One one level, this is the most insufferable horseshit:
White House hopeful Joe Biden doubled down on his vow to cooperate with Republicans should he be elected president, saying he successfully worked across the aisle as vice president.
“There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there,” he said Saturday at a Massachusetts fundraiser. “I get in trouble for saying that with Democrats, but the truth of the matter is, every time we ever got in trouble with our administration, remember who got sent up to Capitol Hill to fix it? Me. Because they know I respect the other team.”
Biden acknowledged that while Republicans and Democrats appear at odds on most issues plaguing Washington but said many conservatives are being “intimidated” to follow in lock step with President Trump.
“They’re decent people. They ran because they care about things, but they’re intimidated right now,” he told the fundraiser’s attendees.
Decent people don’t belong to organizations led by people like Donald Trump. Not for long, anyway. I am as tired as anyone of hearing Biden suggest otherwise. And I’d like him to produce an itemized list of the supposed breakthroughs he made with the Republicans when the Obama administration sent him down to the Hill to iron things out. He didn’t accomplish shit with those lunatics because it wasn’t actually possible to accomplish anything with them.
But, as grating as Biden’s routine is, I actually do think it’s smart campaigning. It feeds into a hunger a lot of Democrats have for a less winner-take-all kind of politics. It also chips away at efforts to paint Biden as a radical socialist who is out of the mainstream, so it’s a solid general election strategy too. I really do not believe that serving up partisan red meat is going to be a winning strategy next year, and when Biden does it, he’s going to make it about Trump rather than his party or his supporters. I think it’s pretty clear that this enables him to give permission to as many people as possible to vote for him, and that that is the smartest way to beat this president.
After all, Trump isn’t going to win a likability contest with Biden, nor with most of the other Democratic candidates for president. He’s going to try to bring his opponent down to his level and paint them as threatening to core, perennial Republican interests. He’s going to argue that he’s the only thing standing in the way of radical change that people won’t like, so his biggest problem is a candidate who promises a return to normalcy. Against that kind of campaign, his rhetoric will be unconvincing and ineffective.
Biden has a clear and sensible strategy. It’s low on risk because this is a very winnable election and why take needless chances?
Still, playing it safe brings its own kind of risk. Elizabeth Warren is catching up to Biden is some recent polls and may speed out in front of him. If that happens, his strategy could suddenly become a big liability because he’s isn’t positioned to run a come-from-behind campaign.
It could be that Biden is miscalculating about how much the Democratic electorate values normalcy over progress. His stupid happy-talk about “decent” Republicans is a giant turn-off to a lot of partisan Democrats. And they may have enough power to deny him the chance to use his general election strategy.
But, as grating as Biden’s routine is, I actually do think it’s smart campaigning. It feeds into a hunger a lot of Democrats have for a less winner-take-all kind of politics. It also chips away at efforts to paint Biden as a radical socialist who is out of the mainstream, so it’s a solid general election strategy too.
How is it smart campaigning? What happens when he gets elected and doesn’t pass jack shit because Yurtle the Turtle bottles everything up again, which he will of course do whether as the Majority or Minority Leader? What happens if RBG passes away and Yertle the Turtle won’t even hold hearings on a replacement if he’s still Majority Leader? Who will look like the fool then? The GOP will paint Biden as Lenin and Marx combined despite his history as a tool of the banks.
“It feeds into a hunger a lot of Democrats have for a less winner-take-all kind of politics.”
I lost that hunger” long ago. In this day and time WE are the only ones playing that game. In Reich-wing world it’s – winner take all and crush the Dems into the ground. Crush their hopes, their dreams, and crush any accomplishment a Dems ever did regardless of the consequence.
So Republicans LOVE when Dems play the pansy card – just something else for them to take advantage of.
It just seems so weak. Like everything about Biden, really. Of all the top tier candidates, he’s the one I’m most certain the Republicans can tear to shreds.
I’m so scared we’re going to nominate him and doom ourselves to four more years.
