The Spark

[RayThom]

So sad, Papa Joe has lost it. With homespun fables like this I don't think he's going to make it to the finish line.

Warren, Buttigieg, Harris. I feel they have the best chance to make the much needed difference in 2020.

As he campaigns for president, Joe Biden tells a moving but false war story
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

[BoSoxGal]

Warren/Buttigieg 2020

[Big RR]

It is sad; it's stories like that which allowed W to gain all that ground against Gore. Some career politicians don't know (or even care) what the truth is; add the media which can misquote and blow it even more out of control, and we see what we get.

That being said, it's about time for Joe to withdraw.

[Lord Jim]

Papa Joe has lost it. With homespun fables like this I don't think he's going to make it to the finish line.

it's about time for Joe to withdraw.

Wow; that all looks pretty premature to me...

I'm going to wait and see what the latest post-gaffe polling shows; the record thus far seems to indicate that these misstatements don't seem to be hurting Joe with rank and file voters...(perhaps a by-product of being compared with the most prolific and shameless liar in American political history...)

I know that some recent polls have shown the three leading hard left Democratic candidates (Warren, Sanders, and Harris) all beating Trump (by less than Biden) but please bear in mind that those polls are being conducted before Trump, the RNC, and their allied super PAC groups have spent a billion dollars highlighting their "If you like your plan go fuck yourself" position on healthcare, their decriminalize illegal immigration position on border enforcement, and a host of other extremely unpopular positions that they hold...

Which is exactly what will happen if any of these far-left candidates are nominated...

It's possible that one of these candidates could defeat Trump, (especially if the economy goes seriously south) but nominating them represents a huge risk of re-electing him by turning off the millions of voters who delivered the Democrats control of the House in the midterms...

If Biden truly stumbles, then presumably the large bloc of pragmatic Democratic voters who have been sticking with him won't be just switching to some hard left candidate, but will start to give a second look to other center-left candidates still in the race (Klobuchar, Bullock, etc) that have thus far not gained much traction as Biden has pretty much monopolized the support of those voters.

[Lord Jim]

Looks like Biden continues to hold steady:

Support for Biden and Sanders among registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has remained steady since the last Post-ABC survey, conducted in July. Warren, however, has gained ground and shares second place with Sanders. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), whose performance in the first debate in Miami in June was lauded by Democratic voters, has since fallen back.

Only six other candidates register at 2 percent or more. Harris has 7 percent support, down from 13 percent after the first debate. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is supported by 4 percent, former congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) and entrepreneur Andrew Yang by 3 percent apiece, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) by 2 percent of Democratic-leaning voters each.

Currently, 45 percent of Democratic voters name Biden as having the best chance to defeat Trump, the same percentage that said this in July. He is followed by Sanders at 14 percent and Warren at 12 percent.



Biden’s support is strongest with nonwhite Democratic voters at 38 percent, an advantage driven largely by his support among African Americans. Biden’s support among nonwhite Democrats is double Sanders’s and triple Warren’s.

The Post-ABC poll does, however, show Biden’s support is rooted in more than perceived electability. Among his supporters, roughly 8 in 10 have a strongly favorable view of him, and 7 in 10 say he would be the best president if elected.

Biden also enjoys a lead among women, with 31 percent saying they favor him for the nomination. That is similar to the combined support for Sanders and Warren (15 percent and 18 percent, respectively). Men divide more evenly, with 26 percent favoring Biden, 25 percent Sanders and 17 percent Warren.

Biden’s support appears more solid than Sanders’s or Warren’s, with 61 percent of his supporters saying they will definitely vote for him. Among those backing either Sanders or Warren, 38 percent say they are definitely going to vote for their preferred candidate, while 60 percent say they could change their minds and back someone else. [Gee whiz, that's the exact opposite of the "conventional wisdom" that the media pundits keep throwing at us about how "soft" Biden's support is supposed to be]

Most Democrats do say ideology makes a difference in a candidate’s ability to defeat Trump, with 38 percent siding with the idea that a moderate candidate has a better chance of winning, compared with 13 percent saying a liberal is more electable.

More:

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/politic ... edirect=on

[Crackpot]

Note that “electability” relies primarily on name recognition and that could easily go south especially with someone as gaffe prone as biden. The one thing Biden has going for him is he has demonstrated an ability to throw Trump off his game and that I believe will be one of the biggest assets any challenger can have in the upcoming election.