use their influence to beat down any threat to the current economic situation.
Some people probably voted for Trump on the basis of his fake "populist" promises, as it has become clear that "moderate" Democrats are not really helping to reduce inequality and improve the outlook of those at the lower end of the economic scale. Expect Trump to go to the left of Biden with such promises, as he did against Hillary. The promises may not be believable to critical people, but then Biden's aren't believable either.
The thing that most people responding here are not considering is that our marathon days are done. We, as a species, are in a sprint race against seemingly insurmountable odds as a result of long term plodding. I won't detail it thoroughly, but suffice to say that climactic changes of such great magnitude are currently underway that we will have little power to change. The results of our power to change over the last 100 or more years is what we now witness. We, quite frankly, have no time for incremental changes. When I look at Biden, I see that Greatest Generation who had the most effect in putting us all here. I just don't see Biden as being capable of understanding the magnitude of this situation.
Kristof makes a simple argument that makes sense until you put it into the current context. Maybe in 2016, Biden could have beaten Trump but we are in a different world today. Voters have been bombarded with a steady stream of social media, fake news, and propaganda from the right and Trump. Many people that voted for Trump have discovered that they were bamboozled and lied to about critical issues and the corona virus has highlighted the sheer incompetence that Trump represents daily. An opposition to him must be honest, principled, and present a stark contrast. Biden offers a return to "normalcy" that ignores the fact that voters want more.
Sanders has critics but both sides have honored his consistency and honesty. His plans may be hard to achieve but when negotiating, unlike Obama-Biden with the ACA and the public option, you do not concede your preferred outcome before the negotiations begin. Fighting for a single payer system may be the only way to move towards it in spite of insurance companies and their money and paid officials.
While a retreat to safety may sound appealing, when dealing with a bully, and by that I mean the entire GOP, Democrats need to face the fact that we need to fight fire with fire. I do not mean telling lies, but I do mean being forceful and using every tool to convince people of the benefits of a progressive agenda for the 99%. This is no time for a meek, likable candidate. We need our own firebrand to win, and that is Bernie Sanders.
1
I doubt that any democrat can beat Trump. The incumbent has too great an advantage. But perhaps they can hold the House with him as the candidate. Enough for me.
1
l looked at some of the comments, and did not see the point made that Biden will be a transitional president. No way he serves eight years. He will get the gigantic cleanup job started, and fill his administration with competent people. His VP pick will be very important. And if Dems take the Senate, as is starting to look possible, Sanders will be in line to head the Finance Committee. win-win.
2
Biden just got a huge boost from Wall Street. The Healthcare and insurance industries in particular opened their hearts and wallets to show their support. That lays out the problem starkly and irrefutably.
It’s time for the American electorate to wake up: You’re not voting for a person, you’re voting for a political agenda. A nice guy like Biden is the public mask of private interests, but a brilliant and charismatic politician—Barack Obama comes to mind—can make voters believe that their political goals are attainable. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have pretty much the same agenda, but primaries are about personalities not the ideas they champion. This early in the election cycle, progressives should unite behind their shared political beliefs, not a single politician. As a bloc, they are a formidable presence in the Democratic Party. Now is the time for them to flex their muscle.
1
"This was a triumph of pragmatism."
No, this was a triumph of hypocrisy. Democrats are more than willing to overlook the role that Joe Biden played, using the office of Vice President, in furthering the corrupt activities of Hunter Biden.
If Joe Biden becomes the nominee, the Hunter affair will not be overlooked by the Trump campaign. No doubt the GOP will depict the Democrats as the party of corruption, and every Democratic candidate for the House and Senate will have to answer for it. It would be much easier for the Democrats to explain their positions vis-à-vis Sanders' socialism platform.
1
Milquetoast Biden, sigh. I am still feeling hopeful that Bernie will get the nomination. But moderate Dems will do anything to keep that from happening. It happened in 2016. Watch it happen again.
Bernie stands for real change. People are afraid of change, right? We won't get change with Biden. And will Biden ban fracking? If not, game over for the planet. We are toast and your children and future generations will suffer immensely. We're talking "extinction of the human race" with a capital E. Of course, it would be game over with Trump too. Will Biden step up to the plate and actually do something to combat climate change? Obama did so little plus he also supported fracking. We've got to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, if we have any chance of survival. That is the biggest issue facing all of us. Nothing else matters. Climate tipping points are being breached and when we reach the point of "no return", then what? So if we end up with Biden, it is better than Trump, but not by much. It's been a real circus watching all the "acts" perform at the debates. I've avoided watching the debates - catching the news online at the NY Times. I do want to applaud the NY Times for their great coverage of everything political.
2
If Biden has any sense at all he will not denigrate any of the people who have fought alongside of him for the nomination. He will take note of the comprehensive critique he has endured and act accordingly and inform his colleagues that they will have a big say in his government's policy decisions.
2
I am glad I read this article and people's response. I have hoped for many years that the US could have real transformational change for it to only go further and further to the right. Bernie's idea's really appeal to me. So with his primary loses I am greatly saddened that it will be a long time if ever that this country can be a country for all it's citizens. Bernie is right when he says there is no reason why so much money has gone to the top one-tenth percent of the people. And reading these responses from Bernie supporters makes me feel more hopeful that we will need to approach this election from a more lateral view point keeping in mind the ideas and goals of Bernie and Elizabeth Warren for our future. So thank you Bernie supporters on this thread that are still optimistic!
3
The Democratic Party see Trump as the problem; Bernie realizes that it's not Trump but our entrenched economic and governance systems that are the problem. The Democrats want to change presidents (and heaven knows we need that!). Bernie wants to change the system. We need Bernie and there are still more than 30 primaries and over 900 delegates to go.
2
@farhorizons
Bernie’s earnestness and determination have never translated into reaching much beyond his largest following which is the 18-29 age group; and, sadly even they failed to show up and support him in large numbers. To win the Presidency, Democrats must build a large coalition and that also includes African Americans. To win we must also unify and vote in large numbers. Biden is accomplishing this; Sanders is not. Trump must go!
2
Achievement of universal health care, financial assistance to gain higher education, immigration laws, climate change /natural resource related policies, income/corporate tax rates, infrastructure renewal, etc. are all a function of the legislative branch. To undo the damage, both policy and personel depletion, done to all of our cabinet and sub-cabinet departments will be unto itself an immense task. Joe Biden, as President, offers the greatest chance to provide the normalcy to start the repairs and for progressives to build support for change from the ground up.
I believe that a significant question to ask of Bernie Sanders is what will you do if it becomes obvious that you probably cannot win the nomination. I hope he will realize that his choice will go a long way in determining if and when the change he represents is achieved.
3
I'm in agreement with you, Mr. Kristoff. Although my heart says Sanders, my head says Biden. My primary concerns are his Iraq war vote and his treatment of Anita Hill. I must admit to being weary of the status quo, but anything is better than a pathological narcissist in the WH. I just hope that the young can be convinced to vote in November with Biden at the top of the ticket.
2
I often wonder whether those considering a Bernie-or-Bust position have stopped to consider the difference that a Biden presidency, as opposed to a second Trump term, could make for these groups of human beings, just to name a few:
(1) Americans who cannot visit their families because of the travel ban
(2) Tens of thousands of refugees who might once have qualified for resettlement in the U.S.
(3) Members of racial and religious minority groups who are increasingly vulnerable to hate crimes
Come on, y'all!
4
I hope that if Biden is elected, his first act is find the nearest phone booth and strip off his Clark Kent wardrobe, then do Superman for at least four years.
Short of that I hope that he picks the strongest, most competent vice and cabinet secretaries he can find. Moderation in the Oval office and strong, tough, innovative expertise, outside the door.
He will come to office facing the the most powerful unyielding, uncompromising, global enemy ever, "Chinese Hoax" days are over. Moderation in the fight against global warming is not an option.
4
This is very disappointing coming from you Nicholas. There's something to be said to holding to your principles rather than singing with the chorus.
What you and everyone who thinks like you are missing, I believe, is the longer term implications of Biden winning the presidency. He will only serve one term. If he does not produce changes that improve the lives of many of those that voted for Trump, that once upon a time would have voted for a Democrat, if he is does not seek, in effect, to be a Bernie-lite president rather than a Republican-lite president like recent Democratic presidents past, he will only increase their support for a Trump-like Republican in the future. Trump has provided the template for how to win the US presidency for someone who is really a strongman, and really an evil genius. A Biden win in 2020 tills the ground for the germination of Germany in 1933 all over again in the USA of 2024 or 2028.
5
Does anyone really believe that Trump and the GOP will hold back in questioning Joe's cognitive abilities? Does anyone really think that Joe can spend the next eight month hiding behind surrogates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar? The past week's events make me question whether the democratic establishment really wants to win the presidency.
6
Those who are crushed by Sander's non-wins on Tuesday don't realize that it's not yet time for the ridiculous, unworkable, unachievable promises, such as free everything for all. Whether tuition, healthcare, or candy bars, it just can't work - especially when the country is already $3 trillion in debt. I'd use the word insane when there is no amount in the world that could achieve the galactic promises made - that can't possibly be kept. Bloomberg is obviously out, even though he made it work in NY - AFTER Sept. 11, for Pete's sake. The group cycling around candidates who promised the moon was astounding. Unworkable, unbelievable, unachievable. We have a President who should be the poster boy for corruption, self-interest, autocratic rule, whose main achievement was dividing the country. We don't need a President who's the poster boy for pie-in-the-sky- whatever it takes to win, even though I'm full of hot air, such as Sanders. Unless he get all the elite rich of the USA to donate a hefty portion of their net worth to the fund, a free for all society isn't going to happen in my lifetime or even your great grandchild's lifetime. Support for Biden is the best way to elect a President who could next lead the country and to get the poster boy for many things bad out of the White House.
2
what worries me about Biden are, no no particular order, his age, his often unfocused and wandering responses to questions during the so-called debates, and his frequent, although seemingly less so today, gaffs. I'll vote for whomever the Democrats nominate, another 4 years of trump will do incredible damage if allowed to remain in office another 4 years. Biden is my favorite since Pete dropped out. Democrats must remember removing trump is the goal. Anyone saying they'll stay home, vote 3rd party or vote for trump is shooting themselves in the both feet, throwing a trump style temper tantrum. Don't do that. Get behind whomever the nominee is and vote blue, no matter who.
1
GOP-lite Biden is less than inspiring. People need something to vote for instead of just being against Trump, no matter what the pro-Clarence Thomas, pro-corporate types say.
4
You're wrong. And by your words here you only reinforce the belief of decades of middle-of-the-road politics that got us here in the first place. It's always... "Elect this one or that one so we can keep some Republican monster out." And then NOTHING at all happens with that DNC hope. Time and time again... NOTHING comes from weak individuals such as Biden. And nothing will come now in terms of what this nation and world need from the USA. . . that being to reverse the corporate hold of our government, repair our society, stop the wars that only make suppliers of wars rich. And so much more that we all know Biden of course has the power to do but will not. He will not ruffle feathers of his corporate masters because he lacks the will and knowledge to do so. I will apologize if wrong. But the chances of that, as judged by his past, are infinitesimally small.
3
Are we just going to ignore all the polls that had Biden doing worst against Trump head to head? And Bernie best?
Why is the Democratic Party doing this to itself? I mean, I know why, but it’s so painful to realize that liberal democrats would rather have 4 more years of Trump than to put forward a candidate who would actually help working people.
4
I like Joe Biden. I wouldn't agree that he isn't charismatic - to me, he can be. I do think he's a decent, hard-working man who loves America, has shown he can work in a bi-partisan way (he was great friends with the late Senator John McCain, remember?) toward a common goal for the good for his country. He's suffered a lot of tragedy in his life, and I feel that helps him to sympathize and emphasize with others who have been through the fire. We need someone decent in the White House. I'm so sick and tired of the constant tweets and insults, and the childish way of reacting from this president that his base seems to stand behind or at best, ignore. America needs Joe Biden.
3
I hope whichever candidate wins the nomination, they nominate their running mate as VP. This helps ensure a true coalition. It allows each faction of the Dem party to "vote their conscience" and ensures no matter which faction you belong to, your ideas will be heard.
On a side note...
Seeing as debates are all about spectacle (thanks MSNBC, CBS, et. al.), can we have a final round Jeopardy style where both write in "Who is (Biden/Sanders)" to the answer of "Your best VP"
I say this as an Elizabeth Warren fan. The plus side of all of this is that Senators (or potential) will still have the opportunity to run in 2022. Warren to lead the CFPB! O'Rourke takes Texas, Harris, Abrams, etc.
Talk about eating your cake and having it too. Nice Try!
First of all, the argument that this is some voter-led return to rationality is laughable. Ever since Bernie started showing some possibility of arriving at the Convention leading in earned delegates, the Democrat elite has been in freak-out mode. Hence the three upstart "moderates" were quickly ushered to the door and ordered to support Biden. And those very same elites and "superfunders" are content to let Warren continue her death march because she primarily shares the burn-down-the-economy/free-stuff-for-everybody vote with Bernie.
Second, this attempt to pacify progressives with the notion that, between naps, Biden is going to lead revolutionary change is equally silly. Let's face it. The entire reason for the all-out assault on Bernie is the core belief that the American people are truly afraid of his agenda.
Face it. The Democrat leadership made the move it had to make, and now they will have to win without the Bernie Bros, and the youthful free stuff progressive vote.
1
What a shame that Democrats are going to make the same mistake twice, thanks to pundits like this one, hauling out yet another establishment candidate with a terrible record who is backed by billionaires and super PACs. How do our pundits (and non-reading, conformist voters) not see that neither Sanders nor Trump supporters are going to follow this mind-numbing fearful unimaginative conformity? Instead, both groups are going to expose Biden's truly problematic record on women, climate change, people of color, war, mass incarceration, Social Security, health care and on and on--add to that his sketchy foreign dealings and a host of unsavory Uncle Biden fondlings: Biden is going to be dead in the water. Meantime, poverty will be deepening--ultimately to include most of us--because we've been indoctrinated to think that the rich and corporate should no longer have to pay their fair share of taxes. Better to watch our citizens starve and our country crumble than ask the wealthy to stop hoarding their wealth, which they've been doing now since the Reagan era. Look where it has gotten us, folks. Vote for change. Do some research. Be less timid.
1
We're living in the post empirical era.
Historical evidence no longer matters.
Only someone who has completely forgotten the realities of the Obama presidency could believe that Biden can get things done. The Biden plan relies upon the good will of Republicans. How did that 'plan' work out for the president? Obama, like Biden, was the candidate willing to reach across the aisle.
And he got his hand slapped. Time and time again.
The party of no said no. Why would they say yes to Biden? Because he's better spoken? In better command of his mental faculties. Smarter?
Is there *anything* other than Biden's race to indicate that his reach across the aisle strategy will work.
Sanders has the only candidate who has a realistic view of social change. We get the Medicare for All through the same way we got Nixon to sign the EPA into law. We organize, we protest, we primary and vote out opponents.
Being nice to the opposition is a losing strategy. It's entirely unrealistic and you can only believe it to be the better strategy by blinding yourself to the historical evidence.
2
Biden, Biden, Biden. And ah yes, today the whole world--the one made up of fickle columnists and political pundits, that is--woke up to find that that a vast country called USA had finally discovered a new Messiah (!) named Joseph Biden, and who would deliver us all from cruel pharoph Trump I. Keep dreaming, we say. Neither these, nor all the political machinations engineered by the Establishment and the corporate media will stop Sen. Bernie Sanders from reaching the White House this time. Just wait and see. There's still plenty of time to regroup and spread our message.
1
Biden is the candidate bought and paid for by the corporate donors, billionaires and the mainstream media.
He proves that the Democratic establishment is elitist and rigged, and has a treasure trove of on-tape gaffes and wrong policy positions that Trump will rip to shreds.
Nothing Trump wants more than to stand on the debate stage with Biden. Biden isn't mentally all there, and it's cruel and dangerous to nominate him.
Worst of all, another Trump term means the end of democracy and the end of our climate.
2
Trump will decimate Biden in a debate because, unfortunately, Trump with all his schoolyard mocking is more articulate than Biden. It may actually be that no democrat can beat Trump. Why wouldn't you want to give Bernie a chance? At least he is articulate and persuasive. He's been practicing for decades. I think the boy from Brooklyn could possibly give the boy from Queens a taste of his own medicine. Biden can only dissapoint.
2
This brings to mind the words of a song from long ago... "It's always the same, it's just a shame, that's all..."
The first order of business is correcting the damage done. The scope of the damage is far larger than appreciated.This alone will take a full term, with luck. Then move on......
4
Pretty sad commentary I’m seeing compared to those I’ve spoken too who are, for the most part happy about Biden’s results on Super Tuesday.
The race isn’t over by any means. Bernie should address the questions he was asked during the debate regarding the means of paying for his plans. He frequently referred to a Yale study that supported his plan. He needs to do better or the GOP will take him apart should he make it that far. His forgiveness of college debt is seemingly arbitrary and comes across as purchasing votes. Home equity loans? Not forgiven. You paid off your loan? Nice job but no help. You went to a school you could afford? What a fool. And voting against the war. At best, a lucky guess. I can’t condemn Biden and Clinton for believing Colin Powell when he made the case that WMDs existed.
Biden’s record on Clarence Thomas isn’t clean. But I do remember an interview with him when all Democrats , including President Obama , waffled on gay marriage. Biden simply said that the administration supported gay marriage and the tide turned.
For those that are now so angry that they will sit this election out. Don’t do that. Trump is transactional and only did things the last four years to get himself re-elected. If he wins again who know what his motivation will be and what he and the sycophants that he surrounds himself with will do. Vote for whichever democrat gets the nomination. The best that you can do for yourself, your kids.
Bernie is our conscience. He is not a politician. He is a truth teller. I suppose our imperialist country doesn't want to be reminded of our shortcomings. Biden is mister feel good a nostalgic choice woefully inadequate and more of the same which clearly we need less of. We are speeding towards our apocalyptic demise. Sometimes listening to the cries of our youth even if they long for the grumpy old man might be wise if we want to secure a brighter
future for the young people in the country. Signed a71 year old lady
2
For Wall Street, Super Tuesday's results are like the World Series, the World Cup and the Super Bowl all rolled into one. Last night greed won. The establishment (Including the DNC) beat back Sanders. Expect more tax cuts for the very wealthy. Expect income inequality to get worse and don't ever expect workers to get a living wage. So ironic that so many minority voters went for the kool aid. On top of all of that Joe is too worn-out to go head-to-head with Trump. Four more (horrible) years.
1
"I particularly admire Sanders’s leadership and authenticity on human rights issues like Yemen. But I don’t think Sanders would be able to accomplish his aims as president"
Foreign policy is PRECISELY the area where a President can unilaterally accomplish his/her aims. Without a filibuster-proof Senate, Sanders and Biden will be equally INeffective in getting any grand domestic programs into law.
But on Day One, a President Sanders (or a President Gabbard, the only other Democrat who offers a rational foreign policy) can cut off our support of the genocide in Yemen, re-engage Iran on nuclear talks, and offer an even-handed approach to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Biden will do NONE of that. Guaranteed. Sanders-Gabbard 2020!
1
Wow, an entire article on Biden's electability without addressing what Biden could do to win the rust belt states that cost Hillary the election. In fact the original NAFTA that Biden whole-heartedly supported is still an open wound there. I think Kristof is proposing a zombie candidacy that would repeat the 2016 debacle.
1
Any candidate that can beat Trump is the "change candidate" because the country needs to change out this megalomaniac and his band of sycophants and bootlickers.
To that end, Biden can win the electoral college, but I don't see a path for Sanders to do so. Even if one assumes Sanders wins every east and west coast blue or purple-ish state, he won't win Florida, Ohio and Michigan, so he will lose to Trump. Biden will win all the states Sanders would win, plus has a real shot in those three.
For certain, though: If Sanders' supporters do their disappearing act like they did in 2016 and don't vote for the Democratic nominee, Trump can, and likely will, win again.
33
“But like a lot of people my age, I’m still traumatized by McGovern’s loss to Nixon in 1972”
You were barely 13 years old in 1972.
1
As a result of a Biden winning big on Super Tuesday, the stock market rebounded, health insurance stocks are up and Wall Street opened their wallets and donated to him.
Anyone who thinks Biden is a change candidate is delusional. He’s already reassured rich donors he’s not in this to make changes.
1
There is an old saying I (loosely) remember that is apt here: 'Hogs get fed, pigs get slaughtered'. Progressives who seek a revolution are likely to not only end up with nothing but also 4 more years of Trump and 4 more years of conservative packing of our courts, voting suppression, and tax injustices that will affect us for generations to come.
Recent elections in 2016 and 2018 prove this point as does past ones, where it's quite easy to argue that liberal 'purists' gave us Bush II and Trump: Purists saw Gore and Clinton as too 'establishment' and voted for Nader in 2000 and Stein or Johnson in 2016. Both lost by a hair, and the rest is history.
The most rigidly liberal among Democrats forget the dramatic advances around inequality, health care, and equal rights that were made in the Clinton and Obama years. Not all was perfect and both faced tremendous Republican obstruction, but real progress was made. So cries of Biden as 'status quo' or 'establishment', when faced with true facts, are hollow.
Sure, Biden has challenges and flaws he'll have to overcome. But any candidate would. I have no doubt, though, that between him and Bernie, he is definitely our best shot.
2
Long live the American Oligarchy. We will have to wait four more years for the possibility of any meaningful change.
Although Universal Health Care is my passion, thanks largely to 23 straight years of receiving it in Sweden, I see all too little discussion of climate change and American plans to move to renewable energy.
If Biden is president and bides his time watching the fossil fuel industry laying natural gas pipelines that will last forever at least on the climate-change time scale, then the US will become a true world-wide failure.
Maybe Biden could at least give us a woman with a better grasp of what America must become than he has, by choosing Elizabeth Warren as VP.
If he reverts to his previous low-level debate performance he will need somebody with her energy, knowledge, and policy record.
Would Warren accept? Where is that discussion? Have not seen it anywhere except in comments.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
1
We have Trump because Obama fed Wall Street and those who lost big time from the crash of 2008 under Bush-Cheney did not recover; and Hillary Clinton was rejected (in electoral votes) as more of the same. Yes, Biden is not Trump status quo. But if extreme inequality is not dramatically reduced on all fronts, if the US doesn't end the endless wars and redirect weapons spending to productive civilian manufacturing, if the banks are allowed to rule the economy with speculation and the gross student debt not alleviated - all of which results from the direction both Republicans and Democrats have taken us - if these don't change, we'd better be prepared for more of Trump, or worse.
