Former Vice President Joe Biden finally announced his campaign on Thursday, starting off as a front runner in polls.
But can he overcome the obstacle course awaiting him in 2020?
In his long career of 44 years in national office, 36 in the US Senate and eight years as Vice President, the longest public service record of any Presidential candidate in modern history, Biden came across as genuine, sincere, decent, and compassionate, and gained millions of fans, including this blogger and author.
But he also made judgments that are problematical, including being against school busing in Delaware; supporting the credit card industry in his state, and in so doing, undermining the ability of debtors to protect themselves by bankruptcy; his lack of protection of Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, for which he continues to apologize but in an unsatisfactory manner; his support of an interventionist foreign policy in Iraq; his many gaffes, many of them harmless but still giving him a reputation for loose and thoughtless language; and his habit of being too touchy feely with women and girls, although never accused of sexual improprieties.
Biden also promoted tough crime and drug laws in the 1990s, which are now looked at as blunders that put too many African Americans in prison unjustifiably, and his leadership at different times of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been criticized. His ability to “cross the aisle” and work with many Republicans is seen by some as a weakness, while others see it as a strength.
Biden is a centrist Democrat in 2019 at a time when many progressives are much further to the left than him, and one wonders if he could gain the support of those to his left if he wins the nomination, as he is perceived as too close to the traditional power centers of the party.
Joe Biden has many positive attributes, but his negative side and shortcomings, as seen by many critics, could doom him in a race against Donald Trump, when the most important thing possible is to insure that Donald Trump does not gain a second term, as that would be destructive of every progressive goal in the short run and long run.
This blogger and author has always looked at Joe Biden as a hero of his, as much as earlier, Hubert Humphrey was his model of what a political leader should be like. But Humphrey had the same problem 50 years ago of being admired and praised, but seen by many as not the best choice to oppose Richard Nixon in 1968, against Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.
So the same quandary of 1968 awaits us in 2020, to find the best person to be successful against the greatest menace, Donald Trump, that we have had in a half century of American political history, far more damaging than Richard Nixon.
And while Hubert Humphrey was 57 at the time he ran for President in 1968, Joe Biden will be 78 shortly after the election, and as in 1960, 1976, 1992, and 2008, Democrats were able to elect a “new generation” leadership of John F. Kennedy (age 43); Jimmy Carter (age 52); Bill Clinton (age 46); and Barack Obama (age 47).
Should that be the direction for 2020 is the ultimate challenge for the Democrats.
And will Joe Biden be able to win the white working class of the Midwest and Pennsylvania? Will he be able to keep the African American community around him? Will he be able to draw moderate independents and alienated Republicans, who do not wish to vote for Donald Trump? Will he be able to win suburban whites, who veered toward Democrats in 2018? Will many seniors who supported Trump come back to the Democrats they once supported? And will enough young voters who have supported Bernie Sanders, who is 14 months older than Joe Biden, extend their allegiance to Biden if he stops the Sanders juggernaut?
These are the questions that will dominate the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2020.
No member of Congress who voted for the wars in Vietnam or Iraq was later elected president of the United States.
Joe Biden voted for the war in Iraq.
Joe Biden will not be president of the United States.
Trump Wants to Divide the Left. The Left Should be Wary.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/04/28/trump-wants-to-divide-the-left-the-left-should-be-wary/
A Woman Can Definitely Beat Trump
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/04/28/a-woman-can-definitely-beat-trump/
D, none of the Presidents since the time of Vietnam were in Congress to vote against Vietnam or Iraq, as most were Governors (Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II).
As far as the Iraq War and voting for it, I do not see it as disqualifying, far from it, as we can all be Monday morning quarterbacks after events, and we were misled on Iraq. No one in Congress, certainly in the Democratic Party, could have known that, so they put the posed threat of national security as the motivation to support a war.
I see those who voted both ways on the Iraq Resolution as having legitimacy in how they voted, and do not think it should disqualify anyone.
Ronald,
Vietnam and Iraq were the two wars, over the last 50-plus years, which were such incredible disasters—wars in which the United States never should have been—that we have not had, and we will not have, a U.S. president who voted either of them. Vietnam—well, that period is done. Iraq—this period, and the historical electoral pattern, continues.
This goes to…judgment. And people—voters—have sniffed that out. If the 2020 Democrats nominate 47th U.S. vice president Joe Biden—who voted for the war in Iraq—Republican incumbent U.S. president Donald Trump will defeat Biden as he did 2016 Republican primary opponent and ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (who labored to defend his brother, the man who brought us that war, 43rd U.S. president George W.).
https://youtu.be/H4ThZcq1oJQ
Joe Biden has gotten an 11-point polling bounce since his announcement.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/politics/cnn-poll-2020-biden-announcement-bounce/index.html
It is very encouraging that Joe Biden has had such a bump, but as we know, polls are notoriously unreliable, Pragmatic Progressive.
However, I would just say that just because of past history that those who supported the Vietnam War or the Iraq War in Congress were not elected, proves nothing as we are in a different situation with Donald Trump in office.
If the Democrats decide to go with Joe Biden, ignoring history, we could still believe he could defeat Donald Trump, as he is the true anti Trump, and character and empathy DO matter.
No one else, no one, has that special character of Joe Biden, and most certainly, Bernie Sanders does not, and neither does Tulsi Gabbard, the only two that D apparently believes in as legitimate .
As always, I will back whoever is the Democratic nominee, but I seriously doubt that either Sanders or Gabbard will be running for President in November 2020.
And I still respect all views, so D should not think I am going out of my way to be critical, just expressing how I see it, but we will see who is correct over time!
Race is still very fluid right now. Quinnipac poll has Elizabeth Warren jumping to 2nd and Bernie down to 3rd.
Larry Sabato says the top issue uniting Democrats is going after Trump.
Trump is jealous that Biden was endorsed by a firefighters union.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/politics/trump-joe-biden-firefighters-union/index.html
Some Things That Might Surprise You About Biden’s Foreign Policy Positions
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/05/03/some-things-that-might-surprise-you-about-bidens-foreign-policy-positions/
Yes, Princess Leia, the Left in the Democratic Party is distorting Joe Biden’s record, not a good sign, as the Sanders wing would not be able, with the “Socialist” attack by Republicans, be able to convince the public to vote for Sanders.
I know that D will vehemently disagree, but I am concerned about this attack going on, as if Joe Biden is a neocon, which he most certainly is NOT!