7 ms·

Biden wasn’t just selected. People voted for him from a pool of 20-ish candidates in the democratic race. Yes, Biden is soft. He is not an entertainer. He proba

by nojvek 6y ago

Biden wasn’t just selected. People voted for him from a pool of 20-ish candidates in the democratic race. Yes, Biden is soft. He is not an entertainer. He probably has many missing qualities that Trump had. However he has almost half a century of experience in Congress driving bills and fighting for his constituents. He was the safe bet. Out of the 20 candidates, Biden was the most likely to defeat Trump. He is a realist compared to the other candidates. People realized that and voted for him. If Bernie was chosen as the candidate, Trump would have won a second term. The bet panned out. I feel it’s so easy to live in a Democratic bubble in Washington state. I guess same goes to California. Middle America thinks in a very very different way than we do.

claudeganon 6y ago
I would say having Obama promise Biden’s competitors sweetheart deals so they’d drop out of the primary is pretty close to having been selected. There’s no way he would’ve came out ahead on Super Tuesday without Obama putting his hand in the scales on this manner. > If Bernie was chosen as the candidate, Trump would have won a second term. And yet centrist candidates lost across the country, Biden won by slimmer margins than Hillary in many places, progressives won a slate of seats, as well as measures they sponsored like drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases. There’s not much use arguing a hypothetical, but the circumstances of Biden’s victory don’t jive with this sentiment.
- gnaritas 6y ago
  You're making the incorrect assumption that people want the same thing for their local government as for their national government; this isn't correct. One should expect centrist candidates to dominate national elections and more extreme candidates to win state and local elections. When you're trying to sell something to the whole nation, the more bland, the more it'll sell, extreme is niche, this applies in music, movies, and political candidates. Local candidates answer to local populations, they should be what that population wants; national candidates have to represent everyone, they should not be extreme in any direction or they'll be despised and hated by half the population that swings the other way.
- hilbertseries 6y ago
  Point me to the seats that progressives won in red and purple districts? Drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases are in the party platform already. Biden beat Bernie when it was 1-1 in the primary, Bernie could only win with the moderate vote split. The voters picked.
  - jakelazaroff 6y ago
    > Drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases are in the party platform already. Crucially, though, voter support for progressive policies and for Biden did not necessarily correlate — most significantly in Florida, which Biden lost and where the state Constitution was amended to raise the minimum wage.
    - creato 6y ago
      That seems to have hinged on south Florida. Bernie would not have done well there given his comments on Cuba and Venezuela. In fact Bernie's comments may be the reason even Biden lost there.
      - jakelazaroff 6y ago
        That’s the narrative, but Biden consistently distanced himself from those comments (“Listen, I beat the socialist!”) and the GOP seems to think that anyone to the left of Mitt Romney is a communist. I think Biden’s intentional lack of attention to Latinx voters did more harm than any actual Democratic position.
      - whymauri 6y ago
        Biden's loss with hispanics was due to his campaign's explicit choice to not target hispanics. It has more to do with bad strategy than what another candidate said or did.
      - noobermin 6y ago
        Well Biden didn't do well in FL either did he?
  - 6y ago
- evan_ 6y ago
  (Citation needed)
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    For what exactly? This has all been reported on in mainstream news outlets.
2020election 6y ago
47 years of “experience” with nothing to show for it is not a good thing.
SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
God it is so tired rhetoric: of being "realist" (read - empty suit, not willing to do any change); Biden being most likely to win over Trump (we've already seen, how weak he was), he has almost half a century of experience (if not for the appetite for an outsider, Trump would have no chance in Michigan and PA). Mind if ask you if you are 40+?
- nojvek 6y ago
  I’m 30. I’ve learned it the hard way that just because people are loud, doesn’t mean they are right and vice versa. Biden seems quiet and nimble. I’d say give Biden a chance.
  - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
    He also quite frankly appears to be on the verge of full blown dementia. And Harris is neither quite, nor nimble. I still believe he (or Harris?) is a better choice than Trump, in the particular situation US is in because of Covid.
    - slg 6y ago
      There is zero evidence that Biden has had any type of mental decline. He has battled a stutter for his entire life. His stumbles in his public speaking appearances are almost assuredly related to his speech impediment and not an issue with intelligence or coherence.
      - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
        He absolutely has visible decline, compare youtube videos of him from 2016 vs 2020. Obviously, 4 years make difference at his age, but you can easily see how he struggles maintaining even simple conversations, which cannot be explained by abovementioned 4 years. I mean Sanders is of the same age as Biden and he did not decline nearly as much in 4 years, I; say barely changed. There is something wrong with the dude, and lots of people see it.
gaze 6y ago
Saying that Bernie was cheated isn’t exactly right but also not exactly wrong. The entire news media apparatus beat him down with a lot of extremely bad faith questions. “Do you support confiscating everyone’s guns?” “Ok so do you think guns are great and everyone should have them?” kinda thing. That may be half of the problem, but the other half is that I think most people think Bernie was just over promising and that they could never have socialized health care, even though most everyone else has it. Much in the same way that the UK couldn’t imagine a country without socialized healthcare, thus voting in Boris Johnson, the US can’t imagine a country with it. We’re just completely stuck. It’s a shame.
roenxi 6y ago
> However he has almost half a century of experience in Congress driving bills and fighting for his constituents. He was the safe bet. It is extremely notable that Biden is the first candidate in ~30 years to win the presidency and have what I'd call a "serious" career in US Federal politics. There is circumstantial but somewhat compelling evidence that American's don't like Congressional experience. Congress is despised, their wins are thin, their lies are large and their missteps catastrophic.
- dnhz 6y ago
  Where does 12 years come from? Obama served more years in federal government as a senator than did Bush or Clinton (former state governors).
  - roenxi 6y ago
    My mistake, thanks, upped the number of years from 12 to 30.
noobermin 6y ago
>If Bernie was chosen as the candidate, Trump would have won a second term. The bet panned out. Big citation needed. I live in Ohio which went red, you do live in a Democratic bubble but it is different than what you imagine it is.