1
I completely agree Nicolas. The only 2 things that make me anxious now, and you referenced them both:
1- How Biden will do in debates with trump. How will a decent man behave against someone is amoral and will lie and cheat.
2- You mentioned Amy K for VP. Horrible idea. He needs to bridge the gap with progressives and latino’s, who overwhelming support Bernie. I say Julian Castro is the best choice.
2
What an inspiring political movement. The centrists throw up their hands in resignation. They advocate for doing nothing to address our gaping wealth and income inequality, providing universal health care to all at half the price like every other developed country, not indenturing our students with massive debt, not fixing and modernizing our infrastructure, and permitting the polluters to be-spoil our environment. They stand for nothing. They are Republican lite.
4
Does anyone who has Medicare have only Medicare. Most have expensive secondary insurance as well. Stop what exactly are we talking about. For a retired couple the Medicare premium plus two secondary policies is required.
3
I am bewildered that Biden is considered the safe choice to beat Trump. First of all his so called verbal gaffes are extremely troublesome, such as veering off into incoherence a week go when finishing a simple sentence from the Declaration of Independence. On his victory speech on Tuesday, he mistook his wife for his sister. This shows at least the beginning of cognitive decline. I can’t see how this mental decline is ‘t going to manifest itself more in the debates or in his presidency if he is elected. Is this really who we want to make decisions not only our country but the entire planet.
Also Biden keeps talking about how he can reach against the aisle and get things done.While I liked Obama, I found it exasperating that he would enter negotiations with Republican already having compromised. Biden has a history of appeasing the Republicans. Is this the “change” we want. Also Biden wants to fix the ACA, which may not even be possible if the Supreme Court finally votes against it when they hear the case later this year.
Finally I’m so tied of the negative articles against Sanders. I’ve come to where I look through other sites online just to get less biased opinions before I look at the Times. Exit polls on Tuesday and in South Carolina showed voters cared most about what Ssnders proposes like Medicare for al.. Yet they voted for Biden. Certainly the smear and fear campaign against Ssnders played some part in that, something a writer like Ktistoff should not be proud of.
5
Maybe people voted for somebody who can defeat trump and nothing else.... hopefully this is what may republicans will vote for as well. And I am hoping and “praying” that Biden does not debate trump..... there is no reason to debate a liar.....
Take a step back. Compare Biden’s “gaffs” to trump’s. Enough said.
If Biden wants to be the 'change' president, and to help heal the Democratic Party and the nation, he will select Warren as his VP. She has the knowledge of the tax system and healthcare reform that is needed for change. She is smart, she is articulate, and Joe will need a second with those strengths. And he needs the progressives of his party to prevent any disaffection.
9
Sander's has the best programs for the future of America, and his donors have created a huge war chest.
But with billionaire Bloomberg bolstering Biden's ad campaign, and throwing in his taunts that Sanders is a communist (Sanders is a Social Democrat, as are the governments of the EU and Canada), Sander's war chest is no match for Bloomberg's billions and his false advertising.
Biden, desperate for the cash infusion, will happily let Bloomberg lead the way--which in itself is weird, but Bloomberg's money does buy influence.
So Americans will have to watch Bloomberg buying the Presidency -- not for himself, but for Biden. Fait accompli.
For Sanders, voters who don't agree with Biden's message, which is still, "I was Obama's VP" and "I'm not Trump", who is pro-fracking and an incrementalist in making change, must get out and vote.
Otherwise the U.S. is doomed to a center-right philosophy where expensive healthcare, Big Oil, Big Pharma, toxic chemicals still hold sway.
3
Now would be a good time to step back and celebrate not only the diversity of choices Democrats gave us in the primaries, but also the exceptional talent, intelligence, and integrity of those who would lead our Party and our country. Let the primaries play out. Let the power if ideas play out. But in the end, how could we possibly not be impressed with our Party.
There was bitterness at the seemingly preordained victory for Hillary in 2016. Clearly that is not an excuse this time around. Even if the country becomes just a little better if your first choice didn't make it, better is still better.
2
I recently read Samatha Power's "The Education of an Idealist." Nick puts me in mind of her–an idealist who makes a difference, the kind we're lucky to have.
1
I really can't disagree with much here. Mr. Kristof makes some great points, especially along the lines of taking the House and Senate, which is the key to governing. While the executive order is a powerful tool for an American dictator-in-chief, it generally comes back to bite the party. There needs to be legislative power.
Biden's lead makes me feel better about the general election and Biden will likely maintain that lead due to the superdelegates. I was angry at the superdelegate format of the DNC in 2016 after Clinton lost but now I see the intelligence of it. It is akin to the way that the Founders believed the Electoral College was supposed to work. The guardians of the party are supposed to have their say and Biden will be their guy.
1
They're still counting the votes from Super Tuesday and many delegates, including from California, are yet to be assigned. The gap between Sanders and Biden has been shrinking. It's too early to write off Sanders at this point.
4
I agree with one thought expressed by more than one comment writer - restore decency or some semblance of deceny to the American government.
I do not know about every word Elizabeth Warren has said although I have supported her with regular contributions.
But I do know now that it might have helped if she herself had made clear or clearer that even if she has a plan for everything, the first task of a new president will be to restore decency, civility, honesty, respect for the constitution and law. Follow that with a statement that after that we can consider taking on the giant tasks to be met if the USA is to enter the 21st century.
Perhaps I will have to transform myself to accept an America that I can accept since I live in Sweden, where everything I need is readily available, most important of all, free - yes completely free - Universal Health Care.
So I will once again have to live with America where no change for the better is the norm. Will be up on Mount Philo where the absence of change is a virtue. And from there to Burlington Discover Jazz Festival where at least one musician perhaps will be moving on from "Playing Changes" (see Nate Chinin's book).
If Biden can end Trump's regime then perhaps I can find enough comfort in that to accept the absence of change.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
3
This is great. 14% of the population (8% of the voting public) has chosen our party's candidate. Good luck getting 53% of the popular vote (which a Democrat would need because of the Electoral College's bias in favor of small states) with a candidate who primarily appeals to such a small group.
And even if he wins, what will he be? At best he'll be Millard Fillmore or Chester Arthur. At worst he'll be what he always was in the senate: someone ever ready to cut social security, enable mass incarceration, and authorize military adventurism around the globe.
And then there's the Anita Hill thing.
I'm very disappointed in you, Nick. Sometimes you have to go big or stay home, and you've just come up small.
7
If Biden brings anything desirable to the whitehouse that many Americans desperately want now it is respectability and a general sense of decency. Trump certainly won't deliver that and even die hard republicans know that and neither would Sanders.
While you might like some of Sanders general ideas most are just not deliverable. While many of us would like to become younger the truth is none of us are going to get younger. Politics is kind of the same way. You might want certain things, but if they're not going to get done there's no point in telling everyone one man who is older than most with a bad ticker his ideas stand a chance of going through congress.
This is not a nation that makes huge, sweeping changes in legislation easily. If anything we tend to inch backwards in our goals instead of rapidly moving forward.
1
My own sinking feeling is that Internecine war between Bidenism (which seems to mean a return to Obamaism) and Sandersism will scupper the Democrats' ability to defeat Trump.
It is hard to detect any ability on Biden's part to deflect the attacks that can be expected from both Sanders and Trump by clever word choices and nuance. At the same time, merely not being Trump is not a platform for Biden.
I hope Biden and Sanders will both read the outcome of Super Tuesday as a mandate for unity and compromise now, and as a warning against continuing disunity. If these two cannot find some middle ground in selected matters of policy right now, and deploy their divided flanks strategically to repel Trump's truckload of conspiracy theories and hate, their bickering will reproduce the disaster of 1968.
Let's not confuse perception with reality.
Like most things in life, caucuses and primaries are driven by individual perceptions. These are then intensified (by way of confirmation bias) or weakened by others' perceptions as well.
But regardless of who eventually wins the Democratic nomination, I hope that the REALITY of another four disastrous years of Trump will be enough to knock us to our collective senses this fall.
3
The defeatist, we can't get this through Congress side of the Democrat Party is starting to win. Bernie isn't saying we just have to propose things like Medicare For All to get it passed but that we have to get all the people behind it. The Corporate side of the party has fed the others a steady diet of this can't be done and it will cost too much. And the rest have bought in and put out a weaker candidate who represents no change from the past. They need to realize that changing things for the better takes more effort then getting someone to propose it and doing all the work for us. It takes us all buying into it and helping others to see how society will be better for it and what is wrong with the current system we have.
4
@J.P.
Bernie notion of ‘them corporates’ is simplistic hence dangerous. Corporations are self-sustaining institutions that function as long as they are viable or receive support.
The real deal is to bring medical care costs down via innovations and efficiency by better use of IT. Curbing profiteering is also necessary but it is a small component of change process. The primary driver for change is competition in a market economy. Affordable Care Act is consistent with such a change effort, Canada side Medicare for all is not.
A satellite economy like Canada tap the benefits of the change-drivers in the mainstream US markets. The miracles of modern medicine did not happen by itself. It is this institutional value creation aspect that got to receive due attention.
BIDEN IS THE CANDIDATE OF Restoration and Reform. Absent from other posts is the fact that Trump has adopted a scorched earth policy since his first day in office. That's the way he does business. And that's the way he's wrecked the country. Causing horrible messes, suing everyone in sight and playing rope-a-dope with the court system so that he can walk away without incurring legal consequences. Biden's going to have his hands full restoring the wreckage. He's a rational, realistic guy. In the process of rebuilding, lies the possibility of introducing reforms. It will be a lot easier to rebuild Trump's smoldering wreckage by introducing logical reforms while rebuilding. Add to that the fact that Bernie has never authored significant legislation, and it becomes clear that we need Joe's legislative expertise. Corporate America's not going away. Government regulation of corporate practices need to be retooled, revised and restored. In his day, Ronald Reagan turned government into the enemy. Joe can provide us with a more user-friendly government. We The People desperately need Joe Biden's expertise. So did Barack Obama during the 8 years of his productive, positive and progressive presidency. So I say, Play It Again, Joe! I'm sure your good friend Barack Obama will have your back. One good turn deserves another. And Joe does good turns for regular people all the time. Giving his private number to people in great distress is extraordinarily generous!
If Bernie is the nominee, it will not be Trump who slices and dices him into mincemeat - it will be Steve Bannon. And our beloved RBG will not live forever. Anyone who sits this election out in a huff because they did not get their way, shows little regard for our nation's future. Ironically, I believe that Bernie's agenda WILL be well underway by the end of the 2020s. But a Trump re-election - and his unbridled megalomania that will surely follow - may take decades to repair, if ever.
4
Biden sells himself on experience. His platform is not detailed and is right down the middle. If nominated, he will move further to the right to win over more conservative.voters. So the question is how much change he will stand for if and when he gets elected. He just may compromise away the better part of the liberal agenda.
3
I wonder if it is the same people that sat at home on Election Day in 2016, and did not vote, because it was Hillary and not Bernie, that are now predicting Biden will lose.
If so, then we can thank these people for Trump.
One thing for certain, whomever gets nominated as the Democratic candidate needs the wholehearted support of all Democratic voters. "Nose-pinching" is not acceptable. Truly, it was that attitude that brought us Trump in 2016. Rome was not built in a day, but it was built, as Democrats will build a fairer country for the middle class and working class, in a stepwise fashion. But only if we see the big picture and all pull hard in the same direction strongly behind whomever the nominee is.
Biden cannot be a “change candidate” until he clearly says what he wants to change. His campaign so far is based on winning and beating Trump, but those are not policy proposals. Even if he wins the presidency and carries both houses of Congress with him, the lack of policy ideas will forfeit their mandate to actually do anything. That means four more lost years in the pivotal decade for fighting climate change. I won’t vote for Biden until he says what he wants to accomplish.
4
I continue to urge my teens to move to first world countries where healthcare is universal and education is valued. C Canada or Germany. This country clearly doesn't care about it's people.
5
Bernie's answer to this is that he's going to have to appeal to the people to pressure congress to do the will of the people. He already knows the establishment will resist him because so many politicians have taken money from the healthcare industry.
Kristof may not agree with Bernie's strategy, but you'd think a journalist with integrity would at least mention Bernie's well known reply. Then again a journalist with integrity wouldn't confuse the words "achievable" and "change" and pretend they are the same thing just to create a title for his article.
Oh, and BTW, Obama also ran on the public option (just like Joe), but he abandoned it the moment he won the office and even went as far as to denying he ran on it.
How's that for achievable change? Not only did Obama make a false promise to liberals, he denies he even make the promise. How achievable is that kind of change, Nicholas?
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2009/dec/23/barack-obama/public-option-obama-platform/
4
Of course, anyone who knows anything about Universal Health Care based on experiencing it directly and/or working within it knows that neither Bernie Sanders nor Elizabeth Warren could institute UHC in America within a single term.
I know quite a bit about Swedish UHC on both counts. I just came from Linköping University Hospital where a doctor born in Eritrea carried out a gastroscopy on me with the help of two fine nurses, both so-called ethnic Swedes.
On arrival at the hospital I checked in by entering my Swedish personnummer - my date of birth + 4 more digits. No paperwork. Nothing. Went to the Green Room to wait for the nurse to come and get me. The procedure carried out perfectly, Dr. Osman then explains with great clarity and in detail where I stand and what the letter I will get from him will contain. That visit cost me 0 that is zero Swedish kronor. I will be able to log in at 1177.se and see his immediate report and in a few weeks a more detailed report with what comes next.
I also today will review a manuscript by a young woman researcher in Clinical Cancer Epidemiology, a Ph.D. candidate in my other city - Göteborg. She came here from India. That head of that group publishes in the best journals.
My point: Building UHC takes time and a willingness to build teams in which each individual has a salary and UHC as one benefit. I have medicare but if I did not what would my morning have cost me in Burlington VT?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
6
The sad truth is that major corporate industries control the Federal government, primarily the Senate. Without the buy-in of lobbyists and influence peddlers, no major legislation has an ice-cubes chance in the desert sun. The only reason Obama got the ACA passed was that he realized he had to get the cooperation of the health insurance industry. He gave the industry the parameters (such as covering pre-existing conditions) and let them dictate the final terms, in order to get a change in health insurance coverage. Thus, it is no surprise that Biden's surge caused an equal surge of relief on Wall Street. Bernie and Elizabeth's ideas are great and ideals to which the nation should aspire; however, until the corporate grim is loosened there will be no new laws that benefit US citizens unless, first and foremost, they benefit an industry. How this can be achieved is a conundrum.
3
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for such an excellent analysis.
Your description of Biden's resurrection by black voters is certainly accurate, too.
I just want to point out that the South Carolina result might not have been so dramatic had it not been for the clarion call of Congressman Jim Clyburn. ...and, I truly believe, that call was heard throughout the South as well as the Northeast.
...a more heartfelt endorsement I think I have never heard.
We love you, Mr. Clyburn, for being the Conscience of Carolina and our Ambassador to the Nation.
2
This is the upside of being in a truly bad situation : a remarkable improvement is so easy to do.
When Trump is gone, regardless of who is the next president, the situation will be significantly better.
1
The prospect of Mr Biden as the next US President prompted a sigh of relief throughout Europe - and probably worldwide. Finally there will be someone to bring America back to the table. Let's all hope that decency can prevail.
3
I love how the same armchair quarterbacks post and re-post their same opinions.
Biden is the safe bet, but has no hope of defeating Trump, who will win by a landslide UNLESS
Biden chooses Warren as VP and steals those progressive votes away from Sanders. She is the key to the nomination. Classic H. Clinton vs. Obama in 2012. Clinton got the Sec State role as a concession.
I always thought Sanders/Warren was the ticket, but they openly dislike each other enough that’s not possible. Warren can’t carry the nomination on her own. She can’t even win her own home state. But she is a valuable policy maker, change agent and a smart whip if used properly.
Biden can’t win on his own merits, and his voting history is actually quite bad. Look it up and do some research. Likability can be a liability in today’s government. It’s all about results, and Biden’s track record is not good enough to merit support. Even if you hate Trump, he produces results that Biden can’t complete with. What’s required is long shot radical change to upset the status quo.
1
I follow nor what a candidate says, but who finances his campaigns
"Stocks Surge as Wall Street Opens Checkbooks for Biden"
NY Times, Feb 4 , 2020
Wall Streets aim is to maximize profits. That includes minimizing costs, which includes minimizing wages of US workers,
No change.
7
I will vote for the Democratic candidate regardless of who it is. Trump must go. I felt that way in 2016 and was worried about the Supreme Court then. Well, that's lost. I hope Bernie supporters will support Biden if he is the nominee. My choice would have been Elizabeth Warren who is intelligent and has well researched all her plans. She's the better Bernie but sadly doesn't have that demagogue attitude. If the young don't support the eventual nominee if it isn't Bernie, it's their future they are hurting. I believe if Biden wins, he will make good changes that are necessary. He has been a staunch supporter of civil rights and is very compassionate. Remember it was Johnson who gave us medicare and started the war on poverty and did much for civil rights. Moderates are just quieter.
5
I agree with you Mr. Kristof. Biden was not my first choice but when I woke up Wednesday morning to the news of his success there was a skip in my step I haven't felt for three years.
I don't like Sanders' approach but I've said from the beginning that I will show up and vote for whoever the democrats put forth. If everyone makes this commitment we'll be okay in November. Sadly, it looks to me that many of the other respondents are prepared to cut of their noses to spite their faces. I hope they're just a vocal minority.
3
While the president obviously has influence over broad policies like health care and the green new deal, to me the real action should be in congress where the laws are crafted and the cash is appropriated.
What is amazing about what Bernie has done is that it is a movement that has a grassroots funding mechanism that promises to work for change for the foreseeable future.
Funny thing is that Mike Bloomberg has done something similar although I wonder the fate of his behind the scene's operation (I've only heard a bit about that and want to know more.)
The point is that as any sophomore taking a class in political parties and elections knows that the purpose of a political party is to win elections.
The rank and file Democrats, in creating the Biden miracle, seem to intuit that pragmatic truth.
What the reporters ought to be covering in horse race fashion is not the vagaries of the polls, but instead take a page from automotive journalism instead of popular sports. Talk about the hardware, the costs and how the rapid change in Biden's fortunes done seemingly by osmosis (earned media).
I think it also imperative that the media assume that folks don't quite have a grasp on the civics involved (such as the Congress or even the role of the states and local government.)
Anyone with a true grasp of civics was rolling their eyes the moment Trump in his acceptance speech, started bellowing about how only he could do bla, bla, bla.
3
I think Biden is the "Hillary Clinton" candidate with an added touch of senility. None of this is reassuring. I can't imagine such a centrist candidate producing any magic when it comes to health care, climate change, inequality, etc. I think what Nicholas Kristof is saying is the sort of things one says to unite the party and win an election, but no one really should believe it and Hillary Clinton shows that just wanting to win is not enough, you need some vision and Biden doesn't have any.
6
Yes it is true Bernie has passed only a few bills and yet today the Democratic party is more of a Bernie party than any other current leader. His $15.00 minimum wage, the bottom line initiative to help the financially struggling is now a mainstream goal and in some places a reality. His argument that if poorer countries can have a better and more just healthcare system then why can't America is sound. If Canada can have much cheaper drugs then why can't we. If we can waste trillions of dollars on unwinnable wars, that Biden supported, that have caused much destruction, destroyed whole countries, destabilized regions, then why can't we forgive student debt to help our own. Imagine the difference between Biden printing unsupported money for unnecessary pain and suffering and Bernie printing it for folks like you and me!
Biden is in favor of cutting everything to balance the budget, no matter how much it hurts the struggling masses. Biden will do nothing to narrow the gap between the rich and poor while Bernie wants to tax the 1% just a tiny bit. Even Trump was in favor of taxing the rich until the recent past.
The question is not who can beat Trump, because both have an equally good chance to beat Trump. The question is who is the more caring and better leader for the vast majority of America. Biden is already promising much less caring.
Biden is a good choice but Bernie is a better choice as he will go much further to make the promise of America real for far more Americans.
4
This column pretty much sums up my feelings on the race. Thanks for putting it in writing.
1
"So while Biden’s proposals aren’t as soaring as Sanders’s, nor as comprehensive as I would like, they strike me as more achievable. In that sense, Biden may be the real candidate of change."
Very similar language and reasoning was deployed in the service of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Like Clinton, Biden has done great service to the country and deserves our honor and respect.
In politics, however, timing is everything. Many of Biden's key policy initiatives (gun control, social security reform, consumer protection, financial markets regulation, environmental protection) seem designed to address the problems of 20 years ago, not today.
His conduct of Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearing was a disgrace. We live with the consequences today.
In recent weeks, the 'Times' opinion section has been filled with pieces remarkable for their ferocious criticism of Sanders' campaign and his progressive agenda. Comprehensive health care reform, environmental protection, wealth inequality, and financial markets regulation will not be accomplished by the kind of incremental, technocratic government a Biden administration would provide.
There is no credible evidence that a Biden campaign--even at its most successful--could produce a Democratic majority in the Senate. Absent a working majority in Congress, we'll be back to government by presidential decree and the Federal Register.
4
I agree Mr Kristof that Mr. Biden is the pragmatic way forward. As someone who supports many progressive positions and who was leaning towards Senator Warren, I didn't even want Mr. Biden to enter the race. Unfortunately, Senator Warren demonstrated a political tone-deafness and arrogance seen in both Sanders and Hillary Clinton who act as though they know better than the grassroots Americans about their health care needs. This is illustrated in their approach to health care insurance in which they refuse to acknowledge that a single-payer solution such as Medicare-for-All is not the only path towards universal health care coverage. Several European nations have developed efficient universal health care coverage without resorting to a Canadian-like single-payer system that bans employer-based, private health insurance. In terms of political viability, Americans with employer-based health insurance simply do not want Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren, or anyone else to dismantle it. Enough of them might even vote for Trump in order to keep their employer-based insurance which would hand Trump and the GOP another four years to finish dismantling Obamacare and America's already weak safety nets, do nothing to impede climate change, and stack the courts with more justices like Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Yet some progressives would prefer to lose the election by demanding the end of private health insurance on the grounds of ideological purity than compromise. What profound arrogance!
