2020 Democrats Are Starting to Turn Obama's Legacy Against Biden [View all]

[DonViejo]

The former VP has tied himself closely to the president he served. His primary opponents are trying to complicate that.

Gideon Resnick
Political Reporter

Published 07.21.19 5:09 AM ET

Former Vice President Joe Biden has used Barack Obama’s beloved status among Democratic voters to insulate him from criticism from the massive field of candidates jockeying to be the next president.

But in recent weeks, the Democratic frontrunner has had that legacy used against him, with his competitors pointing the to shortcomings of the last Democratic administration as evidence that Biden’s not up to the task of leading the next one.

“Barack Obama, personally, is incredibly popular among Democratic primary voters,” Karthik Ganapathy, a progressive consultant now running his own firm, told The Daily Beast. “And also at the same time, there’s a growing recognition that income and wealth inequality got worse under his eight years, the climate crisis got worse during his eight years, deportations went up during his time in office, and so on.”

The idea that the Obama legacy would be anything other than a massive positive for Biden as he navigates the 2020 Democratic party has been treated as indisputable within Democratic circles. And for good reason. A CNN poll taken in early 2018 found that he had a 97 percent favorable rating among Democrats.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/2020-democrats-are-starting-to-turn-obamas-legacy-against-biden?ref=home