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

“You can fuckin kiss me anytime,” a woman in the crowd yells st Biden. “That’s very nice, thank you ... wow,” he says. pic.twitter.com/Gi6gGRSlbU

— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) May 7, 2019

that's very nice, thank you

...

wow

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzGOAnhWgAAGhzV.jpg

one of the most cursed images in recent memory

same energy for sure

Nice how this time there are like four Deans, all of whom are better than Dean actually was, on the way to our somehow much worse Kerry. https://t.co/jU9xgMFEV2

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) May 14, 2019

He’s dominating in the polls, his fundraising is going gangbusters and he’s showing broad support from key political players in the early presidential states.

So where are the big energetic crowds, the lines around the block to get into Joe Biden’s events?

The question is no small matter in a party still recovering from a bitter 2016 defeat — a loss marked by a lack of enthusiasm for an establishment nominee in several critical states.

Attendance at the former vice president’s launch rally paled next to some of his rivals. In his first Iowa visit, he didn’t match the crowds that greeted Elizabeth Warren or even the less well-known Pete Buttigieg in their initial visits. So far, he’s kept his events to smaller venues where there’s little danger of empty seats.

In the eyes of Biden’s progressive critics — as well as President Donald Trump, who has publicly mocked him for it — the seeming lack of excitement or teeming masses at his events is a leading indicator of a lack of passion for his candidacy.

“I started to think the polls were wrong about Biden because it’s not what we’re seeing on the ground,” said Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People, a national network devoted to promoting women of color.

“Inspiration is the X-factor and we’re waiting for the inspiration from Biden,” she said. “When the inspiration isn’t there, the turnout from the core of the Democratic base — women of color — isn’t there. And then we lose.”

To Biden’s campaign, attendance figures are a meaningless metric. Focusing on crowd size is Trump’s game, they say, an emphasis on style over substance that attempts to turn audience engagement into an argument about the 76-year-old Biden’s energy level.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/28/biden-energy-crisis-1345359

To Biden’s campaign, attendance figures are a meaningless metric. Focusing on crowd size is Trump’s game, they say, an emphasis on style over substance that attempts to turn audience engagement into an argument about the 76-year-old Biden’s energy level.

if this is true, hahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaaahaha

It's worrying, but I wonder if anyone thinking the main point is enthusiasm among women of color is actually checking how many women of color there are in the crowds for the other candidates...

jfc

In a somewhat odd moment at tonight's AFT town hall, Biden tells a 10-year-old girl, “I’ll bet you’re as bright as you are good-looking." He takes her over to the assembled reporters, then stands behind her and puts his hands on her shoulders while he's talking.

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) May 28, 2019

You know what they say, Biden could feel up a tween in the middle of Fifth Avenue and the Dem electorate would still say he’s the most electable candidate in the party.

joe biden gets the important support of bret stephens

What really changed after 1994 was that we hired more cops, incarcerated more offenders, and, most importantly, policed our streets a lot better. That year’s crime bill wasn’t the only reason those changes took place, or perhaps even the main one. What it did do, however, was move the country, with fractious but bipartisan support, in the right direction: of more policing and tougher enforcement and a powerful refusal to continue defining criminal deviancy down in the face of those who said we just had to take it. It was an act of moral clarity married to political possibility, which is what statesmanship is all about.

The result is a vastly safer country. That Biden played a major role in it is something for him to trumpet, not apologize for.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/opinion/joe-biden-crime-bill.html

we hired more cops, incarcerated more offenders, and, most importantly, policed our streets a lot better

truly do not understand ppl who would see this as a positive turn of events

I mean I know where they're coming from but I despair of any chance to get through to them WHY mass incarceration is a bug and not a feature. It 100% hits all their social priorities and reinforces their position exactly where they want it.

Attendant bitterness brought to you by the number of Blue Lives Matter/pro-NYPD bumper stickers and flags I see every fuckin day while stuck in traffic.

until the police treat people like bret stephens like they treat people of color, they'll never get it

The result is a vastly safer country.