2
I am tempted to check the Las Vegas odds but I feel confident that Biden is not certain, or even likely, to give us a .democratic Senate. Not that much more than Sanders. Jones is a goner, especially so with his recent impeachment vote. They simply are not going to elect a Democrat in S.C. Maine and Colorado possibly but the 2 senators being replaced will be the most hospitable to crossing the aisle. Even if they win Arizona, they will be one short. Biden and his supporters are engaged in wishful thinking, and maybe they are just engaged in political talking points to enhance his nomination.
Of course, the coronavirus can change the whole political landscape,
It is possible, maybe just another act of wishful thinking, that the populism of Sanders with some proposals. some of which enjoy supermajority , can energize an electorate to effect a sweeping change in the political landscape,
Think 1932 or 1980.
2
The surge of votes for Biden is a direct response to the vote in the Senate to clear Trump of the articles of impeachment. The public was massively engaged in the impeachment process. The evidence presented was very clear - Trump was set to destroy Biden on the basis of lies.
Biden now must rise to the challenge of delivering a victory that not only answers Trump, Giuliani and the cowardly Senate. Biden must also deliver what the voters want when they have voted for Sanders and Warren. This will be extremely difficult due to the high likelihood of major international crises coupled with the gross mismanagement of the economy thru a borrow and spend orgy when the economy was performing well. The ill-advised tariffs will take a toll on the economy early. The catastrophe that Trump has created in the Middle East by withdrawal from JCPOA and maximum pressure campaign to force regime change in Iran as well as actions such as the killing of general Soleimani and the Trump "Peace Plan" has aggravated divisions across the Middle East. The abrupt withdrawal of forces in Syria that served to stabilize the Syria-Turkey border region has led to a massive refugee flow.
The next president will face extraordinary challenges with weakened institutions both domestic and international. The running mate may need to be a co-president to form a closely knit team leading a very strong cabinet that has the full confidence of the American people.
3
Joseph R. Biden has the individual personal soft normal natural humble humane nurture empathy life of comedy and tragedy and failure and victory that is the antithesis of both the bombast and bloviation of Queens Donald J. Trump and Brooklyn Bernard Sanders.
Biden's elected office political sojourn began with the death of his wife and daughter along with serious injuries to both of his sons in an automobile accident. Biden has buried his eldest son and his youngest son has had major personal life challenges. Biden has had health medical issues.
Because their lives and livelihoods depend on knowing what white European Americans really think and feel by their deeds rather than their spoken and written words black African Americans must always be practical and realistic.
Being a physically identifiable minority with a history of humanity denying enslavement and separate and unequal Jim Crow is a seriously sobering way to live a life.
3
Actually, I think this whole debate - and article - could be summed up with the phrase, "Perfect is the enemy of good." Joe Biden is not a perfect candidate by any means, but he has a much better chance of beating Trump than Sanders does - unless Sanders, say, did something like promise to make Warren his VP nominee. Which he won't.
2
If by change, you mean 'not Trump', well ok. But Biden will do absolutely nothing to move us forward when that is what we desparately need.
6
@Byron Pratt The first step in moving forward is removing the biggest obstacle in our path. Which is Donald Trump. If that's all that Biden accomplishes (which is unlikely(, it will still be a worthwhile achievement.
6
@Carl Yaffe Trump isn't the biggest obstacle. The centrist Democrats are.
Centrists talk a good game about incremental change. But they fundamentally oppose Bernie's agenda and only care about winning power (and don't nothing with it). How many op-eds has the NY Times published against Bernie? How often are his supporters called "Bernie Bros" as an insult? We live in a two party system with effectively one party running the show. By that I mean the Democrats are Republicans. We need another party that actually represents progressives.
4
I believe that Biden is a fine man and will be a great president. He may surprise everyone by being more progressive than people think. In any event, we’ll begin making progress in the environment, health care, and standing in the world. I love Bernie, and his policies, and I love the energy of his movement. His movement is the future of the country. But we’re probably still an election cycle or two before the transition is complete. Biden is an excellent bridge to the future.
7
The urgency of some of these problems, particularly global warming do not give you the luxury of 2 or three more election cycles. The coming decade may determine whether we can transform the economy and our society to a sustainable future or allow the world to be transformed into an inhospitable planet for future generations.
2
I remember from my student days in England the oft-used phrase, "The best prime minister we never had." It was typically part of a retirement article or an obituary for senior politicians who were shown in the light of day to have had more thoughtful ideas than the figures who went on to hold the job. I fear that Bernie Sanders, the junior senator from my own state, will be "the best President we never had." The Presidency requires vision, which Sanders has in abundance. If Joe Biden wins the nomination, he would do well to incorporate at least some of the vision from the more progressive wing of American politics, perhaps through his VP pick. With the existential crisis of climate change and major challenges in health care and inequality, he's going to need all the creativity he and his team can muster.
8
The change VP Joe Biden will bring is of the most critical kind: he will reverse the decline the of the Republic.
The US became prosperous and powerful built on the Constitution, laws, checks and balances on the 3 co-equal branches of government, democracy and freedom.
Democratic Presidential nominees won 6 of the last 7 elections, though manipulation of the Electoral College denied wins to two Democratic nominees.
Republicans have become convinced they cannot win based on their political policies, so they have gerrymandered, gutted the Voting Rights Act, and suppressed the vote.
The GOP finally sunk so low as to work with Putin and the GRU to install an ignorant narcissistic part-time reality show host and full-time criminal the illegitimate White House occupant.
Trump has cash stripped the US Treasury like one of 6 bankrupt companies. The massive trillion dollar deficits didn't rebuild infrastructure, go to fight climate change, or invest in education, vocation and basic research.
He decimated the CDC an NIH budgets right before a global pandemic, and has focused on further propping up the stock market through easy money and fiscal stimulus instead of addressing the pandemic that will cause loss of lives and economic destruction.
The change Biden brings is honesty, ethics, democracy, empathy, good government, competence and respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.
8
Sure, of course anyone who cares about the world should vote for Biden to beat Trump. Sure, his kind and decent persona is probably based largely on an underlying truth, which is especially important in contrast to Trump. But we should be sick and tired, not of the status quo per se -- the inevitable strengths/weaknesses of how slowly a large system can change -- but of the entitled, paternalistic if not patriarchal, good-old-boy leaders, even the ones who come from the "working class." Some of Biden's positions or actions have in fact lacked integrity or insight or awareness. The Hunter Biden-Burisma controversy is a real and dismaying problem of entitlement and should make us angry especially if it subjects the Democratic candidate(s) to questions of honor and hypocrisy. Echoing others, I'd really like for Biden to say something honest here like: "I see now that Hunter's Burisma board position should not have been encouraged; we see how corrupt the Trump family is, and I will never allow similar corruption to happen on my watch."
3
I don't know what the Sanders' campaign is doing for "down-ballot" candidates. But without holding onto the House and winning a majority in the Senate, ideals and promises will be irrelevant, if high-minded, rhetoric. The President cannot enact universal healthcare by himself/herself.
6
Democrats have done too little since Reagan to merit another chance at more of the same -- except the worst Democrat is better than Trump, as Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and to the health and safety of the world.
Obama was a Clinton with style when the 2008 Crash was a Clinton-Bush deregulation creation. And Obama helped Wall Street more than he helped Main Street. Hillary offered more of the same, and Biden is a better-than-Hillary-less-than-Obama relative clone.
Biden should announce that Warren will be his VP, and show more respect for the pain that led people to support Sanders and Trump in 2016.
If Biden made Warren his VP, then Sanders would be toast.
Without more genuine policies to address the third decade of unbearable economic pain and insecurity among working people, Biden will find that many working people still prefer the phony concern of Trump to none.
1
After the "almost crippling" let down I endured yesterday --after my phone shift for Warren. One of the many calls shifts I have done, I find a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.
Should Warren be the Majority leader in the Senate, things would surely go on a shiny path for the 99%. And the public would be reassured that she is the one to think about in 2024--after all, they will be accustomed by then to a septuagenarian as President!!!! should she decide to try it again!!!
@a rational European The notion that the "99%" is one uniform body of citizens - it includes scores of millions of Trump supporters, for example - or that one particular view of its best interests constitute a "shiny path" for all is extremely naïve and anything but rational, your nom de plume not withstanding.
I'm posting this quote from another Times column that didn't have a comments section:
"heir objections to Mr. Sanders, whose signature policy was a universal, government-sponsored health care plan called Medicare for All...His harsh talk...unsettled many."
Noticed the past tense? The election is NOT over. After winning one measly state, everyone fell over themselves to support Biden. So he had a great Super Tuesday because of it. The election is NOT over. Bernie Sanders is STILL offering his "signature policy". This is not past tense.
Quit taking our democracy from us. I have not even gotten to vote yet!
3
V.P. Biden will be the next President of the United States and American's will elect a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate. And being a follower of the challenges that we and the rest of humanity must confront, I don't hesitate to say that this new Democratic government will be successful in meeting those challenges.
The reason I know is because Senator Sanders has been a leader in bringing these challenges to our attention and has caused a host of alternative solutions to be generated.
He has been steadfast on recognizing the global nature of climate change and knows that we must build a coalition of all the Nations of the World to solve the climate change problem and at the same time bring a higher standard of living to all humanity.
His almost automatic, instinctive response to the global warming threat will become a top priority of a new Democratic government.
Senator Sander's ideas for reducing the yawning income gap in our society will also be part of his idea package. Though he may not be nominated, Democrats will owe this humanist a huge debt of gratitude and will be grateful that this "Independent" decided to join the Democratic Caucus.
6
I am sorry that those Southern blacks Mr. Kristof discusses didn't appreciate a Bernie Sanders who was protesting for equal rights back in the early 60s but think that think that a Joe Biden who helped pushed a law guaranteeing blacks would be disproportionately imprisoned and ensured that Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court justice who has thrown every obstacle he can in the way of fair treatment for blacks, would be on the Supreme Court is a great friend just because Obama put him on the ticket with him.
And I fear with Biden as the nominee, we're just in for a rerun of the 2016 election. For anyone who thinks that Lindsey Graham and his fellow Trump henchman in the senate aren't going to go after Hunter Biden tooth and nail haven't been paying attention the past 3 years. Hunter and Joe may not have done anything illegal but I would challenge anybody to claim that Hunter got his Ukraine job because of his talents. And it will be interesting to hear how the Bidens will explain, as The Times reported, how an unemployed Hunter is living in a $12,000 per month home and driving a Porsche.
3
We have universal health care.
What we don't have is universal health insurance.
2
Joe’s running mate must embody ideals that the next generation must carry forward, in line with his own. Cory Booker comes immediately to mind, and his senate seat is relatively safe for a Democrat to fill. Kamela Harris also would represent a meaningful reconciliation and a brilliant, balanced VP.
Either choice would absolutely energize the campaign in my opinion..
2
I disagree with Mr. Kristof, although I understand his rationale when he speaks such good about Biden as a man and politician. But this country needs greater change and wider vision then Joe Biden can ever muster up! He has pandered to the "Right" for decades. He was pro-Iraqui war. He supports the military-industrial complex, big banks, big pharma, the fossil fuel industry, etc. His campaign was funded by billionaires, not the people! At a time when this planet and humanity is impacted by so many dire consequences due to wars, pollution, social injustice, poverty, climate change and the rise of right-wing nationalism in many countries and governments around the globe, how does the U.S lead the way if we have a president without a wider vision and plan for "Radical change"? Anyone that has been listening knows that Biden does not have that vision or plan, but Bernie Sanders does! Those that say it is not time yet for Bernie's idealism (If ever here!) cannot accept the fact that we are running out of time and facing a total collapse of the way things have dysfunctionally been run by corporations, super-rich white men that don't really care about the common man, woman, and child out there! Biden the "Change candidate"? Really Mr. Kristof? Are you in love with the sound of your own voice as a journalist? Bernie is the only "Change Candidate"!
4
Will I vote for Biden if he’s the Democratic nominee? I normally answer that question with an unqualified Yes, but I have some doubts now.
If Biden picks Amy Klobuchar for Veep, the deal may well be off, and I might just sit home and read a good book.
I’m fine with Klobuchar dropping out of the race, but she should have given her support to Elizabeth Warren. If anything, it would have been basically insignificant as far as delegates go, but it would have sent a message to take women seriously. Warren is fully capable and energetic; her policy proposals are progressive with a tinge of pragmatism. Unlike Biden, Warren doesn’t repeatedly commit serious gaffes; she always completes her train of thought; and she doesn’t have a long list of poor decisions as a politician.
Instead, Klobuchar sided with the good old boys club and Wall Street. For this older woman, voting for a Biden-Klobuchar ticket will be a difficult bridge to cross. I say this as someone who voted for Klobuchar’s Senate elections. I attended the Women’s Conference in Detroit, listened to Klobuchar speak, and even had my picture taken with her. Right now, I feel a disconnect and sense of betrayal.
3
Give me a break. I've heard countless times from older Americans this primary season about how young people don't understand that candidates that are too "extreme" like Goldwater, McGovern and now Sanders, can't win. Yet I never hear any acknowledgment of the fact that BORING candidates, like Joe Biden, very often lose---and you don't have to go as far back as Goldwater and McGovern to find examples. Hillary Clinton lost. Mitt Romney lost. John McCain lost. John Kerry lost. Boring moderates are not a safe bet, and I wish the establishment would stop shoving them down our throats with their baseless fear-mongering about what might happen if we nominate an actual progressive. You know, someone that actually excites people.
8
I had sadly resigned myself to the apparent reality that none of the Democratic candidates could either unite a fractured party or defeat Trump. But I consider Biden the weakest of the lot.
Sure, Biden is affable, inoffensive, and solidly "Establishment." He's skilled at compromise, won't rock the boat, and (most importantly) unlike Socialist Bernie won't even consider anything that might threaten the wealth of big-money donors. But how does that appeal to voters who are outraged at the "Establishment," which has consigned them to a declining standard of living and unaffordable health care? Remember, Trump successfully exploited that outrage.
What does Biden stand for, beyond "Establishment" and "Not Trump"? He's "decent" and a "gentleman." But how will that help him defeat an opponent who wouldn't know decency if it grabbed him by the toupee, and built his empire by playing dirty and proudly flouting laws, rules, and norms? I think back to 2004, when Republicans shamelessly slimed and slandered the even more decent John Kerry's military record. I'm certain Trump, Fox News, and Republican PACs will unleash torrents of sleazy lies that will make those swift boats (and even Hillary's e-mails and Benghazi) seem timid.
Gentlemanly decency, affability, and comical gaffes can't prevail against slimy carpet bombing. The only way he might exploit these qualities is to let surrogates relentlessly attack Trump with facts, while Good Ol' Joe stands resolutely above the fray.
10
yet another milquetoast candidate to lead the Dems. When will the party, or should I say "establishment," realize that incrementalism has resulted in no improvement in our quality of life? Choosing Biden just follows in the footsteps of past Dem failures, like Dukasis, Gore, and Hillary C. Even Dem winners, like Bill C. and Obama, made very questionable decisions, such as repealing Glass-Steagall, or doling out welfare in the form of bailouts to the banking and auto industries. For years we have heard endless frustration with our healthcare providers, but suddenly the narrative is "don't take away people's freedom to choose private health insurance." Biden is an abysmal choice. He's an admitted plagiarist, exercised poor judgement during the Clarence Thomas hearing, was an advocate of the horrid bankruptcy bill, voted for war, and has indicated a willingness to consider cuts to SS and Medicare. May we also discuss his serious delusion about being able to negotiate with McConnell and the GOP in good faith? Was he totally oblivious to the obstruction that transpired while he was VP? Also, strange to me, is the support African-Americans give him, in spite of how he laments the days where he could barter in good faith with out-and-out segregationists. Does anybody really believe he can enact a public option? How about the recent episodes where one could surmise he is suffering from dementia? This will be a disaster, but maybe things need to get worse before they get better.
5
When women wanted to testify and support Anita Hill and her testimony against Clarence Thomas, Biden was the great change agent who is now responsible for Justice Thomas and his insightful interpretations of the Constitution?
In 2005, despite consumer groups opposing MBNA`s (the Delaware bank which gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to their Senator Biden) supported bankruptcy legislation as unfair to low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly - and despite insisting that it would remove the safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face mounting medical bills, Biden with Dianne Feinstein voted for that bill which has caused havoc for thousands of families. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , Biden lead the charge for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and prevented Scott Ritter from testifying that there were no weapons of mass destruction.
This is the man that the DNC is pushing. His persona is the kind uncle at the table who is seen as one of "the most decent people in politics" says Kristof. Make no mistake. The NYT reported that "Biden was a leading opponent of busing in the Senate during the 1970s and 1980s, and his opposition went beyond the federal government’s role in the practice."
Black voters need to know that he prefers to wander in the status quo. It`s his M.O. With Biden in charge, American voters will have chosen a leader who will not make the necessary changes to tackle Climate Disruption and Inequality.
6
What about California? Why is the times ignoring the fact that a significant segment of the us population have a very different response to Biden’s lack of attention to income inequality, homelessness, climate change, health care, hateful immigration rhetoric? How about the complete lack of vision for the future. For young people’s interests? It’s been reduced to a free tuition issue. This completely misreads sanders appeal. Biden has no vision, no plan and most importantly, very little to offer except that he is not Trump. Biden needs to address the underlying causes of trumpism.
5
It is not pragmatic for blacks to vote wholesale for Biden. It is shooting in the foot of one's own. Having voted for status quo, blacks cannot blame the party establishment or the ruling elites of short changing them of their right for decent wages, universal health care or education.
For most of us who are middle class or upper middle class, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can do us harm or benevolence. It is the 70%, and most blacks are part of, that will suffer when they choose Biden over Bernie.
Many of us may actually sit out the 2020 elections because status quo doesn't interest us. Trump may be irritating but cannot really harm us personally. Biden isn't excited about Climate Change fight and so also Trump. Economy will limp on.
Let those who made their bed sleep on it.
4
I don't understand how African Americans are voting for Biden considering how so many of his legislation created laws that put so many of the African Americans in prison, sometimes for decades. His legislation in the 90s was completely responsible for the prison system we have today. How is this less important to them then the fact that he was Obama's VP? And how will a candidate without any agenda besides "lets beat Trump" beat an anti establishment sitting president? Does the DNC really think that a man without any goals will sway republicans away from a sitting president with approval in the 90s?
6
Biden has no proposal for childcare and his paid family leave proposal is only for businesses with more than 50 employees.
That is not change. That is continuing mediocrity.
Biden does not have a plan for what to do if he were to beat Trump and winning an election is not a platform.
4
@Bullmoose But it will do under present circumstances.
I will vote for Warren; in November, I will vote for Warren or Sanders.
I will not vote for Joe Biden.
7
"And Republican rhetoric about Democrats as socialists — the theme of CPAC this year was “America vs. Socialism” — is laughable if Biden is on top of the ticket."
Really? I'd love to hear why you think this is the case. The actual detailed reasoning. The GOP endlessly portrayed President Obama as a Socialist Manchurian Candidate.
"So while Biden’s proposals aren’t as soaring as Sanders’s, nor as comprehensive as I would like, they strike me as more achievable. In that sense, Biden may be the real candidate of change."
Again, PLEASE explain why you think Mr. Biden's policies would have a chance? Do you honestly expect the Senate to flip because Biden is at the top of the ticket? The GOP didn't change their tune after President Obama dropped the public option (before they ever sat down to negotiate) and they still screamed about "death panels" and spent the better part of the next decade trying to sabotage the ACA in the courts after the fact.
5
If you want Medicare For All then work to elect your local Democratic candidate and get the legislation done in Congress so that it can get to President Biden's desk. It's not like he's going to veto it. It's called Democracy.
2
What is he going to "change"? That whole piece didn't say anything other then he would help down ballot candidates. What are Joe's plans anyway? Part of the reason Bernie supporter are upset with the media is the free pass Mr. Biden has gotten with out stating any plans or ideas in details. Only progressives need to do that.
What will he change? What will he do? What is his message and vision?
Obama had Hope and Change. Biden has Fear and Hate. Fear Sanders, hate Trump and vote for me.
1
We need a break from all the craziness we've been subjected to since January 2017, and Biden can provide that. Have him run with Warren; she's the one with the plans. Together, they can bring some stability, return us to a normal presidency with kind and empathetic people who listen, and let us hear something other than sentences that start, "The President just tweeted...."
1
"he’s also one of the most decent people in politics"
What does that mean? He won't vote for a war where countries are destroyed. Countless people killed and wounded. I oppose all wars. But we are talking here about a particularly senseless one. Of course this is policy. The people destroyed are destroyed by a policy. Certainly not how decent people treat people they interact with in everyday life. Mass incarceration. How many lives ruined. Families destroyed. Joe Biden doesn't seem to be a horrible person. Art least as far as I can judge anyone I don't know. But his policies have often been reckless and in the service of powerful oppressive forces. The human devastation those policies have resulted in are enormous. So I actually don't know what decent means in this context. But you did say most decent person in politics. A qualification that I guess explains it all.
3
I am personally tired of reading about how Biden is good for down the ballot democrats. These claims are unsubstantiated,and they serve only one purpose, i.e., make biden seem like he will be good for down the ballot democrats.
2
What is Rep. Clyburn if not a party elder? Had he not made the case for Biden, it is quite possible that fewer of his fellow elderly South Carolinians would have voted at all and those that did might have instead been swayed by the advice of their children and grandchildren to go with Sanders. And with a different outcome, other elders would not have made a deal to help Biden get rid of those pesky whippersnappers (Klobuchar and Mayor Pete).
In any case, Biden would be foolish (there is no fool like an old one?) to choose Klobuchar for a running mate. Not only could it not get more bland or dare I say "white bread" than that ticket, which would inspire few groups to the ballot box, but it would be once again taking advantage of the base that saved him. He must choose a strong and younger African American woman or he will be toast.
2
Your emphasizing Biden's Decency and Empathy show how out-of-touch you and the Democratic Party are. At least since Gingrich's House went full bore on hardball politics, the Republicans have adopted a brand of politics that have nothing to do with decency or empathy, rather just winning by any means necessary including an uncompromising obstructionism. Whenever a politician says he is willing to work across the aisle he is either a liar (Republican) or a wimp (Democratic). Biden is merely the least worst candidate to defeat Trump which says something about the Democratic Party that had over twenty candidates to choose from. It also says something about the Republican Party who in 2016 had seventeen candidates to choose from and came up with Trump. Maybe this doesn't say something about the "parties" but about our "politics". Decency and empathy doesn't against hardball.
JD
Does Biden have any proposals? I am very unhappy about this turn of events but will vote for anyone who isn't Trump. What we need is a hard driving person who will prioritize cleaning up the Republican cesspool that we currently live in. Biden just wants to make friends and we're in a very different place now.