Agreed. I have yet to see a clear argument demonstrating that Joe Biden is the most electable candidate in the Democratic field and his strategy completely undermines the campaigns of every other Democratic race in the country. Personally I consider him the most likely to blow a perfectly winnable election.
It’s a horseshit campaign, alright. Biden can’t take the heavy schedule that the rest of them are on. It’s not just gaffes. I’m worried that his age is a very real problem. He looks confused and tired a lot of the time. And it feels like his workers and staffers are trying to get by in hiding this from the public in an attempt to sneak through hoping no one notices how old and confused he is. It’s a disservice to the public and to the Democratic Party. To me it is like John Edwards trying to win the nomination knowing his affair could be revealed any moment. His son’s corruption is also a major problem. Obama’s people are now leaking to the Times about how he told Biden “you don’t have to do this, Joe.” Does that sound like someone confident in Biden as the nominee?
And It’s not just this. It’s that he’s proud of what he negotiated. He’s going around saying “Obama sent me to deal with Mitch” and I combine that with how they negotiated debt ceiling and fiscal cliff things and suddenly it all makes sense why term one was such a slog. Biden was the go to man for the senate, maybe he got the votes for the stimulus. But if they were willing to allow their presidency to rest with the filibuster then I don’t know what to say.
Even Michael Bennet! Michael Bennet argues what a terrible deal Biden negotiated. I’m also reading from health care experts that his ACA 2.0 patch doesn’t really add up. That’s because employer coverage is eroding and rapidly becoming less affordable.
Maybe. And remember, at the time Democrats had 59 votes in the Senate. Joe is proud of his ability to make deals with Republicans when Democrats had and overwhelming power advantage, plus public sentiment and yet were still losing battles to Mitch McConnell.
Right up front:
My political affiliation is Anarcho-Syndicalism, which will probably never happen, and will never happen in my lifetime. That said, even though I’m way to the left of 99.999% of the population, I align, obviously, with Democrats. I’ve been a supporter of Sanders and Warren since hearing of both of them over a decade ago, and I believe that either, if cloned and placed in the House, Senate, White House, and USSC, would almost immediately make this country better.
In 2016 I voted for Sanders here in Georgia, which Clinton won. On this blog (previous blog site) I railed against the Purity Brigade members (who I guess post elsewhere now) who bitched about Clinton, because it was either Clinton or Trump, and obviously, as a sane person, Clinton > Trump in every possible iteration of reality.
I’m going to vote for whichever Democrat wins the primary. Happily. Will crawl over broken glass.
That said, I’m for Warren. I think Sanders is past his sell-by date, and that there is enough Clinton-esque baggage to make him less viable than Warren. I also think Warren is amazing at talking to people, and the only thing that Strongman Trump can use against her is the Pocahontas shtick that no one who would ever vote for a Democrat cares about anyway.
Additionally, I believe that if in 2020, Warren and Strongman Trump are the candidates, and Strongman Trump is able to win, then this country may not be salvageable, in the sense of it being in reality 50 UNITED states. I’m not talking about civil war or secession, but looking forward 1,000 years, either this country becomes one country with state lines being totally arbitrary, or state lines morph into state/regional country borders…and honestly, I believe the latter is just about inevitable, unless humanity can unite as a species, literally.
So, I’ll vote for Biden in the General. And I’ll be happy if he wins, and will do whatever I can to help. But I’m starting to believe that we need a real candidate who has no actual political baggage (Biden has lots of political baggage) who will energize people who haven’t voted before, and typically would never vote. A real person who really cares…not just a politician, or a fake populist like Strongman Trump. And I believe that people know that regardless, Warren (and Sanders) are 100% honest, credible and SINCERE. I think that sincerity may be the most important trait of a candidate in 2020 (and probably 2016).
This was not a stump speech, I’m not a Warren volunteer (yet), and not a Warren spokesman. Also, not a centrist, so I understand the draw to Biden, Harris, and other “centrists” who aren’t “scary” to centrists.
