Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

Look, I have to defend marriage and couplehood and I think they're wretched, so.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/killing-of-george-floyd-shows-our-over-reliance-on-police.html

"But the architects of broken-windows policing misidentified its source, and so do their descendants. Did the people fail the state or did the state fail the people? The liberal politician might concede the latter. He may even approve some new welfare spending or, in the case of de Blasio, experiment with programs like universal pre-K. On the subject of the police, and incarceration, they advocate body cameras and civilian review boards. But that’s often where they stop. The police still know they can beat, shoot, and kill with almost complete impunity in blue and red states alike. Mayors like de Blasio will defend them and repeat their version of events to the press. Governors like Cuomo will give them more money. Democratic voters will nominate the architect of the 1994 crime bill to be president. Matters will go on as usual — unless protesters force a true reckoning."

Biden policy prescriptions in this speech:

-Ban chokeholds by federal legislation
-Set up national use-of-force best practices
-Stop military gear transfers to local police
-End Trump's support for anti-ACA lawsuit
-Expand the ACA

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 2, 2020

That third one is at least on point

words til we see em

remember when Obama promised to walk labor pickets

HAHA Everyone is still on the Maryland primary ballot, even Tom Steyer. I voted for Bern with pleasure.

Biden lies compulsively about lots of things great and small, but god bless him he wasn't lying about this... pic.twitter.com/faRaqEbbbN

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 2, 2020

Biden to attend George Floyd funeral, Floyd family attorney says https://t.co/XIS7pcVHEJ pic.twitter.com/3moaYXVM1z

— The Hill (@thehill) June 2, 2020

good photo op

Nixon went to Dr King's funeral

HAHA Everyone is still on the Maryland primary ballot, even Tom Steyer. I voted for Bern with pleasure.

― Boring, Maryland, Tuesday, June 2, 2020 12:22 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right? My mail-in ballot was for Elizabeth Warren. Felt good.

I voted for Warren too. Useless I guess. But I'm really interested in seeing the results.

my primary was fucking canceled at one point, so at this point I'm just hoping I get to actually vote in it

i sent in my absentee ballot request form for NY. let's hope it gets out in time

would really appreciate if biden -- well, that sentence could be finished a lot of ways but the one I am thinking of just now is would stop emailing me with "Can I give you a call?"

I went to 538 to get some over-optimistic bullshit to cheer me up a bit, but it was too over-optimistic and such unbelievable bullshit that it didn't cheer me up at all.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/biden-doesnt-really-have-a-young-voters-problem/

Yet for all the concern, Biden isn’t actually doing that much worse among younger voters than Hillary Clinton did in the 2016 election.

a selection of graf openers in that story. premium TPM vintage quality here:

Yet for all the concern,

Still,

Then again,

Of course,

I teach students to avoid those transistions.

On the other hand...

I find it hilarious that anyone knew there were primaries yesterday

this is not an election yet

even so

nevertheless

He pissed off the cops.

While under fire from the left, police increasingly became more Republican, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police and former in-house lobbyist for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who worked closely with Biden on the crime bill and other legislation.

“There are two evolutions in two directions. On law-and-order issues, Biden was right of center: the ‘94 crime bill, the Brady law and enhanced penalties. But as time has gone by, his positions have moderated, moderated, moderated to where we are today, where he would not be considered a law-and-order guy in the sense that law enforcement sees it,” Pasco said.

“Also, as time has gone by, the law enforcement community — especially the rank and file — has become far more conservative. Today, the FOP and other labor groups are far less open to addressing gun control issues, things that traditionally they supported and that Biden worked very closely and successfully with them on.”

For instance, Pasco said, law enforcement is less likely to be engaged in supporting gun control, which was once more popular with police. An assault-weapons ban was included in the ’94 crime bill along with other legislation that gave the federal government more power to investigate a “pattern or practice” of local law enforcement abuses.

v generous to call cops "conservative"

aim for the leg, my ass (I will not aim for the leg)

sweep the leg

still doing "bad cops"

Illustrative of the lessons he and people like him don't learn - there's nothing he could do to appease the pigs, why even try?

Between Harris's speech today and a lot of visibility on TV the past week, I'd be very surprised if she isn't offered VP. I think there's a chance she already has been, although maybe it's still too soon.

thought her rebuttal to Rand Paul was impressive

Just watched it. It was--would have loved a reaction shot or two of Paul.

Rand Paul tried to lecture Black lawmakers on the definition of lynching. Kamala Harris delivered her response. I was going to take a snippet from the 7 minutes to highlight but I couldn’t. The entire speech is powerful and one that’ll go down in history. pic.twitter.com/qxmCi85jL6

— José (@josecanyousee) June 4, 2020

maybe this was for the general politics thread

Harris presumably wouldn’t be on Biden’s bussing task force.

Harris would be perfect for him.

She'd eat Pence alive.

She'd eat Pence alive.

I dunno. Television debates often turn on style points.

Harris is much smarter than Pence, but Pence was and is a spawn of the media and he projects a 'cool' presence - to use McLuhan's term. This is a by-product of his being mostly an empty suit, but he knows his lines and can deliver them pretty well. He's spent thousands of hours speaking into microphones and saying nothing, but saying it in rounded thoughtful tones. For a television debate that's good enough.

Harris's speaking style is pretty average, even if her content is far better. She hasn't taken the time to polish her delivery, probably because she sees that as secondary to the parts of her job she sees as most important and enjoys most. Good oratory is very artful and getting good at it requires more practice than she has given to it.

She was a prosecutor; she'll do fine.

xp don't agree with that at all

Pence has a cool creepy empty composure, but she is more persuasive to me

plus if you expose Pence to bright light Gremlins come out

Harris is not Tim Kaine. Whatever her background -- and I agree with many ILE'ers -- she would destroy him in debate without becoming a yapping little thing like Kaine.

I should add that traditionally 'winning' a VP debate has pretty low payoff. Mainly her job would be to convince viewers she would make a good president, if needed. Because Biden is very old for the job and this will matter to voters more than does she trounce Pence. imo, she'd be smart to ignore Pence and the moderator(s) and just act like she's addressing a bunch of voters sitting in their living rooms.

She was a prosecutor

...and he's just a simple country Mayonnaise Golem.

more payoff when u think either President may not survive their second term

but in general, yes, Veep debates are low stakes

She'd probably destroy him in a debate but there are few things in American politics that matter less than a VP debate.

"I was really into this revanchist white nationalism thing the GOP had going on until someone who was going to have no actual power pwned it."

No one's arguing otherwise. xpost