Joe Biden 2020 campaign megathread

[Progressive Pessimist]

Just pull off the bandage and declare already Biden. We're sick of the unenthusiastic wait for the inevitable. That goes for Sanders too.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Biden is a gaffe machine. Bernie or Harris will be the nominee.

Did he make any serious gaffes during his time as Vice President?

Compared to the rest of his political career Biden was kept on a very tight ship language-wise as VP. But I don't think he's going to have the same structure (Obama staff, etc) keeping him disciplined and on message.

He was fine as VP aside from the dumb "they're gonna put y'all in chains" thing from 2012. But when he ran in 2008 he was god awful: the vaguely anti-Indian jokes, discussing how "clean" Obama was, the "Stand up Chuck" incident.

Those kinds of 2007/08 gaffes would be so intensified in the modern media landscape too.

To be fair, he recently made a gave when he said to have no empathy for millenials. Even though it was taken out of context, such comments can hurt hurt him.

Wow I completely forgot about the millenials things. That's absolutely going to hurt him.

I don't think it would. Biden will probably thrive on the votes of older party loyalists. This won't be something that turns them off. Millennials are probably already supporting other candidates anyway.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Biden is a gaffe machine. Bernie or Harris will be the nominee.

Did he make any serious gaffes during his time as Vice President?

Compared to the rest of his political career Biden was kept on a very tight ship language-wise as VP. But I don't think he's going to have the same structure (Obama staff, etc) keeping him disciplined and on message.

He was fine as VP aside from the dumb "they're gonna put y'all in chains" thing from 2012. But when he ran in 2008 he was god awful: the vaguely anti-Indian jokes, discussing how "clean" Obama was, the "Stand up Chuck" incident.

Those kinds of 2007/08 gaffes would be so intensified in the modern media landscape too.

To be fair, he recently made a gave when he said to have no empathy for millenials. Even though it was taken out of context, such comments can hurt hurt him.

Wow I completely forgot about the millenials things. That's absolutely going to hurt him.

I don't think it would. Biden will probably thrive on the votes of older party loyalists. This won't be something that turns them off. Millennials are probably already supporting other candidates anyway.

You don't think a comment like that would hurt him in the general? Trump isn't going to try to get young people to vote for him--he's going to try to encourage young people to stay home.

Putting an ad of that comment all over the internet in October would absolutely hurt Biden.

Young people will (should) probably be able to get past that if it means rejecting Trump.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Old Joe ain’t running for President. His policies are stuck in the 1990s and even the out of touch, Neoliberal, Democrat, Establishment, isn’t willing to throw their weight behind someone who is so blatantly out of touch with the direction their base is heading.

Nah, he's definitely running in spite of all that. He could win too because he's tied to Obama nostalgia and that's all that some Democratic Party voters seem to care about, apparently. 

[Progressive Pessimist]

Old Joe ain’t running for President. His policies are stuck in the 1990s and even the out of touch, Neoliberal, Democrat, Establishment, isn’t willing to throw their weight behind someone who is so blatantly out of touch with the direction their base is heading.

Nah, he's definitely running in spite of all that. He could win too because he's tied to Obama nostalgia and that's all that some Democratic Party voters seem to care about, apparently. 

100% he is running, but the post 2016 Democrats, nationally, are too far to the left for him. He has a crazy amount of skeletons he has to answer for. He is the less extreme Jeb case. His name ID advantage will drop, the progressives will unite against him, and people will realize that he is not the only candidate with a good shot a beating Trump

I hope that's what happens.

[Progressive Pessimist]

At his speech for the Delaware Democratic Party, Biden slipped up and said "I have the most progressive record of anybody running..."

Crowd then cheered.

I don’t know what kind of crazy bizarro world Biden lives in where he has a progressive record on anything.

That is indeed a load of bunk, but for some reason Biden just has this affect on people, it seems, to like him regardless of his many faults. It borders on how Trump operates too.

[Progressive Pessimist]

There are legitimate reasons to think Biden may flame out, and fair enough if you think so, but citing his previous runs isn't all that much of an argument given he's now a former VP which makes the situation a bit different.

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[Progressive Pessimist]

The GOP love to praise Biden on the forum and in the political world. Saying he is much better than Harris.

