Apparently some deity or other decided the USA needed “show business” to combine with politics in precisely that manure, er, manner.
Just out: Biden polling better than Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O’Rourke — put together.
For those who favor other candidates, it’s neither surprising nor alarming that the poll numbers significantly favor Biden at this point. Other than Bernie Sanders he’s the most recognizable name among those running. We won’t know anything until we begin to see Biden against other candidates side-by-side in the televised debates.
Biden might have made a good move tactically by not revealing too much of his platform specifics too early. Just his name alone will buy him time to craft a message. I think there are some openings in Bernie Sanders and those who have already pinned themselves into a corner by staking bold positions. We already know, for instance, that Bernie wants to effectively push private insurance companies out of the health insurance industry altogether. It would be very easy to characterize Sanders as a whack job and too scary to vote for. And some of the other candidates have already drunk some of the Sanders Kool-Aid.
I’ll just note that it’s whoever Trump doesn’t talk about that he’s the most worried about winning against.
He’ll try to pump up the media for the person he wants to compete against, even if it means leaking to the press that he’s “so scared” about that person.
So he must be extremely butt-puckered about Jay Inslee and Eric Swalwell then.
No idea. It narrows it down but doesn’t tell you much when there are so many options.
You just said Trump’s most worried about the ones he’s not talking about. You think he’s worried about the ones polling at under 10%, but not Biden?
Sign me up for the Biden team. He’s doing the right thing- taking the fight directly to Donald while staying above the primary fray. If he has the support, why pick an intra-party fight? He’s saying the right things, reminding us that we’re better than what we’ve had the past 2 years. Asking the crowd if they benefited from the tax cut was a good move. He needs to keep whacking Donald’s knees. And he should keep bringing up Charlottesville, Donald will take the bait every single time and keep doubling down for his white nationalist base. Sure, he’s had some clinkers- floating Stacey Abrams as a veep was bonheaded, as was his ham fisted attempt to make up with Anita Hill. But rather than run someone who the GOP will paint with a hammer and sickle, let’s run someone who can actually win.
I saw some clips of Biden’s speech in Pittsburgh. The content was fine, but his enunciation was worrisome in several cases.
I may not like Biden, but a lot of other people clearly do. He’s gotten a VERY good announcement bump.
Per 538, Morning Consult’s poll has him going from 30% to 36% support - and only half the time the 36% poll was in the field, was after Biden’s announcement.
Also per 538, CNN has him at 39%, from 28% in mid-March.
And Quinnipiac has him at 38%, up from 29% at the end of March.
He’s the front runner, no question about it.
Missed this the first time around. Can’t say I’m a fan of that, especially the student-loan parts.
Still, not necessarily a deal-breaker. Not in the tank for Joe, but not entirely out, either.
Given his anti-socialist moves, I’m guessing that he’s trying to push for Bernie to make it to the top of the pile. That’s probably who he wants to challenge most. I don’t know that he has said much about Biden so far, but I think he has mentioned him more than most of the no-names.
As to the polls, I wouldn’t worry about them yet. What name actually floats to the top won’t manifest itself until the primaries begin. But, in general, the more the better.
I agree that Trump would enjoy being deceptive in this way. But I don’t believe he possesses the self-control it would take to refrain from sniping at the people that worry him most, and to conceal who it is who ‘actually’ worries him.
I think he’s tweeting about the people who do worry him.
Like others in the thread I’m not even remotely enthusiastic about Biden, but he’s doings some things right. The early endorsement by the firefighters union–and having them prominently standing behind him at speeches–was smart. That cuts directly at Trump’s lies about how HE is the worker’s friend and the tough guy that other tough guys admire.
One of my chief objections to Biden was the vulnerability created by his previous, losing, Presidential runs. But after all, Trump ran for president before 2016 and lost (the 2000 attempt, at least, went pretty far), too. So that may not be as much of a vulnerability as I’d feared.
Trump ran in the reform party in 2000 but only for a short time. but back then he was liberal on some social issues.
True, but my comment was in response to a claim about younger voters fondly remembering the Obama era. I don’t see enthusiasm among my peers for Biden.
Why is this the right thing? I get this impression that Biden is vulnerable on a lot of the same issues that Clinton was, and I think that’s why Biden is far less focused on the issues than several other candidates. I mean, when I think Biden, I think
1994 Crime Bill
the Iraq War
Wall Street ties
NAFTA and TPP support (which Trump is going to hammer him on)
welfare reform
the Patriot Act
against Net Neutrality
the War on Drugs
the RAVE Act (admittedly, no one cares about the RAVE Act but me :))
Anita Hill
the Hyde Amendment
voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment (I mean, I’ll give him credit for supporting same-sex marriage before Obama, but we were gay long before 2012)
The positives are the VAWA, his record on gun control, and in some part his record on climate change (which is huge step up from Trump, admittedly). What do y’all see in him? He seems like another John Kerry / Hillary Clinton, and I’d honestly rather have Clinton run again.
Trump will love running against someone with a 40+ year record to go after.
Add in he is a corprocrat to his bones. Has been his entire career, particularly for the banks and he shows no signs of slowing down. His very first fundraiser was at a Comcast executive’s house attended by health insurance executives and GOP donors.
Remember too that Comcast owns NBC and that after the fundraiser Biden hired an NBC communications director to his campaign.
Clinton-like $150,000 speaking fees.
He is Hillary Clinton warmed over and I really cannot understand why democrats want more of this. Get the DNC in the bag for him ala Clinton. Get the superdelegates on his side ala Clinton (which have much less power since the last election but would be a factor at a contested convention). Get the media pulling for him ala Clinton.
She lost to one of the worst candidates in history and it is not because of Bernie Bros. Putting Biden up in the general election is exactly the kind of person so many hated when it was HRC up there. Trump was a vote for change and not more of insiders like HRC running the show. Trump was a ridiculous choice and yet we got Trump. Consider that before pulling the lever for Biden. He is everything HRC was and maybe more.
Left to you it would never happen because it will always be an unknown and people will always be fearful of the unknown.
The ball needs to get rolling and now is better than later. It is not like the change would happen over night. It would be a long, drawn out process with no shortage of squabbling over it. But it needs to start.
You can compare him to Hillary Clinton on paper all you want. I mean, on paper, are any of them *that *much different than Obama?
Watch him on the stump. Watch what states and voters he focuses on. He’s everything Hillary wasn’t.