Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Everybody saw this coming.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Second rate reporter says what?

We still have time to mess this up!

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The words do not have to be perfect.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Election Year Open Thread: Joe Biden Is Having A Better-Than-Expected Week

Election Year Open Thread: Joe Biden Is Having A Better-Than-Expected Week

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The professionals keep reminding us: There is no ‘national primary’, just 57 individual state & territorial contests that are supposed to eventually end with a concensus about the best candidate. Much can change over the course of those individual contests, not least when a certain candidate’s supporters decide being preemptively obnoxious is a winning stance…

Biden was not my first choice — and I still kinda expect him to drop out before the convention, frankly. But he’s a genuinely gifted politician, for all his flaws, and he never fails to surprise those who write him off prematurely.

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  3. 3.

    Archon

    Warren did Biden a huge favor by handicapping Bloomberg in the debates. That’s where his votes were going. Now that Biden seems viable again I expect him to win big in SC.

  4. 4.

    phdesmond

    i hope joe wins south carolina, just as i hope elizabeth wins massachusetts next tuesday.  golden memories for the golden years, in case they later lose.

     

    i like both of them and i hope she stays in the race.  it occurred to me the other morning that she’s actually running on women’s issues, while never declaring that she’s running on women’s issues.

  5. 5.

    CaseyL

    I prefer, support, and hope for Warren.

    But honestly, I’ll be happy with anyone who isn’t Bernie, Tulsi, Steyer or Bloomberg.  With Biden, the VP would be extra important.

  6. 6.

    joel hanes

    @Archon: 

    Warren did Biden a huge favor by handicapping Bloomberg in the debates.

    I suspect that the DNC changing the rules to “allow” Bloomberg into that debate was a deliberate setup so that Senator Professor Warren could knife him, with accomplices. Absent vetting and with his massive ad blitz, Bloomberg was sucking oxygen from genuine Democrats.

    And it seems to have worked pretty well.

  8. 8.

    Another Scott

    @phdesmond: I hope Joe does well in SC, mainly because the rush to treat the race as being over, that Bernie won, that we’ll lose the White House, and the Senate, and the House, and Trump will throw everyone we love in the gulag, and on and on, is just so over the top ridiculous that people need to snap out of it.

    The race isn’t over.

    If Biden wins SC, that doesn’t mean he’s won the nomination.  Uncle Joe still has a lot of problems as a candidate (Arrested/got split off from the group trying to visit Mandela?  Hoping that Moscow Mitch got re-elected?).  None of the candidates have really hit their stride yet and showed that they can bring the party together enough to get a majority of the delegates.

    Politics takes time.  We can spend 4 months putting our candidates through the wringer and figuring out which one is better for us, and for the party, rather than rushing to anoint one as our savior…

    I’ll be voting for Warren on Tuesday, no matter what happens in South Carolina.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    randy khan

    Since it’s an open thread:

    Great news from Virginia, where the House of Delegates passed the Reproductive Health Protection Act, a couple of days after the State Senate passed it by one vote. The bill reverses decades of restrictions imposed on abortions by Republicans, including the infamous mandatory ultrasound and the 24-hour waiting period, as well as TRAP regulations. It is, I believe, the first time a state legislature has repealed restrictions that were imposed after Roe v. Wade.

    And, yes, Governor Northam has said he will sign the bill, so it will become law in the next few days.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @randy khan: Blue state enacts blue state agenda, rapidly becomes place where people want to live and thrive, details at 11  =)

    (well, except for teachers and VA teacher pay, but that’s a gripe for another day…)

    Way to go Virginia!

  14. 14.

    khead

    I think the second tweet is about right. For now. I know several folks who are all “WTF? This thing ain’t over yet”

  15. 15.

    Searcher

    Many people would volunteer to assist. Many people.

    More people attended Obama’s inauguration than are in the US military, if I recall correctly.

    I know it’s gauche to talk about such things, but if a Democrat is elected in November, there are already 1.5-2 million people planning to be in DC to support even a Democrat as boring as Joe Biden come Inauguration Day 2021. It may be mostly about celebrating, but having that many supporters on hand during inaugurations has other benefits.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    I am glad to see Biden having a good week. He is due for one.

    Not a huge surprise, but The Boston Globe has endorsed Elizabeth Warren (yesterday, it appears). Will put up some excerpts in a moment, since they have a paywall.

  18. 18.

    Kent

    New media narrative:

    Sanders peaked too early.  It’s a whole new ballgame.

    OK, I just made that up.  But still….

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    I suspect Melania Trump will be leading the line pulling and/or pushing and/or carrying Trump out of the WH. I would like EW to win too but her appeal has not caught on with actual voters so far in the numbers needed. Sigh.