1
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Obama, the ultimate "change" candidate, had a Democrat House and Senate, but still failed to deliver on most of his promises. Instead, corporatist Democrats in the Senate held his signature healthcare reform legislation hostage and sold off most provisions to lobbyists who rotated people on and off committee staff, resulting in the hugely disappointing ACA. Obama hired buffoons like Summers, who fought against a larger 2009 stimulus package. He appointed Geithner, the ultimate big banker bootlicker, who had not even been paying his personal income taxes, as Treasury secretary (breaking a promise not to hire anyone who recently lobbied). Geithner later engineered the backdoor bailout which showered billions in bonuses on Wall St executives after using taxpayer money to buy and pay out 100% on their failed bets....while Obama failed to prosecute any of the criminals as required by law. This gave rise to an anti-Obama protest movement that he spent years attacking using the full powers of the presidency. In other words, going with the moderate candidate, supporting corrupt incumbents, etc., doesn't work. It simply paved the way for a Trump presidency.
3
That Sanders was not chosen last time, and likely not this one, is not material to why I have supported him with words and funds. The fruits of his '16 run is a congress which includes, for the first time, young, vibrant progressives. Voters were hearing truth for the first time, and when it echoed in candidates, it had results. That alone was well worth it, and the next harvest will be even greater.
When the primaries and convention are over I hope that other old and young left throw their support behind the candidate. This "take your toys and go home" we saw last time could be the factor that gave Trump his exceedingly narrow victory. That was foolish and childish then, today it is exceedingly dangerous to our civil liberty. We cannot afford an obviously mentally ill president considering the ever increasing liberties he has taken with truth and constitutional law.
I also hope that Sanders throws his open and full support behind Biden if that's the way it goes. Should he, in this event, fail to do so he will lose my respect forever.
2
@Roxanne de Koning Sanders is an honorable man and will certainly endorse and campaign for Biden like he did for Hillary, if Biden wants him to, which he may not. Speaking of losing respect, I have lost respect for Sen. Clyburn, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O-Rourke, Mike Bloomberg, Barack Obama and anybody else who had a hand in that pre-Super Tuesday massacre of a decent, hard-working man man, Bernie Sanders.
Twice today i have been sent the video of Biden being questioned by Tom Brokaw about his son Hunter's lobbying for a bank that was contributing to Biden's campaign while he was sponsoring legislation that was making it harder for people to file bankruptcy.
This is what we have to look forward to for the next 8 months. This guy has a lot of baggage and some of it is really hard to defend. Here we are complaining about Trumps kids and look at who we are about to nominate?
i really don't think he can beat Trump. I hope i am wrong.
4
Boy, I am old enough to remember the McGovern debacle. When Nixon won a landscape victory (60%), I was devastated. Sanders represents a McGovern candidate for me.
I do think Biden is a change agent. He is inclusive, attracts a diversity of voters and will be more willing to surround himself with the brightest and best minds available. That he does so with a smile--which some people interpret as a weakness--works for me. Biden is not a "my-way-or-the highway" kind of guy, which I respect.
4
While I agree that a woman VP is very much needed and liked Klobuchar, what Biden needs is a progressive woman for his VP. He already has the middle lane locked down, but give us progressives (especially Warren fans that see the wisdom of a Biden vote at this point) something to be excited about. If not this next election cycle, progressive change needs to be on the horizon. Stacey Abrams is my top pick!
2
You have captured my thoughts precisely. We need progressive change in this country and a path to Medicare for All, but we also need a House and a Senate to accomplish this. Most importantly, we have been living a Constitutional crisis for over 3 years at this point. Putting an establishment Democrat in office may not get you all that you want this time around, but it is the only way to assure that it will ever happen. We are rapidly sliding into authoritarianism. Trump MUST go no matter what, and if you are truly interested in change, focus your energy on voting in progressives in local, state, and federal Congressional races. Keep in mind that as much as Sanders is correct about the need for change, he can not go and wave a magic wand and make it happen on his own. VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!
11
This country will have to get universal care, but I suspect it will be through a different route than declaration of government mandated Medicare for all. If this was the 1950/60s and we were starting from scratch, it would make sense to do it as the Europe and Britain did then. But over the past 50 years a huge industry of workers tied to the insurance industry has arisen here in the U.S. What happens to those folks? (Which are many hundreds of thousands of workers, possibly in excess of 1 million workers.) And what about the healthcare workers themselves? Are they ready to accept government only pay for all of their patients, at likely substantially reduced rates (if compensated at today Medicare rates)? (I would imagine there would be some interesting and knotty constitutional issues with that also). And do we even have enough healthcare workers in the next few years for such a system? (Any experts care to weigh on that issue?)
It will take time to reform the system and that is what Obamacare was aiming to do through reformed reimbursement formulas and the like, and through the public option which was scrapped because of political opposition. I believe we will get to universal care, but it will likely will be through a uniquely American way. Obamacare as originally designed (cost bending formula reimbursement, public option etc. pay for those who can’t etc. ) is the starting point.
4
Thank you for such pragmatism! Although I agree that Bernie's ideas are closer to mine than are Biden's, I'd rather see Biden as President rather than 4 more years of Trump, which would further destroy so much of the America I love.
4
There is a saying, that a revolutionary may become a reactionary if his/her projects fail to crystallize, to become reality, and of benefit for the people at large. And Sanders' plans, however necessary and desirable, may not pass muster when presented to the politicians in power...and not gain their approval, especially when a proposal is not of the liking of the 'donor' class. And yet, even Biden would need the good will and hard work of a cadre of political collaborators so that any iniciative is prioritized according to our needs...at the right time and space and available resources (that's why 'politics' remains the art of the possible... with the right minds).
2
In 2016, Trump WAS unelectable, just as he remains today. But we elected him anyway. Never let it be said that democracy has failed us. It is we who have failed democracy. Soon we shall see if our failure is terminal.
3
I have to question anyone who says that Bernie won't be able to get anything done. Do you think that this Republican congress will let *any* Democrat get anything done? Better to shoot for the stars than for the top of the bleachers—some palatable compromise might happen, rather than all of us spinning our wheels in the dust.
2
The Swiss investor Marc Faber, also known as "Dr. Doom", said in 2016 in a Bloomberg interview that Hillary Clinton would destroy the world given her disastrous middle east policy. He also said whereas Trump would destroy America`s economy. He was not quite right on this but Trump did hurt the Canadian economy since making a mess of NAFTA.
We had a great relationship with President Obama and some prominent media called it the Obama-Trudeau bromance. I do not believe a President Sanders would be good for Canada. Joe Biden however understands the beautiful relationship our two countries had. He`s seen Obama doing it and Justin Trudeau can build on that to restore the bromance. I am looking forward to a President Biden.
3
Biden will be a good representative of democratic governance, more money to our government unions, more money to maintain our black status quo, and more money to our education industry. I just wonder, with the tremendous baggage stemming from his actions in Ukraine, I can only assume he'll quickly be investigated and impeached, his actions being so much more nefarious than Trump's. So maybe this is why Ms. Warren is still waiting in the wings, hoping to become VP and hence the next President. But then, maybe we'll want to investigate her own identity switches over the years to get her where she is today!
2
Ahem. "Sanders's"? Is that pronounced San-derz-ez? Whatever happened to simply Sanders'?
Otherwise, thought-provoking article. But on another unrelated note, why do mainstream politicians always feel the need to point at individuals during their rallies? Is this supposed to make us feel personally connected to them. Is this taught in politician training programs in Congress?
Interestingly, Bernie Sanders never does this and, coincidentally, he is 100 times more genuine and relatable.
3
So here's a thought, Democrats. If you want Sanders' supporters to unite behind the Democratic nominee (assuming it isn't Sanders), then for God's sake stop browbeating them about it. Give them a little time and space to nurse their disappointment. Most will eventually come around; a few will not. But I can promise you that no amount of lecturing, hectoring, cajoling or guilt-tripping wll change that, and it might even put off some of those who otherwise would have come around!
2
Well there you have it, the democratic, American people have spoken. The path for Bernie seems nonexistent. What we are left with is Biden, a man of vague policy and incredible political baggage (Ukrainian Joe) that Trump will chew up on the debate stage and Twittersphere. Who remembers unstable Joe challenging a questioning voter to push-ups? With Joe Biden, we have guaranteed Donald to another 4 years. There will be no excitement on election day: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton Joe Biden for an aged, out of touch candidate who wishes to maintain the status quo. The votes simply are not there for him. All of Trump's supporters will vote. Our democratic party is fractured and the "same ole Joe" cannot put it together. It didn't work before, why on earth now? I can't imagine what the world will look like in another 4 years with Donald. We blew it folks!
4
Biden would hopefully have a dynamite cabinet, advisers that he would listen to, and would actually listen to briefings. I think we've had enough solo operators so I'm not opposed to having a Village help Biden. He doesn't have be brilliant and incisive. Consistency and maturity may be good antidotes to the mad tweeting dictator.
He's not my first choice. But you know, that may be a good thing. (If Warren were male we would be all set, most likely.)
But today? Biden is our best bet and lack of passion is a small price to pay.
8
I also voted for George McGovern.
I'm still supporting Bernie
At age 65, and having volunteered to fund raiser for 2 candidates, here, in OR, who won, I'm ready for a change.
Look at Frank Church's website and look up the net worth of all U.S.Senators and members of Congress.
I'm even supporting Albert Lee in his candidacy to unseat Earl Blumenhauer. His office told me on the phone in January 2016 that "Rep. Blumenhauer does not want the ACA for himself and his family".
I'm a retired pharmacist. I want all members of Congress to have the same benefits as the American citizens.
People who have been in Congress for a long time are out of touch with their constituency.
Bernie at least has delivered a consistent message his entire career.
4
I came up with a line and it goes as follows. "Bernie's my way or the highway is the expressway to Trump" So sad that my own fave, Amy, too sane and sensible, accomplished as well did not make it. Still maybe Biden warts and all, sane and sensible like Amy is in the end the antidote to the blustering nobody that is Trump. So like on any highway there are exits, I do hope that the exit to the expressway is now closed.
2
So now we're supposed to settle for someone who will keep the status quo? No real changes, compromise to get minimal progress, and appease the GOP while the GOP goes its own merry way and follows its agenda.
The United States was the end result of a war against the country that owned it. Our founding fathers took serious, life threatening risks to bring America into being. Do you mean to tell us that now, because Trump is wrecking the country, we should accept a candidate who appears, by turns, completely unsympathetic to the problems faced by the generations behind his? Do you mean that we ought to settle for second best when it comes to improving the country? Don't forget, even if Biden is the nominee and wins, if the Senate remains in GOP hands, he won't get much accomplished. Even less if the House flips back to a GOP majority.
Sometimes it's better to aim high and lose.
3/4/2020 10:17pm first submit
4
@Hen3ry. I'm not particularly thrilled with the status quo either. But I'll take it over the mindlessly wanton destructive of the Trump administration.
3
@John LeBaron I hear you. But I can't help feeling that we've been on a greed binge since the 1980s. This wanton destruction was a long time coming. We vote these people in and then we wonder why things don't work out or aren't done. I'm not sure that Biden will accomplish anything. Of course, that might hold true for any Democratic nominee/winner. It's not enough to defeat Trump. We have to get the GOP out too.
3
@hen3ry Given present circumstances, which you acknowledge, in what way would it be better?
I'll vote for whoever gets the nomination but I prefer Sanders. I think it's arguable who is more electable in the general. If I thought, as Mr Kristof argues, that Biden clearly has the advantage in the general, then I'd support him in the primary as well. But I'm guessing Sanders has just as good if not a better chance, and I like his policies better, achievable or not. Look, Biden voted for the gulf war of all things. That's hard to swallow.
2
As someone who moved towards Trump during the 2016 election, I feel like the Democrats are making almost the exact same mistake. A status quo, moderate candidate is not going to accomplish anything. The Democratic establishment's obsession with their idea of electability and the narrative that is constantly pushed that the only thing that matters is removing Trump says it all. They are not focused on policies, helping citizens, or addressing any of the problems that exist - they care only about beating Trump.
Trump has the advantage now of proving the country has not fallen to pieces. The reality is that the country is not in shambles. The reality is that we may have lost diplomatic standing in the world, but we see a president who is plainly proud to be American. The reality is that while Trump's tariffs on raw goods are idiotic and his tax policies were largely beneficial to corporations and red state citizens, the economy is not doing any worse than under Obama.
The problems that do exist today will not be addressed by Biden. The risks that come with a return to feckless globalism and free trade (outsourcing) will sit on many people's minds. There is also the inconvenient truth that, quite frankly, Biden is not as sharp as he was a decade ago.
Unless the virus exacts a heavy toll upon human life and the economy (a dark benefit to Democrats), expect Trump to ride into this election in a much better position than 2016.
23
@Robert Trump is proud of his money, buildings with his name on it, and possibly his family (it's hard to tell sometimes), Being American is only useful to him in the service of those ends.
9
@Robert: Trump is certainly not as sharp as he was a decade ago; who is? I’m not; are you?
The economy is in worse shape than during Obama’s term because of the explosion of the deficit caused by the tax “reform.” Future generations will be stuck with the bill; and unless you are wealthy enough to not need Social Security or Medicare, then you, like tens of millions of us, are going to be in deep trouble if Trump gets a second term. Big Business loves Trump because is is enabling their corporate theft and their pollution of our air, soil and water.
Our country is in a Constitutional crisis because this President, and this Republican Senate, have contempt for both the rule of law and the people they pretend to represent.
My son talks to a wide range of people, and he believes that for people who voted for Trump once, it’s personal; they are unable to admit how wrong they were, and are. God help us.
6
@Robert
Obama inherited a collapsing economy and shored it up. The tax cuts and trillion dollars deficit Trump has unleashed is a road to ruins. And where is the Chinese scale infrastructure miracle that Trump promised?
Disinformation is his forte, and by keeping the biblical belt in their mumbo-jumbo belief paradigms he is perpetuating their backwardness. Christian values is founded on truth, moral conduct and ethical values; wonder do you see it in the august office nowadays?
The moot question is what it takes to be an American? It is morphing of this essential truth in our foundational values which is most disconcerting about Trump. If he wins again, America loses.
6
Sanders supporters contend Biden is the status quo and Bernie is the future. Wrong. Trump is the status quo and the future starts with the best person to get him out of the White House and that’s Joe Biden.
7
I want every single one of you who think there will be a groundswell for Bernie to do some research on Brad Parscale. He is the evil genius in charge of Trump’s campaign. He, along with every single Republican in office and their media operation (Fox), with help from Facebook and Russian operatives, will create and amplify FEAR of Socialism and Socialist Bernie (and every single Democrat) the likes of which we’ve never seen. If we think the country is divided now, just wait.
Find the article in Atlantic a month or so about Parscale as well. A Bernie candidacy (as much as his aspirations have merits) is just what the Repubvangelists salivate for. I hope Biden prevails.
2
What Bernie's people need to learn:
Life is an immobile, locked,
Three-handed struggle between
Your wants, the world's for you, and (worse)
The unbeatable slow machine
That brings what you'll get.
Philip Larkin, from "The Life with a Hole in it"
2
"An economic slowdown seems likely because of the coronavirus, which also highlights Trump’s administrative incompetence." Exactly what acts of incompetence are being referred to here? What specifically could have been done differently by the administration to offset this worldwide economic cascade?
One of those countless glib statements
which are made without any objective credible support to
made the case. But none really seems necessary to most
readers when a claim is made against this president.
1
This column seems to support a commom sense approach to the election. As is if the millions of us who support Senator Sanders should stand down and accept the inevitable. It tries to downplay the obvious corruption of the political process and of it its current leadership in favor of privileged pragmatism. It is also surprisingly disingenuous in critiquing Senator Sanders record while failing to mention all of the harmful positions that Mr. Biden has stood for. I guess it's okay that he supported a crime bill that started the profiteering system of prison because he's a nice guy. He's a nice guy so let's forget his role and sexist stance in the Anita Hill hearings. This nice guy also supported the Hyde amendment until last year. His flip flopping on bills protecting consumers, including military personnel, against predatory financial practices, is okay because he's a decent guy. I won't go on but you get the point I'm sure. Answer me this, how is Mr. Biden and his many stances, fare against an unrefined and unconstrained Donald Trump? Senator Sanders may not be as polished as the democratic leadership and their appologists would like, but he is authentic. He hasn't been supported in getting more bills passed because of this. Why would we want to tax those pharmaceutical companies or health insurance companies? Favor consumers? No chance. Let's go with the candidate who is favored by Bloomberg. Just like old times.
3
I like Bernie, but I see him as an agent of hope rather than as an agent for change. I've been struck by his lack of specificity as to how any of his ideas would get implemented, particularly if he had to battle a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a retrograde Supreme Court.
I supported Elizabeth Warren because she has practical, realizable plans. She has some superb economists advising her. And I hope that she finds a leading and appropriate role in the Biden administration. The right place for her is as Secretary of the Treasury, where she would be able to turn her ideas into action.
2
As much as we Democrats aspire to health care for all, longer paid family leave, assistance to pay for child care, etc. our primary goal in 2020 must be to win the Presidency, hold the House, and hopefully take the Senate. Running a centrist candidate gives us the potential to do that while a far left candidate will be termed a Socialist and will lose. The fate of our Republic is at stake and that is infinitely more important than attempting to implement a progressive agenda.
3
Biden and change? Honestly, I have heard the DNC corporate speel, but equating Biden to change is like Trump and truth. Medicaide hasn't worked very well because all the profit and admin costs and high prices are inherent in the plan. Biden won't change a thing. People won't get a public plan that covers all, it just isn't in america ethos to provide access to all. Biden view of climate change is close to be a denier. He doesn't have a plan to transition to renewables or to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Wall St is so pleased with Biden that NASDAQ went up over 4% today. Why, because nothing will change. There will be no transaction taxes on trading, there will be no more regulations on banks. I am sure if Biden did win the presidency, he would get Larry Sumners back into to run the show. The media and the Democratic establishment has made a program that is the norm for every other western country into a radical idea, healthcare for all. Trump, who will easily beat Biden in every debate and in the election will probably come up with a solution for healthcare that works before Biden and the DNC establishment. I feel for america, but am very glad not to live in the USA.
2
It's rather amazing how so many seem to think Sanders is here to extend the Cold War. He seems to have gotten over that pretty quickly. meanwhile, the Dem establishment (and the R, too) seems stuck in the past.
I would've expected Kristof, of all people, to under there is a difference between Stalinism (in all it's forms) and democratic socialism (who have often been our NATO allies and who seem to provide their populations with basic human services that many Ds think are just too expensive for the wealthiest society on Earth to afford.)
Who needs change when you can be so comfortable living fact-free in the past?
Sanders and his supporters understand there won't be a revolution at hand if he wins. But such a win would represent the desires of millions of Americans who have been left behind by the economy under ALL recent presidents, no matter their party.
These elites find it too troubling to think outside the box created by paying constant attention to the R agenda, even as they mouth the typical platitudes of concern for those ignored and pushed aside in our rush to incentivize industry and cut taxes.
A Sanders vs Trump showdown would never be easy lifting, but Biden is already well-down the same path H. Clinton took in 2016. Do nothing to inspire enthusiasm among the voters who support your primary opponent, then place the blame for any failure on such voters not being "delivered." If you think that will beat Trump, good luck. This recipe failed miserably in 2016.
7
Biden has something that Trump, Hillary Clinton and Sanders do not have, and that is that Biden is likable even to voters who disagree with him or do not think he is capable. So, was Bill Clinton, GWB and Obama. Even when Biden has done the wrong thing like the war in Iraq, 100,000 cops on the beat, or Judge Thomas, etc., he was trying to do the right thing and without any malice. Do not underestimate the likability factor in a close election.
1
My cat is likable, but I wouldn’t vote for her for president.
I am assuming President Biden's first priorities would be strengthening the ACA, concurrently with reassuring allies that we are back on the world stage as players for human rights and democracy. I would like him to change ICE policies on day one. I would like him to rein in vulture capitalism, which is possible if he puts Warren in his administration.
3
Congratulations to Biden. It appears he has the momentum. He isn't my first choice but I will surely vote for him if he is the candidate opposing trump. However, I don't believe Biden has a chance in the world of becoming our next president unless he adopts some of the policies that are most important to Bernie supporters. Perhaps most important is healthcare. Biden must, at the very least, promise to adopt a government option to go with Obamacare. Secondly he must make some real efforts to reverse income inequality. If he doesn't accomplish at least those two objectives we are going to see a "real revolution" in this country.
3
If Warren drops and supports Sanders, Biden is going to be in for a dogfight. If Biden adds Warren as VP and can get her demographic voters, that’s the end of Sanders chances. Warren’s votes are the pivot. She’s in a great spot to ask for whatever she wants (like a VP slot with Biden, or. Sec State role from Bernie). It’s a repeat of H. Clinton vs. Obama in 2012.
Biden doesn’t have a chance against Trump when the Presidential debates take place. He will be eaten alive. That’s because nice guys and decent people don’t have what it takes to put down a bully. However, Sanders CAN take on Trump skillfully and decisively during debates, and win.
The real question is can Sanders work effectively at the highest levels in a highly partisan Congress. If you recall, Obama had lofty first term goals and was effectively stalemated by a Republican dominated Congress. It took 4 long years until everyone figured that out. Just because you are POTUS doesn’t mean you can get things done UNLESS you are less democratically inclined and you’re willing to do what you want. Trump has that drive in spades; Biden will be the quintessential peacemaker, which won’t work with the way Congress operates these days.
Nicholas, thank you for sharing these thoughts. Here's what has been bothering me - maybe you can speak to this? I hear Bernie and his supporters talking about the establishment and it's efforts to undermine him. I do not think this is a conspiracy theory. I think there is some legitimacy to the role of financial power and institutional power and how it impacts candidates, elections and so forth. Why, then, are the only mentions of the establishment I find in the NYT, including your article, are a kind of pejorative association with Bernie / supporters as if there is no such thing, or that it's just an excuse, or a conspiracy theory, etc? My own experience of reading those associations is to further confirm the validity of Bernie's point, and also to make me further skeptical of large, well funded media organizations. What if the NYT dedicated an article - and maybe a graph to go with it - that essentially dealt with the question "What is the 'establishment'?" and "How do we see it working presently?" Give an honest - a painfully honest - picture of what financial and institutional power has been, and is doing, instead of either ignoring it or, worse, speaking as if there is no such thing.
