Joe Biden, Beto O'rourke Reportedly Met to Discuss Potential 2020 Presidential Ticket

[Yosemito]

Source: Newsweek

The Associated Press reports that former Vice President Joe Biden met with Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke to discuss the possibility of O'Rourke joining Biden for a 2020 presidential campaign. 

Sources spoke to the Associated Press under the condition of anonymity but said that two men have engaged in discussions about the election. 

The hope is, sources said, that Biden would be bolstered by a younger running mate as many have expressed concerns about his age. In elected in November 2020, Biden will be 77-years-old, which would make him the oldest president voted into office. Ronald Regan is the current oldest president, having been elected for his second term at 73. Donald Trump was elected at age 70.

Biden is reportedly going to decide in January or February if he will run for the Democratic nomination, and while the former VP is a favorite in some early polls, others have expressed doubts in relation to his age.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-beto-orourke-reportedly-met-discuss-potential-2020-presidential-1260164

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Now, THERE'S a ticket I could really get behind!

Biden the elder statesman, lots and lots of experience at that level.

And Beto the younger statesman, lots of ideas and energy, plus Hispanic.

It would be a lot like Obama and Biden, though turned around.

[mahina]

2. I love them both but hope they would be accepted and embraced by black and latino people.

I don't know how much of President Obama's appeal came from his policies and ideas and how much was people rising up for equality in a visible way.

We can't be divided.

[Lisa0825]

12. He's Hispanic in the same way that Bill Clinton was black.

He is adopted into the Hispanic community because of his love and support of the culture and people, but he is not of Hispanic heritage.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Ah, thank you. I thought he was. n/t

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. He is also fully bilingual, as is his wife

He speaks better Spanish than Ted Cruz.

[Lisa0825]

20. Yes, his accent es perfecto! nt

[TexasBushwhacker]

22. And his first date with his wife was at the world famous Kentucky Club in Juarez

The creators of the Margarita.

https://www.bucketlistbars.com/news-articles2/139-the-world-famous-kentucky-club-juarez-mx

[ucrdem]

3. Sounds like Joe is getting serious.

Dynamite ticket and it worked in 1960.

[hedda_foil]

8. 1960 was the reverse age and experience wise. But LBJ was only 52 in 1960. Hardly a senior citizen.

[ucrdem]

9. Yes, and that was a problem.

This ticket makes more sense, with the more experienced guy at the top. That ticket was kind of awkward and LBJ didn't like it. I was thinking about the geography. As I recall LBJ delivered Texas and we couldn't have won without it.

[hedda_foil]

14. You have a point, though it doesn't really fit your analogy. Nevertheless, a point.

[delisen]

32. It worked in !960? The heyday of the white male. No thanks. nt

[ucrdem]

41. Still the same map though.

And still the same math.

[delisen]

47. Definitely not the same electorate. The men so easily manipulated by the Russians

are now wising up too.

Fortunately we have Nancy Pelosi as speaker and more women in reps in government. It is going to take equality and a lot of female leadership to to get us beyond the mess that has been made.

Limited democracy will not survive, just as it was unable to survive in Ancient Greece -

We still have a world susceptible to the New Fascism and unfortunately there will still be, in our own own country, a substantial number searching for a false sense of manhood through a "Strongman."

[ucrdem]

49. True but the fundamental things apply

as time goes by. In other words there are more similarities that differences. For example, I wouldn't call Biden a strongman and in fact he's probably the only candidate, male or female, who doesn't have to prove his strongman chops by threatening to bomb Iranistan into ashes. Likewise Kennedy ran on "the strategy of peace," the name of his 1960 campaign book, against Nixon who ran as the uber-cold warrior and narrowly lost. It's great that we have more women candidates and I'll gladly support whoever gets the nom but I happen to think that a Biden/Beto ticket would stand a very good chance of winning.

[robbedvoter]

4. Anita Hill.

[Yosemito]

11. Fleeing a DUI scene

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. Against everything Trump has done?