But it’s how I feel. Shit HAS to change, and half-measures are NOT ENOUGH. Biden would have been just fine 25 years ago. But I believe we need substantive change, and I believe that Warren could bring enough voters to bring the Senate with her.
And all of that rant said: if I knew in advance which Democratic candidate would have the best winning margin and have the best Senate/House coattails, I would donate and volunteer for that candidate…even if Biden.
My log in rarely works and I dont like that paywalled posts are not clearly marked. A few other reasons I dont come around much. I am also against anarcho-syndicalism.
Big difference this time around is everyone is playing fair enough so far. Also you can say Biden is a bad candidate without people trying to rip your throat out. TPM is still a hotbed of Bernie-hate but thats to be expected since its run by a Clinton fanboy like Marshall. Big reason is that its still too soon for me to go hardcore into this and my kid is 2.
I’m pretty sure Biden is gonna lose because every time democrats choose the safe choice they’ve lost. I’ll vote for him against Trump. But we’re basically doomed with Biden.
Biden may have a good general election strategy, but I don’t think it is one that has coat tails or provides impetus for flipping the Senate. Because if he is out there saying that only Trump is the problem then voters can rationalize keeping their Republican rep or senator. But if the problem is with republicans as an anti Democratic force, – which IS the problem, then that needs to be hammered home in every speech. Biden has positioned himself as the one person who cannot push that narrative.
Exactly.
I’m no one, but if I was the candidate, my main message would be:
If you think the world the Republicans have created over the past 40 years is working alright (government(s) they’ve been running in Congress, State Governments, and the White House) then vote Republican.
If you want a better world, vote Democratic down the ballot. Not just for me, but for every Democrat on the ballot. Because things need to fundamentally change (then be honest that while political doubters may not agree with every policy, policy will change if/when things work or don’t work, that they aren’t set in concrete).
And you also say those things, and be honest, because at this point, another 2-4-6-8 years of a Republican-majority Senate effectively kills this country. It will just be tax cuts for the already-rich, and nothing else.
This half-measure, “I can work with Republicans” sounds to me like, “keep electing Republicans, their policies aren’t inherently bad, they’re just confused”.
It’s utter…horseshit…that prevents Democrats for calling for a Democratic government. It’s conceding before the negotiation begins.
And the first thing out of his mouth after getting elected will no doubt be to repeat Obama’s foolish dictum of “looking forward, not backward…”, which will guarantee further lawbreaking and norm breaking on the part of Republicans, and also risk enabling outright fascism if they seize presidency back.
Playing it safe is never a good election strategy, particularly not when there is so much tension in the country. Safe doesn’t cut it when we’re having mass shootings and marches by Neo-Nazi’s a couple of times a week. Safe doesn’t cut it when we’re deliberately inflicting trauma on children at the border purely as a strategy in a racist immigration policy. Safe doesn’t cut it when a party is constantly working to strip health insurance from millions of people.
A good election strategy is to convince voters that you have a vision for the country, that you understand the problems people face and that you will fight for them. Beto can do that, Castro can do that, Warren can do that, Sanders can do that, Harris can do that, Booker and Buttigieg can do that. Biden thinks he can solve America’s problems by having a fistfight in a back alley with Trump and then having lunch with Mitch McConnell. That won’t motivate anyone to get to the polls.
Why would anyone with half a brain think that that Republicans are interested in anything other than obstruction.
Joe Biden is suffering cognitive decline, and nominating him would be a disaster for both the democrats and the country. Right now it’s become likely that, if he were nominated, his problems would become obvious in the general. Right now the media are ‘soft’ on him, because they want a primary horse race (and they are scared shitless of a POC nominee), but once the general comes along, they will pile on his issues…..if only to be appropriately ‘both sides’, but also the increased stress and work of a general election will make his troubles obvious. Right this minute, the Biden campaign is trying to figure out how to lessen his work load, to decrease his ‘gaffes’ (IOW, what he really thinks).
None of this matters, because he won’t be the nominee. Warren won the nomination last month, and is just mopping up now.
