If he shuts his mouth and lets other people (preferably younger, preferably non-white, preferably LGBTQ, preferably progressive, etc.) talk about how they think he can deliver on the progressive policies he borrowed from Sanders and Warren, then he has a shot. He can speak after them, preferably sticking to a short script that starts with “thank you for allowing me to listen to your concerns…”
But at the risk of sounding like one of those big meanies who “beats up” on poor Uncle Joe by expecting better of of a Dem candidate than “shoot them in the leg” and “you ain’t black”, I don’t think this is the last of his alienating voters. Worse, he’s not inspiring them when he does open his trap – this is about bringing out new voters, not complacently expecting the same old blocs to carry him to victory.
[I know, how dare I help Biff get a second term by having reasonable standards for his Dem opponent. The shame…]
Well, we know that’s not going to happen, not least because he’s also been attacked for not being out there making himself visible. He’s going to say something every day, and because he’s Biden he’s going to lose control of his mouth every so often. If the conversation in left-wing spaces is only about how horrible those gaffes are, and not the rest of it, then those spaces amplify the voter alienation process.
To their credit, some of the old-left publications (The Nation, Mother Jones, et al) have increasingly been running positive stories about Biden and his policies. There’s not much anyone can do about publications to the left of them that have already decided to carry water for Putin and Stephen Miller, and the Biden team probably has to permanently write off The Hill and their dozens of voters.
I just wish I could see a little more positivity in places like this BBS. I’ve been trying to post links to some of the encouraging things I’ve seen, but I’m probably going to stop soon, since my attempts aren’t getting much traction; I’m starting to understand how @khepra must have felt 4 years ago.
I think the idea is that he’ll have 50+% of the regular delegates if he does as well as projected.
There are still other candidates on the ballots, and in some cases people are still voting for the likes of Bernie and Tulsi in order to make a statement.
If people backing their candidate while they were still actively running couldn’t overcome the inertia of Biden’s candidacy, I find it utterly unsurprising that protest votes for other candidates who have openly stated that they’ve stopped running would fail to have an impact on his ability to win the primary at this stage.
Yes, but since most primaries are not winner-take-all, there was still some slight chance that he wouldn’t reach the 50% delegate line. I don’t think his winning either these individual primaries or the nomination is in any doubt (except perhaps in the heads of a few people who have posted bizarre fantasy scenarios on this BBS and I suppose elsewhere).
Really, I want him to kick Il Douche out, but I’m not going to be a cheerleader for mediocrity and incompetence and I’m not going to ask people to “clap harder” for a light bulb that’s not connected to a current. There are a bunch of ways Biden could demonstrate that he’s a competent leader in his own right (not just by hurdling the low bar of comparing himself to Biff) while keeping his big mouth shut most of the time.
But he is what he is: another old out-of-touch white guy indebted to corporate interests who’s so in love with the sound of his own voice that he’ll spew out any racist or sexist or childish thought that comes to mind. We already have that, Uncle Joe, and if you keep doing the same thing we’ll have it for another four years.
When Biden finally addressed the group, he quoted the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: “‘Faith sees best in the dark,’ and it’s been pretty dark." Biden, 77, recalled how, for most of his half-century political career, he believed that hate could be defeated, but he said he has come to realize that hate just hides. “It doesn’t go away, and when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen to the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks,” Biden said.
Great, does this mean we get to stop hearing about all the good times he had with his segregationist buddies on the other side of the aisle back in the good old days? It’d be nice to get an “evolution” from him on that…
None of the suggestions there have anything to do with Biden. Which is a good thing, since a campaign official whose track record is even worse than that of Hillary’s and Dukakis’s people is not in a position to be advising the Biden campaign about anything.
You know… it kind of feels like given Trump’s authoritarian display this week, especially with that whole church stunt, that should be a much bigger lead… but then again, polls are often… meaningless number crunching? Misleading? Who knows…