I think Beto addressed his DUI eloquently. He said he was lucky to have been given a second chance and learned from the experience and if he had been black or Latino and caught with marijuana, he probably would have gone to jail.

[R B Garr]

25. Didn't Bush/Cheney have several DUIs between them??

Didn’t Laura Bush kill someone in a car crash?? It’s amazing to see the efforts to malign Beto — he must be a threat to someone...

[pnwmom]

23. And he was the key Democratic leader who made it almost impossible

for millions who are under a mountain of student debt to ever discharge it in bankruptcy.

[delisen]

33. Biden has been the Banker/Credit Card Senator

and the student debt legislation was unconscionable

[Jake Stern]

59. Thank you for reminding me about that

Wonder how his defenders are going to spin it.

[lark]

62. He made a mistake.

I believe he has apologized for that vote and said it was a big mistake. I would forgive Harris, Warren, Gillibrand if any of them had the decency to apologize for their no-good, awful, horrible mistake re Franken. They are not apologizing, so I don't favor any of them for president.

[LakeArenal]

68. Perfect response.

[pnwmom]

73. He supported multiple bills that made it harder and harder for people

to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. This wasn't just a single mistake. This was a well-established pattern of siding with financial companies over people burdened with student debt, in bills passed in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1997, and 2005.

[pnwmom]

72. It was MULTIPLE bills over decades; and he was a leader, not just someone who voted.

https://www.ibtimes.com/joe-biden-backed-bills-make-it-harder-americans-reduce-their-student-debt-2094664

As a senator from Delaware -- a corporate tax haven where the financial industry is one of the state’s largest employers -- Biden was one of the key proponents of the 2005 legislation that is now bearing down on students like Ryan. That bill effectively prevents the $150 billion worth of private student debt from being discharged, rescheduled or renegotiated as other debt can be in bankruptcy court.

Biden's efforts in 2005 were no anomaly. Though the vice president has long portrayed himself as a champion of the struggling middle class -- a man who famously commutes on Amtrak and mixes enthusiastically with blue-collar workers -- the Delaware lawmaker has played a consistent and pivotal role in the financial industry's four-decade campaign to make it harder for students to shield themselves and their families from creditors, according to an IBT review of bankruptcy legislation going back to the 1970s.

SNIP

But the (1978) legislation produced by Biden and his fellow conferees ended up including the provisions exempting government-sponsored educational loans from traditional bankruptcy protections for at least five years after a student graduates. In announcing the final deal, the sponsor of the bankruptcy legislation, Sen. Dennis Deconcini, D-Ariz., specifically thanked Biden in a floor speech for his “lengthy and time exhausting work” on the measure.

Within a few years, the crackdown that began in 1978 would extend beyond just government loans. In 1984, as Biden was gaining seniority on the Judiciary Committee, the Delaware lawmaker reprised his role as one of his party’s top negotiators on a new legislative proposal. Under that bill -- which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan -- bankruptcy exemptions were extended to non-higher-education loans like those for vocational schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Then came the 1990 Crime Control Act, whose chief sponsor was Biden. Though the bill was primarily focused on toughening criminal sentences, Biden’s legislation also included provisions that further lengthened the amount of time debtors would have to wait before they got access to traditional bankruptcy protections for their federal and nonprofit student loans.

In 1997, a federal panel appointed by President Clinton recommended that Congress reverse all the changes, and once again make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy court like other forms of consumer debt. But lawmakers went in the other direction, making it even harder for student debtors to get bankruptcy protections. With Biden’s support, Congress in 1998 passed a law limiting bankruptcy protections for educational loans to students who could prove their loans were an “undue hardship.”

[LakeArenal]

67. Your same arguement....

Not that there’s anything wrong with saying it repeatedly every time Biden’s name is mentioned.

Just just an observation.

Biden/O’Rourke 2020.

[pnwmom]

74. His repeated votes, siding with the financial industry over

people struggling under mountains of student debt, are a serious mark against him; along with his handling of the Anita Hill hearings, where he -- as the Chair of Judiciary -- refused to call corroborating witnesses.

