# Joe Biden's in **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 25, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042 "2019-04-25T16:13:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/61 "2019-04-25T22:32:33Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > …forty years ago (as it says in the first words of the cite). > > Nothing personal, RP, but wake me when they have something from _this_ century. > > Disclaimer: not in the tank for Joe. You think his position has changed? ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/62 "2019-04-25T22:34:17Z")
Joe Biden? Give me a fucking break. He should primary his fellow Republican, Donald Trump. The DNC will find a way to re-elect Trump. Maybe on the 2nd ballot, when SUPERDELEGATES appear thanks to that piece of shit tom perez. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/63 "2019-04-25T22:35:49Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > …forty years ago (as it says in the first words of the cite). Which was 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/64 "2019-04-25T22:39:10Z")
> [@choie](#): > > I’m glad we have a year to let things settle and learn more about the vast panoply of would-be nominees. Personal favorites are Swalwell (he’s fucking awesome), Buttigieg, Booker, Biden, Warren, Harris… basically, anyone but Gillibrand. I agree. Fuck Gillibrand. That said, if she wins the nomination, I will vote for her with a smile. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/65 "2019-04-25T22:46:42Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > I agree. Fuck Gillibrand. That said, if she wins the nomination, I will vote for her with a smile. What’s wrong with Gillibrand? She’s not my favorite, but far from my least favorite. Is it the Franken thing? If so, that actually made me like her more. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/66 "2019-04-25T23:12:49Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > A few observations about that, which I’ve seen before and which is obviously encouraging as far as it goes. But … > > 1. This must be the famous “silent majority” who apparently don’t bother voting. > > 2. The support for public UHC was even higher between 2000 and 2008. So this is not new. Yet Obama could only pass a highly watered-down version of it, notably _ **without** _ the public option. > > 3. The polling prior to 2000 isn’t shown. But only six years prior, Hillary’s health care initiative during the Clinton administration failed completely. > > 4. If Bernie (or anyone else supporting public UHC) becomes the nominee, you can expect both Republicans and the omnipotent health insurance lobby to come out swinging and attacking like they’ve never attacked before. It will make the “Harry and Louise” ad blitz that helped kill the Clinton reform initiative seem like an afternoon in daycare. There will be horror stories, scare tactics, dire warnings about death panels, anti-socialist tirades. They will destroy Bernie, totally and completely. They know how to do it. These people have been able to turn war heroes into putative criminals when it served their purposes. [Republicans were all for single payer](https://www.kff.org/slideshow/public-opinion-on-single-payer-national-health-plans-and-expanding-access-to-medicare-coverage/) (see slide #2) till Obama got in. Then Mitch McConnell & Co. made it their singular mission to oppose all things Obama (literally). IIRC correctly there was a poll showing the same people opposed to “Obamacare” but supported the “Affordable Care Act”. Conservatives are not the brightest bunch (some are but nowhere near enough…see my signature). That’s pretty much your answer right there. And McConnell has [vowed to oppose democratic proposals](https://www.salon.com/2019/04/24/mcconnell-vows-to-block-democratic-proposals-after-2020-elections-think-of-me-as-the-grim-reaper/) after the 2020 election. So fun times. That does not mean we shouldn’t want a candidate who will try. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/67 "2019-04-25T23:20:07Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > [Republicans were all for single payer](https://www.kff.org/slideshow/public-opinion-on-single-payer-national-health-plans-and-expanding-access-to-medicare-coverage/) (see slide #2) till Obama got in. That’s not what slide 2 says. The slide describes\* “percent who say they favor the federal government doing more to help provide health insurance for more Americans.”\* Republicans were at 72% in Nov-06, 49% in Sep-08, and 40% in Jan-19. Unless federal government doing more to help provide health insurance for more Americans = single payer, then I’d say your cite doesn’t support your assertion. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/68 "2019-04-25T23:36:39Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > That’s not what slide 2 says. The slide describes\* “percent who say they favor the federal government doing more to help provide health insurance for more Americans.”\* Republicans were at 72% in Nov-06, 49% in Sep-08, and 40% in Jan-19. > > Unless federal government doing more to help provide health insurance for more Americans = single payer, then I’d say your cite doesn’t support your assertion. Fine. They wanted healthcare reform of some sort. Something republicans are decidedly not doing even though a [majority of republicans want Medicare For All](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-progressives/) now. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/69 "2019-04-26T00:03:00Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > You think his position has changed? Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/70 "2019-04-26T14:40:25Z")
