Right. But there is a noisy group of progressives who will always be quick to insist that every mainstream Democrat who loses did so because they didn’t go far enough to the left. When there is obvious counterevidence like last fall, they still manage to twist the narrative to suit them.
In that case it was not just wishful thinking, but flat out dishonesty or delusion: supposedly Democrats took back the House because of the “energy” of progressives like AOC, even though she did not flip a seat and the 40 or so Democrats who did flip seats were almost all moderates. And then cases of progressives like Andrew Gillum losing winnable races are just never spoken of.
They always, always, always proceed from their conclusions, the facts be damned.
I agree that this is a good strategy. But Biden is too old and feeble to pull it off, particularly since he was not all that politically deft even when he was younger.
If he keeps making it evident that his effort to appeal to the center means he treats everyone else like “no one”, he’s going to hurt his own chances at getting nominated. There are plenty of clips out there of Hillary forecasting the problems we are seeing in this administration right now, but at the time, she was ignored, belittled, and called shrill. Biden can’t even bring himself to validate what she said.
Let’s be clear, everyone understands the psychology of his remark. Lol. Y’all are overexplaining something that everyone else sees as transparent pandering.
He’s not treating everyone else like they’re no one, but everyone else is going to have to accept that they may not get everything on their progressive wish list. Ideally, an effective progressive president is one who takes the energy from the left and tests the center to see which ideas have a chance of succeeding, and then that president fights like hell to get those ideas that have a chance of passing.
Going back to the example of the ACA, I sometimes wish that Obama had fought harder for a public option. The problem he faced, however, was that he was an incoming president whose real mandate was to deal with the financial crisis and its after-effects. And he was trying to achieve legislation that had been attempted and gone down in flames time and time again since the early 1990s, so the degree of difficulty was pretty high.
Funny how things that “everyone understands” seem to be ignored until they are pointed out, and how what “everyone else sees” as so negative keeps resulting in his staying on top of the polls.
In point of fact what everyone knows is that this sort of positioning is the authentic Biden. OTOH the race to out-pander to the farther Left parts of the party by some other candidates is pathetic. It seems that his not pandering to them like they are is what upsets you somehow. But pandering is not who he is.
Meanwhile Biden is indeed addressing the issues that matter to likely voters in Democratic primaries. He’s spoken specifically about healthcare (and is where most voters are there, wanting a public *option[i/], not getting rid of insurance); criminal justice reform; income inequality; he was part of the Obama’s administration’s delivering the Paris Climate Accords … and he’s sounded pretty strong and vital as he’s done it. But yes what Democratic primary voters care most about, what is treating them the most like what they think matters, is demonstrating that he can deliver the solid win. The ONE thing that has hurt him was Harris’s parry that made some question THAT and addressing that is what matters most to winning the nom.
Meanwhile we all know it has no predictive value, that is merely an indication of where voters are at this moment, not where they will be November 2020 but Biden leads Trump in Ohio head to head, 50 to 42. Poll Results | Quinnipiac University Poll Dayum.
At the next round of debates I would love to see the candidates stop trying to cut each other down, and focus on beating Trump as the thing that qualifies them most. Looks like the Mueller stuff is a complete wash now, so beating Trump together has to be priority one. And I want a new car, nevermind a pony.
Yeah, they’re going to go after each other’s throats because that’s what a competition is about: winning. And the way to win in politics is to tear the other guy (or gal) down.
On that note, I fully expect Kamala Harris and other candidates to go right back at Biden where it hurt him the last time: attacks that insinuate he’s too old, white, and out of touch with today’s Democratic party.
They’re going to attack because the only one of them steadily making any headway is Warren, and she is still way behind, and because the play resulted in some, albeit already fading, bump up for Harris last time and politicians aint so creative: they copy what seemed to work.
But yeah it will play badly. Biden has already in media appearances showed that he is more ready for it. Admittedly this is a low bar, but he will do better than last time. Harris in particular will come off badly if she plays the same cards again. And it did NOT work to gain her anything in SC which is a must perform strong state for her. (She’s moved up but is still 27 behind him and is not over the 15% threshold mark in both recent quality polls.)
Meanwhile looking at individual polls and the RCP average Biden is set to haver a few states possibly go as his being winner take all. Both SC and Ohio today for example have no one else over that 15% threshold. On RCP you have the three each sometimes having a poll in which one gets over it or another and only the dropping Sanders averaging at it. Unless things change significantly he is set to have a few states in which gets all the delegates and several others in which he gets 2/3 and some alternating entry of other getting the other third (and a few in which it is more evenly split).
I think Biden makes the case himself, simply by being a dithering old man who slurs his speech and acts like a lost nursing home resident.
He. Is. Too. Old. How is this not obvious to everybody after that embarrassing debate performance? Forget Harris’ politically stupid forced busing attack- he is barely present as a politician and half the man he used to be.
I feel like I am being gaslighted by an entire political party. Is this what they want? Democrats being represented by an array of shuffling bleached skeletons like Biden, Pelosi and Schumer? Wow. Forget the various progressive rabble-rousers if you must- there are other, younger moderate white guys in the race too. “Moderate white guy” is probably the most common flavor among the 2 dozen candidates running. Biden offers nothing besides name recognition, and even Mueller looked less like Bernie Lomax yesterday than him. And that’s something.
You really are seeing something that, by his polling success, most voters are NOT seeing. You are not being gaslit, you are simply seeing that which is not there.
Or maybe since most of his support comes from people over 55, his supporters are ignoring the obvious signs of aging in him that they also routinely ignore in themselves.
And lol @ his “polling success.” Despite serving under a popular 2-term president and having one of the highest name recognition of any politician, he is polling at… about 33%. That’s two-thirds of primary voters who do not want him as the nominee. He is benefiting from too many people running, that’s it.
No question that his support is strongest in the older voting groups. YouGov has a great breakdown (see page 176). His support in the over 65 group is overwhelming. And he is in solid first place in the 45 to 64 group. Then he is in a fairly close second to an also aged Warren (and above the older Sanders who is next) in the 30 to 44 group.
The only group he actually polls poorly with is the 18 to 29 one, dropping to forth behind Buttigieg who trails Sanders and Warren. Sure maybe they see him as older than those over 30 see him.
Maybe everyone older than 29 should just let fucking go?
And the data is very clear that if the still number two positioned Sanders dropped out the lion’s share of his support would go to Biden. If Warren dropped out Harris would benefit most but Biden and Sanders would split a big other chunk. If Harris dropped Warren and Biden would mostly split her support. No, it simply is a false belief to think that those who do not say Biden is their first choice are saying they do not want him as the nominee. He is many voters second choice too. He in fact is currently (same YouGov poll) tied with Warren as the one most “considered”, at nearly half.