[LakeArenal]

78. As you keep saying...

[Farmer-Rick]

50. Exactly and the Me Too Movement is NOT going to let it rest.

[dem4decades]

5. Biden was posing with Harris this week too.

Biden, Beto, Harris?

Brown, Kobashah?

All good choices.

Is experience the ticket?

A woman?

A rock star?

[AZ8theist]

6. This ticket would screw the Trumpster morons into oblivion...

While I love Kamala, Elizabeth and some of the other women democrats, the fact of the matter is the majority of the rubes WILL NEVER vote for a woman.
These women are brilliant. ABSOLUTELY qualified to run this nation. Just not yet.
We need more of the "fox news" generation to die off before their time will come.

I experienced far too many rubes saying "We got that bitch!!" when Hillary was defeated. The misogyny in this country is far too great right now. I believe we need a period of peaceful transfer of power from the old guard to the new.

Oh, and by the way....Tulsi Gabbard is a Democrat IN NAME ONLY.

I will work tirelessly to make sure she's not on the ticket in 2020.

To all of the a-holes on DU: The previous was MY OPINION ONLY. If you don't like it, go complain somewhere else. Because I couldn't care less what you think.................

[kimbutgar]

15. Agree, not feeling the Democratic vibe in Tulsi

Something about her seems not genuine as a Democrat.

[AC_Mem]

16. But

Hillary won the popular vote by THREE MILLION votes. How do we get to a woman "just not yet" going to win?

That election was STOLEN from Hillary - we DID vote for her and she won the people's vote by three MILLION votes.

smdh

[Glamrock]

29. Problem is

The presidency isn't won by the popular vote. She could have won the blue coasts by 10 million. Wouldn't have made a bit of difference.

[JI7]

39. no, the problem is voter suppression, supreme court striking down voting rights

and russian attack on the elections .

[Glamrock]

42. Well of course it is.

But speaking to your point, 3 million votes more on the coasts don't change the number of electoral votes from those states.

[JI7]

44. it would have been more than 3 million more without the things i mention and same goes for the other

states . the other states were very close . the things i mentioned are what would have changed the results .

[Glamrock]

45. Well of course

Barring the Russian influence campaign, we’ve been dealing with voter suppression since at least 2000. We really should have been more prepared. Not like it was a secret.

[JI7]

46. if it was that easy it would have been dealt with. California which is controlled by democrats gets

it right.

the others are problems caused by republicans .

[LongtimeAZDem]

55. It wasn't just the Republicans; people seem to have forgotten the disunity in our own camp

BS supporters planning a "Hassle line" plus a " Fart-a-thon" at Philly's Conv

[AZ8theist]

80. INCORRECT.

Voter suppression has been going on since Reconstruction.

And before Emancipation, voter suppression was non-existent since voting ITSELF was not available to the general population in Western society.

[LongtimeAZDem]

53. But she lost in districts like the one that AZ8theist was talking about

We're still facing the electoral college.

[AZ8theist]

81. Exactly

We are stuck with the "Electoral College", a concession to the racist south to keep those states in the fledgling American democracy. The south needed to keep an equivalent amount of power since their population were mostly slaves.

"One person, one vote" would have buried the racist south without the compromise of the Electoral College.

230 years later we are stuck with this racist nonsense.

And it only took 70,000 votes in 3 states to give us the Worst Piece OF Shit In History. (#WPOSIH)

[Devil Child]

65. Electoral votes is all that matters

2020 should be ruthless 50 state strategy to secure as many electoral votes as possible. Until electoral college reform bringing up the popular vote is worthless aside IMO.

[JI7]

21. so why are the rubes more important than black women ? how about black men ? hispanic men ? hispanic

women ?

asians, native americans, jews, lgbt etc.

all of those groups vote for democrats in huge numbers.