4
Biden, We Can! That'll be the slogan that gets us incremental improvements, like forcing insurance companies to pay for coronavirus tests, forcing Big Parma to increase need programs for the poor. I'm looking forward to more incremental change.
"Until last week, the answer for many was Bernie Sanders, the champion of a “political revolution” that includes Medicare for All. But increasingly there’s a sense that in practice the real “change candidate” may be Joe Biden"
There's NOTHING in the rest of this article that mentions specifics that Biden has for healthcare, or ANY plan whatsoever, about ANYTHING. Biden ran a zombie campaign, with little money, and almost no organization.
2
Neither Sanders nor Biden were my top choices. My top choices are no longer hopefuls. But given the choice of S or B, B is a better option because he truly is more electable. Once in office (probably for one term) he could push for progressive programs and changes that his centrist politics could not recognize while campaigning. His VP, likely a woman, would carry on. His choice of VP would indicate his politics as much as his strategy since s/he would be his chosen successor. Remember John McCain’s choice of Sara Palin? That partially did him in. Biden’s choice will have significant impact in this election because of his age and lack of presence on the stump.
4
I'm with Biden all the way. He calms me down. Sanders gestures, dont calm me, I get agitated just watching him. We need a leader and Joe is my man, I think of Obama when I see him. Keep hope alive and let's all finally feel happy...here's to a democratic win in November!
2
The bottom line is that what really matters in the November election is that the Senate goes to the Democrats and that, of course, the House remains in Democratic hands. Presidents, of either party, can rarely accomplish much of any substance without the cooperation of the Senate (assuming that the house is held by the same party as the presidency). While my heart is with Bernie Sanders' ideals and beliefs, my head tells me that nominating Joe Biden is far more likely to result in a Senate that flips to the Democrats. We Democrats have to look beyond our immediate ideological preference to the big-picture strategy that will ultimately result in the achievement--however gradual--of our most important policy goals. That, I believe, is best accomplished by our full support of Joe Biden's candidacy.
8
I have always liked Biden and his perseverance through family tragedy is quite remarkable. Also, Biden was always one of the poorest Senators financially, and he actually depended on his salary, which is not the case for most senators. Meaning, Joe in many ways is an Average American.
I do not think a Biden Presidency will result in any landmark legislative changes. There will be no Medicare for All, or even a universal guarantee of health insurance. No free college. No universal childcare or family leave. But, he will nibble at the edges of reform.
The most important potential good of a Biden Presidency is that Biden may help bind the wounds of a divided nation somewhat, or at least take the temperature down a few degrees, and this is critical to getting anything done.
Sanders, in my opinion will fail not just because he is too dogmatic and his policies too radical of a change, but because Sanders wants to thoroughly crush his opponents in the process instead of bringing them along. Biden understands that you need at least some Republican support when it comes to legislation and getting things done where Sanders would prefer no Republican support.
4
I know this is an article about Bernie and Biden but I lament the lack of traction the women got. I follow policy not snafus so I liked Hillary and today love Warren. How you say...They are different. Yes. But I could read their policies and understand exactly what they believed and would try to do when in office. Women work hard and are used to getting down to the details to defend their point of view. I wish this quality was better appreciated because I think female leadership will be a game changer when we finally get it.
9
The only way Biden will be a change candidate is if he manages to implement the Sanders platform he has effectively commandeered. Looking at the fevered rise in healthcare stocks today, seems unlikely. Nevertheless, it is funny to hear pundits calling Joe progressive and Bernie extremist when you look at Joe's alleged platform.
5
I liked several democratic candidates. Sanders and Warren for speaking the uncomfortable truth and calling for changes to make this country more fair, and Buttigieg and Klobuchar for being pragmatic, bright, energetic moderates. But Biden?? He is not going to bring about the changes this country needs and he is clearly past his prime. Yes he is a decent guy but his mind is no longer sharp. Unlike the other candidates, he can't formulate clear plans for the future. All he does is recite his past accomplishments. If there are enough people like me who can't stand Trump but consider skipping the election if Biden is the nominee, then we are trouble.
2
@Liba I just wonder how you will be able to look at yourself in the mirror if you sit out this election. You may not think that Biden is the best possible candidate, and I agree with that, but giving Trump ad McConnell another term? Really. I think some perspective is in order here.
6
Biden is not a leader but a follower. And the votes he got in SC followed Jim Clyburn, and the votes he got after that followed the votes in SC. Mr Kristof, it is repeatedly astounding to me that someone so hopeful about the efforts of folks all over the world to make life better for their fellow humans could be so willing to accept that the U.S. cannot even rise to the level of Canada, Germany, or Japan, when it comes to meeting the basic human needs of our fellow citizens. That the best we can hope for is that Trump stops saying awful things on our behalf, and instead have a go-along-to-get-along glad hander will just say embarrassing things instead. I do not think this is pragmatism, but fear mixed oddly with elitism and a willful blindness.
The response of supposed liberals to Sanders and indeed to Warren teaches us not to be complacent, and not to make assumptions. Talk is cheap. I am glad to that Sanders and Warren are in it for the long haul, and encouraged by the honest appraisals of the young -- Sanders' hopes must come true because otherwise the majority of the country will be buried in debt, denied health care, drowned or burned by the changing climate, and nickeled and dimed to death. Sanders' and Warren's ideas and policies are not radical or grand -- they are reality based, and necessary.
6
Publicly-supported universal health care/insurance won't come true? Well, certainly not if we surrender to the career political class in the Democratic Party, including Joe Biden, who for decades have been accepting campaign contributions from the health insurance 'industry'. With regard to health insurance and health care is merely advocating that the US came to a state of cibilization enjoyed by most of the rest of the industrialized world many years. If we can't accomplish that, we might just as well surrender now.
6
@richard You may call forcing scores of millions of people off of health plans that they feel serve their needs well, and into one run by a dysfunctional and untrustworthy government, "civilized", but lots of us disagree with you. And even if that is the goal, Bernie Sanders will never achieve it, or come close.
1
Kristof asks "Why Biden is the Change Candidate" without citing one position of Biden's that reflects this apparent change, or mentioning that Biden has been on the wrong side of every important issue for decades. On the other hand, Bernie's genuinely moral call for universal health care is a "grand hope." Biden may give out his phone number and grieve with others; but how does that weigh against publicly vilifying a woman of color (Anita Hill), sending young men and women off to endless wars, openly calling for an end to social security, and supporting health care plans that still leave out tens of millions of people?
6
I have thought for quite some time that what we need in a next President is NOT a charismatic change artiste, but someone like Joe Biden (Klobuchar or Warren would also qualify here) who would be good at a desk job, of selecting quality persons for cabinet and other top level positions. We need someone who can put his or her personality on the back burner for the good of the Nation. Wounds need to be healed. Biden worked for the ADA and seems ready to expand it as best he can. There are other models than single payer - I've always thought the German model with government mandate and definition of services served up by mutualized private insurance with one being the public option would be the logical extension of the ACA. Biden would be the one to delegate - responsibly and wisely. Doing so would expand the base of power in government away from the autocratic ruler model. From there we can incubate more, younger and perhaps dynamic candidates for future races.
7
This was a triumph of pragmatism
------------
Yes, Biden is pragmatic, he does not distrust private institutions, the value creators will not be demonized. However, he is likely to make them share bit more burden in order to provide more equitable deal for working class.
Bernie is a Pacifist; with Biden, the values for which Second WW was fought shall remain safe, and waywardness caused by the incumbent shall get corrected.
Science shall receive political backing and become apolitical. Civil services shall be normal again. These are no small gains.
3
Bernie wants his armchair "revolution" that will never go anywhere. Bernie and Warren should get together with Biden and make a deal to join Biden's team. Obamacare needs major fixing, there are many things the two of them can do that might actually get done if they get on board. I think Biden should reach out to both in a public and private way and let them know they can be an important part of the team.
5
@Missy
Well said. Let’s hear about a Team Joe, capitalizing on the amazing talent this process has brought to light. It is vital that young voices are up there with him.
Your assessment is spot on. I had to laugh when you mentioned that you never got over McGovern's loss. Me, neither. I have brought up McGovern and Goldwater as part of the reason why I have not supported Sanders, though like you, I agree with some of his issues. I'm a pragmatist, which affects every perspective I hold. As I see it, the bottom line is that voters fear major societal changes - either to the right or left - unless life becomes unbearable. So Sanders is just too scary and therefore unelectable. If he miraculously won, he would not have the savvy or political capital to accomplish his great vision. Plus, he certainly would hurt the chances of House and Senate democrats to win. I appreciate his activism, but that's where it stops. Others need to take up his best ideas and let the other ones go. I respect Warren more. In fact, I respect her greatly, but I believe she should remain an activist and visionary. Her brilliant policies can best be implemented by others in the party. Hopefully, Biden.
As a professor who teaches Social Welfare History and Policy courses to grad and undergrad students, I follow the issues closely - and also the NYT. Your down to earth as well as passionate articles often become required reading assignments in my courses to illustrate issues of our times. Thank you!
3
This is an enlightening column for sure. But the one thing Kristof mentioned in his email about it but didn't address in his column was the line,"I think a wealth tax is a good idea, although there are genuine doubts about its constitutionality." Really?
I have always been infuriated that the 1% hold so much power to reduce their own taxes, but this was not unconstitutional. The US had a tax rate as high as 90% or so on wealthy folks in the 50's and 60's as I recall, and that was not unconstitutional. What gives here? How come the wealthy always seem to have a GetOutOfJailFree card while rest of us little people dutifully pay our fair share according to our means because we believe in supporting our great nation?
7
I used to be a big fan of Mr. Kristof. I admired his incredible courage and journalistic aims to give a voice to some of the most marginalized and impoverished people in the world. Mr. Kristof has repeatedly been willing to explore American poverty and decline, coming to a culmination in his new book "Tightrope." But this is disappointing. He turns out to be another faux-progressive that isn't actually willing fight for the necessary change that will help the people that he reports on. Does he serious believe Joe "nothing would fundamentally change" Biden would ever sign anything into law that would do more than weakly touch the margins of the problems America faces?
7
You have expressed my thoughts more eloquently than I could. Thank you, Mr. Kristof.
2
I am a Warren fan – she needs to stay in the race a bit longer, too many of her supporters will go to Bernie if she quits now. At the convention Joe could pick her as VP – she has energy and is a great debater. She might even be able to bring along some of the ‘progressives’ that follow Bernie. (It would be helpful if they didn’t sit it out this time, or worse, vote trump as some did last time) She certainly would add much to any administration.
4
I agree that Biden is the best Democratic choice to steady the ship of state that Trump has taken so far off course AND to initiate significant change in health care, addressing climate change, re-establishing professionalism in government, and working closely with our traditional allies, while dealing with our authoritarian foes.
DECENCY AND INFORMED EXPERIENCE are a distinct contrast to what we are now experiencing. As an 86-year-old, I remember my youthful days when I thought it was easy to change everything. Now I recognize the importance of getting elected and then MAKING HASTE WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED.
5
As much as I think Biden is a good guy, I foresee him getting plowed over by Trump in future debates. Biden did not hold his own in the debates with members of his own party, and so won't stand much of a chance against someone who is far better at putting people in a corner and punching below the belt.
Charisma and vision matters and unfortunately the Democratic party has come up with two absolutely flat, myopic candidates in the last two elections since Obama's departure. I was hopeful with such a large candidate field over the last year that Democrats would go with progressives who can stop the current slide of America into a third world authoritarian regime, but instead, somehow, Democrats are choosing Biden.
Why do pundits keep thinking Republican leaning voters are going to cross the aisle to side with a semi-senile, uninspiring Democrat? While I know some Republicans can't stand Trump and may vote for anyone but him, most still love him and someone like Biden isn't going to convince them to vote otherwise.
Unlike Kristof, I don't see a change candidate here.
4
I believe that Joe Biden can be a progressive President when you consider how Barack Obama and Joe were constantly constrained by the “just say no” Republicans to implement many of what the Democrats felt would be good for the country (during a time when Barack was attempting to work with the Republicans in an effort to gain non-partisan agreement).
This is an example of why the Democrats need to win the Congress and the President to advance the nation (in a responsible manner). We do not need a revolution. We just need to right the government and focus on moving our country forward as a group (versus one person who has “all the answers).
5
Thank Mr. Kristof for being the adult on the Times editorial staff. You opinions of Bernie are lucid and rational!
Bernie never got much accomplished because he has always challenged the status quo. He is a fighter who seems to have terrified those afraid of change.
He even seems to have scared your associates at the office!
1
Temperamentally and philosophically I'm a Bernie girl. But I never intended to vote for him because I, like many others, fear that he will push moderate and on-the-fence voters reluctantly into the arms of Trump.
I'm disgusted that we now have the choice between two white men in their late 70s.
Please choose Pete for VP, unless you think there must be a woman, then choose Amy.
1
@pollyb1 Which bothers you most: white, men, or their age?
I believe Biden will satisfy Republicans who realize that Trump must not be reelected. Sanders's revolutionary policies, in these tenuous times, may be too much too soon. If Job #1 is to beat Trump, then perhaps a more moderate candidate will be attractive to those turning away from Trump. Now, if Biden is the nominee, will Sanders's supporters turn out to vote in the general? What if Biden served one term, just to begin the process of righting the incredible wrongs Trump has left behind? Then, we might be ready for a more progressive candidate in 2024.
3
There is one common thread amongst all "centrist" candidates - Gore, Kerry, McCain, Romney, Clinton - they all lost because they failed to inspire voter turn-out. They were all status-quo candidates.
7
@Sam Gore, Kerry, and Clinton failed to inspire because they all ran flawed campaigns, not because they were "centrist". I won't try to explain the Republicans.
I think the press and pundits should also recognize that they played a role in this outcome with a lot of anti-bernie spin. Whatever.
6
What does a graph of the cost of higher education look like? The increase in student debt? The increase of health care costs? The numbers of bankruptcy due to a health crisis? The increase of green house gases and global temperatures? The rise in sea level? The frequency of massive fires? The severity of hurricanes? The percentage of people with no retirement savings?
What about any of this makes people think: "yeah, Joe's got it covered."
Seriously.
5
I love this piece.
Of course, he is a "conventional" Democratic candidate. But frankly, I like conventional at this point. Our country has been through a lot over the last few years, not for the good.
I voted (via early voting) for Elizabeth Warren (I'm in her demographic fit as an educated professional white woman), but I'll be glad to vote for Biden, too, as did my hubbie in the primary, who had delayed his vote. I'll vote for Sanders, too, if he turns out to be the nominee.
But I've had an unexpected optimistic turn of mind today. Maybe I'll get my country back.
Yes, I'd like a lot of things that Bernie promotes,
7
@Lisa If Biden would pick Warren as VP, we could both be happier.
@Nicholas I would agree that Bernie might not have been the best choice. But as you state - "Biden is plodding and uncharismatic", you forgot to mention that mostly he's looking back "I wrote the bill...." not I'm going to write these bills. He will, unfortunately not rally the youth or inspire the Latinx vote. His mediocrity will be our undoing. Warren or Pete might have been better choices. I fear for another 4 years of Trump now.
1
Out of the entire Democrat group of candidates this cycle Bloomberg was the most electable in a general election against Trump. Biden has a good shot but not at all guaranteed.
His "empathy" will only get him so far. Trump is going to do everything possible to make him look like he doesn't have the strength both physically and mentally needed for the job.
He has difficulty finishing sentences and staying focused and also appears at times somewhat feeble. He's only 4 or 5 years older than Trump but looks 10+ years older.
Maybe some of this can be minimized with the right VP choice but he's going to need some help.
3
Sensible article that makes very valid arguments. Biden can win and help retain the Congress and possibly the Senate (which is needed to pass bills and implement change). Experience matters, decency matters, pulling people together and being willing to listen and compromise matters.
A lot of Sanders supporters and the noise online sounds eerily similar to Trump supporters and bots which is ironic, as liberal values include the willingness to listen, adapt and be more inclusive.
The current healthcare situation is a significant challenge and lasting reform is much needed.
What you call Medicare in many countries is actually managed competition through private insurance like in Netherlands or Germany which have more success. So why would you take private insurance away and adopt a single payer model? It would be ineffective, potentially bankrupt the government, would lead to higher taxes as countries with Medicare for all have over 40 percent tax for the middle class which is double than that in US, it would take away patient choice of physicians, lead to longer waiting times, lead to job losses with the all the private insurance jobs of over a million people plus dependents. Reform is possible without this, enhance and improve Obamacare with clear caps on out of pocket spendings and deductibles, pricing regulations on medical services, premium regulations on insurance plans and controlling prices of medications and supplies while substituting for generics like Germany
4
great article. I wish someone would also mention how Republicans fear Biden most -- always have, and want Sanders to win. In fact,
CNN has reported how the Tea Party has formed "Operations Chaos" to encourage Republicans to go to Primaries to vote for … Bernie Sanders.
Republicans KNOW they can beat Sanders: Why?
#1 All Trump has to do is advertise how Bernie's program will require Middle Class taxes to go up substantially too (same as what we see in Europe)
#2 Then start a SCARE tactic the Socialists are coming to destroy America, to get their base out to vote in droves. ..
2
Exactly, which is why Trump has been so rattled over the past week. He now has real competition in Joe Biden who can take him down and beat him
I could not agree more, and that's the paradox: you'll get closer to Bernie's vision of America by electing Biden than by electing Bernie himself.
6
You can't get much done in the Senate when half your time there has been under Republican control and you're outside of the party establishment, but as President, you set the agenda and the party usually stands or falls with the president. To get anything done, you don't want to negotiate against yourself by giving everything away to the Republicans, including a sequester, like Biden did with Obama.
1
if we want a different democracy, we have to make it possible for the people to learn a different approach to democracy. To change way we do democracy, change the way people think democracy.
1
Thank you for this piece, so well written and reasoned. I hope Democrats are reading. Joe Biden, only Joe Biden, CAN take on Trump, and return the America to a decent and glorious country it used to be. So please, let him lead!
1
Thank you Nick Kristof for keeping it real. I too lean more to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's bold proposals to address the extreme income inequality and racial/ethnic wealth gap that stifles opportunities in so many communities across the country. But I too have come to the realization that we need to support the candidate that has the best chance to beat Donald Trump. We can't risk having four more years of that narcissistic authoritarian-loving racist divisive man in the White House. The damage that he will do if he is unbridled for another term could be irreparable and send us on a path of no return. Incremental change or "status quo" is better than the kind of change Trump and his Republican lackeys have in store for us... We can't have a repeat of 2016 where Bernie supporters refuse to support the Democratic candidate in November. The future of our nation will rest in the hands of these voters come Election Day. Let's just hope that Biden can reach out and appeal to the Left in a genuine way that will solidify their support.
4
I agree with many of Sanders proposals and applaud his passion and spirit, but the Democrats are not going to defeat Trump with his proposals and extreme platform - the votes won't be there and concerns about how they would be funded are problematic. The only goal the Democrats should have, the only one is to defeat Trump and unless the Senate is in their hands the Sanders proposals would have little chance of enactment. So forget policy and rally around Joe Biden who with an Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams as VP candidates would make a formidable team. It is time to restore this Country to a place where the Golden Rule prevails, where decency, fair play and honesty are modeled by the individual who occupies the Oval Office. Trump, Pence, McConnell, Nunes, McCarthy, Graham, on and on - bullies, liars, self-serving craven vacuous vessels who have sullied the Constitution and trampled on the rights of all Americans and made our Country a divided land, their modus operandi.
5
Sanders v. Biden ...or Biden v. Sanders ... in 3 questions:
1. Can he beat Trump in November?
2. What is the likelihood that he can deliver on his campaign promises (i.e. get them through Congress)?
3. Will his election more likely lead to continued, more, or less division among the American people?
When I ask myself those questions, my choice becomes obvious.
3
I have just finished reading Tightrope, and it tore my mind apart. It was difficult for me to "like" so many of the people you wrote about, but I forced myself to try to understand their situations. Biden is not the status quo candidate. I believe he would know the people in Tightrope better than Bernie would. It's all about the children. Almost all of the Dem candidates would keep an open mind, but at this point, when we are down to the wire, I am ready to give Joe the chance.
5
Kristof's reasoning for Biden is mine also.
Last Friday I put off early voting for my favorite, Buttigieg, and intended to vote on Monday, only to learn that Buttigieg had dropped out. Glad I didn't vote early after all.
Today I took myself downtown for early voting and cast my vote for Biden, the #1 reason is to beat Trump.
4
"But this wasn’t a coronation; it was a groundswell among moderates fearful that a Sanders nomination would be a Republican dream."
I hope the rest of the country gets as excited as you and the moderates about a candidate who has lied about his civil rights work. Lied about being arrested with Mandela. Prosecuted Anita Hill. Fought for the bankruptcy reform bill. Helped lead the fight for the Iraq war where 4500 Americans were killed and $2 trillion+ was squandered. Is that moderation? Do you think DJT is excited as you and the moderates are?
13
@Mark I agree. He is also knocking on the door of senility. With all this information and more to come trump will mop the floor with him. Trump supporters are blindly rock solid. 3 days ago he did one of his stand up routines called a rally 2 miles from my house. A large number of people were setting up camp on a Sunday afternoon to be able to get in Monday evening. Someone drove 700 miles to attend the rally. The only way to defeat him is with new voters. Bernie can bring them but I wouldn’t count on them to show up for Biden.
4
The oft-repeated claim that Biden is somehow more electable is based on a political past. Trump proved it 4 years ago but we didn't learn it. Things are different. Democrat's can't win elections by moving center any more. We can't win by being afraid. Yes Biden was buoyed by African-American voters in the South. But young people and Latinx will never turn out in huge numbers for an uninspiring candidate with nothing new to say. And the number of swing or independent voters is not enough any more to make up for that. Biden will lose by more than Hilary.
6
The only part of the change is that Biden is now the front runner. He never advocated for change. In fact it is hard to know what he advocated for. That really doesn't matter because the establishment is now happy.
10
Yeah, man. The Man puts us down, again.
My dream moment. After seeing his prospects for the Democratic nomination diminish as the primaries continue, Bernie Sanders should exit the race and make a big speech. In his speech, he should repeat one of his most powerful points.
"We need to defeat the most dangerous president in modern history".
Then, he needs to swallow his pride, or hubris as I see it, and tell his followers that he will support (insert name...Joe Biden) for President of the United States. Then, he needs to tell his supporters to get on board and take our country back to the days of decency and respect. He needs to urge them to vote for Joe Biden.
