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Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
So, until you or Adder or Ty and the poll numbers show me that any other choice will make that happen, Biden is the guy. His numbers aren't moving for a reason.
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It may be what you say, but it also may be that people know that they don't cast a primary vote until February, so it's all a bit remote for most people right now.
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Maybe part of that reason is that the Democratic field is too crowded. But the best thing for this country right now is for the race for the Democratic nod end and everyone put their considerable weight behind the nominee. The fighting and the accusations of racism and the bringing up of shit that happened 40 fucking years ago is going to weaken the nominee. It did last time when Bernie proved he was as big of a narcissistic asshole as anyone who's ever run for President. It will again.
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I guess I disagree, except for your penultimate sentence. It's not good for the party and the eventual nominee to clear the field. That's what happened last time -- it was clear that Hillary was the presumptive nominee, and she scared almost everyone else from even running, because her victory seemed certain. A couple of things happened.
One is that she ran cautiously, trying to protect her inevitable victory instead of figuring out how to persuade people to join her. The primary field wasn't the only reason for this, but it presaged how she ran against Trump and it did not fly.
Another is that nature abhors a vacuum, and politics is about how people disagree, so Bernie Sanders got much more traction than anyone would have thought as the most viable alternative to Hillary, and the leader of the leftier side of the Democratic Party. Bernie is certainly a flawed vessel, but it should not have surprised anyone that someone emerged to catalyze opposition to HRC in the primaries, because there is a split in Democratics that goes way, way back. Al Gore had Bill Bradley. John Kerry had Howard Dean. 2008 was a little weird because a lot of lefties gravitated towards Obama, even though he turned out to be pretty centrist, but there was still a knock-down, drag-out fight between him and HRC.
You don't have to have fighting and accusations of racism and the bringing up of shit and all of the rest. Neither Gore nor Kerry beat Bush*, but they both unified the party pretty well. As did Obama after a race with Clinton that got pretty bitter at times. Whether you blame Clinton or Sanders or both for what happened the last time, it wasn't inevitable (and if you think it was inevitable, doesn't that let either/both off the hook?).
The eventual nominee isn't necessarily weakened by the primary process. They are strengthened by it too. Biden hasn't run at the top of the ticket in a long time -- doing it in the primary should make him better for the general. Warren needs to figure out how to run as an executive, not a legislator. And so on, for all of the other candidates. They need a chance to make some mistakes when the primary audience is sympathetic Democrats, and swing voters aren't paying attention. They need to figure out which messages work, and how to tailor their appeal to different audiences. They need to figure out how to appeal to Democrats without turning off independents.
And Bernie may be a narcissistic asshole and sore loser who is more interested in his own ego than in defeating Trump. I hope not, but we shall see. If he is, I agree that it's a problem, and lament that there's nothing you or I can do about it than wish he would drop out, cut it out, and support the party's nominee. But I hope for better from him.
I may not have a ton of faith in Bernie, but I have some faith in the process
