There is a reason why Biden failed in past runs for the White House. Voters judged him poor in 'Presidential timber'. He was way too 'beltway'. I remember when he ran against Obama in the primaries and got absolutely smoked. He kept reminding people how many years on the 'foreign relations' com he had. Voters yawned and Biden got the boo…
There is a reason why Biden failed in past runs for the White House. Voters judged him poor in 'Presidential timber'. He was way too 'beltway'. I remember when he ran against Obama in the primaries and got absolutely smoked. He kept reminding people how many years on the 'foreign relations' com he had. Voters yawned and Biden got the boot not knowing what hit him. If it wasn't for Trump and a Dem convention hungry for a centrist candidate who could beat Trump, Biden would have never won.
Nate Silver nailed it "Biden, an ordinary man in extraordinary times. If you simulated the world 1000 times with slightly different initial conditions, I’m convinced that both Barack Obama and Trump would become president fairly often — whatever you think of them, they have self some self-evident star talent. Biden is the political equivalent of what in poker we’d call a “grinder.” He’s been at the same casino every day for decades, playing in the same low-to-mid-stakes game. Like any grinder, he’s occasionally crotchety, sometimes complaining about the increase in parking prices or the broken soda machine. But he’s affable enough — he knows everyone and is a good reader of people on and off the tables. And at these stakes, he’s a solid, winning player. But when he’s tried to take shots at bigger games, it hasn’t gone well. Moreover, he’s now well into his seventies and well past peak form.
Then you turn on the TV one day, and this grinder from your $2/$5 game improbably has a huge stack of chips in the World Series of Poker. The truth is, he’s been lucky to get there, blessed by the deck and winning nearly every all-in for a week straight. But he comes to precisely the opposite conclusion: that after a lifetime of bad breaks and being underestimated, he’s finally getting the results he deserved all along. He’s badly overplaying hands, making heroic calls and raises, especially toward the end of the day once the fatigue sets in. Before you have time to text your buddies from the cardroom to turn on and watch the show, he’s busted out."
Biden had ONE job which he was elected for....,NO MORE TRUMP. Instead he tried to be FDR 2.0, and voters rejected that.
Nailed it! But did Biden really try to be FDR? Not even FDR-Lite. He never even talked about the problems facing the country until a day before he was kicked out ... the oligarchy. He did like what all of our Democratic Presidents since Ronald Reagan have done, participated in normalizing and allowing the toxic Republicans to take over the party and now the country - without a fucking word in opposition.
I'd actually disagree about 2008. That's the one time I felt Biden had it all together as a candidate: experienced enough to warrant respect, still cognitively on point, and as such, capable of communicating effectively with voters, when given a little time for a stump speech. He just never gained any traction in that primary, because Obama was a comet and Clinton...well, was a Clinton. This, of course, does not mean he would've been an effective President from 2008-2016, just that he was a better candidate than people gave him credit for. And this happens in crowded primaries all the time.
By even the latter half of his vice-presidency, it was very clear he had slowed down. I am not sure he could've ever gotten on a major ticket again in normal circumstances, but 2020 ended up being exactly the right environment for him, as Silver alludes to.
There is a reason why Biden failed in past runs for the White House. Voters judged him poor in 'Presidential timber'. He was way too 'beltway'. I remember when he ran against Obama in the primaries and got absolutely smoked. He kept reminding people how many years on the 'foreign relations' com he had. Voters yawned and Biden got the boot not knowing what hit him. If it wasn't for Trump and a Dem convention hungry for a centrist candidate who could beat Trump, Biden would have never won.
Nate Silver nailed it "Biden, an ordinary man in extraordinary times. If you simulated the world 1000 times with slightly different initial conditions, I’m convinced that both Barack Obama and Trump would become president fairly often — whatever you think of them, they have self some self-evident star talent. Biden is the political equivalent of what in poker we’d call a “grinder.” He’s been at the same casino every day for decades, playing in the same low-to-mid-stakes game. Like any grinder, he’s occasionally crotchety, sometimes complaining about the increase in parking prices or the broken soda machine. But he’s affable enough — he knows everyone and is a good reader of people on and off the tables. And at these stakes, he’s a solid, winning player. But when he’s tried to take shots at bigger games, it hasn’t gone well. Moreover, he’s now well into his seventies and well past peak form.
Then you turn on the TV one day, and this grinder from your $2/$5 game improbably has a huge stack of chips in the World Series of Poker. The truth is, he’s been lucky to get there, blessed by the deck and winning nearly every all-in for a week straight. But he comes to precisely the opposite conclusion: that after a lifetime of bad breaks and being underestimated, he’s finally getting the results he deserved all along. He’s badly overplaying hands, making heroic calls and raises, especially toward the end of the day once the fatigue sets in. Before you have time to text your buddies from the cardroom to turn on and watch the show, he’s busted out."
Biden had ONE job which he was elected for....,NO MORE TRUMP. Instead he tried to be FDR 2.0, and voters rejected that.
Nailed it! But did Biden really try to be FDR? Not even FDR-Lite. He never even talked about the problems facing the country until a day before he was kicked out ... the oligarchy. He did like what all of our Democratic Presidents since Ronald Reagan have done, participated in normalizing and allowing the toxic Republicans to take over the party and now the country - without a fucking word in opposition.
A lot of really good points here, and your 'grinder' example is genius. I do think, though, that at this point we desperately NEED an FDR 2.0!
we need a Bill Clinton.....
Like a hole in the head.
we need 'A' bill cliinton type... centrist, battleground gov state. Josh or Andy B.
I'd actually disagree about 2008. That's the one time I felt Biden had it all together as a candidate: experienced enough to warrant respect, still cognitively on point, and as such, capable of communicating effectively with voters, when given a little time for a stump speech. He just never gained any traction in that primary, because Obama was a comet and Clinton...well, was a Clinton. This, of course, does not mean he would've been an effective President from 2008-2016, just that he was a better candidate than people gave him credit for. And this happens in crowded primaries all the time.
By even the latter half of his vice-presidency, it was very clear he had slowed down. I am not sure he could've ever gotten on a major ticket again in normal circumstances, but 2020 ended up being exactly the right environment for him, as Silver alludes to.