Does the Democrat establishment want to promote or discourage Biden’s nomination?
I think they dearly wish they had a better crop of candidates.
But given that they don’t, who are they trying to promote?
Is a smattering of articles questioning Biden’s mental fitness and history meaningful and part of a concerted effort to tear him down? Or are these articles anomalies? Or are they meant to finesse similar criticism if Biden does become the nominee, and to indicate that those issues have already been successfully dealt with and put to rest?
I don’t know the answer. Perhaps it’s six of one and half dozen of the other.
I believe that the left wants to win above all else. The real question is whether Biden would be the most likely to win of all the 2020 Democratic candidates or whether there are others more well-positioned than he to beat Trump.
I don’t think they know the answer, although no doubt they’re polling madly to determine it. There’s a delicate balancing act for the more obviously leftist candidates in the group: how far left to go to placate the base, and where to stop in order to remain viable as a candidate in the general.
This is a variant of a theme that’s been played out on left and right (although on the right it’s been “how far right to go…”) for decades. But at the moment the game is being played at a more extreme level, because the Democrats have moved so far to the left so fast.
Joe Biden is, among other things, a sort of political dinosaur. He’s very old in political terms. And—unlike someone like Trump, who is pretty old himself but not as old as Biden—he’s been in politics on the national level since he was very young indeed. But although Biden was also vice president for eight years, he never was popular in his own right and several earlier bids of his for the presidential nomination of his party never went far. If it weren’t for Obama choosing him as a “safe” VP choice, Biden would be a nearly-forgotten senator-for-life. The fact that he’s in a position to run at all is due almost entirely to Barack Obama.
I don’t think the Democratic Party has quite figured out whether Biden will be their deliverer or their destroyer in 2020. However, I think that they think he will be plenty malleable if he manages to become president, and that they will be able to shape him to their will without much resistance from Biden himself.
Biden is evidence of how worried traditional Democrat voters are.
Honestly, I don’t think Biden will last till the election because he seems–day by day–to be deteriorating right before our eyes.
I don’t have any personal knowledge about how far and fast you can slide when senile dementia sets in but, it looks like that may be what is setting in here.
Does the Democrat establishment want to promote or discourage Biden’s nomination? … Perhaps it’s six of one and half dozen of the other.
Yes. My read is the party leaders are divided. They are both right.
Regardless of which candidate gets the nod, the democrats are going to lose. Only Trump’s assassination can prevent that fate.
If Biden is the nominee, his loss will weaken the ‘moderate’ democrats and strengthen the radicals who will then gain de facto control of the democrat party. If one of the more publicly extreme candidates is the nominee, I suspect that radical’s loss in 2020 will split the party because the radicals will never admit that their positions were politically too extreme.
I think the Dems know that they are in trouble. Their field is weak and they have no “bench”. Now they are going to rekindle their impeachment push, maybe even getting to actually having hearings…. and that is its own mine field. But they only have impeachment to stop the Trump Train because, down inside, they see their chances of giving him the boot in 2020 as remote.
There is some speculation about some kind of “stealth candidate” who is currently nowhere who will pop up at the convention to save the party’s bacon. I’m in no position to evaluate the possibility of that happening or who it might be.
There is some speculation about some kind of “stealth candidate” who is currently nowhere who will pop up at the convention to save the party’s bacon. I’m in no position to evaluate the possibility of that happening or who it might be.
Another Mike: Hint. First name: Michelle.
I’m still serious about this. Can you imagine the drama if Michelle Obama descends into a tied convention, parts the Red Sea and leads the Chosen to victory over Pharoah Trump?
That’s a movie! And that’s how Democrats think, moreso than Republicans IMO.
The Democrats’ 2020 problems stem in no small part from the Obama years, when the Democrats lost around 1000 seats at the state and national levels, and exterminated almost all the Blue Dog moderates.
The Democrats problems stem from the culture of that organization at the elite level and at the popular level. They have some passable executives in their line-up (Hickenlooper, Yang) and people who know the business world (Hickenlooper, Delaney). Their electorate has no interest in that. Their main candidates – Biden, Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Booty-gig – have one or another of the following winds at their back: name-recognition, (largely idle) social resentments, and identity politics (mostly what white liberals fancy is kewel). They serve up this junk because they like it.
I’m still serious about this.
That’s too bad. She has rent-free space in your head that she don’t even want.
I think the Dems know that they are in trouble.
No more in trouble than we are, maybe less. We’re competing for a small pool of swing voters, and what little motivates them is not what motivates any of us.
