Joe Biden for 2020

[karynnj]

83. The primaries serve a purpose and short circuiting them would be a mistake

From my perspective, the 2008 primaries with something like 23 debates and far tougher attacks than in 2016 was later spun as having "tested" Obama. In reality, it did. It showed that he could, for the most part, take many attacks, deflect them and get a positive message out. The fact that he won the primaries against the Clinton team made it clear that he was a very strong, tough candidate. Also, anyone watching the very early debates -- a year before the primaries when most people are not yet engaged - he improved immensely from those first few debates.

2016 was a close election -- and as in any close election - it is easy to blame many many things happening for the loss. The idea that it was attacks from the primaries is one of the weakest - even though HRC argued for that. The primary attacks from Sanders and O'Malley were milder than in any election I remember. The things that caused HRC trouble in the primary period were mostly things unrelated to the primaries - like how she handled the email situation that she caused in the first place. What were those attacks? That she was too close to WS? Do you seriously think that the Republicans would not have made an issue of the paid talks had it never been mentioned by O'Malley and Sanders? Not to mention, would SHE have agreed that she was to blame had Obama lost in 2008 because she had an ad suggesting he was too inexperienced to answer the 3 AM call -- and in many speeches she repeated that and even said that she AND JOHN MCCAIN were. Al Gore was the first to bring up Willie Horton against Dukakis.

In ANY general election, many attacks are repeats of the primaries. Dean called Kerry, who was actually pretty consistent over his long public life, a flip flopper. However that is an attack used against virtually any Senator who ever ran. A different example shows where an unfair primary attack - handled well - keeps it out of the general election. Dean attacked Kerry as too involved with lobbyists. Kerry responded by putting out a list of every meeting he had with a lobbyist in the then past 15 years - saying he could defend himself on any. In 2008, CREW asked Clinton, Obama, McCain and Edwards to follow the "Kerry precedent" --none of them did. That accusation was not repeated in the general election.