If Bernie Sanders could do that, my respect for him would soar!!
I'm not holding my breath for that moment, but it would be a dream come true!
"
7
I beg you to see why we need a sharp turn left. Of course he cannot accomplish his goals right off, but we must start moving towards them. The healthcare scam is ripping off my generation -X- and we have so little at our age -50s. My generation is VERY afraid of the center right now. The center won’t help the majority of us.
5
I am really concerned that Trump will be reelected. If Biden wins will the Sanders supporters stay home. One thing I have noticed is when I speak to Trump supporters they are really committed and it is very difficult to have a conversation with them. These folks know they are right and it's like talking to a brick wall. Same goes for Sanders supporters, they easily get angry and again it is really difficult to discuss why it may be hard to elect Bernie Sanders. Like the Corbin supporters in the UK they do not want a differing point of view and look what happened over there. I know it's not all of them. I do not think that Bernie can beat Trump and I fear that Bernie will complain about the Democratic establishment and his supporters will stay home. His Medicare for all is very unpopular with many. How do I know, well I work in healthcare and I ask that question frequently. There are very few people who are willing to give up their private insurance. I really hope we can come together and all of us put country first. Biden I think has a better chance of beating Trump but I know Sanders is a much better choice than Trump. So please Bernie Bros, don't let your disappointment cloud you to the dangers of a Trump second term. Get out and support whoever is the Democratic nominee.
10
It’s called cognitive dissonance. And the Dunning Krueger effect.
Right on all points, a Sanders win would mean a lost house and a deadlocked congress unable to enact anything. Healthcare for all will come one day but in the current national climate it is as unlikely as it was when Hillary tried. Sanders does not understand compromise or concensus which make for a pretty bad politician. I still thank him for his service to the nation and for sparking a national urgency, now he can do his most important contribution which is to endorse Biden and fight for all Democrats to get back the senate and defeat Trumpism. Maybe Biden can find a place for Sanders in a new health improvement taskforce that tries to get us closer to universal healthcare.
8
I love you, but...
When are we going to stop settling and put our country first by fighting to have people in office who have concerns and solutions for all of us, not just some of us? I’m embarrassed by the Democratic Party and their lack of moral courage to do what’s right.
8
Biden at the top of the ticket will need a running mate with some progressive credibility, and a platform that recognizes differences within the Party. The platform ought to recognize the Green New Deal as an aspirational but necessary program that will take years (more than one Presidential term) to enact, that will make sense only if we start next year. And if Biden really is committed to getting things done, he should pay some attention to Senator Warren's plans.
12
The rather obvious answer is that the Democratic party stepped in. They showed Pete snd Amy the door to give the midwest no one but Biden to vote for. The timing of their departures, hours before Super Tuesday, was too coincidental. They probably want Warren to stay in to siphon off votes from Bernie.
It is 2016 revisited; primaries should be ditched because unless they result in what the party and big donors want, the result is manipulated.
13
Well, that pretty effectively infantilizes the voting preferences of African Americans. The voters stepped in, just as they did in 2016 when Sanders lost to Clinton by three million votes.
7
I’m a white South Carolinian. I talked to the black women who lead my county Democratic party, and we all agreed if Bernie was the nominee, we’d be watching Trump win in a landslide in November.
Black folks have seen this movie. After Reconstruction, they endured a century of Jim Crow. They don’t want to live through a rerun because a bunch of spoiled white boys want socialism. And that’s where we’re headed if Trump replaces RGB.
...and won the presidency.
Nick: Excellent analysis, and one with which I agree completely. Democrats need to "keep their eye on the ball," which includes not just winning the presidential race but also holding the House and maybe even getting control of the Senate. Lackluster though he may be, Joe Biden is the much better choice to help make all of those goals achievable.
8
I fear that the Bernie supporters will spout some sort of nonsense that the billionaires gave Biden the lead, that Wall St. wants him to protect their interests. Now we have the cogent analysis provided in this piece and the rebuttal to the Berniacs: African-American voters put their faith in a man how has been close to them and their needs for decades. This was a series of state elections where smaller states with large African-American populations gave such overwhelming support to Joe Biden that even Sanders' victory in CA is not enough to undo it.
If the Bernie supporters do not accept that this -- assuming it holds -- was a fair and open series of primaries, they are just being churlish children who want it their way or no way.
11
@William Fordes
It doesn't seem you have anything positive to say about Biden, you're only happy Sanders is no longer leading. I'm seeing a lot of this. It doesn't bode well.
6
I feel in sync with Mr. Kristof's perspectives on many things but this one really resonated with a gong. Smart people, good people, compassionate people are always to be found in greater abundance among, poor people. Why is that? I don't really know but it is a fact.
5
I'll Biden take any day over Trump. But this is a victory for Citizens United. Big money is the political opiate. Sanders is focused on the poor and middle class that are being seriously impacted by the ever growing income gap in this country. The health care situation where people cannot afford to go the Dr. with health insurance. The coronavirus can potentially become worse because the uninsured won't be seen because they cannot afford medical care. The housing crisis in CA where did Sanders did well shows that people think he has a better answer than the Democrat establishment. Biden has not won the nomination yet.
8
Here’s the problem
Biden will continue to back corporations over citizens
Biden completely fails to understand the challenges facing the next 4 years
Putin, China, Climate Change, Inequality, Racial issues
Biden will make marginal changes that will not change the direction of this country.
And in his marginal change will be too little, too late.
11
Democrats and DNC had last four years of Obama's presidency and almost four years of Trump's one to find new leader to challenge Mr. Trump. If Mr. Biden really is the best, most energetic and smartest democrat to beat Trump, Democrats deserve to lose in November 2020.
8
Yeah, Biden is a change candidate. As in "small change," nickel-and-dime minor detail-tweaking kinds of ways.
If "change candidate" Biden is elected, he will give new meaning to the old French expression "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
If, against all odds, miracle of miracles, this most mediocre of compromise candidates manages to beat Trump, the best thing we'll be able to say a year from now, about how things are going, is "We're Bid'n our time."
If that's all we can hope for, we'll never prevail. The trumpistas will be more energized by the minute, while Democrats prepare to "go out not with a bang, but only a whimper."
15
I agree Mr. Kristof. I was a bit confused over the possibilities of Biden, Sanders, and Bloomberg, going from one to another day by day. But when Biden ran away with the results on Super Tuesday, I was relieved and realized that the majority of Americans are tired and even scared from the Trump years as president.
Sanders has some great ideas which I hope the Dems will try someday, but I sense that what we really want is an administration right now that's neither too far right or too far left. Indeed, the Obama-Biden years were a great example of what can be accomplished with high values, integrity, and caring for the American people. Thank you candidates Amy and mayor Pete for pulling out before Super Tuesday, and to Mike Bloomberg leaving afterwards to support Biden and the Democratic Party to win the presidency.
Another four years of a Trump presidency would destroy this country as we now know it moving into a Fascist State similar to 1930's Germany. We now have a clear choice: Democracy or Fascism.
11
We’ve had 4 years of Trump and the sky hasn’t fallen yet. Democracy looking pretty good
Sanders ideas go back to FDR and Truman at the least. He should be the one using "Make America Great Again" as a slogan. Trump, were he honest (and everybody knows he is not) should be using something like "Make America Great for Gatsby Again".
Biden will be remembered as the gaffe prone guy who was too polite to get away the gaffes - unlike Trump who is anything but polite - and lost the Presidency to an ignorant, stupid, con man. He'll also be remembered as the man who described Obama as "very well spoken for a black man".
By triumph of pragmatism I think the author means the triumph of the DNC to convince voters that real meaningful change in this country is not possible. The Obama presidency, for all it's merits, brought with it a worsening of income inequality and more of the same old neoliberal policies which have systematically depleted the middle class. If Biden wins, how long until another Trump figure emerges to capitalize on the rage of the disenfranchised?
21
@EF It will not take long. As long as uneducated white people form the crux of political power, there will be another trump ready to go.
In a "business as usual" scenario, in which the world fails to take drastic action to stop climate change, the world is increasingly unlivable by the end of this century and perhaps sooner. Our way of life is over. Biden's "plan" to push emissions targets out 30 years in the future is not even close to what is needed to halt this runaway freight train.
So tell me again why Joe "nothing would fundamentally change" Biden is the change candidate? Why young people should believe he is willing to make the hard choices needed to mitigate the damage of decades of complacency in both parties?
15
@Shepherd I think I get it, reading your post. I mean, it's obvious from the comments and Mr. Kristof's answers, but it's almost ridiculously obvious. Biden is the candidate of change _from Trump to Biden_--that's all.
And maybe , given the 'triage" metaphor above, that's all we can get for now.
But I'm still donating to Bernie till the primaries are over.
As a citizen of Canada (always giving my ancestors a big thank you for choosing We The North) I will still have my excellent health care (paid for by my high taxes), universal paid sick time, good gun control blah blah blah. If Biden defeats Trump about the only change in your country will be that the majority of your citizens will once again be able to respect the person in the Oval Office.
Why is it that in a country of more than 300 million citizens those citizens continue to play it safe by electing elderly men with old ideas. I am a proud member of Canada's Liberal Party ("liberal" being a dirty work south of the border) and as such I like our current Prime Minister who for all his faults which I too can recognize it can also be said he will not be enacting any plans any time soon to become a member of retirement village.
5
The whole mess the Democrats find themselves in - being forced to have Biden as their candidate - was created by the base of the Republican party. They elected Trump, and he carried his messy, bombastic tenure - much to their delight.
Of course, the base had its right to "take over the party," as they had sat "patiently" with centrists Republicans like McCain and Romney in 2008 and 2012. But once they saw Trump's mendacious and destructive ways, and the disgust it caused in the left, they knew they had found their guy.
Trump's fecklessness combined with his renunciation of everything Obama stood for and did caused the situation of the need for Biden to restore Obama's legacy and approach.
In effect, the Republican base did it to the country.
3
@Srose
Biden isn't happening because of anything to do with the base of the Republican Party. It's happening because of the cowardice of the base of the Democratic Party.
Biden/ Trump- same old story- nothing would change. I think Warren and Sanders need to walk together as President candidate and VP, then people will wake up. Trust me- Biden will drop out instantly.
3
You would think that, given what happened in 2016, pundits would be less prone to making bold, self-assured predictions. But here I am, reading article after article that make me think these people have a crystal ball and a Palantir at hand, at all times.
It also seems that, either past mistakes were not learned from, or they actually don't matter much. Everyone claims to know the future. Who is electable, who is not. So much confidence in the divinatory arts, it amazes me. The truth is, Biden can maybe win some votes from the center and disenchanted republicans, but there is a good chance that he won't be able to win the votes of the progressives, latinos and young people. So perhaps, he will lose more votes than those he gains, or not. Nothing in politics is that predictable.
I appreciate Mr. Kristof aknowledging the 2016 divination fiasco, but maybe it would be best to stop disguising one's political preferences as future certainties. What I see in many Op-eds is that. Pundits who have a preference -to which they are of course entitled- run with it and make it seem as a certainty. A future fact.
Many things in human history come to pass due to sheer self-prediction. You keep repeating something, it ends up being true. Like economy meltdowns, for instance. In other cases, it doesn't matter how much you insist. Reality has a way to put your world upside down. That's what happened in 2016. It can happen again, no matter who the Dem candidate is. That's the harsh truth.
6
These columns keep talking as if they had no hand in the outcome. The unrelenting criticism of Bernie, here in the Times and almost everywhere else, is what drove people to the polls to vote for Biden. I mean we knew corporations controlled many aspects of our lives, but it is only now that we get a glimpse of the extent of their power. I stand to benefit from a Biden presidency, but, given the level of control corporations have and the huge discrepancy between those who have and those who have nothing, this election should be about the majority. I mean we keep hearing about the patriotic spirit, what is it if it is not about taking care of each other, about making sure the majority is not left out in the cold to fend for itself.
21
If you are right, this Warren supporter thinks activists had better start now to ensure Joe Biden knows he must grapple with climate change as though his life depends on it, because his life may not depend on it but his children's and grandchildren's do. So far I'm not impressed with his plans, though I was heartened to read his campaign has looked to Jay Inslee for advice.
6
As a young person who is planning on voting for Sanders next week in my state's primary, while it is sad that Sanders will probably lose the nomination, I will still support Biden 100% if he wins the nomination. While I believe that Biden will not make the changes I feel are necessary, I feel that he will make enough of a difference to help a better progressive candidate in the future.
15
Anybody who reads your columns regularly knows that you definitely do not represent the "status quo", and that you are in fact very liberal, in the best sense of the word. In light of that I am glad to see you stepping forward to make this statement, which despite being very true, is bound to raise the ire of many who think much like you do. The difference between a Trump presidency and a Biden presidency is enormous, and without a doubt an even bigger difference than Bush vs. Gore, which set us back decades on climate change, not to mention Iraq, taxes, and a host of other issues.
9
With any knowledge of social movements of the last 200 years, there is no difference but a face between Trump and Biden. A vote for Biden is a vote for Trump.
I was introduced to Bernie over a dozen years ago on the Thom Hartmann show, where he did brilliant and illuminating town hall call-in, where he accurately provided a who, what, when, and why for the policies that were making hard working blue and white collar people, poorer, sicker, and unemployed. The tried and true ideals of education and hard work provided no relief and maybe got you in deeper. Part Noam Chomsky, part Howard Zinn, and a lot of FDR, he hammered on the policies started by Reagan, continued by both Bush administrations, and with special contempt for Bill Clinton's wolf in sheep's clothing act during his tenure. He identified his colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, who were complicit in office and as lobbyists when they left. He was a whistleblower and it is no wonder the establishment is going against him. As someone who grew up in the 70s, I saw a path through hard work and education (degrees in chemistry and mechanical engineering). By the 2000s, it was obvious that system was rigged.. companies being broken up, offshored, shuttered; unaffordable healthcare with ridiculous costs and an unsustainable model, scam banking and a ridiculous real estate scheme that would trigger the biggest stock market collapse since the Great Depression. Bernie's message is stark and not soundbite driven. He is the only one who tells the whole truth... and unlike Obama's disingenuous "hope and change" message which was just hope really.. Bernie requires change.
18
@Mark Now THIS is an op-ed worthy of the NYT. I urge you to expand and submit it. Yes, he's the only one who tells the full truth. And, yes, Bernie requires change, including on the part of the electorate , their minds & hearts.
So much cynicism here.
Democracy itself is on the ballot.
There is a reason trump risked and got impeached for trying to take Biden down.
There is reason trump is sowing conspiracy propaganda favorable to Sanders.
Right now, this writer, parched with thirst for decency, integrity, honesty, competence and a return to the rule of law sees the glass half full.
I'll take it and be grateful, for the promise of more to come.
11
Liberal democracy has run its course. Trump adheres to the ideology of liberal democracy. A vote for Biden, is in fact, a Vote for Trump. —Be honest with yourself, Vote Trump! He’s the better neo-liberal if that’s what you want!
Medicare for All is one way to structure universal health care, but it's not the be-all and end-all. I'm not convinced it's even the best plan, and it wouldn't be the quickest to implement.
I'm actually on Medicare now, at my age, and it's good -- but I'm healthy and have very little out of pocket expense. One of my fears is that if everybody else jumps aboard, the whole Medicare ship will sink. Think about us retirees, OK?
I think the German model is very interesting and could work in the US. It gives a choice of, I think it's 200, private insurance companies. It pays for everything you need done. And it's not tied to employers, so you don't lose it when you get laid off. Give it a look. Then vote for whichever Democrat wins the nomination, as I will be doing. That's how we'll get it done -- not by throwing an absolutist tantrum.
5
What possible evidence could you have that Biden will be a change candidate, and why are you so eager to convince us? I will vote for him unenthusiastically if he is the nominee, nothing more.
9
I continue to be confused as to why people keep making the comparison of Sanders to the 1972 campaign of McGovern as some sort of argument against running a leftwing candidate when there's a far more recent and relevant example of what happens when you run a centrist, establishment favorite against Actual Trump.
13
If Biden can’t get his responses to questions to be less chuggity-chug (starting on one topic and going off on a tangent and then coming back) he will look just as all over the place and empty as ad sloganizing Trump.
Nevertheless, he has several positive personal aspects over Trump: he knows and appreciates how the rule of law and government operate in a democracy; he prefers policy that helps people to those that set them at the throats of others; he can actually talk in complete sentences and make sense — even when he stammers. Unlike Trump he is not contemptuous of everyone but himself.
3
Sorry Nick - Biden is the safe candidate - not the 'change' candidate. He was a winner last night - I doubt, if he goes on to get the nomination, that he'll eke out a win against Trump. It's long past time for pragmatism in your country - and your witness to how bad things actually are for working people, single parents and the young should tell you that Sanders's program - which is really just what Canada's been doing for the past half-century - is the only real antidote to what ails the USA.
Biden's rescuers were, on the evidence, the media and folks over 50 - and that's really sad!
12
There is no Senate that can be elected in this cycle and the next that will endorse any health or education policy even close to the Sanders proposals. His ideas are DOA in what used to be the World's Greatest Deliberative Body but is now the American Legislative Graveyard.
Far better to seek incremental, but possible change, than achieve nothing at all.
I hope the young people who support Bernie's radical, but impractical, ideas can accept reality. Put another way, I hope they don't sit out 2020 the way many did 2016. That path led to our present disaster.
7
@Thomas Briggs - Without a Democratic Congress we don't even get incremental change. Republicans are no more likely to work with Biden than they did Obama.
But it doesn't matter -- Most Americans don't really want change anyway.
2
Revolutionary change requires patience and persistence. The Super Tuesday results indicate the majority of Democrat voters are willing to put off revolutionary change in favor of victory in November and a return to normalcy. I am willing to wait a few more years for revolutionary change in favor of winning and a return to normalcy.
8
@bstrider - "Make America normal again". I hope that's enough, but doubt it is.
Hi Mr Kristof
In Canada, we deal with situations like the Democratic Party faces by making deals. What if Bernie backs out if he gets a guarantee from Biden that he, if elected, would cancel student debt? I like Bernie's platform generally and a brokered withdrawal or endorsement might be a big step forward for that platform and assist in unifying the fight against Trump.
Just a thought.
Tim
1
My son is a first time voter, and a true-blue Bernie bro, with all the purity of heart and spirit that embodies. He was beside himself last night. It broke my heart to hear him say ‘but Mom, you don’t understand. People are going to die over this.’ Another day I will tell him that so many people have already died because our Nation has failed its’ people over health care, over and over again. I will not even bring up ‘deaths of despair.’ He is despairing enough right now. I did comfort him with the words of Matin Luther King; The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I hope that is enough for all of us...and that we have the time, between all the existential threats of our world, to make that so. In the meantime I comfort my boy.
18
Beginning with congressman Jim Clyburn and the black electorate in South Carolina, the Democratic voters realized who could win and who would be good for them. It wasn't the Independent from Vermont. Kristof says, "I think the Democrats with Biden have a good chance of winning the presidency, holding the House and perhaps taking the Senate." That says it all. You have to win to save the country from Trump. And you can't win with Sanders or Warren if Americans don't buy their socialist programs.
8
Sorry Nick:
Nothing is going to change if Biden is elected. He is firmly in the back pocket of the banking, credit card, pharmaceutical and for-profit health insurance industries. Say "so long" to even the possibility of structural change. I'm sure that Wall Street is breathing a sigh of relief now that they'll get whatever they want, regardless of who is elected on November 3, 2020.
8
Yes, and there will be Medicare For All in this country one day. I will be dead then, and my son and daughter (in their late 20s/early 30s) probably will be too. Unless of course people keep calling it a revolution. Nothing turns off Americans like a revolution that occurred in other civilized countries decades ago. By the time it arrives in the US, the revolution will be 100 years behind the civilized times.
Unless it is called a revolution. Just don't call it a revolution.
5
@The North Or we could come up with a better system for dealing with healthcare. Why is it that progressives are stuck to trying something that other nations do. There are other options.
3
I'm a centrist Democrat. I don't want to pay for someone's college education. Get a full-time day job, hopefully at a large company that offers tuition reimbursement. Go to a public community college at night and limit yourself to two courses per semester. If you did very well in High school you should be eligible for a bit of scholarship or grant money. You should have been working in high school also and socking away that money. It may take you 8 years to graduate and have only a small amount of loans. No one owes you an education.Bernie will send this nation into the poor house.
5
Good article, appreciate the clarity; but some of us have been saying this for months...
What matters is not the change you promise. What matters is how close you can get to eventually bringing about the change that most reasonable people agree is needed.
Neither of these candidates will never be able to garner the strength (meaning the actual votes) to rule by decree (since we don't elect kings) or by moral imperative, since all politics is local--and personal.
Ask yourself: do I want to be seen as fighting (and almost certainly lose?) Or do I want to persuade and lead and win, bit-by-bit, if that is what it takes? Do I have the strength of my convictions? Or do I blame "the establishment" because I can't get all of my demands met, right now?
My suggestion? Pick the candidate who has a record of accomplishment, of getting things done. Never mind whether you approve of or agree with what they have done in the past. Elect the achiever, the one who can, and stay involved, applying incremental pressure along with empowering support.
That's the way to win. That's the way, in the wisdom of our system, to get things done, to bring the needed change.
6
A Biden candidacy is problematic for a couple of reasons. First, he's by no means assured of beating Trump. But secondly, and more importantly, he's a roadblock to the future. People who voted for Biden, seeking some kind of return to normalcy, should stop and consider what that "normalcy" was. Trump has thrown us for a loop, but we were already in trouble before he showed up.
We aren't the king of the world anymore, haven't been for quite a while, and never will be again. The conditions that existed after World War II that allowed us to attain that kind of supremacy are gone. America needs fundamental change, and that won't come from a Clintonian/Obamian neoliberal like Biden.
Bernie isn't the future, either, but he could be the bridge to that future. Biden? No way.
3
I'd like to hear Biden announce forcefully that if elected he sees himself as a one-term president whose only goal will to be the anti-Trump. There will be no sweeping policy initiatives a la Medicare-for-all, just a transition from near autocracy back to something resembling a constitutional order. I would also like to hear him commit to picking a woman or minority VP. If he would do this you could stick a fork in Bernie -- well, not literally.