Biden wasn't around much as Veep, aside from debate and fundraising when election time came and went

If he gets the nomination just watch as they find reasons to abandon him and vote for Trump anyway.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Looks like the media is already digging up old Biden clips:

Biden: I Tried to ‘Prostitute Myself’ to Big Donors During First Senate Run

Former Vice President Joe Biden said during a 1974 discussion on campaign finance that he tried to "prostitute" himself to big donors during his first run for U.S. Senate but failed to get their money because he was too young.

His youth, however, was what enabled Biden to raise enough money to win, he explained.

"I'm like the token black or the token woman," Biden said. "I was the token young person."

Biden's comments came during an appearance on The Advocates, a weekly debate program that aired on PBS in the 1970s. Biden, then in his second year as a U.S. senator, was invited to argue in favor of public funding for political campaigns and contribution limits for individuals.

You run the risk of deciding whether or not you're going to prostitute yourself to give the answer you know they want to hear in order to get funded to run for that office," Biden testified during the program.

Biden admits he decided to "prostitute" himself, but was denied because of his age.

"I went to the big guys for the money," Biden said. "I was ready to prostitute myself in the manner in which I talk about it, but what happened was they said, ‘Come back when you're 40, son.'"

"So I had to go out, I had to go out to a number of small contributors," he said.

Biden goes on to say his ability to raise money despite his rejection from big donors—he said he raised $276,000—was due to his unique identity as a young person.

"I'm a 29-year-old oddball," he said. "The only reason I was able to raise the money is that I was able to have a national constituency to run for office, because I was 29."

"I'm like the token black or the token woman," Biden said. "I was the token young person."

https://freebeacon.com/politics/biden-i-tried-to-prostitute-myself-to-big-donors-during-first-senate-run/

Biden has shown himself to be immune to these sorts of criticisms though, at least so far. We'll see what happens when he actually announces and if that still is the case.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'm surprised it took this long for an accusation to come out. If this is finally what manages to stick to Biden, he may just regret not rolling out his campaign sooner. I hope it causes him not to run, the party doesn't need that kind of baggage on the campaign trail.

Also, as cynical as it may sound, I want him to stop being featured in polls. This primary would be so much more interesting, satisfying, and representative of the Democratic Party if both he and Sanders weren't in it. It's always him and Sanders at the top and then the race for third or fourth place is where it gets interesting: Buttigieg, Harris, O'Rourke, and Warren have all been floating around in those positions and I would be much happier with either of those four being the nominee than Biden or Sanders. And even with just Biden out of it, it will be interesting to see if Sanders remains the second choice of voters who prefer Biden and where the rest of his support goes.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'm surprised it took this long for an accusation to come out. If this is finally what manages to stick to Biden, he may just regret not rolling out his campaign sooner. I hope it causes him not to run, the party doesn't need that kind of baggage on the campaign trail.

Also, as cynical as it may sound, I want him to stop being featured in polls. This primary would be so much more interesting, satisfying, and representative of the Democratic Party if both he and Sanders weren't in it. It's always him and Sanders at the top and then the race for third or fourth place is where it gets interesting: Buttigieg, Harris, O'Rourke, and Warren have all been floating around in those positions and I would be much happier with either of those four being the nominee than Biden or Sanders. And even with just Biden out of it, it will be interesting to see if Sanders remains the second choice of voters who prefer Biden and where the rest of his support goes.

Is it because they are two old white males?

Old does factor into it, admittedly. But them being white doesn't. Hell, I included Beto and Buttigieg among that list of preferred candidates in my post.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I appreciate his gesture, but that won't mean s*** to the Trump and the GOP ad machine who have all of his touchy-feely moments ready to place in an ad with ominous music. They don't care that they're hypocrites on the issue. As long as they can make us look like hypocrites, it's all that matters. Biden needs to accept that he is now entering the primary damaged, and will probably enter the general election the same way, if not even more, should he become the nominee.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Joe, don't run.  You missed the boat in 2016, just as Chris Christie missed his in 2012.  The ship has sailed.  Just move on.  

In all fairness, he wouldn't have won in 2016 either. Clinton was not beatable in that primary.

Warren could have beaten her.

One of the reasons why Clinton somewhat wasn't beatable in the primaries was because her campaign contacted with the Democratic National Committee to derail Sanders' primary campaign, which is cheating.

LOL, that's nonsense. The Clinton campaign never truly feared losing to Sanders. The only fear they had were alienating Sanders' supporters which is why Clinton basically never attacked Sanders.

