Joe Biden Finally Announces

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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27 Responses

  1. Philip H says:

    I respect Biden, though his record on labor issues is decidedly mixed. He was by all accounts a good Senator and a great Vice President. That said, he needs to step aside. He’s still in the neoliberal camp economically, and that is not what America needs these days. He would better serve as the elder statesman of the party right now, especially since there are many equally qualified, talented, and much younger folks running.Report

  2. pillsy says:

    Biden is probably my last choice out of the plausible candidates. Some of that is that he’s from a wing of the party that has a lot of policy stances I disagree with, but most of that is, that like Bernie, he’s older than dirt.

    Seriously we need a maximum age for people running for President. Maybe 70 or 75.

    Same with Congress.Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    He’s got name recognition.
    He also has authenticity (defined as unembarrassedly making gaffes).

    I’m assuming that, since he’s running, he already has a war chest.Report

  4. LeeEsq says:

    We can have great fun with this “Biden bounces up the polls” or “Biden pounces Trump during debates.” We might be going down the path to fascism but we can rhyme our way there.Report

  5. Saul Degraw says:

    Biden is not my first choice for the primaries. He might not even be my sixth or seventh choice. FWIW I go between Harris and Warren right now. My general gut prediction is that Harris can be a compromise candidate between the moderate and liberal factions.

    But I’ve seen two tweets that explain Biden and the primary dilemma well:

    1. Matt Y noted that there are still a lot of older Democrats who are not really being courted by any of the other candidates. Everyone else is going for the 18-50 vote right now. Or maybe 18-Forty something Gen Xer. Biden has a strong base among older Democrats including many African-Americans.

    2. Someone whose twitter handle is MenshevikMag tweeted that “Besides Biden himself, Delaware is a vestigial attachment to Maryland’s eastern shore that sustains itself through selling tax free booze to Philly college kids and bank fraud, does anyone think it’s prolific racist grope senator will stand up to scrutiny.”

    I don’t know who MenshevikMag is but she seems to be a part of the Very Online to Extremely Online.* I think this group might be large enough to spoil things but they also don’t realize that they are a minority, even in the Democratic Party. The Extremely Online are at least very loud and seem ready for blood. I worry we might see the kind of circular firing squad that lets Trump win a second term with the same losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college freakiness we saw in 2016.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      The Extremely Online are absolutely certain that the next Democratic candidate must be a woman or a person of color. They are so certain about this that Mayor Pete being a homosexual is not considered enough to allow him to be an exception to this. I’ve even seen arguments that Mayor Pete isn’t really LGBT because he is too conforming to heteronormativity. Very few people really care even among actual Democrats about these things.Report

      • North in reply to LeeEsq says:

        How many divisions does the EO have? Because they have barely any politicians or electoral constituencies. Even the minorities they profess to support think they’re a bit wacky. The only reason that they get paid attention to at all is because A) conservatives desperately signal boost them and B) the journalists all have an incestuous addiction to twitter which is where the EO squawks carry the furthest.Report

        • Saul Degraw in reply to North says:

          Maybe enough to spoil things? Almost anyone can get traction. Hell, I know someone who gushes over that Oprah spiritual advisor and he grifting for the nomination.Report

        • LeeEsq in reply to North says:

          The Extremely Online have managed to do a fair bit of damage In non-political contexts as the YA Twitter has proven. They might not get their preferred candidate into office but they could make this really troublesome for everybody.Report

        • North in reply to North says:

          That is a point, and a danger, but this isn’t an election to replace an existing Democratic President; it’s an election to defeat Trump. I am not exactly an old timer but I’ve never seen those kind of purity pony themes carrying much heft when there’s a Republican incumbent to unseat. A EO voter sitting out the election or protest voting because Biden doesn’t check their boxes seems lunatic even by the EO standards of lunacy.Report

          • LeeEsq in reply to North says:

            The Extremely Online possess the zealot’s belief in their own correctness and righteousness. They are not going to listen to reason because they believe they possess the one true way. Its like the KPD during late Weimar. The intelligent thing for them to do would be vote SPD but they couldn’t do it. They had to just sit things out.Report

  6. North says:

    *Sigh* Well there goes Joe. I really hoped he’d sit it out. Thank God(ess?) for primaries. We’ll see how he fares.Report

  7. Jaybird says:

    The juicy bit is on page 43 of this PDF:

    Donald Trump: 34%
    Joe Biden: 42%Report

  8. George Turner says:

    The poll showing him beating Trump means Biden has all but won the primaries, especially considering the huge sweep through the South early in the season, where he will do very well.

    He doesn’t have a prayer in the general, though.Report

    • North in reply to George Turner says:

      Your info is rather badly… out of date. The state line up this primary is very different than last time. For instance Cali, Minnesota and Massachusetts are all voting right after south Carolina.Report

      • Michael Cain in reply to North says:

        California and Texas are both on March 3. Colorado hasn’t set a final date yet, but will probably be March 3. The Super Tuesday question this time isn’t how will the Dem candidates do with African-Americans, it’s how will they do with Hispanics.Report

      • George Turner in reply to North says:

        That actually may play to his advantage. He’ll do well with Minnesota’s white working class union vote. California coming so early means field will still be huge and fragmented, making it easier to come out on top by holding that centrist lane before those further left can coalesce around a champion.

        Obama isn’t endorsing Biden yet, which is very smart because putting his thumb on the scales too early would only piss passionate ____ supporters off, and also needlessly risk endorsing someone who burns out early.Report

        • North in reply to George Turner says:

          That is true. The centrist lane is far less crowded than the liberal one which suits me pretty well. I am utterly baffled by your suggestion that Biden hasn’t a prayer in the General Election. I mean, yeah, he does have a reputation for gaffes and the like but compared to his opponent?? I am personally anxious about Biden because of his age, his handsiness and his propensity for gaffes but those are all dice rolls- not certainties. If he wasn’t so old or so Biden then he’d be a pretty much perfect candidate to beat the orange tar out of Trump.Report

    • Michael Drew in reply to George Turner says:

      Who would have a prayer in the general?Report

  9. Jaybird says:

    There are a number of “how’s Biden on the War On Drugs?” tweets showing up. They’re all for ending it and very much against Biden’s previous positions. I don’t want to link to sites like “Marijuana Moment” because, well. I prefer more subtle advocates. So here’s the hed and subhed from Rolling Stone:

    Why Weed Advocates Aren’t Happy About Joe Biden’s Candidacy

    Sorry, stoners, but when it comes to marijuana legalization, Biden is basically the worst candidate in the race

    Report

  10. LeeEsq says:

    The extremely online has been very against Biden because as a white man he does not represent the increasingly diverse Democratic Party. Slate looked at the polls. They show that Biden’s biggest group of supporters tend to be women and people of color. Black women are especially strong in their support for Biden. Among Democratic voters, Biden is least popular among white men.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/joe-biden-polling-bump-boring-strategy.htmlReport