2
I think Kristof, like many of the wirters here at NYT continue to see the election through the same paradigm they told us 4 years ago. I agree Biden, seems like a really decent man, nobody can doubt that. But if you analyze the economics of covid 19, the major disruption to the economy will be from now through May. At that point Powell has been bullied again into 75 maybe 100 basis point cuts. When does that action take impact, July-August and onwards. Secondly, Bide, like HRC, has no groundswell of support. I think it's disingenuous to write continually across this op-ed page the glory of & liberation at the behest of Joe Biden, do so at your own reputation. Me, I don't buy one word of it and like Michael Moore saw Trump coming a year out in '15, as he is a symptom of the great economic dislocation the msm continues to underplay and ignore. I'm in the 1% to lay my cards on the table.
3
@Northcountry a little rocky on the prose, but 100% on the analysis! you are exactly right...
“Sanders’s grand hopes won’t come true.“
Biden is an outstanding person and will make an excellent president if elected.
Bernie has been unfairly disparaged here.
His grand hopes will come true. The arc of history says they will. The hard truths are regarding the timing. ‘‘Twas ever thus.
3
After the debacle of the last 3+ years-any Democratic candidate will be a significant 'change': to reason and decency, thoughtful consideration of the important challenges we face. We should be aware by now how important the quality of the president's advisors can be. The voters must also be aware of the importance of the congressional elections in November-if they want real change- that's where it's likely to appear-if the new president has a Congress he can work with. Biden understands how that works.
4
Biden's platform is 'Obama chose me'. He has no organization, no money, no debating ability, and not much ability to even give a good stump speech. He has run for president three times before and not even got out of the starting gate; he also held a safe Senate seat for 35 years. So no record of running strong campaigns. What could go wrong?
13
Much damage has been done to our institutions and foreign relations in the past three years. Agencies have been hollowed out, are being led by unqualified sychophants, and our democratic allies overseas no longer respect or trust us.
Joe Biden has far more governing experience and existing personal relations with US and foreign leaders than anyone I can think of, and to me, these seem like the qualities most needed in our next president when confronted with so much damage in need of repair. Key word....repair.
8
Joe Biden has much more of a chance to persuade stubborn members of congress than Sanders does and more of a chance to keep a democratic House and perhaps swing a democratic Senate than Sanders does.
Those who say that Biden is a status-quo candidate (whatever that means after Trump) simply haven't done their due diligence in researching his plans. And that includes the pundits, many of whom have been unprofessionally and irresponsibly biased against Biden.
3
The optimistic interpretation is that the Democratic electorate has become dramatically more sophisticated. That they weigh odds, think in policy, not verve, and are less interested in who dazzles people by being a hot debater. They want progress, but realize that turning everything over to the 'woke' generation could turn out very badly.
Consolidating the benefits of this sophistication will require enabling bottom up networks, including small businesses.
4
I'm so tired of hearing "Bernie won't beat Trump" when literally every poll comparing the candidates shows that Bernie beats Trump by the largest margin of any candidate. It's infuriating to see "opinion" articles present counter-factual claims as though they have some merit. Just because you want it to be true doesn't mean it is.
15
In short, Joe Biden is someone America can get behind and elect. He is likable, sincere, and can get crossover and independent support.
America is not ready for, nor does it need a revolution. We need to right the ship from these past 3 years of distress and chaos, and Biden is the solid, decent human being to do it.
I’m with Joe!
And Amy as VP!
10
"the change candidate"??? Just the other day, Biden himself said "fundamentally nothing would change".
There is a reason the centrist/establishment Dems had a collective freakout over the prospects of a Sanders nomination, they don't want change. The current system is working well enough for them. Their smug groupthink doesn't understand that the system and their centrist policies aren't working for a majority of the electorate (hence the rise of populism on the far right and left).
The centrists Dems keep talking about the need to build a coalition and that Biden is the only one who can do it. But all they want is a coalition of warm bodies to rally around the status quo, not a coalition of ideas to make any real change for the people who need it most.
I would add that the centrists have an uphill battle building their coalition of voters when they keep deriding the progressive wing of the party. But, don't worry, they know best. Just ask them.
Don't feel like asking? Don't worry, they'll tell you anyway.
12
Sanders has a choice to make,..in one he could possibly go down in history as the great hero of the progressive movement. By strongly backing Biden now, reassured by Joe that once elected democrats will tilt toward single payer over time, and calling for unity, Bernie will not only get much of what he wants, but Trump will be gone.
But, if Bernie chooses to play the spoiler and sore loser, rolling the dice on the nomination, while egging on his more radical supporters, much as Nadir did, in the fantasy that somehow the perfect really is the enemy of the good, he can be the tipping point that keeps Trump in the white house and the senate and house in republican hands. This would make him, like Nadir, one of histories saddest figures.
The third choice is for both candidates to agree now, that whoever has the most delegates wins, (keeping out super-dekegates) and that the runner up will enthusiastically and wholeheartedly endorse and campaign for the winner. This mollifies many supporters on both sides and allows for a spirited and hopefully civil debate, focused on getting Trump out.
1
Mr. Kristof, what you want from the world and the country will not come under Joe Biden. Pragmatism never brings justice.
11
Really? And what does, prey tell?
I have been asking all my Sanders-supporting friends how they think that even one piece of legislation that President Sanders proposes will make it out of the House to the Senate. Of course, they have no answer. (And, neither does Bernie.) They know as well as I do that with the Senate in Republican hands there will be no "revolution"-- no M4A, no affordable housing, no free college, nothing. And, if people are afraid of Bernie and Democrats lose the House, we are really in for it. We've got to keep the House and with Biden there's more of a chance we could win the Senate. Then, if Biden has paid attention to what so many Bernie supporters want, he'll get legislation passed that could revamp health care, and address student loan debt and affordable housing. It may not be a "revolution," but it could help millions of Americans. Don't write Biden off because he seems "establishment." He could come through in the end.
10
If Biden wins the nomination and then the election in 2020 he could be an instrument of incremental change which hopefully will spell the permanent (?) demise of Trumpism, leading hopefully to the evolving in 2024 and beyond of more needed societal structural changes.
10
We're in a 50-year fight to reign in destructive capitalism, wean ourselves from fossil fuels, stabilize the planet as best we can, and provide a far more decent life for far more people. Bernie will continue to be a catalyst for this change whether he's president or not. This year, we simply must stop Trump and his wrecking crew from taking us backwards or ending our little human experiment altogether. I've been aiming for what Bernie wants for 40 years and haven't lost hope. Young people can keep doing the spadework for four more years. We'll get there ... and that much faster with even more young people engaged by 2024.
8
Bernie understands, as do, I think, most of his supporters that if he were elected, he wouldn't be able to accomplish everything he sets out to do.
But here is something else Bernie and his supporters understand: when faced with an opposition party that has gone over a cliff of right-wing extremism, your side had better be pushing just as hard in the opposite direction if you hope to end up anywhere near the center in terms of the compromise solution that is eventually reached. When your negotiating position _starts_ from the center, the inevitable result is that you will be pulled to the right as you search for a "compromise" solution. And make no mistake, Republicans will roll Biden (should he be elected) just as they rolled Obama, by constantly moving the goalposts further and further to the right, and ultimately giving him nothing in exchange.
16
@Ronnie -- It is not a foregone conclusion that Bernie would lose at all. It is speculation. Keep in mind that for voters under the age of 45, the word 'socialist' doesn't carry the same freight as it does for many older voters. But no one, neither you nor anyone else, really knows that Bernie can't win.
4
If Biden is less a turn left then Sanders, I’ll take. Joe is still 180 degrees from Trump. But let’s be clear: the only thing blocking Sanders’ laudable goals for America is our own timidity.
14
@Jack malmstrom The only thing blocking the US from having the same programs, services and infrastructure as other countries is that Americans are greedy, don't understand how a mixed economy works and have no idea how the rest of the world functions.
1
The Biden win yesterday wasn't a referendum on issues. It wasn't a vote saying M4A is undesirable, or that fracking isn't so bad or that a woman won't make a great President. It was the expression of a desire to get Trump out of the White House at all costs, of an unwillingness to take a chance of doing anything at all, however good in itself, that might jeopardize that. I don't fully agree with that strategy, but I very much empathize with people who voted that way.
Progressives are going to have to fight for the future issue by issue. I'd have much preferred a Warren presidency, but we can succeed under a President Biden if we have the House and Senate.
15
I was not initially thrilled by the prospect of candidate Biden. Actually, I've groaned a number of times. (I prefer Warren and support Bernie's ideas.) I support Biden now, though, because Bernie and Warren and their supporters have succeeded in pulling the Democratic Party to the left, including Biden's agenda. In fact, many ideas of the left now seem "center" compared to 2016. If he's elected, Biden and his cabinet and advisors will move the US to the left on the issues that matter most: doing something substantive about the climate crisis, healthcare for all, combating social inequality, immigration reform and fighting racism and for LGBTQ rights.
9
With a 65 delegate gap between Sanders and Biden (each currently has over 500), neither has a chance in the general without appealing to the other candidate's voters. Hence, each candidate might want to adopt positions that appeal to the other's voters.
Whoever is better at this has a chance of winning in November. Otherwise, one of them will find the Democratic nomination a Pyrrhic victory.
2
Some truth in what you say, Mr. Kristof, but you sure give the DNC a pass on Biden's meteoric rise to front-runner status. "This wasn’t a coronation," you write, "it was a groundswell among moderates fearful that a Sanders nomination would be a Republican dream." Right. And the day before Super Tuesday, Klobuchar and Buttigieg depart the race and, along with also-ran Beto Orourke, swiftly endorse Biden--before the voting begins! Call me skeptical, but looks like backroom dealing to me.
15
That comment about “the establishment” is simply inaccurate. In every Southern state Biden won yesterday, I have friends who voted for him. And none of them is part of the party establishment. Instead, they are thoughtful, concerned citizens who chose Biden because they know this election is the most crucial of their lifetime.
17
@Drusilla Hawke
The establishment doesn't refer to voters. It refers to a conglomeration of party insiders, donors, business interests, lobbyists, pundits, and others who aren't working for the grassroots. In fact, most of them work against the grassroots.
6
I will write in Bernie's name in November if he doesn't get the nomination. I will not vote for any candidate that doesn't support medicare for all. Luckily my congressperson does. I will not vote for Biden under any circumstances,
14
@Seth You'll in effect be voting for Trump. Thanks a lot. I'm a Bernie supporter and want him to be the nominee. But I'd take Biden over Trump any day.
6
And this is part of the problem. Absolute inflexibility will equate to a loss. A loss for the executive office, a loss in the house, a loss in the senate and a loss in the judicial branch.
4
@Seth
If you're playing the long game, the only way to affect change in the Democratic Party is to stop giving them your support. Four more years of Trump is less damaging to the country than another 20 years of choosing between a right-winger and a center-right moderate.
If Biden wins, what exactly are we "winning"? I've had enough of these lesser-of-two-evils votes.
3
Politically, I am more closely aligned with Sanders than Biden, and have been all my life – I voted for McGovern. The Democratic Party I used to know actually worked at compromise and coalitions, not always easily but usually effectively. Unfortunately , after listening to an avid Bernie supporter argue with his Biden counterpart on NPR this afternoon, I am not so sanguine about the ability of either Sanders or Biden to bring their supporters to unity in the party. A Bernie supporter calling in during the discussion argued that Biden must “capitulate” to Sanders’s demands on policy or the Bernie supporters will note show up in November. A Biden supporter called in to argue that Bernie’s “My way or the Highway” approach will drive his suburban vote away, not to Trump, also just to not showing up in November. It appears that, out in the real world, (sorry about that, pundits!), Democratic candidates are herding cats again, and angry ones to boot!
4
Biden as a change candidate? Don’t make me laugh. When those further to the right of the GOP establishment realized they were being taken for granted, they withheld votes and supported primary challenges. It worked. Progressives can do the same by refusing to vote in the 2020 election for establishment Democrats running for office at the national, state or local level. It’s either a lot of pain now or a lot of pain forever. And, after all, if the Democratic establishment is correct, Biden will still beat Trump. One of the arguments for Biden is that he will attract significant GOP support. So, let him prove it. The progressives have nothing to lose.
8
What people who lament the "status quo" is that most Americans are emotionally and mentally exhausted with the chaos, drama and lack of progress of the current administration. Nothing in politics have ever happened because of a revolution, and while the thought of one makes some people happy, they are not the majority.
One can have all the pie-in-the-sky dreams they want but it will never happen immediately in a society that takes significant issues with taxes at all, let alone very high ones. Bernie could win and you'll never get it done.
6
@Morgan
"Nothing in politics have ever happened because of a revolution"
Apparently, the United States of America never happened. The history books must have lied.
Oh the difference a week makes during Primary season. If anyone who has observed Biden during the last two months on the trail and in debates has any true confidence that the current front runner is the most fit to be leading the party, then maybe you should spend some time to see what is apparent to those paying even scant attention to this race.
I'm not just referencing his famous "gaffes"...his mental fitness appears extremely compromised at this stage of the game. He would have to endure the circus and abuse of a showdown with Trump and only if he succeeds in that would he have the most stressful and arguably most important job in the world for a prize. Conifdent Joe B has 8 years left in the old tank, people?
There is a reason Obama has not come anywhere near an endorsement for him. Amy and Pete dropping out, presumably with favors guaranteed, is the only reason this man is now touted as the one to beat.
This factors out to Hillary 16' 2.0. The Democratic party is going to get what they deserve if he carries the mantel...Nothing at all was learned from before. I personally am fascinated with how this train wreck will end with mild nausea from the obviousness the DNC's hand in making this happen is and their willingness to run a terrible candidate in order to forgo even a semblance of party reinvention.
5
Hi Nick,
I appreciate your comments and well informed columns. I think you were in the Quad-Cities a few months ago, and I am sorry I was out of town and couldn't attend your presentation.
Your thoughts are mine with respect to Biden. Over many years Biden has accumulated some baggage, but that is what happens when you are in the arena. It is inevitable. More important to me is his vast knowledge of government and his many friends all over the world, and that he is a good and honorable man. Getting things done in politics requires personal relationships.
I think his policy proposals are sensible. To take one, I see no reason to overturn our current medical system. What is needed is a public option for those who lose their insurance for whatever reason, and can't acquire another policy. That is not a particularly complicated proposal.
I remain hopeful that Democrats will stay together for the sake of the country, and we will vote out President Trump.
9
I think that many voters just wish that Congress worked for them. Unfortunately it does not. It works for the 1%. Biden's support of the credit card companies in the rewriting of the bankruptcy bill is a perfect illustration of this.
As President, Biden will change nothing. The mainstream (i.e., the banks, the big newspapers, the wealthy etc.) will be perfectly happy with this. The other 90% of the population will continue to struggle.
I am starting to think that the US is not capable of meaningful change. There are so many obvious problems (healthcare, criminal justice, income and wealth inequality, gun control, and so on) that go unaddressed. The existing system just does not seem to work and there seems to be little appetite to fix it.
20
Democrats were also hoping Republicans would nominate Trump because we all thought Hilary would trounce him in a general election (which she sort of did in the popular vote).
With Biden, nothing changes. The only excitement around Biden is that he is not Trump.
Sanders might not actually get to enact many of his policy ideas (thankfully, neither has Trump), but as president he will swing the discussion back in the progressive direction (as Trump has in the opposite direction).
Americans could see that a Democratic Socialist does not mean the downfall of capitalism as we know it (although, it would be nice if it did) and might become more comfortable with electing more progressive candidates in the future (just has Trump has opened the floodgates for racists with no political experience).
Biden is fine if we think the country was actually fine prior to Trump. Sanders should be the choice if we actually want to at least inch away from the real problems and inequities that led us to Trump in the first place.
14
Yes sir – I’m going to rest easy if Joe Biden is elected president. Having a man who is a decent person as president, a man who doesn’t swear in public, well, by golly I guess the Coronavirus, climate change, and income inequality will suddenly disappear under the pressure of all that decency. Happy Days are here again!
But wait - if you remove Trump, all of the circumstances that put him in the White House in the first place will still be there, festering. You need bold policies to address huge problems like healthcare and pandemics, income inequality, and climate change. We don't need moderation and incrementalism to tackle challenges that are anything but incremental.
Joe Biden is a step backwards. He is beholden to the establishment that created him. It’s taking a knife to a gunfight.
If you think "being decent" is a return to normalcy, then Biden is your man. But if you are concerned about the future rather than returning to the status quo, then you need to look elsewhere.
And if Biden is elected, what do we do in four years? He has said he will be a one-term president. So we get to have this circus all over again and lose the advantage of an incumbent and allow the Republicans to regroup?
Sure Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and O’Rourke are supporting him – they want a job.
I’ll vote for Biden as an anti-Trump vote and nothing else. But then I’m moving on. The Democratic Party has nothing to offer a progressive. I’ll look for an alternative party that does.
20
Achievable. One single word that should define our aspirations for the goals of a Democratic presidential candidate. A Sanders presidency, I suspect, will look a lot like the Sanders Senate history - lots of proposing with little tangible results. Four more years of divisive arguing. I'll gladly vote for Biden.
6
@David DiRoma
Setting the bar at "achievable" guarantees that nothing more than that will ever be achieved.
4
I have voted for Biden twice in the past, and I later regretted those votes. Hope sprang a leak. Now, I shall hold my nose and vote for him again, assuming that he will face Trump, and knowing that we (not Biden) will have defeated him. Hmmm, three strikes....
2
This morning I removed a large Mike Bloomberg 2020 sign from the grass in front of our suburban home where I had pounded it deeply into the ground three weeks ago.
I had made the mistake of thinking that Bloomberg could beat Bernie Sanders handily and then Donald Trump in November, because Bloomberg is tough, has an organization and has plenty of money to pour into the campaign.
My bigger mistake was my assumption that no fiscal moderate could win because Joe Biden was too nice, had no organization and had no money to spend.
In 24 hours, the hope for democracy in America changed because of four nice guys (Biden, Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg and Jim Clyburn) and a very nice woman: Amy Klobuchar.
6
@sdw
Very well said. The thing I find most troubling about President Trump is the apparent joy he gets from being cruel and abusive. Certainly being President is no walk in the park, but there's no need for his intentional cruelty. The four nice guys and one nice woman you mention just made it to my personal hall of fame. History will judge them kindly as those who stood strong for human decency.
As a long time constituent of Biden, nothing irritates me more than to hear some ill-informed pundit use words like "solid working class credentials". You can't drive more than a few miles in Delaware without encountering the HQ of a global bank or credit card company, and Biden slavishly served their interests for 36 years. Most notably he sponsored the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which led to the 2008 financial meltdown. He also sponsored the bankruptcy "reform" bill that made it harder for the working class to get out of bankruptcy, and easier for banks to seize their homes. While Biden has many admirable qualities as a father, he crosses the line into patronage. Much is made of Hunter Biden's astonishing appointment to the board of a Ukranian gas company while daddy was VP, but the more egregious appointment was to a rich position at BOA, who contibuted to daddy's campaigns, and lobbied him his whole Senate career. Not very working class for a completely unqualified person with substance abuse issues to land these executive appointments, as a reward for policy favors from Dad.
16
Yikes. I was unaware of most of what you point out. Especially troubling are his sponsorship of Glass-Steagal repeal and bankruptcy reform, both to the detriment of those least able to afford the consequences. And nothing smacks of white priviledge quite as much as scratching corporate backs in exchange for securing prestigious positions for one's son, wayward or not. Though Sanders was unable to pass much meaningful legislation, at least he didn't throw millions under the bus by legislatively pandering to the financial sector. Thank you for speaking out on these issues, at least some of which are bound to come out in the course of Biden-Trump debates.
2
If people really care about change--and I'm not sure all that many really have the guts to change things--then they should be more focused on flipping the Senate and getting rid of the conservative state legislatures. After all, it's the conservative factions in the states that have, year after year, pulled state support for our public universities.
It doesn't matter if it's Biden or Bernie if we're stuck with our current Senate. Mitch will do whatever he can to obstruct the president.
8
You can be a dreamer or a pragmatist. Dreamers dream big, but dreams seldom come true.
It seems so dull and staid to accept practicality. Why settle, when Mr. Right (or Mr. Left, I guess) might be waiting just around the corner?
Why settle? We need Trump gone. Number one reason to vote for the Democrat and numbers two through ten as well. Because, nothing can get accomplished once the GOP has finished destroying government.
After reasons 1-10, which is let's all try to survive, we will actually have an opportunity to address how to survive better.
For all who say Biden won't change anything - THEY ARE WRONG! He will change the destructive trajectory of our present regime. Sanders? If he were to win, and that is a longshot - because voters rejected him Tuesday, not the Party - he'd not get his agenda done anyhow. There is still a Senate, and Court to contend with.
4
@Cathy
You're living in a country that would still be woods and prairies without big dreams. This country has never settled for "practical," which is what makes it so great.
I'm not sure how true that will be in 20 or 30 years, though.
5
I was a fervent young supporter of McGovern back in the day, so I can relate to Sanders' supporters. We were so sure we would win because we knew what was right for the country. Instead we were crushed in the 1972 election.
My Political Life Lesson #1: Social change is not unilateral. Other people with different opinions live here and they vote too. If you want to win, listen to the other guy and build bridges.
8
@DJY
You knew what was right for the future. And you were right. Now you're wrong, because elections should always be about the future, not what's safe and comfortable for old people. That's how we got Nixon, and how we got Reagan, and how we got the Bushes.
Someone your age should be voting for the interests of 20 year olds, not for your own interests. They're the ones who have to live with the consequences of whatever you're voting for or against.
That's political life lesson #2.
4
In 2016, I kept reading and hearing the same thing that goes along like this: I like Bernie, but I don't think he can beat Trump. If I remember correctly, the Times had Clinton's odds >80%... then she didn't win. I feel like history is repeating itself.
The reality is that the issues that Bernie stand for are not new. Healthcare and education costs, widening inequality, climate change, etc.. These issues are not new and they've marginally gotten better even when Democrats had majority in the house and senate. Most of these issues have gotten worse. I feel this is in part due to the effects of special interest and lobby groups.
The Affordable Care Act was a moderate approach to solving our healthcare problems, and 0 Republicans voted for it and they are still suing to have it dismantled. For young people like me, it's hard to imagine Biden solving these issues. Every time i hear him speak, it sounds like he's running for Obama's third term. I love Obama and his legacy is his legacy, but if marginal improvement in the status quo is all Biden offers, it will be difficult to convince young people en mass to vote for him and I worry 2016 will repeat itself.
22
@Cody
You are exactly right.
Not only will the result be a repeat of 2016. This will cause long term damage to the party.
The Democratic Party leadership is turning its back on young people and working class people.