by nojvek 6y ago

claudeganon 6y ago

I would say having Obama promise Biden’s competitors sweetheart deals so they’d drop out of the primary is pretty close to having been selected. There’s no way he would’ve came out ahead on Super Tuesday without Obama putting his hand in the scales on this manner. > If Bernie was chosen as the candidate, Trump would have won a second term. And yet centrist candidates lost across the country, Biden won by slimmer margins than Hillary in many places, progressives won a slate of seats, as well as measures they sponsored like drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases. There’s not much use arguing a hypothetical, but the circumstances of Biden’s victory don’t jive with this sentiment.

gnaritas 6y ago
You're making the incorrect assumption that people want the same thing for their local government as for their national government; this isn't correct. One should expect centrist candidates to dominate national elections and more extreme candidates to win state and local elections. When you're trying to sell something to the whole nation, the more bland, the more it'll sell, extreme is niche, this applies in music, movies, and political candidates. Local candidates answer to local populations, they should be what that population wants; national candidates have to represent everyone, they should not be extreme in any direction or they'll be despised and hated by half the population that swings the other way.
hilbertseries 6y ago
Point me to the seats that progressives won in red and purple districts? Drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases are in the party platform already. Biden beat Bernie when it was 1-1 in the primary, Bernie could only win with the moderate vote split. The voters picked.
- jakelazaroff 6y ago
  > Drug decriminalization and minimum wage increases are in the party platform already. Crucially, though, voter support for progressive policies and for Biden did not necessarily correlate — most significantly in Florida, which Biden lost and where the state Constitution was amended to raise the minimum wage.
  - creato 6y ago
    That seems to have hinged on south Florida. Bernie would not have done well there given his comments on Cuba and Venezuela. In fact Bernie's comments may be the reason even Biden lost there.
    - jakelazaroff 6y ago
      That’s the narrative, but Biden consistently distanced himself from those comments (“Listen, I beat the socialist!”) and the GOP seems to think that anyone to the left of Mitt Romney is a communist. I think Biden’s intentional lack of attention to Latinx voters did more harm than any actual Democratic position.
    - whymauri 6y ago
      Biden's loss with hispanics was due to his campaign's explicit choice to not target hispanics. It has more to do with bad strategy than what another candidate said or did.
    - noobermin 6y ago
      Well Biden didn't do well in FL either did he?
- 6y ago
evan_ 6y ago
(Citation needed)
- claudeganon 6y ago
  For what exactly? This has all been reported on in mainstream news outlets.

2020election 6y ago

47 years of “experience” with nothing to show for it is not a good thing.

SomeoneFromCA 6y ago

God it is so tired rhetoric: of being "realist" (read - empty suit, not willing to do any change); Biden being most likely to win over Trump (we've already seen, how weak he was), he has almost half a century of experience (if not for the appetite for an outsider, Trump would have no chance in Michigan and PA). Mind if ask you if you are 40+?

nojvek 6y ago
I’m 30. I’ve learned it the hard way that just because people are loud, doesn’t mean they are right and vice versa. Biden seems quiet and nimble. I’d say give Biden a chance.
- SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
  He also quite frankly appears to be on the verge of full blown dementia. And Harris is neither quite, nor nimble. I still believe he (or Harris?) is a better choice than Trump, in the particular situation US is in because of Covid.
  - slg 6y ago
    There is zero evidence that Biden has had any type of mental decline. He has battled a stutter for his entire life. His stumbles in his public speaking appearances are almost assuredly related to his speech impediment and not an issue with intelligence or coherence.
    - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
      He absolutely has visible decline, compare youtube videos of him from 2016 vs 2020. Obviously, 4 years make difference at his age, but you can easily see how he struggles maintaining even simple conversations, which cannot be explained by abovementioned 4 years. I mean Sanders is of the same age as Biden and he did not decline nearly as much in 4 years, I; say barely changed. There is something wrong with the dude, and lots of people see it.

gaze 6y ago

Saying that Bernie was cheated isn’t exactly right but also not exactly wrong. The entire news media apparatus beat him down with a lot of extremely bad faith questions. “Do you support confiscating everyone’s guns?” “Ok so do you think guns are great and everyone should have them?” kinda thing. That may be half of the problem, but the other half is that I think most people think Bernie was just over promising and that they could never have socialized health care, even though most everyone else has it. Much in the same way that the UK couldn’t imagine a country without socialized healthcare, thus voting in Boris Johnson, the US can’t imagine a country with it. We’re just completely stuck. It’s a shame.

roenxi 6y ago

> However he has almost half a century of experience in Congress driving bills and fighting for his constituents. He was the safe bet. It is extremely notable that Biden is the first candidate in ~30 years to win the presidency and have what I'd call a "serious" career in US Federal politics. There is circumstantial but somewhat compelling evidence that American's don't like Congressional experience. Congress is despised, their wins are thin, their lies are large and their missteps catastrophic.

dnhz 6y ago
Where does 12 years come from? Obama served more years in federal government as a senator than did Bush or Clinton (former state governors).
- roenxi 6y ago
  My mistake, thanks, upped the number of years from 12 to 30.

noobermin 6y ago

>If Bernie was chosen as the candidate, Trump would have won a second term. The bet panned out. Big citation needed. I live in Ohio which went red, you do live in a Democratic bubble but it is different than what you imagine it is.