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I think that you may be right, both about Biden, and Warren. And I write this as someone who believes that Biden’s positioning closer to the middle is the better election strategy. But…that is immaterial if he can’t run the distance.
The decline is as obvious as Trumper’s personality disorder was/is. Does anyone imagine that harping on this won’t be a main beam of the National Trumpalist campaign? “Old, Old, Old Joe!” “I got the nursing home number right here, Joe! Memory care unit, too!”
And the Biden Perpetual Gaffe Machine will only legitimize it! And how in hell do Biden’s handlers “protect” him from the 24/7 slog of a prez campaign? Do a reprise of Harding’s “Ohio Front Porch” schtick, ala 1920? The Grampa Joe Social Media campaign of 2020, haha? “txt to GrampaJoe.com!” Uh, Joe….
Biden and Lizard Brains. Yes, I took the pledge as it says on FB: I will vote for a ham sandwich if nominated by the democrats, that includes Joe, or Sleepy Joe. But I’d be lying if I didn’t add there is no joy in that. Bipartisan Joe is likely to watch the further loss of our safety net, perhaps at the first time we reach the debt limit and Joe needs to negotiate his way out of it perhaps with reductions in health care. And that will be matched by corporate provided health care. More profits you know. Moscow Mitch will block everything he thinks is “socialist”, don’t doubt that. I also have little confidence Joe can help in foreign affairs. But maybe he can buy Greenland to distract us for a bit/
Why should I think he will beat Trump? Trump seems to have an infinitely expanding base, made up of people with lizard brains. How do you reach those people? Hell they haven’t changed since the civil war, and now they have never ending enthusiasm centered in White Nationalism, gun rights and anti- all Black and Brown people and immigrants the world over, likely helped along by Putin. They don’t give a shit how many lies Trump tells. Where I live there seems to be more guys riding about with flags of the good ole’ USA and perhaps a confederate one flying out their pick up. Joe is not exactly an inspiration to bring out the dems. Hope I’m wrong about that. I still hold out hope that some candidate can help change it. But I don’t care for this match up.
Thanks for your comment. Just curious: why do you think Trump “seems to have an infinitely expanding base”? From everything I’ve seen, not only has his base stubbornly failed to expand over the last 2-3 years, it’s shrunk significantly in some states like NH, MI, PA, TX, & WI that are critical to his chances next year.
Here’s hoping you are right. But his approval or disapproval seems to stay about the same no matter how many lies he tells. And most of his support comes from those who have little interest in those sort of things. Call them the aggrieved. I suspect there are plenty more just like them, And once he has an opponent he is really good at calling them names that fit like Sleepy Joe and making them foolish looking, I don’t know about all those states, excepting Texas which I hope is in play, but Pa is critical. So I think he can expand his base as well as hang on. Hope I’m wrong.
Me too!
And there’s reason for hope (and therefore, to continue working hard): Trump’s approval ratings among registered voters are down in PA, and pretty much across the board:
“Civiqs shows the president’s net approval ratios being underwater (i.e., negative) in 10 states he carried in 2016: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. If that were to represent how the 2020 elections turn out, Trump would have a booming 119 electoral votes. And it’s not as though he’s on a knife’s edge between victory and defeat in all these Trump 2016 states where he’s doing poorly: He’s underwater by 12 points in Pennsylvania, 11 in Michigan, and nine in Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. And there’s virtually no indication that states that narrowly went for Clinton in 2016 are trending in Trump’s direction: His approval ratios are minus 18 in Colorado, minus 15 in Minnesota, minus 12 in Nevada, and minus 27 in New Hampshire. These are, by the way, polls of registered voters, not just “adults,” so they should be a relatively sound reflection of the views of the electorate.”
That’s from an Aug. 12 post by Ed Kilgore on nymag.com.
Winner-take-all means House, Senate, and Presidency, and the Dems have had a whopping two years of that so far this century, and no, we are not tired of it yet, not by a long shot. Anything less means another four years of GOP obstruction, and that we are sick and tired of, and by god I will dangle that preposition if I feel like it.