Look, I like Biden fine and I thought he was a good VP, but I’m just not feeling him now. He just isn’t where the party is today on a whole host of issues, and his constant chumminess with the enemy (the Republicans) is too disqualifying; the Republicans stole a Supreme Court seat FFS, so I want a candidate who’s ruthlessly efficient enough to defeat them everywhere and to then salt the earth over their political graves. All that said, I firmly believe that Biden would’ve cleaned Trump’s clock in 2016 - as would have Sanders BTW - so it’s even more tragic that his son died and he (understandably) chose not to run. He was also likely dissuaded that year by the Democratic Party’s incredibly stupid decision to preclear the field and coronate Hillary Clinton, but whatever. He is the tentative frontrunner now that he’s officially in I guess, but I don’t know how long that will hold. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/71 "2019-04-26T15:03:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > [Republicans were all for single payer](https://www.kff.org/slideshow/public-opinion-on-single-payer-national-health-plans-and-expanding-access-to-medicare-coverage/) (see slide #2) till Obama got in. Then Mitch McConnell & Co. made it their singular mission to oppose all things Obama (literally). IIRC correctly there was a poll showing the same people opposed to “Obamacare” but supported the “Affordable Care Act”. Conservatives are not the brightest bunch (some are but nowhere near enough…see my signature). > > That’s pretty much your answer right there. And McConnell has [vowed to oppose democratic proposals](https://www.salon.com/2019/04/24/mcconnell-vows-to-block-democratic-proposals-after-2020-elections-think-of-me-as-the-grim-reaper/) after the 2020 election. So fun times. > > That does not mean we shouldn’t want a candidate who will try. The problem, as with so many other issues, is that “moderates” and “independents” prevent are so much in the middle and afraid of the government taking any kind of bold action that there is no political consensus on this issue. A clear majority of people have been saying for some time “Fix healthcare” but when actual solutions are proposed it appears to be too much of a hassle. The average American views remaking healthcare the same way the average middle class homeowner views remodeling their kitchen and bathroom: costly, inconvenient, and ultimately unable to envision the long-term benefit. That’s why Obamacare, for all of its faults, was probably the most practical step in the right direction. Expanding medicaid and creating health marketplaces was much easier for the average person to wrap their heads around than single payer medicare for all. And that’s what I predict will ultimately happen if Bernie Sanders ends up on the big stage. The fact is that big ideas quite often scare the shit out of people once they start imagining all of the near-term headaches that may happen, including the imaginary headaches drawn up by Republican propaganda. Yes, Republicans will be Republicans, and they will oppose healthcare reform, just as we know that Democrats will support it. But it’s the ones in the middle who will have the last word, and I worry that the more “real” single payer becomes in the eyes of ordinary folk who, at least for now, are benefiting from economic growth and relative stability, the more I think Sanders’ politics will be bone jarring. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/72 "2019-04-26T15:12:16Z")
> [@2ManyTacos](#): > > Look, I like Biden fine and I thought he was a good VP, but I’m just not feeling him now. He just isn’t where the party is today on a whole host of issues, On top of that, he has run for president before back when being a moderate was “in” and he never got much traction. He has never had anything remotely close to a successful presidential run and he ran once in 1988 and again in 2008. People who think Joe is going to clean the bases are looking mostly at the electoral math and not thinking in terms of the person. Like you, I like Joe – seems like a good guy you can sit down and have beer and hot dogs with. But Joe the man hasn’t been a very effective political campaigner on the biggest stage. Joe Biden is very much like Hillary Clinton in that they both rehabbed their careers serving in the Obama administration. I predict that, as it