“Lying, dog-faced pony soldier” may be the single stupidest thing a politician has ever said to a prospective voter.
I don’t think getting ratfucked was really what hurt Biden as much as the fact that he sucks at presidential campaigns - he’s run three times and flamed out all three times. The only reason he made it this far this time is because of his name-brand recognition.
I still go back to the fact that he had a huge advantage over the other candidates in Iowa and totally blew it. He had the advantages of name recognition, Obama nostalgia, and being straight over Pete Buttigieg - and Pete beat him. He had the advantages of actually being available to campaign while Warren, Klobuchar, and Sanders were tied up in the impeachment trial. Sanders thrashed Biden, Warren came out ahead of him, and Klobuchar surged. Biden just doesn’t get campaigning - that’s not a problem that moving the campaign to a friendlier part of the country can fix, either.
Earlier this evening, I saw him talking in one of the town halls, and rather than talking about specific issues, he’s getting into the weeds trying to play political pundit and explaining to supporters why he finished so poorly in the first two states. Biden has no real message of his own except “I’m electable” or “As Barack Obama’s equipment manager, I got to wash his jock strap.”
I was listening to a black comedian on NPR last weekend, and he had this to say about Iowa and NH : " Yeah, the *four *black voters in Iowa and the three Black voters in NH… those primaries dont mean much to me. "
No one expected Joe to do well in Iowa or NH, and as Alonzo said, the minority voters havent had a chance to speak yet. Let’s wait until South Carolina, eh?
His support is already cratering in SC if recent polls are to be believed. The concern among black voters in SC is that Biden is no longer a viable candidate. Black voters want winning nominees.
This. I don’t even know where the “ratfucked” thing came from. There’s no need to run some kind of conspiracy against Biden to ruin his campaign; he has only himself to blame. And at this point I honestly feel bad for the guy. Last week I watched this video that popped up on YouTube of Biden driving his 1967 Corvette on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. The video was from several years ago, and he talks about this treasured classic car with such excitement and joy - he seems completely at ease and it’s such a contrast from watching him in these debates, where he just radiates the energy of desperation and defensiveness.
Biden has been through so much sorrow in his own life. And I KNOW that, as much as I bash Biden after every debate, there’s a human being inside there who has a good heart. So I hate that he is spending the twilight years of his life in this unbelievably brutal campaign, fighting an uphill battle encumbered by the weight of his own terrible speaking skills and weird, awkward public persona. I know that he’s going to feel crushed and defeated if he fails to gain the nomination; I know that he’s REALLY going to feel crushed and defeated if he loses to Donald Trump.
Like I said…honestly - I feel bad for him.
Bernie with a BIG lead in new national Marist poll:
Bernie 31
Bloomberg 19
Biden 15
Warren 12
Klobuchar 9
Buttigieg 8
Goodness. The difference isn’t the so-called Russians or the GOP. The difference is social media and the fact that a few news organizations don’t have a non literal monopoly on information or messaging. Free mass media with unlimited reach and democracy is potentially dangerous.
Can we ask Bernie if that’s one of the rigged polls?
Sarcasm aside, it’s definitely an outlier, and I will always hate national polls, especially this year with the insanity of Bloomberg and Steyer bombing the airwaves.
The damn compressed primary schedule really sucks especially with CA and TX in Super Tuesday. Let’s say you’re Biden, you win SC. You get two days to gloat about being the Comeback Grandpa before Super Tuesday and tons of votes have already been cast.
Upon hearing this, a British person (or someone from just about anywhere in the world outside the US) wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I understand your point…but overall the US presidential race season is (obviously) anything but “compressed.” More like “never-ending, ridiculously, needlessly, exhaustingly, distractingly extended a crossing yawning chasms of time.” 
Solid post.
And I agree: Biden’s one of the good guys. He’s been a good career public servant, and he would have stepped up and done well enough to do the job if something had happened to Obama. But to use football parlance, he’s not the kind of individual who can field a punt at his goal line and take it to the house. He either doesn’t know how to put together that kind of campaign, or just doesn’t have the right sauce. Either way, I don’t see him winning. He might hang on for a while and he might even pick up a few Super Tuesday states, but he’s no longer the alpha dog in the centrist space: it’s Bloomberg’s show now, for better or worse.
The subliminal propaganda must have gotten to me because this is the first time my brain’s tried to insert an “x” into that poll name, and it keeps trying to do it every damn time I read this line!
in the opposite corner we have me versus the Australian elections on this message board
I can sympathize, because I’ve gotten sick of Bloomberg ads after only around 37 days, but there’s still the better part of the year I’ll have to look forward to here!
It just occurred to me that the next president is going to be one or more of:
The oldest ever elected
The youngest ever elected
The first woman
The first gay
The first Jewish president
The first socialist president
Or some combination of the above. The least remarkable, I guess, would be Klobuchar.
I admit that for an hour or three last week I may have entertained some “Bloomberg-curious” thoughts (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but reading this latest makes me go ‘Fuck This Guy’
Dueling videos! I wonder if this will play out on the debate stage tonight. I have my doubts, but it could be interesting to watch.
There is an intense Pete vs. Klobuchar rivalry: Yahoo News
Based on Bloomberg’s debate performance, all the XFL teams have a better defense than he does.
All the headlines this morning describe last night’s debate as “contentious.” Big deal. It’s not like they’re revealing secrets that Trump didn’t know. Better that the Democrats learn how to play defense now than after the convention.
Those two 30+ polls for Bernie are ominous. It is looking increasingly like 2016 where in principle it looked possible that Trump could be stopped but in practice the field just stayed divided and he went from strength to strength. I think Biden is the only candidate who could stop Bernie but he needs a big surge very soon and it’s hard to see where it comes from.
I don’t think Bernie is doomed to lose the general but nominating a 78 year socialist who has had a heart attack and who wants to abolish private health insurance is a gigantic risk for the Democrats in an election which is still very winnable.
The GOP has top mentors leading them intellectually (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Vladimir Vladimirovich, Jared Kushner and Don Jr.) but who have the Democrats got? Some blogger on Yahoo or Twitter?
We’ve got Paul Krugman. He’s just a Nobel Prize-winner instead of a lie-show celebrity, but we must make do with what we’ve got. What does he think about the health-care debate? Let’s see:
It sounds like he’d be happy with either approach, but thinks it a fantasy that a program like Sanders will pass Congress anytime soon.
But then he thinks Democrats might stop their stupid bickering. :smack: Who’s hoping for a fantasy now?