[violetpastille]

36. Who are the "Rubes" anyway?

Am I possibly a rube? Do I have enough income? Is my playlist correct? I have been to NYC a couple of times but never actually lived there..? I was born in an international city but raised in the country..

Do I need to get a 23andme kit and determine how much percent "Rube-American" I am?

[LakeArenal]

70. Good one...

[delisen]

34. America has voted for a woman. We are not going back to male elitism

and we are not going to lean in to inequality. If we were going to do that we may as well all vote Republican.

[LakeArenal]

71. And you think Joe Biden is holding you back?

That he leans inequality? A vote for Joe Biden equals a vote for a Republican????
Wow....

Joe Biden was a leader in the unscientific, uncertified poll for 2020. That’s a lot of angst for the precursor to the precursor of the beginning of a period of the start of a not even embryonic primary.

[delisen]

75. The angst is all yours; the momentum is with women.

[LakeArenal]

79. Sure, whatever you say.

This is 2018. Momentum for 2020 seems to favor Joe and Beto. Not a shoe-in in any sense. But for now that’s it.

[John Fante]

77. Voting for Biden/O'Rourke is not much better voting for Republicans?!

What in the actual fuck?

[thesquanderer]

38. If a black man could win, a woman can win.

But it would help to have someone with exceptional charisma, rather than high negatives from the start. Though if Trump is again the candidate to beat, his own high negatives will at least counter balance the advantage of incumbency.

Against Trump, I think *any* Dem will win every state Hillary won. The question then becomes, who delivers others, i.e. MI, WI, PA.

[delisen]

48. Actually Putin delivered Mi, Wi, Pa

The Republican Party which started winning those states in 2010 has now begun to be discredited and their grip on the state governments there is now significantly loosened.

Democrats were unable over an eight year period to focus on both re-electing a Presidential/VP and simultaneously focus on maintaining the strength of our party.

The lesson - which too many still do not want to learn- is that focusing presidential election every 4 years does not work in maintaining any kind of a democracy.

[LakeArenal]

69. May I steal your last paragraph. It's great.

[Gothmog]

7. I would love to see this ticket

[R B Garr]

27. Me too!

[BlueStater]

10. Pass to any ticket that has Biden on it.

I will not be supporting an 80-year-old man for president. He and Bernie need to go away.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. Are you saying that you wouldn't vote for Biden in the GE?

He's not my first choice for the primaries either, but he will have my vote in the GE, as will ANYONE on the Democratic ticket.

[BlueStater]

24. This isn't the ticket. It's a hypothetical.

Biden will not win the nomination. In fact, I hope he comes to his senses and doesn't even run.

I find the idea of an 80-year-old man being treated as a serious presidential candidate absolutely absurd. His generation had their time in spotlight. It's time to pass the damn torch already.

[friend of m and j]

26. If it weren't for Trump being in the WH I might agree with you, But

Biden's experience in governing and strong moral character and integrity can do more to unite the country from the the divisiveness that Trump has caused. Biden can restore the values and institutions that our country was built on. The new faces that are planning to run lack that experience. He can restore the broken ties with our allies that Trump has alienated. He can make America proud again and not be best friends with autocratic dictators that Trump so loves. And he will be a mentor to those new faces that will likely be in the primaries. That will make for a much stronger Democratic party in the future.

P.S Biden will be 78 years old in 2019. I am 76 years old. Not all of us are senile or have dementia.

[friend of m and j]

30. BlueStater; Your opinion that Biden will not win the nomination is not what the polls are showing.

A recent poll in Iowa, the first state to hold a vote for presidential candidates, suggests Mr Biden is the most popular of the likeliest Democratic candidates, with a 94% approval rating among Democrat voters.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS in late March found the former vice president enjoying broad support among Democrats. According to the survey, 84 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents said they would support a Biden bid for the presidency.

A Harvard/Harris poll found 27 percent of Democrats would choose Biden as their candidate, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than his closest competitor, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, at 16 percent. And that was in a field of candidates of 20+. (I think that with Biden running a large part of those now considering a run would drop out).

