Don’t get bent outta shape with this ….
Joe Biden IS the leader in the Democratic nomination race….
He BEATS Donald Trump consistently in just about every poll…
A vote right now would make him President….
There will be debates coming for the Democratic candidates…
There will be votes in the early primary/caucus states….
Donald Trump has no serious challengers except HIMSELF…
Some Democratic lawmakers are growing uneasy with the political haymakers being thrown a Joe Biden…
(In the Senate Bipartisanism is NOT a curse word…It’s an everyday way of doing things)
Now other nomination candidates have every right to go after the leader in the race…
But?
At what cost to parties efforts to win the Presidency next year…
Or how Democrats have a chance to get things done as the minority party in the US Senate…
Biden has come under harsh criticism from other presidential candidates, especially Booker, one of only three African American senators, for touting his collegial relationship with Eastland and Talmadge, who opposed civil rights and racial integration.
Speaking at a fundraising event in New York on Tuesday, Biden imitated Eastland’s Southern drawl and reminisced, “He never called me boy, he always called me son.”
That comment drew fire from Booker, who demanded Biden apologize and admonished him by saying, “You don’t joke about calling black men ‘boys.’”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is also African American, said Biden’s comment “concerns me deeply” and noted that if Eastland and Talmadge had prevailed “I would literally not be standing here as a member of the United States Senate.”
She said “to coddle the reputations of segregationists” is “just misinformed and it’s wrong.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also called for Biden to apologize, tweeting: “I agree with Cory Booker. This is especially true at a time when the Trump administration is trying to divide us up with its racist appeals.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, “It’s never OK to celebrate segregationists. Never.”
The sharp rebukes seemed to catch Biden by surprise. On Wednesday, he insisted he had nothing to apologize for.
“Apologize for what? Cory should apologize to me,” he said of Booker.
That drew criticism from another presidential candidate, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who said Wednesday that Biden “should apologize.”
“He certainly shouldn’t be asking Cory Booker for an apology,” Bennet said.
It’s not lost on Senate Democrats defending Biden, however, that Booker is stuck at about 2 percent in national polls and needs to generate more attention for his campaign.
A Senate Democrat who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Booker’s sharp criticism called it “a cheap shot.”
“I think everybody’s shooting because that elevates, they think, themselves, but I also think it has detriment to it because we’re in the same party. What can happen is you can so weaken the front-runner, you may take his place but you may be weakened by it too,” the lawmaker said. “So my view is, don’t snipe at your people. Run your own race.”
Other Democrats are trying to step in and call a timeout….
image…NYDailyNews.Com
S.C. Cong.Jim Clyburn said that he was “surprised “ that Booker and Harris aren’t doing better in S.C.
Considering that Blacks will comprise 60-70% of the voters in the primary,I am too.
Still, they are running at only single digits in the early polls.
Booker, in particular, has organized an all star campaign staff and appears to be making SC his do or die state
Harris,of course, has California as her battleground.
As I’ve stated previously, I still think when the votes are tallied,either or both will be in the top three in the Palmetto state.
Biden was Obama’s VP…
and blacks read the polls that say Biden IS beating Trump….
i would think they want a WIN…
Remember…
the thrill of the first Black President is i’ve and Biden WAS part of that…
James you weren’t an Obama supporter in 2008. You were a Hillary supporter back then too. I don’t see why anyone would care that Biden was Obama’s VP. You didn’t care. You were for Hillary in 2016 before Biden said he wasn’t running. So why is it important in 2020 but not 2016?
James aside,I agree though that Biden having been Obama’s VP definitely helps him among southern Black voters.
And while Obama hasn’t endorsed Biden officially,there exists a certain perception that he is the former Presidents favorite in the field.
Yes, that is a major boost for him among southern Black voters where Obama far outshines any of the Democratic presidential candidates,including Booker and Harris.
Whether it will carry Biden to a victory ,remains to be seen,but it certainly helps.
Right now Biden is running stronger among African Americans than white Democrats. Whether it’s because Biden was Obama’s VP or because (as Bull Maher’s panel noted last night) African American voters are generally more pragmatic than many white liberals doesn’t matter.
If Biden loses support among black voters this is an issue. If he doesn’t this dies on the vine.
Simple as that.
i personally did not find Biden’s comments offensive.
Biden will get some points for being Obama’s VP, but it is not a good reason to vote for him. Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney may disagree.
What happens during the campaign will mostly determine who I vote for.
If these people are “offended”by Biden,then they must be “offended by most of the politicians of the Twentieth Cenury ,all of whom worked with segregationists during their political years.
John F Kennedy’s best friend in the Senate was George Smathers, a segregationist from Florida.
Robert F Kennedy, who was one of the patron saints of American liberals of the late sixties served as counsel to the Senate Permanent Investigations Committee,His boss?Sen. John L McClellan of Arkansas ,a well known segregationist.
Bill Clinton once worked for J. William Fulbright,a segregationist Senator from Arkansas and discussed on many occasions his open courting of Arkansas segregationist Governor Orval Faunus during his early political runs.
The so called Republican/Southern Democrat coalition of the Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy Years was well known as a thorn in the side of liberal initiatives in the forties,fifties and sixties.
While they attempted to thwart his Civil Rights legislation,Southern segregationist Senators worked closely with Lyndon Johnson on much of the Great Society social legislation.
Richard Nixon was well known for working with Southern Democrats during his Presidency and even attempted to use John Stennis, the segregationist Senator From Mississippi , to “authenticate “ his version of what was said on the White House tapes during Watergate.
Jimmy Carter ,as a State Senator in Georgia, worked with then Governor Lester Maddox a well known segregationist on legislation in the Georgia Senate.
I could go on but we all get the drift.
If you want to oppose Biden, fine but using this is a cheap shot as even Civil Rights veteran Rep.John Lewis has noted.
This was the political reality for much of the last century.
Jack?
I’m posting your comment which IS a homerun!
It’s worth noting Jack that John Lewis said he did not find Biden’s comments offensive.
And if anyone has credibility on civil rights it is Rep. Lewis.
Fair point Jack
With that said, Biden is going to have to learn that people under 60 see the world differently than those of us over 60. Put another way, if Biden is going to win the presidency (and even the nomination), he will have to recognize that the younger generations do not want to work with racists, they want to push the racists aside.
I personally didn’t find Biden’s comments to be offensive. But his comments did nothing but genuinely irritate some people. I am hoping that he learns from this. And if Biden genuinely does not retrospectively see those comments as a mistake, then he will lose.
Great point Z on the age angle
Unless Biden doesn’t get it?
His mouth is gonna keep his ass in trouble….
But in the end?
The way the political system works IS compromise , even with those who do NOT have ur same views of things….
YouGov South Carolina poll coming with Biden
showing strong …..
Remember WHO ARE the majority of Democratic vote in the state..
I maintain AHAIN that neither Warren or Sanders will be the nominee….
Them BOTH running LOCKS Biden in😃
Compromise only works when both parties believe in it. Obama tried it any wasted over a year in trying to get bi-partisan support. And certainly, Hillary would not have been successful either. If you ask for little – as Biden does – you get nothing. It is better to win with a mandate, and I have no idea what a Biden mandate would be.
In short, I would like a president who believes in compromise. But when the other team is changing the rules, you have to play by the new rules.