Why do people like Joe Biden for President?

Politics & Elections
#1

Can someone explain to me why they like Joe Biden? I mean, I have nothing in particular against him, he gives a good speech, I’m sure he’d be heavily favored against Trump and would be a decent President. I just don’t get why so many people seem to have him as their first choice, or even insist that he is the only candidate who could beat Trump.

He spent most of hjs career representing a small, deep blue State. He’s already run for President twice and sank like a stone. The only thing he has going for him now that he didn’t then is a nostalgic association with Obama, and we see how well that worked for Hillary.

So what’s the deal, Biden backers? What personal qualities or record of accomplishment does he bring to the table that can’t be duplicated by multiple others?

#2

I’m not on Team Biden, (nothing against him either) but I think it’s because he’s perceived as authentic, very experienced, and with an appeal to white working class men (while also being an actual “liberal”). I guess the rest of the the party is expected to fall in line too (they probably would). I can’t think of anyone else with those particular attributes.

I think he’s an attractive candidate, but I’m open to others.

#3

Not a big Biden fan, but I think you overlook three things:

(1) Delaware was not a deep blue state when Biden was prominent there. It had a GOP Senator and GOP Governors in that era. He is a political moderate, through and through.

(2) Having served as VP for 8 years is a pretty good qualification, unmatched by anyone else in the field, to say nothing of his long Senate career with notable legislative accomplishments.

(3) He appeals to the white working class, a group in which the Democrats desperately need to stem the bleeding.

#4

Amen, brother.

#5

Losing in the primaries twice automatically makes him the frontrunner, because that’s how far gone the party is.

Just look at Beto. He secured his spot in the presidential race last Tuesday by losing a Senate race.

#6

I like Biden a lot, although my strong preference would be for the Dems to move on to the next generation for their next candidate. But pretty much everything folks have said here. He’s kind of a lovable curmudgeon who is generally respected by people of both sides who have worked with him. On the Dem side, being Obama’s trusty sidekick for 8 years certainly helped.

Drawbacks, besides his age, include his role in the Clarence Thomas hearings and a long career for enemies to manufacture scandals from. Not as bad as Clinton, but anyone who has been in the public eye for as long as Ol’ Joe will have a lot of history for opponents to mine for dirt.

#7

While this can be dismissed as “nostalgia”, it’s legitimate to note that Obama credits Biden’s experience and knowledge as a tremendous asset during his presidency, especially in the early years. While they weren’t close to start with and Biden was likely added to the ballot to give it some experience and white male-ness, the two men quickly because close friends and Biden was an active part of the administration versus being just the guy you send to state funerals.

Well, currently we have a guy with zero experience who just decided he wanted to be president and rolled the entire GOP field in short order.

#8

Yeah, why would you want somebody whose main claim to fame is losing a prominent Senate race as President?

#9

I don’t want the real Joe Biden as president, but would love The Onion’s version of Joe Biden for the job.

#10

This is such a stretch of a comparison that I can’t tell if you are joking or not.

I think we should abstain from using electoral victories from the 1800s to predict the chances of modern politicians. Reading entrails would turn out to be just as accurate.

#11

I second this. And he would win in a landslide.

#12

I think Biden would have won if he ran against Trump in 2016 instead of Hillary. Now? Well, I think it’s going to be harder with Trump as an incumbent (unless the economy crashes), but I still think it’s possible.

He’s charismatic, a fighter, experienced, a household name, and a white man. Yes, for the time being, Democrats are going to need to woo back working class whites, even if you think they’re racist. Winning is more important than pushing diversity right now. His big strike against him is his age, but that’s not as big of a factor when your opponent is old too.

#13

I don’t necessarily get the love for Biden either, especially since either time he tried to run for national office, he crashed and burned before January was over. I just don’t think he’s all that good at national campaigning.

#14

So far, you’ve described Bernie Sanders, except that independents like Bernie better. There are lots of other potential candidates who meet most of those criteria, too (with the exception of nobody else being a former VP).

And I completely disagree that we should be afraid of nominating a woman or minority. The people who have a problem with that just won’t vote Democrat no matter what, and we don’t need them to win. These things weren’t true until fairly recently, but they are now. The Democrats need to use the strategies that worked in this century for Obama, not the ones that worked last century for Bill Clinton.

Case in point: In Florida this week, the Democrats ran a moderate white guy for Senator, and a progressive black guy for Governor. They both got about the same vote shares. If whiteness is the key to winning for Democrats, how do you explain that?

#15

I think that he should have run in 2016. Now, I’m not convinced, in part because he’s now four years older, and in part because he missed his obvious chance.

Would I vote for him in the primaries anyway? I don’t know; it depends on who else is running. Would I vote for him in the general? Over Donald Trump, absolutely.

#16

Yeah, I’ve wondered about that too. It seems clear to me that Biden has a lot of problems that Trump could easily hook onto during a campaign.

For starters, there’s the old cases of plagiarism.

Much more significant, there’s Biden’s well-documented creepy behavior with women and girls, and this is something that Democrats would be smart to consider before they rush to crown him as the nominee. There are plenty of videos on Youtube dealing with it so trying to keep the conversation out of the media forever probably isn’t a good plan. Some liberal sites like The Daily Beast and Salon have already written about the topic.

To be fair to him, it should be said that nothing in Biden’s behavior would have been considered weird or wrong a couple generations ago. But times have changed, eh? He takes adult women and gives them really long, tight hugs, which in some cases they clearly don’t want. He sees young girls and starts stroking their hair intensely, or rubs their shoulders, or wraps his arm around their body and pulls them towards himself. How do you think this is all going to play out if he actually becomes the Democratic front-runner? Can’t you just see these videos shooting around Facebook and Twitter? Can’t you just see Trump labeling him “creepy, copying Joe”?

The Dems really need someone else.

#17

ITR Champion, if those are the best problems for Trump to hook into then Biden looks bulletproof. Seriously weak sauce.

Richard Parker laid out the main reasons why on paper Biden is a sound candidate. There’s also a contingent that really wanted him to run in 2016 and, like a few die hard Sanders fans, want to him to run in 2020 to prove they were right.

#18

I like Joe, but he is too old. He will be 76 in a few weeks or 78 when the next presidential term starts.

#19

The honest fact is that Biden is popular now because things haven’t really begun. Sometime next year, maybe in the next six months, we’ll start to see exploratory committees forming and people will start falling in love with flavor-of-the-week and it’ll build to a crescendo through - have you seen the schedule? It’ll be over fairly quickly - March of 2020.

Biden’s only doing great because he’s an obvious possibility and no one else is truly front and center. Give it time and stop worrying about it. You’re only going to get yourself worked up for no gain.

#20

Not deep blue since Penn voted for Trump. And it is a rust belt state, where trump did well, and Hillary didnt.

Biden is trusted. The GOP has already tried to smear him and it didnt take, thus the upcoming efforts of the kremlin and the GOp for fake news will mostly slide off or even rebound on them.

His politics are moderate for a liberal.

He’d be perfect paired with a young Veep, maybe a woman or a minority.