Progressives' predicament: Bring down Biden without attacking Obama

[DonViejo]

'People are very nostalgic for that time,' one activist says of the risk of criticizing Biden's time in the administration.

By HOLLY OTTERBEIN 06/17/2019 05:00 AM EDT

Bernie Sanders has bashed Joe Biden for backing the Iraq War and voting for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Elizabeth Warren has gone after him for taking “the side of the credit card companies.” Cory Booker has called the 1994 crime bill that Biden helped write “awful” and “shameful.”

But for most of Biden’s Democratic rivals, they’ve treated one part of his record as taboo to criticize: His years in the Obama White House.

There’s a good reason for that. Even as much of the Democratic Party moves to his left, Obama remains extremely well-liked among liberal voters. Progressive activists and operatives eager to knock down Biden from his frontrunner perch admit it could be a serious problem that eight years of Biden's political career is effectively off-limits. And for Biden, who is explicitly running as Obama’s heir, it's been a godsend.

“It’s going to be challenging for progressives to attack that legacy,” said Yvette Simpson, chief executive of the progressive political action committee Democracy for America. “Because Obama not only is and was so popular, but people are very nostalgic for that time, particularly after a few years of Trump.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/17/biden-obama-2020-progressive-1365603

[DownriverDem]

1. Just stop it

Many of us will be PO.

[zipplewrath]

2. Just ask what HE did

There are instances where he either disagreed with Obama, or probably wouldn't want to be associated with the outcomes of a particular decision. Afghan policy is one of them. Marrying that to his Iraq war vote would put him in a difficult position and one wouldn't even need to criticize Obama at all.

[IluvPitties]

3. He was a good VP in a historically good administration.

Hard to attack that.

[oasis]

4. Got my popcorn at the ready.

[Demit]

5. Is Biden attacking Obama regarding climate change policy?

From the story:
“Nobody wants to distance themselves from the true glow of Barack Obama’s charming personality, his wit, his integrity,” said Hundt. “But they are also 100 percent distancing themselves on policy points.”

In fact, he pointed out, even Biden himself did so recently. In a news release about his plan to address climate change, Biden’s campaign said his proposal would “go well beyond the Obama-Biden administration platform and put us on the right track.”


Of course it's possible to criticize past policies without "attacking." Biden is doing it here. He's implying his policy will be better than Obama's: it will "put us on the right track."

[marylandblue]

6. It's different when you criticize yourself.

But in the end it won't matter. He isn't Obama. Right now he is basking in reflected glory. Soon he will he be seen as his own person. Then we'll see what happens.

[Demit]

7. As much as Biden tries to call it the "Obama-Biden administration,"

he was not co-president. We don't have co-presidents. Obama called the shots.

Yes, you're exactly right, he wants to borrow Obama's glory to tap into people's nostalgia for Obama. But Biden has a large enough ego that he wants people to see that he is wonderful on his own merits. It's a dilemma for him, when and how to pull away and insist he is his own man. I think the more we see of him, in rallies and debate sand news reports, the more we'll see how successful he is in standing alone on his own merits.

[robbedvoter]

13. That should be damning in itself

considering the historically small role he played.

[marylandblue]

23. I think it's just good politics. I don't fault him for leveraging whatever advantage he has.

I do question whether it will actually work as people start looking more closely. We'll see.

[emmaverybo]

30. Actually Biden played a big role. Obama gave him a great deal of responsibility, and he was

instrumental in helping Obama legislation get passed. I will post about this separately and suggest you might be interested. It is always hard, as Obama himself said, to see what a VP is doing.

[NYMinute]

8. False narrative

"Democratic party is moving to the left" is patently untrue.

It is at best a wish and at worst delusional.

I don't see any major difference in the Democratic party of JFK in the 60's, of Bill Clinton in the 90's and of today.

[Fresh_Start]

9. totally agree

we seem to be better at finding echo chambers that reflect our beliefs right back at us...and thus we reach the wrong conclusion about what the country wants.

[Celerity]

12. you must not be a PoC, or LGBTQ or a woman (or 2 or all 3 of those)

I don't see any major difference in the Democratic party of JFK in the 60's, of Bill Clinton in the 90's and of today.

[NYMinute]

15. We have more policies to protect and give equality

to POC, women and LGBTQ.

However, the Democratic party of the 60's was also in favor of giving those rights as was the party in the 90s as it is today.

We just have the fruit of the trees planted back in the 60's.

Furthermore, the equality issues are not "to the left" - they are in the center.

The leftward issues are economic and not entirely subscribed to by the mainstream Democrats.

[Celerity]

16. totally disagree about the extent that those rights were present and being pushed in the 60's

and to a lesser extent the 90's. The 1990's had DOMA and Don't Ask Don't tell bullshit supported by many in the Party.

The party was not a great friend (the Rehugs were even worse however) of us queer folk back then. The Democratic Party in the Kennedy period was also chocked full of pure racists and misogynists as well.

I really do not care for your trying to push in economic issues and use that as a piggyback/conflation tool to have a whack at whoever you want to have a whack at. It is condescending and just plain dismissive.

[Demit]

19. Please don't say that equality is a "gift."

Equality is a right. You recognize rights, you don't "give" them. Unless you are a straight white male who still thinks you own those rights and that they are yours to give or withhold.

[Politicub]

22. +1 - We were not granted the right to marry. We reclaimed a right of which we were deprived.