Not for unarmed, innocent black men.

i could at least have a modicum of sympathy for someone who felt this way who did grow up/live in a high-crime area, but Bret Stephens is a straight up soft-ass boarding school fuckboy.

Not for unarmed, innocent black men.

fear not, bret stephens has thought about this and has a response:

Side effects? There have been a few. There may be a case that long prison terms cripple the lives and prospects of offenders, with disproportionate consequences for racial minorities. But locking up violent offenders (whose victims are also, disproportionately, racial minorities) creates a far greater margin of safety for those who don’t disobey the law.

There are also plenty of stories of aggressive, abusive and sometimes trigger-happy policing. But there’s also mounting evidence that under-policing hits minority communities much harder than over-policing. Just look at Baltimore, city of discouraged cops, terrified residents — and a record-high homicide rate.

Reminds me of a pharmaceutical ad where all the images are of laughing, happy people while the announcer rapidly monotones the dozen awful side effects.

crime rates have dropped in all developed nations over the last 30 years regardless of whether or not their criminal justice systems became more or less draconian.

otm

But locking up violent offenders (whose victims are also, disproportionately, racial minorities)

fuck this bullshit black on black crime myth

I think my fav Biden thing at the moment is when his supporters say "oh well those things he voted for in the past were a long time ago, and people evolve over time"

and the Biden says,"i dont give a fuuuck bitch, regret nothing"

Got an NRATV ad (starring a 20-something black man) on Twitter today criticizing Biden for being bros with Jesse Helms.

Biden reminds me of my ninth grade algebra teacher, who'd massage your shoulders as "encouragement." I think my teacher eventually hanged himself in his garage, which is more honorable than running for President. pic.twitter.com/GCCKfIFCcl

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) June 1, 2019

??????? https://t.co/iC2Iqf118P pic.twitter.com/rd3nXE0bWj

— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) June 3, 2019

holy shit what an asshole

He marched with freedom, which is also on the march

the nyt article doesn't mention him except when generically listing other candidates, but hard to shake the sense that the line biden's "testing" there is an attempted blow at jesse jackson, whose platform that year was

creating a Works Progress Administration-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans

reprioritizing the War on Drugs to focus less on mandatory minimum sentences for drug users (which he views as racially biased) and more on harsher punishments for money-laundering bankers and others who are part of the "supply" end of "supply and demand"

reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs

cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration

declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation

instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union

giving reparations to descendants of black slaves

supporting family farmers by reviving many of Roosevelt's New Deal–era farm programs

creating a single-payer system of universal health care

ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment

increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all

applying stricter enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and

supporting the formation of a Palestinian state

all stuff w nothing to do w the civil rights movement of course, which was about changing attitudes, which we changed

https://youtu.be/56nHBah7mdE

whatever

attitude is the most important civil right of all

as any biden voter will tell you it's a tragedy that even this far on from the civil rights movement many black americans have not yet secured good ones

Are his poll numbers beginning to drop yet? Seeing contradictory takes on this!

he did have a bump when he announced and then they kinda regressed.

He’s still at around 35% in polls this week

His poll numbers have been dropping a bit, but they're still up from when he announced, and he's still far, far ahead.

to put this in some perspective, HRC was about 50 points ahead of sanders at this time four years ago: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_democratic_presidential_nomination-3824.html

I don't think Biden is going to be the nominee

4 years ago Bernie's campaign was 7 days old and there hadn't been a single debate

now everyone knows Bernie and he's 19 points behind Biden

biden's lead is not that big for this early and his support is really soft.

if this was another two-person race sanders wouldnt be that far behind (and might be ahead depending on how you see the distribution of non-biden support)

I'm still hoping for Biden to fall apart, but I don't think it's going to be Bernie who takes the prize

i dont either, warren gang warren gang warren gang warren gang

bring on the dancing DNA tests

I don't think I know a single person I know in Iowa who has attended past caucuses regularly who has been polled, if anecdotal evidence means anything

After getting a chair for a woman sitting on the floor, @JoeBiden brings the house down by saying “I want the press to know — she pulled me close!” #FITN #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/UL8CMg4tpQ

— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) June 4, 2019

he's gonna do these bits all the way