Which is also the main reason she lost, because she couldn't be bothered putting him on the ticket. Clearly she had learned nothing from the team of rivalry in American political history that had served so many tickets well. To name a few of the more famous one: The JFK/Lyndon B. Johnson one of 1960. The Abraham Lincoln/Andrew Jackson one of 1860. The Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush one of 1980.

Bernie Sanders is an egomaniac. He would have been a nightmare on Clinton’s ticket. Y’all don’t remember him trying to debate Trump before the California Primary? Completely undermining the fact that mathematically Clinton would be the nominee. Kaine was a milquetoast pick but Bernie didn’t belong on that ticket.

Couldn't disagree with you more. If there's one thing Bernie is not, it's egomaniac. He's pure selflessness, yet he has an utterly strong sense of passion, and that's what got the best of him before the Democratic convention. I totally agree with you that he should have conceded many, many weeks before.

I can't say that you're wrong, but some of his supporters definitely seem to contradict that idea. One of his slogans is: "Not me. Us." Yet some of his supporters seem to live and die by a cult of personality around him.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Indeed, and there are Trump supporters out there I know personally who are deliberately inflaming that factionalism in order to help Trump win in 2020.

Can you blame them? Democrats would do the same in their shoes.
The point is though, the Democratic Party is in trouble, at least for the short term. They have no real unity except that they are united against Trump. But each faction hates the other almost as much as they hate Trump (see, to this day, the way Clinton Democrats still hate and abhor Sanders and his supporters and vice versa, or the way the "Young Turks" Left has jumped at Beto and every candidate even slightly to the right of them). They are eating each other. The divide in the Democratic Party I would argue is worse than the 2016 GOP divide.

The Democrats also seem to forget that Baby Boomers are still very much alive, point one. Secondly, that not all young whites are going to agree with ideas like "white male culture" should be abolished, as Biden put it, or for reparations for slavery as Harris put it. They are pandering to the female and minority vote - which will serve them well in time - but it is, for this cycle, harming them and pushing away their current base.

I think there's a lot more unity in the party than you're acknowledging.  The real world is not like the internet.  Almost all of the real candidates are popular with Democratic voters, or are at least seen as acceptable.  If the candidates themselves start viciously attacking one another, I'll change my tune, but Twitter trolls and flamewars are not lived reality for most people.

Even then, I feel like 2016 is still in the back of a lot of progressives heads and they would suck it up this time.

I really hope that's the case.

[Progressive Pessimist]

^

Another one of these posters, huh? Welcome to the forum anyway.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It's happening...*waves hands like in that Ron Paul gif, but more halfheartedly*

[Progressive Pessimist]

The Atlantic says to expect a video announcement on Wednesday. A kickoff event will either be in Philadelphia (on the Rocky steps no less) or in Charlottesville.

Why not Scranton?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Look I'm no fan of Joe Biden but if YOU had wanted to be president for over a third of a century and were leading in both primary and general elections polls, would you say, "Awww shucks, I guess I better retire and go play checkers by the Susquehanna River"? Be honest.

That sounds far more fun than being president.

I don't understand why anyone would want that job either. Vice President? Sure. But Biden already held that position.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Biden is probably too out of step for the modern Democratic Party.

The LGBTQ/purity police will be out to get him.

He definitely is. But your second point shouldn't be made with such snarkiness. The LGBTQ+ community has every right to expect better out of a Democratic nominee at this point in time.

[Progressive Pessimist]

No one wants to re-litigate the school busing issue, it won't work out how leftists think it's going to work out. Black people do not need to be around white people to learn.

I think you're missing the point...perhaps it does need to be re-litigated so you can be reminded about the disparity between black and white public schools, even post-integration.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Well, it finally happened. I still wonder what took him so long? Why now? I'm going to have to echo the sentiment that I won't be supporting him in the primary, but if he becomes the nominee I will vote for him, and everybody who isn't a MAGAdamia nut should too.