Huxley,
Are you positive that Mrs. Obama wants the job? I doubt that she does. Tulsi would be their best bet to make it a horse race, fortunately she doesn’t appeal to the base. But speculation is moot unless the economy tanks.
I wrote about the “will Michelle run?” question here.
This I what I wrote:
The Dems have a senile (Biden) running, another senile distinguished by his hatefulness (Bernie), and a homosexual wife backbencher (Buttigieg) plus a posse of socialists each more frothing at the mouth with righteousness than the other.
These latter seem to think they can shame the middle class into raising, by taxing and/or borrowing, the umpteen trillions their addled plans will cost.
The Dems are hopefully all going over the cliff.
Besides Melania is absolutely the most beautiful, classiest First Lady ever. Makes Jackie look like a frump, and Michelle look like a toad (which she is).
I think they dearly wish they had a better crop of candidates.
they they statespeople, or they the people who vote?
cause if you think about it, these fruitbats are the best of the lot on that side!
or do you think they are holding better in the wings?
It has been apparent (to me anyway) that the one most interested in ENSURING that Mr. Biden is NOT the prevailing Democrat nominee is Mr. Biden.
I can’t explain why not, except to say that it’s a strong gut feeling of mine that it’s not what she wants.
I recall when she had a whole TV show explaining that she is not “an angry black woman.” She is and I think she knows she would never be elected.
I think she’s had it with public office after 8 years of being First Lady and wants to be free of such obligations.
Pat Buchanan, having had some contact with Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan, took a look at Mooch in the distance and said, ‘not a happy camper’. Buchanan offered in 2010 that BO might refrain from running for re-election because his wife wanted out of Dodge.
One of the oddities of Michelle Obama’s life from 1991 to 2008 was the willingness of institutions to pay her handsome salaries for no one knows quite what. (Her license to practice law lapsed in 1993 and she had no training in business or public administration). OTOH, she once said the great thing about fundraisers held in people’s homes is that she got a lot of great decorating ideas. Now, why would Obama expose himself to Tony Rezko except, perhaps, that Michelle wanted a grand home, because decorative arts are what interests her?
Doubt she’s all that angry. Resentful and disagreeable, perhaps. She’s a patronage baby without much in the way of real accomplishment. Then again, some people just are.
Are you positive that Mrs. Obama wants the job? I doubt that she does.
parker: Hardly. I doubt she wants the job either. Then again, I doubt most of the boys who died at Normandy wanted to go either, but it was a matter of duty over a comfortable life.
So it depends how MO sees her commitment to the left and Obama’s legacy and how much of a difference she thinks she could make.
Do you guys not yet get how committed leftists are, how much they will give up to further the cause?
Furthermore, living in the White House, lording it over the world, and enjoying all those perks for four years ain’t exactly what I would call hardship, even if it’s annoying.
That’s too bad. She has rent-free space in your head that she don’t even want.
Art Deco: Considering how often you respond to my comments without crediting me, it’s clear I have rent-free space in your head.
It’s OK. I don’t judge you for it.
Huxley,
She can “lord it over the world” from the comfort of her Cape Cod mansion or her Hawaii mansion or her DC mansion and still make millions. Why not be lazy?
I don’t consider the Michelle Option probable. It depends on the failure of the party to solidify behind a candidate plus Barack and Michelle assessing her chances to beat Trump as worth the shot.
Maybe Michelle lacks the grit of leftists like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn or even her husband, to sacrifice four years of her life in opulent splendor and power to roll back Trump’s outrages that have put a serious crimp in the left’s grand march towards utopia.
But I sure wouldn’t assume it.
She can “lord it over the world” from the comfort of her Cape Cod mansion or her Hawaii mansion or her DC mansion and still make millions. Why not be lazy?
parker: Why be ignorant of the left’s Gollum-like pursuit of the Precious? That is to say, political power.
Do you not understand how powerful being President is? Do you not get the difference between having a nice house on Cape Cod and living in the White House with all the power that goes with it?
Only moderately off-topic; it does involve Democrats and their agenda, of which Biden is only one possible implementer.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/progressivisms_human_dog_parks.html
The Dems mostly know that, without a recession, Trump wins 2020. Maybe even wins back the House.
This election is partly in prep for 2024, who gets the free “Frontrunner” type publicity. Altho the base believes it “needs” to get rid of Trump.
Now I’m afraid that too many Reps will be “getting cocky” and not do enough to stop the socialist cancer that is growing.
The biggest cause of growth of socialism is the colleges all discriminating against hiring Rep professors.