A survey last month from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm that does both public surveys and polling for Democratic candidates, found voters would also choose Biden over President Donald Trump in both an election and a fistfight. The idea of a fistfight came from the former vice president saying he'd like to take the president "behind the gym and beat the hell out of him." In an actual election scenario, 56 percent of respondents in the PPP poll said they would vote for Biden, while 39 percent said they would vote for Trump.

[BlueStater]

58. Those polls are based on name recognition.

No one even knows who the other candidates really are yet. Biden doesn't have much appeal as a candidate. If he didn't have it when he was 44 years old back in 1987, he certainly isn't going to have it when he's 77.

[John Fante]

76. He didn't have 8-years as VP under his belt in 1987.

Saying he has no appeal when he's arguably the most popular Democrat in America doesn't jibe with reality.

[BlueStater]

82. He's one of the few Democratic figures with household name recognition.

Only people who closely follow politics know who Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown etc are.

Without Obama's coattails to cling to, Biden doesn't have much appeal as a candidate and I doubt he's really going to inspire anyone. We saw that in his previous two lackluster presidential campaigns.

[violetpastille]

37. Yes.

Me too.

But I will bitch up until the last minute. Biden for President? I mean okay but.. we can do better.

[apcalc]

54. Agree. Not interested in either.

[RandySF]

28. Give Biden one term to restore some semblance of sanity to the federal government at home and

and our relationships abroad.

[friend of m and j]

31. RandySF ; You hit it on the head.

And one term is all Biden is asking for and he will make that a promise.

[LongtimeAZDem]

56. Exactly; team up with a qualified successor /nt

[Renew Deal]

35. Does Biden want to be VP again?

[SunSeeker]

40. Biden sure is floating a lot of trial balloons. nt

[Sparky 1]

43. I am ready for a woman. The entire country just showed they are ready for a woman.

Kamala- Prez
Beto - VP

[nycbos]

51. Way to early to talk about a joint ticket now.

[LongtimeAZDem]

57. On the contrary; choosing a VP as an actual partner and successor, rather than a seat warmer,

is a good strategy for rebuilding the mess we have now.

This isn't a run-of-the-mill election; the President has damaged the operating structure of the government and soiled our relationships in the world. It's going to take time and a coherent strategy to undo that.

[lark]

52. I like Beto, but think Kamala for VP would make a better ticket.

More diversity.

[people]

60. I like Beto but I think Kamala Harris with Beto is VP

We definitely do not need 2 white men running together so I think the Biden Beto idea is bad. Biden is pretty indebted to the credit card, financial industry and I am tired of that. Let's get someone who is not beholden, not so old. Certainly do not need an all white all male duo.

[lark]

61. I would never vote for that ticket in the primary.

I do not trust Harris for president after the way she treated Franken, not caring for the facts, just jumping to make herself look good. As VP, she's not a problem and would bring energy, youth and passion. I think you should believe people when they show you who they are. Prior to that really bad decision, she was my top choice for president.

[herding cats]

63. This story has been updated to reflect that Biden and O'Rourke have not met to discuss the possibili

This story has been updated to reflect that Biden and O'Rourke have not met to discuss the possibility of a joint ticket.

New headline: JOE BIDEN ADVISERS FLOAT BETO O'ROURKE AS RUNNING MATE FOR 2020 ELECTION

This is just a, 'what if we could, maybe this will make people excited if we link to popular names' game. Biden's people are looking for a way to offset his age by linking him in peoples minds to Beto. That's all this is about. In their doing so there's already, quite justified, backlash.

They're not going to run on a joint ticket in the primary like I've seen some assume. That's nuts! If it's even possible, which I'm pretty sure it's not. If/when one blunders the other would be damaged. It's a great way to take out two choices with one mistake. I seriously doubt either of them are this foolish.

We're political wonks here, we know better than to take something like this seriously.

[oberliner]

64. Interesting that this article turned out to be a lie

[flamingdem]

66. I'd vote for Biden/O'Rourke