Nominating Biden would be like nominating Clinton again. I think we can do much better with someone with a little more zest for life, by whom I mean Warren. If all the Dems vote for her and we get out the vote, we can have a very decent presidency for a change. And if too many “Dems” feel that would force them to vote for Trump because “socialism” or “Pocahontas”, then the republic is lost anyway. She is razor sharp, knows financial law inside and out, and is a nice person to boot. She’s the new Obama, and that is a good thing, and we need it to happen.
Thanks for your comment. There are a couple of encouraging factors (for me) about this Democratic primary contest:
1 – the quantity and quality of talent—almost every candidate is head and shoulders above Trump, both in terms of their public record, and in terms of their skills. It’s kind of amazing that quality candidates like Booker, Bullock, Castro, Gillibrand, Hickenlooper, and Klobuchar can’t (so far) get any attention.
2 – though it’s unlikely the Dems will win control of the Senate, *if* they did, then any Democratic president would sign into law pretty much any & everything passed by the Democratic Congress: health care, immigration, climate change, funding priorities, etc.
3 – any president appoints not just federal judges (and Supreme Court justices), but also hundreds and hundreds of federal departmental officials—all of whom have an influence on who else gets hired, and on how laws are enforced and carried out.
“2 – though it’s unlikely the Dems will win control of the Senate, *if* they did, then…”
We need to work our collective asses off to make that happen. Notice I did not preface that thought with “try.”
Here’s the thing about Biden’s strategy: as Martin says, it’s not necessarily a bad strategy, especially for Obama’s vice-president. Remind everyone of Obama’s accomplishments, say you were his right-hand man in every fight (even hint that you were ahead of him on some of them, e.g., marriage equality). Say you’ll restore dignity to the White House, and that flip your record of working with segregationists to your advantage—“I even worked with the likes of Strom Thurmond when it was good for the American people, so I’ll for doggone sure work with McConnell, et al, when it’s good for the American people. But let’s be clear, folks: if they’re going to be obstructionists, there’s nobody who’ll fight them harder than me. I may be just a kid from Scranton, but one thing I learned there was how to fight for what’s right.” Or something like that.
Biden’s problem is that (so far) he’s proven incapable of adopting and sticking to that frame. This is the third time he’s run for president. The first two times he did terribly. It’s early days still, but it’s beginning to look like a pattern.
We need to get the Dems and minorities to the polls so why come out for an old man who promises to work with racists and Moscow Mitch and who is gaffe prone.
We agree (I think) on Biden’s weaknesses as a campaigner. I was just making the (at this point, largely theoretical) argument that Biden (or someone else in his position) has a record that *could* be turned strongly to his advantage as a candidate.
Biden’s problem (so far) is that he isn’t doing that. Worse, he (again, so far) shows no sign of figuring out how to do that. Instead, he keeps finding ways to use his record in ways that highlight his weaknesses as a candidate.
As further evidence that Joe Biden’s strategy (win the election by convincing sensible conservatives to cross the aisle and vote for a moderate Democrat) is doomed to failure:
Republicans will overwhelmingly vote for Trump, no matter how awful they think he is. Anyone who voted for Trump in 2016 is very likely to vote for him again. Democrats will win by motivating their base and by activating the millions of people who typically sit out presidential elections. Biden’s general election strategy is terrible, because he’s targeting the wrong audience.
Thanks for your comment. We agree that “anyone who voted for Trump in 2016 is very likely to vote for him again.”
Trump’s vulnerability (and he knows it) is that’s not enough for him to win in 2020.
1) The vast majority of people who voted for Hoover in 1928 voted for him again in 1932. He lost in a landslide because losing even just 10-15% of your base is disastrous for a presidential candidate in US politics. Run the state numbers from 2016 but subtract 10% from Trump’s popular vote totals. In that scenario, Clinton wins the electoral college.
