Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez on Sunday responded to 2020 candidate Joe Biden’s anti-busing record by saying that voters should look at the “totality” of the party’s support for civil rights.
People who run for office approach the campaign differently than they do when they become president. They run to far left, they govern from the middle. That’s what’s happening. I’m not getting into a lather about two random opinionators because I can cite other op writers who are raving about the possibilities inherent in this slate of candidates including a Harris/Buttegeig ticket and genuine excitment about the possibility of a woman regardless of her color finally at the top if the ticket.
A trainwreck 18 months from the election? Not happening. Op writers gotta write.
Just as having grandiose left-of-center plans about what you will do as President won’t matter if you don’t beat Trump, having not-so-grandiose center-right plans about what you will do as President won’t matter if you don’t get the Democratic nomination.
Given the present mood in the Democratic party, a candidate who presents as moderate as some op-ed writers would like would have a hard time getting the nomination - and I include Biden when I make that statement.
To expect someone running for the nomination to make absolutely no statements this early that MIGHT turn off someone in the general election, and still get the nomination, is a ridiculous standard.
My most pro-Harris view of the present situation is that Harris needs to take more supporters from Biden, hope that Warren keeps taking supporters from Sanders, and that Buttigieg slowly fades away. Then you get a Biden/Warren/Harris contest for the nomination. Way too early to figure out who wins if it’s a competition between those three. (Note that even if Warren takes a bunch of Sanders’ supporters, Sanders will probably still stay in for a while, giving Warren a bit of a handicap if she’s competing against Harris and Biden.)
How the hell could this POS continue at 42%. I was reading that his “span” of popularity is the smallest since forever. That is, other presidents have gone up and down a lot more during three years. It tells you that his supporters couldn’t give a shit what he does - but we already know that. The question is, how many supporters does he really have.
I worry that whoever is the candidate isn’t going to be able to backtrack toward the center as has historically been the pattern - and which is absolutely necessary. Fox will be screaming about it, purity police on our side, etc.
Harris is hungry, and so are most of the others. Biden’s not hungry. He’s got it made and has become rich because of his years in office and he’s content with whatever reputation he has from those years.
Fox will scream, it’s what they do. What matters is what Democratic voters think about our candidates and they must appeal to them, not media screamers.
He was truly shocked when Harris confronted him. Everyone talked about Hillary being the anointed one … he’s in for a rude awakening since he seems to be pretty thick in getting the damn message.
I’ve been waiting for a major Democratic candidate with a killer instinct for what feels like forever. And Senator Harris has that and then some. I’m convinced there’s no way she will give McConnell and Republicans more than one chance to play ball and negotiate in good faith. If not, it’s going to be her way or the highway.
“It’s up to the vice president to explain his position,” Perez responded. “It’s up to the vice president to explain everything he’s done up in his career.”
This is sort of ominous if you’re the Biden campaign. While the DNC Chair has to give the appearance of neutrality, he’s not trying to defend or “clarify” on Biden’s behalf at all here.
@pshah The air of inevitability is what we’re seeing with Biden. Not a good or realistic look. I also don’t want to see commentary which seems to come from the right and frankly the far left about Harris’ days as a prosecutor in both SF and CA. Expect to hear she’s in favor of the death penalty. She’s not, to her credit didn’t use it when it was available because she knows the inherent unfairness of capital punishment on men of color.
I got the sense that Perez was not so much throwing Biden under the bus as he was nudging Biden toward the tires of the bus Biden had thrown himself under.
Which suggests that the policial pros in the party are worried – not yet willing to abandon Biden, but concerned enough to force Biden to dig himself out of his own hole to make sure that he can do so.