Oh, where to begin?
Well, how about this. I have tremendous respect for Markos, indeed I might ask him for a job at some point, and we all have bad days, me more than most. Markos was right to write a diary chronicling how Biden hurt himself last week, and why.
Biden deserves to be held accountable, he deserves criticism, and he deserves to lose the votes of people who lost confidence in him coming out of the debate.
There is no debate about that.
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I am not here trying to resurrect Biden’s candidacy. He is not my candidate. In fact, Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete are my first six candidates. Not only is Biden not my candidate, Sen. Harris will get my vote before VP Biden will.
But that doesn’t matter for our purposes.
For our purposes here, I do not the least bit quibble with any criticism of Biden’s opening in the campaign, his apparent inability to understand Harris’s pain, as well as other women. That’s real, it’s a real problem, and it may really sink Biden.
It is here where we take a U-turn:
Biden’s campaign is truly inexplicable. He could’ve ridden off into the sunset as a beloved elder statesman, trusted lieutenant to a transformational, historic president. Instead, he learned nothing from his first two failed runs (he’s not that good at this stuff!); refused to take the pulse of the party’s zeitgeist, one in which women and people of color are ascendant; and is now running a campaign seemingly focused on poking those groups in the eye.
It’s sad and tragic, but it’s time for Joe to go.
Excuse me, Markos, I do have a tremendous amount of respect for you, but you flat swung and missed with this, and indeed it undermined an otherwise fairly strong argument. And, none of US have earned the right to individually tell Joe to go anywhere.
Also, you left a strong tell in that paragraph.
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Markos has already told us that our candidate “must” (I don’t think he even said “should” ) be a woman and/or someone of color. So, Biden was not invited into Markos’ primary from the very beginning.
And that’s fine, to each his own. Actually, it is not fine. At least, not to me.
It’s not fine because in that paragraph, the diary went far beyond the issues in which Biden failed, and set about to erase some of the man’s gifts, a man who is really human, we know, because he can be really dumb, and that’s really important to many. Biden is real. That could really matter down the line.
Biden’s candidacy isn’t the least bit “inexplicable.” In fact, it’s about the easiest explained of all the candidates. Word on the street has long been that Biden represents the Democrats’ strongest opponent to Trump.
That may not be true. In fact I suspect it is not true. But it is true “enough” that many outside DKos were saying it. And though I don’t doubt for a second that Biden wants to be president, I suspect that the overriding consideration is that Biden felt that Trump needs to go down. And maybe he was the best person to do it.
He did decide he would make the effort, and he didn’t need that in his life.
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More importantly, why the hell are we running anyone off the stage YET, as if we might be losing an opportunity for someone else? Why is Biden’s candidacy not welcomed? It’s not like I want him to win, but I have a sinking suspicion that sometime in the next six months, Biden is going to say some smart shit that only someone with 40 years of service would know.
At that point we all best listen. Not vote on it, but listen. I hope the other candidates listen.
I don’t want to run anyone off the line right now because they ALL have ideas I want to hear.
But, we know Markos is a little willing to run people off the line because he’s told us, white men shouldn’t be applying.
Well, fine, I’m voting for Warren, but I don’t like excluding people due to race, gender, sexual orientation, all that, it’s the progressive in me.
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He had a horrible week. He has had horrible moments in his career.
But do NOT tell me he lacks empathy, or you’re going to have to explain how it was that Joe Biden was near fighting alone 30 years ago trying to convince a near all male Senate why asshole husbands beating a wife around in the home is no different than a stranger beating her around in an alley. THAT requires empathy, and sensing the zeitgeist as to the rise of women as people deserving to be free of abuse.
Is his record perfect? No. Show me someone with a perfect record. I’ll show you Trump — the only person who truly believes he has a perfect record.
Why is it that Obama noted that Biden would give out his personal phone number to kids with a stutter, and check in on them, if he had “no empathy”?
Why is it that the man with more empathy than any politician in a long time — Barrack Obama, loves Joe Biden like a brother, if Joe is a complete out of touch asshole with no empathy?
Do we really think that a man who lost his wife, his daughter (God I cannot imagine), and then his adult son, lacks empathy? Can we at least not respect that he’s fought some battles?
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Joe Biden may well not be a candidate ready for 2020, but can we wait till … oh, fall of 2019 before we bury the man who one poll STILL has him at 33%?
There was also this, that was bizarrely written into the diary:
Given that the bulk of Biden’s support is black Americans (he has no other natural constituency in the party), odds are that erosion is coming from black Democrats. And without black support, Biden is nothing.
Since this whole thing really came to a head with the busing argument and an inability to understand a black woman’s struggles, is Markos telling us that black people don’t understand what is best for them? (Biden STILL has a significant black constituency, bled from black vote or not).
Markos is not saying that. I don’t attack people like that for things I know not to be true. Markos doesn’t believe that.
But that means that the solid black vote in the Democratic party (critical if one wants to win the general btw) is based upon something, and I doubt it is Biden’s coziness with bankers. Black Americans have reasons for trusting Biden, should we not trust that some of that trust is trustworthy?
Since we’re so “woke,” would it not maybe be a good time to start asking black Americans why they favor Biden bc perhaps they see things we’ve missed?
The answer is “Yes,” because the alternative is quite condescending.
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None of the 64 candidates trailing Joe Biden were going to spend their time commending Biden on the many highlights of his career, so we got a crash course in the worst of the worst — good job, Sen Harris, that was your job.
It’s an important part, as I have said. Critical. Criticism. Earned.
I just think that there is still more of the story to hear, probably not enough, certainly not enough for me, but again it should be heard — and I want to hear from black Americans.
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Markos, you’re right far more often than wrong, and right far more often than me. On this one, my man, I think you might have overshot.
Biden may be our nominee, crazier things have happened. At which point we’ll have a choice, fall in love with his strengths, fall in line with the mission, or get our red hat, and embrace the horror.
Let’s keep things in perspective. Biden has gotten off to a horrid start. Let’s see what he does over the next 120 days before we stick a fork in anyone. Over 120 days, I bet he says some pretty brilliant stuff.
Hell, over that long, I might even say something smart. I know you will. Let’s try to struggle through this together, with criticism limited to what’s critical. There was plenty.
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Peace, y’all.
Support our writers here, with my novels and others, or start a movement to compel Markos to give me the job I asked about, I’ll stop begging. :)
Of course, there are better job strategies than calling out the boss, but I have confidence that few here, and definitely not Markos, fear alternative arguments, so long as respectful.