2) Now do it again, but this time adding that 10% to Clinton’s popular vote totals. Clinton wins even more easily. (This is a reminder of a point Ed Kilgore regularly makes: “flipping” one persuadable voter is worth more than persuading an infrequent (but reliably Democratic) voter to vote. The latter gives your candidate a +1; the former gives her a +1 *and* gives her opponent a -1.)
3) Demographic changes are working against Trump. Every year roughly 3 million (mostly older, whiter, wealthier than the average, and therefore more likely to vote Republican) Americans die. Meanwhile, every year roughly 4 million (mostly younger, browner, poorer than the average, and therefore more likely to vote Democratic) Americans become eligible to vote.
4) Yes. Dems should motivate their base and activate the millions of people who typically sit out presidential elections. But this can be done as part of a “both/and” strategy. There’s no reason Dems have to limit themselves to an “either/or” strategy.
I agree on the math, except that there are far fewer persuadable voters than there are infrequent voters, and they are far more likely to simply sit out the election than to flip. Even if they vote for Joe Biden, they are far less likely to vote for a Democratic Senator or Governor, so it’s a high-risk, low-reward strategy.
Even given your 10% scenario, (which is extremely optimistic, not “even just”) you’re getting at best 6 million votes. For comparison, there are close to 20 million people who are eligible to vote in 2020 who were too young to vote in 2016. That’s just one demographic group. Now add the roughly 90 million eligible voters who sit out year after year because they feel disenfranchised by the current political system. Get “even just” 10% of them to vote and I don’t care what Trump’s base does, Democrats will win in a blowout.
This is the strategy Obama won a landslide with in 2008, along with massive gains in the House and Senate. He got 10 million more votes than John Kerry had in 2004. John McCain lost only 2 million votes of George Bush’s voters.
Question is for how to do this, though. Persuasion was a significant part of 2018 gains. Where I typically disagree with the people focused on persuasion is how to do it. Personally, I don’t think you do it like Biden is doing it. You don’t need to tell these people lies about Republicans to get people to switch. Trump is doing all the work for you! Reap the rewards of negative partisanship and beat the snot out of Trump, Trump, and mention Trump again. But then connect his corruption and enabling to the Republicans in charge. Don’t talk about voters themselves, connect Trump to the rest of the party as it exists. Attempting to cleave with “Trump is different and the rest of the party is fine” is setting oneself up for failure, and if anything reducing surge potential. Negative partisanship cuts both ways on this, which is why even someone like Biden will see record turnout. But id like to take advantage of it, not throw it in the trash because of false nostalgia. Voters tell you they want bipartisanship? They also tell you they don’t like negative campaigning.
As the front runner, its disturbing the extent that Biden’s campaign is a rerun of Clinton’s 2016 run. The out-sized focus on attracting “conservative” voters didn’t help the overall GOTV effort of democratic voters. That democrats are willing to do this again makes me question what, if anything, did they learn from 2016.
This is what Biden is telling us he will reprise if he’s president:
“Long story short: Reid’s strategy would have at worst produced a slightly better deal than Biden negotiated had McConnell accepted his final offer before the cliff (a slightly lower threshold for the new top income tax rate and a one-year suspension of the sequester rather than a two-month suspension). At best it could have produced significantly more revenue (closer to a $300,000 threshold) had we briefly gone over. But Reid never got the chance to execute it. ‘Their guys were running around asking to be forced to vote for this so they could move on,’ says the Senate aide of the GOP. ‘Everything Republicans were doing signaled weakness and desperation for a deal. Unfortunately, everything out of the White House did, too.'”
But was it bad negotiating or cynical centrism run amok?
“I have to suspect at this point that this is not entirely a function of “bad negotiating.” It looks an awful lot like a subtle way to achieve desired policy outcomes which may be opposed by the president’s own party. The need to make a deal at all costs has become the negotiating strategy. And it conveniently means that all the demagogueing about the consequences of not making a deal will get more and more shrill as the negotiations go on and the Republicans will always take it to the very edge — at which point it becomes “necessary” to make a less than optimal deal than what might have been possible without all the hand wringing and rending of garments. And I hate to say it, but after several of these so-called hostage situations, it’s looking to me as if the Republican leaders are partners in a little square dance, not adversaries.”