was with Hillary, he’s going to find out that people will forget very quickly that he was once Obama’s wing man. It seems like they already have, and that doesn’t portend good thing for his campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/73 "2019-04-26T16:30:06Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You could also ask, why should anyone waste their time on Bernie, who proposes single-payer universal health care? > > I mean, it’s a great idea, but in the current American political landscape it makes him unelectable. That guy you mention above who beat Hillary? He proposed going in the opposite direction, and repealing Obamacare. And he won, despite having no actual ideas at all. Does that make “free health care at point of use” sound like a winning proposition in today’s right-wing America? But he did have ideas, just ideas that you, seemingly someone who doesn’t do much research on this, didn’t like, and he won. It was Hillary who didn’t have any specific ideas which were original, and Hillary who just presumed she could walk into the presidency. So yeah, your new best buddy Sanders platform of universal healthcare, is appealing to the majority of voters, even rightwing ones, which is why he is regularly polling as the number one candidate, your old buddies like Biden and Buttigieg and Beto have all been done before, in 2016, and failed miserably. So get used to paying more taxes for healthcare. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/74 "2019-04-26T16:36:23Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I still don’t understand the appeal of Biden and how he jumps to 1# in mere hours. He is an old white man and a throwback to the 1980s-1990s instead of the 2020s. What is generating the fireworks exactly? Let me put it this way: have YOU ever heard of Eric Swalwell? Or that Hickenlooper guy? Actually, not fair. Anyone who’s heard THAT name will never forget it. So, how about Bill Ryan or Jennifer Constantine? They aren’t running, as I just made them up, but for a moment, didn’t you think they were real? Biden is at the top because he’s known. Certainly not because of anything he’s done in the past, oh, decade or more. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/75 "2019-04-26T17:08:52Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Expanding medicaid and creating health marketplaces was much easier for the average person to wrap their heads around than single payer medicare for all. What could be easier for the public to understand than Medicare for All? It’s right in the name and we have no shortage of experience with it. Tell them to ask grandma how she likes her Medicare. Done and done. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/76 "2019-04-26T17:52:28Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > … Biden is at the top because he’s known. … A not insignificant nit to pick: because he’s known _and liked_, especially by some demographics that are widely thought of as _critical for electoral success_ at a presidential level. He may fizzle. It wouldn’t surprise given how he has fizzled when he’s run before. But lots of people are also “known” and don’t have the same approval ratings by those key groups. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/77 "2019-04-26T18:10:58Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#): > > But he did have ideas, just ideas that you, seemingly someone who doesn’t do much research on this, didn’t like, and he won. … Ideas. Trump. That’s putting it charitably. He ran on building a mythical wall, totally and completely banning Muslims (his words) from entering the country, and repealing (and replacing) the Affordable Care Act. None of which, of course, have happened. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/78 "2019-04-26T18:46:32Z")
Just got this in an email from the Biden people: > [@](#): > > we have some AMAZING news - > > Our campaign raised $6.3 million in its first 24 hours!! That’s more than any other presidential campaign so far!! > > And Happy, it’s proof we are running a truly grassroots campaign: > > 97% of online donations were under $200 > We received donations from all 50 states and US territories > The average online donation was $41 > So thank you so much to all 96,926 people who chipped in on Day One. We couldn’t have achieved this amazing milestone without you. So about $200,000 more than Beto’s first 24-hour draw. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/79 "2019-04-26T20:04:39Z")
I wonder what percent of his total donations came from online donors. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/80 "2019-04-26T20:05:57Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Ideas. Trump. That’s putting it charitably. He ran on building a mythical wall, totally and completely banning Muslims (his words) from entering the country, and repealing (and replacing) the Affordable Care Act. None of which, of course, have happened. I didn’t say they were good ideas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042.md?page=5)