The New York Times reported on Sunday that allies of former Vice President Joe Biden thinks of himself as the Democrat Party’s best hope for 2020 against President Donald Trump.
Biden knows he cannot wait too long to decide to jump into the race. He told CNN at the Philadelphia airport that he’ll decide “soon.”
From The New York Times:
But Mr. Biden has indicated that he is leaning toward running and will most likely make a decision within the next two weeks, according to Democrats within and beyond his inner circle who have spoken to him recently.The former vice president told a senior Democratic official last week that he is both likely to run and that his aides have told him he must move quickly in this primary, according to two Democrats briefed on the conversation.Mr. Biden is under significant pressure from his party’s major donors to make up his mind — no later than the end of January — or risk watching them migrate to other candidates. Mr. Biden and his advisers are highly sensitive to the criticism that in 2015, he dragged out his decision before ultimately opting out of the Democratic primary, exasperating his supporters and undermining the Democratic front-runner, Mrs. Clinton, in the process.
We have blogged about the polls that have come out as hype over the 2020 primary continues to grow after the November midterms. Biden captured the top spot in nearly all of them with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in second place.
Over Christmas, Biden spent his time messaging allies:
In one of his calls over the holidays, Mr. Biden repeated a variation of a line he has used publicly: “If you can persuade me there is somebody better who can win, I’m happy not to do it,” he said, according to the Democrat he spoke to, who shared the conversation on condition of anonymity to discuss a private talk.But then Mr. Biden said something he has not stated so bluntly in public: “But I don’t see the candidate who can clearly do what has to be done to win.”
One Biden ally told CNN that the former vide president “understands that he needs to make a decision relatively early in the process” and “knows he can’t wait.”
But would the Democrat Party treat him the way they treated Sanders against failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton? The party is all about women and minorities. Would those in charge risk their brand if they embrace an old white man? After all, they love to chide on the Republican Party for being the party of old white men.
Left-wing activist Waleed Shahid told the NYT that “Biden-style centrism will become a toxic and losing brand of politics in Democratic primaries.”
If they’re smart they’ll learn from their 2016 mistakes and give the people what they want. Biden is extremely likable. I cannot stand his politics, but as a person I like him. He has an approachable aura around him that Hillary never had.
All I know is that if Biden runs he better bring along Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope.
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