  20. 20.

    Dan B

    • @randy khan: I’m probably brainy gaming the Virginia reproductive health act too much but my first thought was, what if Roberts thinks that this tiniest narrowest win means that states will provide a safety release valve for women who want safe abortion access.  Roberts has zero clue that there are people who are poor or unable to access birth control or have abusive husbands or boyfriends, etc.  Roberts has blind spots hundreds of miles wide- so big they would reinstate states’ rights, let alone denying access to healthcare and to reproductive autonomy.
  21. 21.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    You don’t get to a comprise candidate at a open convention unless there are counter factions with enough delegates to block the sure loser.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @phdesmond:   That’s mean of them!

    You might try clicking to see if the endorsement is free of the paywall.  They might do that to boost its dissemination and their influence.  Maybe as a genuine service to Massachusetts voters; imagine that.

    ===

    And a little tired to do all the excerpts now.  For the morning thread, unless Anne Laurie gets to it first.

    Kay would love this part of the endorsement.  Hope she comes back one of these days.

    From the Boston Globe’s endorsement:

    Senator Warren sees corruption, including the influence of corporate money in elections and of lobbyists in the legislative process, as the gateway problem that impedes progress on crises plaguing both the country and the planet. The National Rifle Association and its lobbyists, for instance, prevent the popular view among citizens — that guns and particularly assault weapons ought to be better regulated — from prevailing as policy reform. The fossil fuel industry has thwarted legislative efforts to address climate change, long a widespread concern and now a priority of a majority of Americans. And health care companies, including pharmaceutical companies, have fought back common-sense policies that would make medicine more affordable.

    Senator Warren’s diagnosis of what ails the democratic process is sound, and her pledge to the Globe editorial board, when we posed one of our readers’ questions, is that she would make battling corruption her signature legislative initiative before tackling any other. It is a worthy cause — a root evil worth going to the mat for — in an era of historic dysfunction in Congress.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    Can we physically throw Georgy and Kellyanne Conjob out of the people’s house via the roof?

    I don’t buy any of his “This administration is terrible” shit when his lying bitch of a wife works for it.

  24. 24.

    Dan B

    @Dan B:  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the victory in Virginia.  It’s just we’re in a different country where the judiciary at the Federal level will hamper progress in unexpected ways.  Yhe LGBT community is waiting in dread of “religious liberty” rulings that could establish a de facto pre-Dominionist state.

    Or as most pragmatists would say: Take the Senate, and every lower level election!

    Dreamers would say: Enlarge the Supreme Court and the overworked Circuit Courts.

    (Wilmer would say: Take to the streets and the electeds will be forced to follow.)

    (I say what ammo will these followers be loading?  Having witnessed some police riots…)

  25. 25.

    Poe Larity

    There is only one way forward and it is a candidate who will roll back everything this AOTUS has done.

    A brokered convention opens all possibilities and the only one ready for the inevitable all out trench warfare will be Hillary. Bernie will make a fine Ambassador to Canada.

  26. 26.

    Lyrebird

    That remark about low information voters made me sick.  I’ve never been to SC, and for some of the same reasons I don’t plan to spend much time there, I would be easy to convince that it’s hard to be a thoughtless Democratic voter there.  In NY, NJ, New England?  okay.  But based on that not-so-hot take, I would say Mike isn’t informed enough to be allowed to empty out Rep. Clyburn’s trash bin let alone offer those tacky remarks.

  27. 27.

    Peale

    @Searcher: truthfully, if it turns out that coronavirus is a mind altering virus that turns suffers into third party curious deludenoids who elect a Stein Gabbard ticket, I’m still going to go to DC to do my part to Ensure that the inaugural crowd is clearly 10 times larger than the last one.

  28. 28.

    phdesmond

    i envy the people of virginia.  they voted in the democrats last year, and now they are reaping the harvest.

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    @Another Scott:  Mayor Pete has done his job.  He doesn’t seem to have terrified the right wing zombies, partly because his pragmatic approach to policy has labeled him Republican lite.  They’d have to condemn GOP policy, or so they think.

    I believe his policies and 90% of his record has been very progressive but he seems conservative compared to where Bernie (and I, and Liz) want to be.  Progressive but not too fast for the public sounds conservative but Bloomberg, and so some extent Biden, don’t want Pete’s policies to get off the ground.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Barbara:

    I suspect Melania Trump will be leading the line pulling and/or pushing and/or carrying Trump out of the WH. 

    Unless she flees the country in the dead of night on November 3/4.