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/no-joe-they-are-not-decent-people-they.html
This explains Obama’s apparent naivety in constantly believing that by coming hat in hand and folding early, he could make a deal with republicans that supposedly would have more value than the deal itself, when the reality was all they cared about was “getting something done.” The GOP was the excuse, e.g. for a centrist democratic leadership to go back to its base (and everyone else looking to them for solutions to real problems) and say this was the best we could get, when the reality is they were fine with it all along.
More along the same theme:
“2020: It’s the Trumpism, stupid”
“Although Trumpism has been an effective rallying cry for the GOP base, it has galvanized a previously complacent part of the electorate; white, college educated millennial women as well as all voters under age 40, who represent a far more diverse and liberal voter universe than their older counterparts. As such, any district with high levels of college educated voters was extremely vulnerable for Republicans in 2018, even those that had long been in the hands of the Republican Party such as the six Orange County districts in Southern California which my model was quite clear would uniformly flip to the Democrats.”
And…
“Democrats’ preference for Blue Dogs in more conservative districts is misplaced: I’m also able to show that even in these districts where Democrats ran Blue Dog candidates who were as unobtrusive as possible — with, exactly as you stated, the goal of not riling up Trump voters — the turnout for Republican voters in those districts was huge.”
“In fact, not only did Democrats not get the benefit of not stirring up the Trump base — the Trump base was stirred up and showed up in huge numbers — but by not tapping into anti-Trump sentiment in their own campaign strategy, by not intentionally activating that Trump angst, they paid a price in terms of their own base turnout. It was depressed, compared to other districts.”
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/2020-its-trumpism-stupid-by-bloggersrus.html
Its not that the democratic leadership doesn’t get any of this; they do. They prefer the right-leaning, “centrist” policies over progressive policy, in part because, progressive policy is anathema for their big donors. The ugly truth.
“There’s an awful lot of really good Repubs out there[!], by cracky!” He really just said this (without naming names). Would he actually name the Gravedigger of Democracy as one of the “really good Repubs”? Cruz? Corndog? Graham? Has he noticed the House retirement raft?
This is really Grampa Joe’s conclusion, circa 2019, after those “really good” [pre-National Trumpalist] Repubs destroyed Obama’s presidency and wrested legitimate control of the Supreme Court from Dems? Jeebus.
This isn’t a strategy, smart or not; he believes it! He thinks it’s the truth! And that renders him delusional, as well as being a totally stale 90s donut. How stupid will Dem primary voters be this time?
Hillary of course actually did win the popular vote — and I don’t understand why Democrats have not been shouting “Hillary was the popular one!” throughout Trump’s term (and particularly every time the NYT ran another story about working class Trump supporters). The Dem nominee will get all of Hillary’s vote again, plus I hope a greater “enthusiasm” factor than she was able to generate. Though incumbent presidents have huge structural and actual advantages, I really hope for an enthusiasm factor to overcome this.
If Warren comes from behind and takes the nomination away from Biden, it will be because Democrats love her in spite of her supposed unlike-ability. This momentum will bode well for the general election, I think.
And if Biden can maintain his lead in spite of the Warren challenge, such a tough fight will create momentum for him, and would make him into a much stronger candidate in the general election.
‘“They’re decent people. They ran because they care about things, but they’re intimidated right now,”’
While perhaps true, it’s the wrong message for this time. We will need reconciliation abroad. At home, the Republicans (and conservatives in general) need an ass-whipping. Probably frequent ones. The upcoming election has got to be about Republicans as a whole making this mess, not just the convenient buffoon in the White House.
On the other hand – unintimidated never Trumpers (or no-more Trumpers) and conservatives who’ve given themselves an ass-whipping – Welcome aboard!
The only ones whom I know “care about things” are the ones willing to step up and say so. The rest are grifters.