I think the premise underlying the critique of No Labels is that Joe Biden is the best or only person who can compete with Donald Trump. I believe the the American electorate (and in particular swing voters, who are the real key to the election's outcome) are making it pretty clear they will not be giving Joe Biden a majority of their vo…
I think the premise underlying the critique of No Labels is that Joe Biden is the best or only person who can compete with Donald Trump. I believe the the American electorate (and in particular swing voters, who are the real key to the election's outcome) are making it pretty clear they will not be giving Joe Biden a majority of their votes next year. In other words, he's probably already lost. Some of these voters may go for Trump, some for Biden, but many will vote for neither or will plant their votes somewhere else - regardless of whether No Labels fields a candidate or not. The only ones who can stop the futility of a Joe Bide rerun (and the growing tide of third-fourth-fifth-etc. candidacies) are (a) Joe Biden, by withdrawing post haste, or (b) the Democratic Party, by nominating someone else (also post haste). Absent that, I think it's pretty clear to me that trying to corral the extra-party candidates back into the two-party barn just isn't going to work. It's the wrong strategy for playing what is, at the moment, a pretty grim hand.
Who is the No Labels candidate? For those who don't think Biden is the right Democrat, then who is? It's time to stop being abstract. The election is a year away and that really isn't a long time. Financing and mounting a national campaign takes time and explicit planning.
I think the premise underlying the critique of No Labels is that Joe Biden is the best or only person who can compete with Donald Trump. I believe the the American electorate (and in particular swing voters, who are the real key to the election's outcome) are making it pretty clear they will not be giving Joe Biden a majority of their votes next year. In other words, he's probably already lost. Some of these voters may go for Trump, some for Biden, but many will vote for neither or will plant their votes somewhere else - regardless of whether No Labels fields a candidate or not. The only ones who can stop the futility of a Joe Bide rerun (and the growing tide of third-fourth-fifth-etc. candidacies) are (a) Joe Biden, by withdrawing post haste, or (b) the Democratic Party, by nominating someone else (also post haste). Absent that, I think it's pretty clear to me that trying to corral the extra-party candidates back into the two-party barn just isn't going to work. It's the wrong strategy for playing what is, at the moment, a pretty grim hand.
Who is the No Labels candidate? For those who don't think Biden is the right Democrat, then who is? It's time to stop being abstract. The election is a year away and that really isn't a long time. Financing and mounting a national campaign takes time and explicit planning.