  32. 32.

    patroclus

    @phdesmond: Well, we Illinoisians voted in the Dems last year and we’ve got marijuana legalization, we’re funding our pensions again, we’re about to have a progressive income tax for the first time ever and we’ve ratified the ERA.  Take that Virginia!

    On topic, I’m probably still voting for Klobuchar in our primary (along with the other 4% of Dems), but it’s possible I could switch to Biden.  We’ll see.

  33. 33.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:

    People have talked about him not leaving but the secret service protects the current president most of all. The past ones get protection but the ss is very aware of who is and who isn’t the president. I’d imagine that if he refused to leave they would do as they are taught when a situation calls for it. Pick his ass up and carry him away from whatever bodily, no matter what he says.

  36. 36.

    guachi

    I’ve said this before about Biden: Biden has lost a step or two but he’s never lost his basic sense of decency. Trump has lost a step or two but he’s never lost his basic sense of indecency.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    @guachi:

    Agreed. He’s not my guy but if Biden were in office I will not worry about the nation’s direction. His foundation of decency would be an enormous lift for the nation.

  43. 43.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Nikki closes at a loss of 1,006 (4.58%). Dow futures down by 375. Wonder if Derwood will go on TV again to calm the Markets, lmao.
    — Pete Diviny (@DivinyPete) February 28, 2020

    Dow futures currently down -420  #TrumpVirus

  45. 45.

    Juice Box

    A couple of months ago, Biden as the nominee would have been disappointing, but a near miss with Wilmer makes Biden’s ascent much more appealing.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    About damn time.

    Sixty-five years after 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi, Congress has approved legislation designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law.

    The bill, introduced by Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush and named after Till, comes 120 years after Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation and after dozens of similar efforts were defeated.
    [snip]
    Congress has failed to pass anti-lynching legislation nearly 200 times, starting with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep. George Henry White, the only black member of Congress at the time. Source

  48. 48.

    206inKY

    Warren did an incredible service planting the shiv in Bloomberg. My brief interest in him feels like part of a mass hallucination that almost gave us Bernie. I never thought I’d be this grateful that Joe is still in the race and crushing it in South Carolina. I’m still voting Klobucher if she hasn’t dropped out by the time Kentucky votes.

  51. 51.

    JAFD

    Good morning, jackals and jackalettes !

    The NJ primary is the beginning of June, and will either be very important or a nothingberger.  My neighborhood’s candidate is no longer in race (but it’s not as though Newark has overabundance of green space, and I could see the Secret Service and/or the TV networks taking over Lincoln Park…)

    Biden’s the only candiate I’ve shaken hands with, and my mother (may she rest in peace) would be crawling thru broken glass to vote for him.  But methinks we have several candidates much better than the incumbent.

    Feel like I’ve been spending February hibernating.  Have a happy March, everyone.

  52. 52.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @guachi: Every day Uncle Joe appeals to “the better angels of our nature” while Agolf Twitler reveals the bitter angles of his nurture. Every day Uncle Joe sets his course toward purpose buoyed by hope while Needy Amin slouches toward grift paved with hatred.

    Happy to see even AL take time out from relentless stanning for her sweetie-pie to say some nice (if reluctant) things about Uncle Joe.

  55. 55.

    randy khan

    @phdesmond:

    i envy the people of virginia.  they voted in the democrats last year, and now they are reaping the harvest.

    Think of it as a model for the rest of the country.

  56. 56.

    Betty

    This is what drives me up the wall. How is being raw and vulnerable making him an effective president?  To me, it contributes to the sense of his fragility – physical, mental and emotional. Warren has shown her competence in so many area, her ability to lead an effective team and he affability. The only downside they can point to is her gender. Infuriating.

  57. 57.

    Chris Johnson

    I’d really like to see Biden completely sweep SC. He’d owe Warren bigtime for that, and it’s a legitimate expression of voter will. You want to talk ‘low information’, talk Bloomberg: or, rather, disinformation. Biden should own the center, Biden should own the black vote. To have stop-n-frisk Bloomberg getting it for pragmatic reasons is insulting on so many levels.

    Seeing the spectre of Bloomberg pop up, makes me entirely happier about the prospect of President Biden: not least because he’d owe Warren bigtime, and that matters. Biden’s an honorable guy. He’ll remember that. And Democrats help and support each other. To see the top Dems in the race actively working together in the way that we jackals on the blog often fail to do… that gives me hope.

  58. 58.

    tam1MI

    I’m just thrilled that the Bernie-Is-Inevitable-Resistane-is-Futile-Bend-the-Knee Coronation Express got derailed. Thank you, Black ladies, we owe you!

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