That's the difference that a lot of people seem to miss. LGBTQ folks were never given anything; we have fought to have our seat at the table recognized.

I'm glad you pointed out this important distinction.

[NYMinute]

24. I agree

I meant "give equality" meaning recognize equality.

[treestar]

10. If that is what they have to do to win

then they are telling me they can think of no reason why they should be President. They are telling me they should be President because Biden is bad. Not because they are any good.

[robbedvoter]

11. He was the most insignificant VP in many, many years

going all the way to Poppy. Shouldn't be so hard. Besides, did most of his lasting damage before that (Clarence Thomas), and some of it, ongoing
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/13/1864502/-Joe-Biden-is-a-relic-from-the-past-and-this-one-exchange-with-a-13-year-old-girl-proves-that?detail=emaildkre
and also

Link to tweet

[Demsrule86]

18. He deserves better than what you said. He was a great VP and can

beat Trump which is essential. Biden can be the nominee and we win or Trump gets four more years...think about that. Also with a more progressive candidate, we could
lose the house as well...tome to look at our desperate situation.

[Demit]

20. I'm curious. What is it that makes a "great" vice-president?

I know the sort of thing that makes a bad one—being guilty of tax evasion, like Spiro Agnew—but what makes a great one? I've never seen it defined. What do you think it is?

[Demsrule86]

36. One of the most active VP..he saved Pres. Obama in 12...he and Clinton. He also

helped Obama evolve on LGBTQ...He worked on policy during Obama's presidency. He is responsible for the violence against women act...Biden is a great guy...long Senate career too and he will beat Trump in the rustbelt...no one else will...we loze without the blue wall.

[Bayard]

14. Not productive

And just giving tRump talking points.

I think Biden stands very well on his own merits. If he's the nominee, I think Obama will campaign for him, sealing the deal. But I'm sure Obama will campaign for whomever our nominee may be.

[marylandblue]

25. Trump gets his talking points from Fox News, not DU.

[Bayard]

33. I didn't mean here

But Dem's running for president.

[Demsrule86]

17. Since polls clearly show Biden can beat Trump....maybe these folks

Should just stop. We live in a center left country at best. I doubt any othet candidate can beat Trump.

[MineralMan]

21. So, Progressives are trying to "Bring down Biden?"

Why would they do that? They tried to bring down Hillary Clinton, and now we have Donald Trump in the White House.

It's a serious mistake, if that's what they're doing, and it won't work again.

It's also not a path to the nomination.

[marylandblue]

26. LWNJs wanted to bring down Clinton. Progressives supported her.

[MineralMan]

28. Which term is used varies. A lot of people consider themselves to be

progressives. It's a broad spectrum of self-identification. I don't know anyone who identifies as a LWNJ. Those who fought against Hillary Clinton most definitely called themselves progressives. They still do.

Other progressives voted for Hillary Clinton in November of 2016. Sadly, it wasn't enough to win WI, PA and MI. And so, we have Donald Trump in the White house.

I'm a progressive myself. A pragmatic progressive, who believes that we make progress toward progressive goals in this country by electing Democrats to as many offices as we possibly can. When we fail to do that, nothing progressive happens.

[marylandblue]

31. I can agree with that. But I don't think is wrong to have a debate now

during the primary about whether Biden is the right nominee for us. The only mistake is not backing him if he wins. Like you, I try to be pragmatic.

[MineralMan]

37. Well, that is the debate, isn't it?

So far, he's in the lead in a group of 24 candidates. He's consistently been in the 30s, percentage-wide, and has held a double digit lead over his closest competitor most of the time since he announced. What does that tell us?

I think it tells us that there is a base of primary voters of 30-something percent that thinks Biden is the best choice. I'm betting that that base will hold strong as the campaign goes on. Everyone else is divided up among about 12-15 other candidates, some of whom have only a percent or two offering their name in the polls.

Second place is up for grabs. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren appear to be vying for the same group of voters. Kamala Harris has a pretty loyal group of supporters, too. Pete Buttigieg is holding his own and maybe rising a bit in the polls. The rest? Well, they're living on hope and a few percentage points.

It's still early days in the campaign, but the numbers seem to be relatively stable so far. The debates next week might shift things a little, but only a part of the polled group of people will watch them, I think. The rest will see short blivets and analysis of those debates by an assortment of news talkers.

If I were to make a prediction, it would be that there won't be much change following the debates. Not this round, anyhow. An awful lot of potential Democratic primary voters are not fully engaged in the primary process at this point, I"m guessing.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is polling in the thirties, and his closest rivals are polling in the teens. So far, he's looking just fine at this stage. We'll have to keep watching for now, to see which way things move. I'm sure we'll be watching closely, as always - all 2500 or less of us on DU.

[DCofVA]

27. It's really very simple; Biden is not Obama

Biden’s high early polling is a result of his connection to Obama. The more people come to realize just how different the two are, the more Biden will slip in the polls.

[MineralMan]

29. Well, that appears to be what you want to happen.

I think you're going to be disappointed, though. Yes, I do.

[Tarheel_Dem]

35. "Biden's high early polling is a result of his connection to Obama." ?????

How could you possibly know that?

[empedocles]

32. "bring down Biden', 'without attacking Obama' - 'WITHOUT HELPING TRUMP?'

Without helping trump quite a bit? 'Collateral' concern?

[samnsara]

34. good heavens why do they want to bring down biden?

[MineralMan]

38. It's Politico, stirring the poop, as usual.

It's what they do.