I'm beginning to believe that young and working class people should do the same to the Democratic Party.
Who wants to part of a political organization that constantly tells you they will not give you what you want.
14
@Carl
Not only what we want, but more importantly what we need. We don't need to go back to the Obama years. That 8 years didn't solve any of our problems. Many of them are even worse now.
@Cody
Time to pull the plug on the corporate Democrats. You give them support and they slap you in the face. At best they throw you a bone. They need a hard comeuppance.
They have all the power and the money and won't change unless forced to.
We need to vote for Trump and let him be the hammer. Then we can go after the corporate Republicans.
Time to put the fear of God in them. Tried everything else.
Although I am for a government option and affordable medical care for all , I cannot help but think the approving shrug on the faces I saw when they hear Trump boast .." We will not allow socialists to ruin our medicare" ..
Yes GOP ... they have ruined it already and nothing left for socialists to ruin !
But come to think of the choices for common people . Joe seems to hold some hope.
If the Biden team is smart they will ask Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris to be his running mate. To me that would be a great ticket.
Bernie supporters, you are in denial about what Bernie could actually achieve as president. A lot of his proposals may have a hard time even passing a Democratic House, and his proposals are all DOA if McConnell is still leading the Senate.
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@MrDeepState
Sanders supporters aren't in denial about what can be done, moderates are in denial about what needs to be done.
If the Democratic Party is going to be all about short term thinking, it's dead in the water. The things that are worth fighting for don't happen in a day or a year or sometimes even in a decade. But you can be sure they will never happen if no one is fighting for them. That's today's Democrats.
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@J.C. Agree. Dead in the water via global warming sea rises or via viruses or because the growing inequality will become unviable (and Trump will increase it).
With regard to health care reform, somewhat paradoxically the greatest obstacle to Medicare for All may be Medicare. By conceding a public option for the all-powerful bloc of elderly voters and splitting them off from those low-income voters who are too young to qualify the health care industry saved itself.
People who need the public option, without seniors, are too small a voting bloc to effect reform. Incremental change under a "moderate" President Biden will allow the rapacious health care industry to continue to extract cash from lower income Americans with out-of-network surprise billing and all their other scams for decades to come. And most of the rest of the population seems ok with that.
4
@r a As a geriatrician, I agree with you. Communication about Medicare for All has not been clearly.
Many Seniors as you pointed out probably think that Medicare for All has no benefits for them because they already have Medicare. HOWEVER, the Sander's version of Medicare for All expands upon current Medicare to cover the holes in Medicare including co-pays for visits/ tests/ treatments; glasses; dental care; hearing aids; home health aides; nursing homes; and adult care. Currently, Medicare covers NONE of that which is why 67% of seniors have said they need to make choice between rent and medical care regularly.
I have tried to communicate with the Sanders team (I'm just an ordinary volunteer) about the need to clearly communicate what is different about Medicare for All vs. Medicare but haven't received a response.
If they could clearly communicate how Medicare for All is different, they might capture more of the senior vote as well those of their adult children (who currently spend lots of time/ money/ effort caring for their elders with no help from the gov't).
3
Biden defeating Trump carries with it not only the departure of the most ill-equipped president ever, it opens the possibility for Democratic control of Congress and the hope for meaningful bipartisanship. Those on the far right and left may not like it, but everyone else will.
Biden is not going to take us back to the past. The past is past. We live in the present always. He's not going to do nothing. His first task is to repair the damage caused by Trump.
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@John
Biden doesn't have what it takes and is failing fast.
He himself said (to big money donors) that nothing would change. He's on his way out, has no concern for the future or the People. As an old style politician he will not change at all.
But he'll give Trump a landslide - he'll never win the national, it is impossible. The moderates will vote for him, but who else? Everyone else will vote for Trump.
Trump's not as bad as the mainstream media wants you to believe with their total Trump hate. That's how they make their money. Trump has not killed thousands in senseless wars like most other presidents (which should be worth a lot), and he's changed the conversation on trade, China, and forever wars. His negatives are primarily that he's nasty and a petty grifter and part-time racist, and signs whatever the corporate Republicans want.
The problem is really the Republicans. But can't get at them without getting rid of their buddies the corporate Democrats. If you want meaningful change need to get rid of both corporate parties. Trump can help with that - then we get rid of him. But first things first.
Seems to me that The People feel that the government is slipping out of their power. Trump sold them a bill of goods. Bernie is trying to get them to take the reigns, but it appears Stockholm syndrome is alive and well, made more convincing by the 'expert' pundit class. Biden is a 'return to form' but post-Trump. I'll settle for Biden's 'Meh,' but I hope he doesn't turn out to be Hillary/Kerry 2.0.
6
Mr. Kristof: can you speak to why 350 dot org endorsed Bernie Sanders (as well as Elizabeth Warren). Can you speak to why the Sunrise Movement endorsed Sanders too?
Addressing climate change is the biggest issue of our day and the clock is ticking. Do you really think that Biden and his supporters feel the same urgency as Sanders and his supporters? I don't.
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@Innisfree
Climate change is the existential issue and an incredibly urgent one at that. However, if Bernie has to prioritize between climate and MFA, his choice is MFA. Just watch any of his speeches - climate is way down on the list.
1
@BR Climate is far less of an issue for Biden.
Joe Biden is going to foster and facilitate genuine change. That’s a good one. Thanks for the afternoon chuckle, Mr. Kristof.
15
I often get the impression that Bernie's supporters think that all they have to do is elect Bernie and they will wake up in an egalitarian paradise. It won't work that way. Remember how Obama struggled to get the ACA passed by a House and Senate that had Democratic majorities. Getting the promised land will much, much more complicated than electing Bernie Sanders.
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And you think it’s going to be easier with Joe Biden? The Republicans will play him like a fiddle.
@Cornflower Rhys
I don't know where you get that impression, unless you think anyone who supports Sanders is dumb and naive.
Getting to the promised land is complicated, but it's impossible to get there with a Democratic Party elite that refuses to talk about it, let alone fight for it. Biden will be a step backward.
I had come to a similar conclusion about the need for a moderate Democratic candidate to both beat Trump and to gain seats. I will have a hard time accepting Biden if he doesn't have something to answer to his grave mistake of not supporting Anita Hill and lack of judgement about Clarence Thomas.
The Democratic party leaders also need to take a breath and reflect on how they can acknowledge the contribution of Bernie's ideas and energy and consistent message instead of giving the appearance that he is thought of as an interloper by the establishment. Sanders response to charges of being a socialist was to point out that this is already a socialist country but for the 1%. I found that a striking statement.
I would prefer to see Warren as VP.
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@TS
How about Bernie as VP, and all the other candidates as cabinet members...
Biden as the change candidate is wishful thinking. If he is not the status quo candidate he is at best the status quo ante candidate.
Regarding the idea that Sanders hasn't got anything done-think again. He has already gotten a lot done. First, he has been instrumental in normalizing the idea of a $15/hr minimum wage. Recall that only 4 years ago Hilary Clinton was calling $15 unrealistic and had, metaphorically speaking, to be dragged kicking and screaming to even $12. Similarly with decent health care for all Americans. Although this goal is not yet achieved, Sanders tenacity has kept this issue in the forefront, and not just item whatever in every candidates bag of campaign promises on which they really have no plan to spend much political capital if elected. Recall Bloomberg's NYT'S piece a few weeks ago titled "Inequality is my priority". Today suspending his campaign a he listed his priorities-gun control, climate change, etc,-no mention of income/wealth inequality.
Conservative Democrat Lloyd Blankfein, ex head of Goldman Sachs & self- described Democrat recently said " I think I might find it harder to vote for Bernie than for Trump. Many progressive Democrats, weary of years of domination of Democratic policy by the corporate and establishment ( Biden) wing of the party, given new hope by Sanders/ Warren may now consider themselves progressives first and Democrats second. Questionable whether Biden can convince them that he deserves their support.
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Biden said we can't get to zero emissions by 2030.
We need to get to zero emissions by 2030.
The UN reports that we have a little over a decade to do anything about climate change with any agency or we might as well give up.
I'm sticking with Bernie.
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@Innisfree I'm a climate scientist. We can't get to zero emissions by 2030, period. 25-50% of all emissions come from things that we currently have no alternative for, like airplanes, the production of concrete, etc. At some point, the quality of life reductions from extreme reductions in fossil fuel use actually supersede the damage caused by warming; are you prepared to tell billions of people in developing countries that they need to wait to build new hospitals until we figure out how to do it without emissions? Millions will die from preventable illnesses.
On top of that, two of the best ways to speed up and bridge the transition from a high-carbon economy to a low carbon economy, namely nuclear energy (renewables don't work as baseline in many areas because of inconsistency and lacking battery tech) and carbon pricing, both of which are conspicuously, and egregiously, absent from Bernie's "plans". He actually wrote a huff post article about the importance of carbon pricing in 2014, and was totally on point then. The only thing that has changed in the meantime is his willingness to lie. He is not a viable climate candidate because he wouldn't be able to pass anything at all.
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@Alec @Alec 350 dot org and the Sunrise Movement both endorsed Sanders. Greenpeace gave Bernie the highest rating of any candidate.
I don't think Joe Biden is going to do much of anything about this crisis. It's going to be business as usual for Wall Street.
I'm glad I don't have children.
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@Innisfree
I wish, but don’t believe Bernie on climate. His priorities is MFA. Listen to any campaign speech - he comes to climate as a fifth or sixth priority.
Sanders supporters who are bemoaning the struggles of their candidate would do well to dis-enthrall themselves from Sanders personally and focus on creating a social, political, and cultural climate that forces a moderate president and congress to pursue progressive legislation. While Sanders has galvanized a movement, that movement shouldn't tie itself to Sanders so firmly that it either disintegrates without Sanders himself or alienates all moderate support.
Historically, the presidents who achieved the most progressive changes -- FDR, Truman, LBJ, Obama -- have all positioned themselves as moderates and pursued conservative allies.
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@Holly V.
You've been reading too many NY Times op-eds. This isn't a cult. This is a progressive movement that will outlive Bernie Sanders. He didn't invent it, nor will it die with him. He's merely the closest thing we've had in my lifetime to a candidate that represents our values and our goals.
Progressives aren't alienating moderates. You have that exactly backward. Every institution of power in this country, including the NY Times, is actively fighting against a progressive movement.
2
@Holly V.
Obama has shown us that moderate candidates don't pursue progressive legislation.
Progressives are just about through being told by moderates to support corporate toadies.
@J.C. Sanders is alienating moderates by insisting that they're all corrupt corporate shills. The toxic faction of Sanders's online supporters are harassing and doxing journalists and Lord-knows-who-else. Moreover, there is an element of Sanders supporters that are doing their darndest to alienate Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren represents progressive values and goals, as she is advocating for essentially the exact same things, yet for some reason she gets inundated with online vitriol. The progressives don't need the NY Times to undermine it -- they're doing just fine on their own. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-staffer-mocked-elizabeth-warrens-looks-pete-buttigiegs-sexuality-on-private-twitter-account
@Carl The Affordable Care Act is what progressive legislation looks like when it goes through the congressional meat grinder. If Sanders thinks he can do better good luck to him, but I think he's kidding himself.
1
You are right, Mr. Kristof. The real change candidate is the one whose proposals and goals are both forward looking and achievable and the one who has the decency and competence needed to attract and marshal the help he/she must have to succeed in bringing those proposals and goals to fruition. Joe Biden is that candidate.
4
I agree with Bernie's policy opinions, but I do not believe he has any idea of how to achieve them. There is no support in the congress, let alone the country, for "medicare for all." At this point, 4 years of quiet decency, repair of international relations, and restructuring of existing social services is all we need to recover from Trump. Let the revolution wait for a younger and more appealing and vital person who might achieve the goals. Even if Bernie were elected (which I doubt) he could not fulfill any of his vision with our current congress.
9
To the so-called moderate ‘left’: please stop buying what is being sold to you. The establishment ‘left’ has overseen the most unequal distribution of wealth in history. It has voted to repeal the separations between commercial and investment banking. It has supported legislation making it more difficult for working families to discharge credit card debt in bankruptcy. It has voted for the Iraq war.
Is this what you thought they were campaigning for? Is this what aligns with your priorities?
To the people who can’t draw their attention away from Donald Trump: please stop engaging with the convenient fiction that he represents all that is evil. Our country is sick, and it’s not because of Donald Trump. But that narrative does conveniently help the truly powerful malign interests in our country.
Just a friendly reminder in case you have been seduced, again, by the politicians and the media, and perhaps the (maybe secret) perception that the moderate ‘left’ will be better for your 401k.
10
Yes. Biden is the "change" candidate alright. We will continue to have effectively unabated CLIMATE CHANGE under Biden.
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@Tyrone
Biden has said he'd return the US to the Paris Climate Accord. And why wouldn't he?
I also would not diminish the role a percentage of the younger voters who voted for Biden played. I think the thought was that number would almost not register but it turned out to be bigger than those who support Sanders thought it would be. I would like to believe that those are the ones who were not just getting caught up in the pomp and circus that Bernie brings and actually recognized that in this current climate radical change is too polarizing and would actually lead to 4 more years of Trump. No revolution has ever been able to change a government without blood in the streets (France, Iran, Russia the first time, Cuba, etc.) and that was simply not going to happen here.
4
Nope. I'm following Elizabeth Warren's advice - "Cast a vote you can be proud of".
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@sooberg1115
Even if its for failure. Kristof is not exactly a raving righty but he can prioritize. Think about it.
I was recently listening to my senior, Tennessee, moderate republican mother-in-law rant about how she'd never vote for a socialist like Bernie. She is the quintessential potential swing voter and she always votes. I think she can easily be persuaded to vote for Joe.
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@Katherine does your senior mother in law understand the concept of social security and Medicare and how she benefits from taxpayer funded programs and services (Socialism). Perhaps she can be persuaded to take a civics class.
1
Mr. Kristof says "Biden’s rescuers weren’t party elders but a marginalized constituency that is often taken for granted: Southern blacks."
Not quite. At least some Southern blacks were responding to party elders like Jim Clyburn. If Biden wins, the disenfranchised in America will have years more of status quo. Biden is not the person who will provide universal healthcare, or affordable public college, or reduce homelessness, or help those underwater with student loan debt. What Mr. Kristof doesn't grasp is that there are black people among the party elders, and the advice they dispense may not be best for their disenfranchised constituents.
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@ShenBowen
You're not giving those voters agency in their own decisions. Maybe they know what they want better than you know what they want.
This article should have a reader warning that the title has nothing to do with the content. Stating that Biden is the change candidate and then not list one concrete change that Biden will enable is a quizzical position and based on a assumption that Sanders would lead to a Republican congress, backed up by a link to a article by Jonathon Chait. The person who wanted Trump to be the Republican nominee as he would be easy to beat, supported the Iraq war and now states that Trump has been a Russian mole since 1987! The title of this article should have been Biden is the Fear Candidate. Fear of losing the congress and also of seeing the Democratic party becoming unelectable. That itself is a false conclusion based on the scar that exists from 1972. The USA of today post 2008 and the USA of 1972 (the salad days for the middle class) are miles apart. As has happened throughout history populism surges after a major economic crisis and Trump got elected on a ticket of national populism. Bernie offers democratic socialist populism and so would make more inroads with a electorate. They had hope and change (which can mean anything) with Obama, They liked the president but saw no real changes to the world that existed post 2008. So what will the DNC do with this new political reality and landscape? Keep putting forward Clinton, Biden, probably Pete in 2024 (after we lose to Trump with Biden) but at least we will have the congress (maybe) fight ghosts and battles no longer relevant.
1
"Still, Sanders is the single most liberal member of the Senate, according to GovTrack, and old-timers remember what happened to Barry Goldwater on the right and George McGovern on the left. Democratic members of the House."
Except in 1972 there was a middle class, and the US landed on the moon.
Reagan is basically Goldwater 1980. Then came the more extremist W, whom Kristof sold as moderate republican throughout the summer of 2000. Then there's Trump, who's not quite as bad as the unelected W.
2
"Biden would give out his private cellphone number to strangers who had suffered great personal loss, saying: If you feel low and have no place to turn, call me."
The mark of a truly kind soul. Exactly the opposite of Trump, whose cruelty and pettiness have eroded our national values.
Biden is not a dream candidate. He certainly has flaws. But his personal integrity and genuine call for unity could prove to be very appealing for many Americans, including some Republicans.
Personally, I've found the past few days rejuvenating. Seeing Pete and Amy - both quality candidates - step aside and support Biden, and then have Bloomberg join the team as well..... It feels like an amazing team effort. We can DO THIS!
9
I agree with much of the progressive agenda.
However, Job 1 is to defeat Trump on 11/3/20 and right the ship of state, which seems to favor Biden in key electoral college districts.
Job 2 is to put two Justices on the Supreme Court to stop the carnage of right wing decisions that have more damaging impact than any legislation.
Job 3 is to get back to local and state grassroots efforts to build coalitions that will eventually move the country away from a corrupt oligarchy to a nation that works for all people.
If we can do Jobs 1,2 and 3 from now over the next four years, the baton will pass to younger generations who can make their progressive dreams happen. Right now we're just doing triage.
16
@JB OK-when you admit "we're just doing triage" it feels better. More truthful, I guess.
Progressives sat on their hands in 2016 and Trump is eternally grateful. Hopefully in 2020 the need to remove Trump will override Progressive animus towards Biden, who is the ultimate inside-the-beltway status quo candidate.
1
@Peter J.
Not, gonna happen. The Democratic Party has not learned its lesson from 2016. At this point I'd like nothing more than to see Trump win In a landslide and Republicans get both houses of Congress. Maybe then the Democratic Party will stop being the wimp party and get the message. NO MORE CORPORATE TOADIES!
Just looking at some data out of CA and it looks as if Klobuchar and Buttigieg were each pulling about around 15% of the early voting preferences. If Uncle Joe had pulled those he would probably have carried the state.
1
"If you want to oust President Trump this fall and then achieve far-reaching changes such as universal health care, whom should you vote for?"
In the Democratic Primary? Bernie Sanders.
Biden as nominee will lose to Trump.
2
@Yaj
That must be why Trump is boosting Sanders LOL
I agree Nicholas Kristoff .
One thing is absolutely crucial is winning congress too.
Obama did succeed in his Obama care because Democratic house.
Bernie should tell the truth, When he push Medicare for all and abolish private insurance, , I do not believe that he can even convince democrats.
First of all yes some very prominent democrats are in cahoots with this industry, and GOP default can be counted enslaved by this industry.
Second in 320 million population, which Bernie always repeats in his talks, US is the only country doesn't have universal care, he never explain what this mean.
This means, we are so late the cost of overhauling Health care once and for all at this moment just impossible. What we are talking here is US since 1980 didn't do anything about this issue , 40 years of doing nothing translates it self devastating consequences no need to tell , we are living in.
We need to start improving this conditions, Obama care was the first step but significantly damaged by pro rich 1% republicans.
Biden will be healing candidate.
4
Biden is status quo period. He already said out of his own mouth that "Nothing will fundamentally change" should he be elected. Given the results last night Elizabeth Warren will probably have to drop out. My personal hope is that she endorses Bernie but even if she does not a large portion of her supporters will probably travel over to Sanders because the agendas are so similar. By the way many of the states Biden won will definitely go bright red in the general. This primary election season is just beginning and still fluid. America needs real change. I am still a Bernie 2020 supporter and voter.
6
@Marian
Actually Sanders is status quo. IE four more years of Trump. You then give the classic anti democratic argument that all those black and white Democrats in the South and Mid West can be ignored. It's essentially the same argument advanced by Republicans that CA voters should ignored.
5
@Marian Yeah, but Biden nails down Virginia and puts into play states like North Carolina, maybe Ohio and Florida. Bernie doesn't.
@John Disagree with your assessment of my comment. No voters should be ignored or taken for granted. But to insinuate that Biden is going to carry South Carolina in the general is foolish. Biden is actually offering Black voters nothing beyond I am not Trump. Even if Sanders only gets a small portion of his agenda through it would be a major help to African Americans who are disproportionately working poor and working class. Biden is a corporate tool. He constantly refers to Black voters as his personal "fire wall" which is demeaning. He will do whatever his wealthy donors and supporters demand of him because that is what he has ALWAYS done.Working class folks be damned.
Years ago, I found myself a new professor at a university in turmoil. The aggressive acts of the prior president caused upset throughout campus and 50 senior faculty walked out. The university was at a tipping point. Then, a calm, and sophisticated president was hired who even "looked the part."
Thinking back, I have no idea of his policy changes. But I remember a big holiday party that everyone attended and his hearty hellos in the hallway. Turnover dropped and the school thrives today.
We have a similar choice. Voters can select someone that wants more change and upset. Or elect a steady person that exudes calm, dignity and supports our cherished institutions. Joe Biden is our choice. We need him now.
8
The Biden surge has a long way to go to November, but Democrats are incredibly motivated. Best of all, Biden's strength is that he isn't scary and he can help the Democrats take the House and, if the stars are aligned, the Senate to boot. That's the real prize. The GOP needs to be humiliated and demolished, to be punished for aiding and abetting Trump. America's future depends on the cleansing of a truly epoch-making earthquake of an election. Biden's next four years will just be the first act in a vastly changing world.
9
Biden will only restore some semblance of order and undo the mess. But change that we can believe in?? That would frankly be a miracle. There are major issues plaguing our workforce, our personal debt, the climate, prison reform, drug reform, pharmaceutical and healthcare costs, de-regulated markets, (etc etc) that all need addressing. Does Joe seem like the kind of person that can make these changes? I'm having a hard time thinking he can.
7
The irony of the timing of the fall of Sanders has not been mentioned in the media, so let me play talking head. And please chime in. His fall started right after his 60 Minutes interview after he waxed nostalgic about his 'amigo' Castro. He never walked back his intransigent position later in a town hall meeting, and since then his star has continued to fall. So, if Sanders wants to blame anyone for his newfound weakness, he can thank Fidel Castro. Of course we can mix in Castro's ghost with the greatness of James Clyburn's stature.
7
For the last 40 years, the middle and lower classes have borne declines in wages, health, education, justice, environment, overall standard of living.
This is undeniable, the statistics are clear.
Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible; and Joe Biden is on the wrong side of those decisions.
That American middle- and lower-class voters continue to vote--for 40 years!--for those who have damaged their lives and their children's lives, is beyond sad.
8
Sounds like you give politicians in general too much credit for what happens in your life.
Agree! Joe needs to undo all the bad things Trump has done. A list too long to mention here!
4