And when it comes to his performance in the primary, just because JEB(!) Bush performed how he did in 2016 doesn't mean that is really an apt comparison for Biden. I'm getting a little tired of it. I don't think we're representative of the at-large Democratic primary electorate, on this forum. For one thing Biden is tied to Obama while JEB! was tied to his unpopular brother and a Republican Party that wasn't deranged enough for their primary voters. That alone is quite the distinction. Sure, if anyone in this field was to flame out like JEB! it would be Biden, but it isn't an inevitability. He should not be underestimated in the primary...but he also simultaneously shouldn't be overestimated in the general election. So, the way I see it, we're probably due for a Biden vs. Sanders primary with Biden winning. Just my early prediction. It's probably the worst possible primary, so it fits in well with the hell-world we are living in. It just feels wrong to have such a diverse, massive, young, field of candidates; yet the two oldest and most familiar guys are going to be the ones who fight to carry the mantle of the party if my hunch ends up being correct.

I will say though, I kind of like his logo. It's simple, yet memorable enough that I could see it becoming a staple of his. It's a bit odd though to emphasize the "e" in his name just because it can be stylized like the American flag's stripes. That would be like if Hillary Clinton chose the "r" in her first name to be drawn with the forward pointing arrow. It's a bit distracting. But whatever, it's a fine logo overall.

Finally I also want to say one last thing: Bennet, Bullock, de Blasio, and whoever else all waited too long to announce. If they do, it will matter less than if they did before Biden's announcement. With Biden in the race now, the field is set. Those three (or more) have little to no chance for any media coverage now. Noe one is going to care (except Scutosaurus for Bennet). Run against Daines, Bullock! It's not too late!

[Progressive Pessimist]

I do think Biden has a fair shot but i think he also destroyed his credibility by not running in 2016

I'm not so sure about that. A three-way primary between him, Clinton, and Sanders would have been even uglier than the primary the got in 2016. That could have been a circumstance where we saw a brokered convention and made the eventual nominee even weaker in the general election. He probably did the right thing by not running then.

As for him running now, I kind of wish he stayed out of this primary too. But I am starting to accept that he will probably be the nominee. If that's the case, he better be able to beat Trump as easily as him and and early polling suggests at this point. 

[Progressive Pessimist]

Progressives will be far less willing to hold their nose and vote for Biden than they did for Clinton - and the fear of Trump won't be as powerful this time around.

Two very bold assumptions, if you ask me. I’m sure this would be the case if the election were held on US Election Atlas Dot Org, but it’s not.

Yeah, there's a world of difference between Biden and Clinton, at least in terms of perception. The lay person probably hated Clinton's haircut and thought she was a shrill lady who  did not deserve anything she got. Whereas they sure like Joe's haircut and that he's "working class"

Misogyny is a real bitch. Clinton was far better for Democratic values than Biden. At the very least the party would be able to push her to the left when she needed to be. I guarantee you Biden will get elected, look us dead in the face and do something the majority or plurality of Democrats don't want just so he can appease Republicans. He is toxic.

I was actually about to post something similar. But you mostly nailed it. I would add though that rejecting Clinton is kind of a "be careful what you wish for" scenario, especially among the purists who didn't find her perfect enough, or by the average voter who was manipulated into thinking that her emails were a big deal. If Biden manages to win in spite of his record, it will be because he is "affable and likable." That will prove just how superficial and shallow our electorate is overall. Meanwhile, Clinton gets blamed for her husband signing the crime bill when she never even voted for it like Biden and Sanders did, the latter of whom always got a pass when it came to that issue. Even in spite of that Clinton ran as a progressive, but Biden's apparent appeal in a general election is that he isn't one and can't be tied to the Socialist tactics that the GOP want to try out. So, were the ideological criticisms against her really worth it?

I also think back to several Bernie Bros I talked to during the 2016 election who sometimes said something to the effect of "if we can't have Sanders, why couldn't we have Biden instead?" Ideology doesn't matter anymore, misogyny may very well be a more powerful force in our country's electoral politics than we all think.

[Progressive Pessimist]

He's bombing on the trail gaffes galore, he's going to fall hard.

We can only hope so, but I think he's such a gaffe machine that these have more or less already been factored in.

I think his gaffes are the least of his problems, especially now that things Trump says intentionally are worse than Biden's mouth diarrhea moments.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Biden is going to do great mobilizing young voters who stayed home or voted 3rd party in 2016...

https://twitter.com/IbrahimAS97/status/1124116716169113601

If they wanted to be listened to, they should've voted.

I strongly disagree with Biden here, but I do agree that they should have voted. Of course, that goes for any demographic. Just f***ing vote.