And Also: I used to have a photo on the book panel for "uneasy peace" that discussed the improvement of cities in the last couple decades. Charged by Emily Bazelon (using two true life stories as frames of the criminal justice system and room to improve it) is also a good read. Her book on school bullying was good as well as her other writings and appearances.
The TPM editor entitled comments on Joe Biden's announcement thusly but it's an oxymoron. Being a man of the past (concerns can be put in context, but the piece overcorrects, adding to its heart v. mind nature) is a core problem. Add his age, people being pissed off about certain things (like the sort of bias where media saying he's the one who really went after Trump, after Gillibrand announced outside Trump Tower and called him a "coward" and multiple candidates say he should be impeached) and some great competition. And, past failed campaigns suggesting his problems.
[More stuff: media talk about he is "the" grown-up in the race and how Elizabeth Warren owes her position to Obama (whose appointment of her was a major step in her career but reflects his respect of her long experience) and Biden (who Warren strongly opposed in the past regarding his role in the bankruptcy bill alone); otherwise, she would just be a professor. This sort of thing must at least in part be a result of Biden's people spreading talking points. It also underlines how upsetting, and I'm not even a woman here, these takes are. He's not "perfect" and in the process you are diminishing other candidates.]
If anything, aside from the lack of gravitas, maybe a guy like O'Rourke can be seen as a "perfect" candidate without being really ideal. He doesn't have Biden's baggage, avoids the racism and sexism (though maybe advances it) problems of a Warren/Harris or Booker/Castro, and comes off as a uniter. Biden brings Obama nostalgia, but again, with baggage, and it isn't 2008 or 2016. I think the uniting talk of Obama that received some criticism from liberals as naive fit the times there as well as the competition.
There was more room for optimism there and running against McCain required some of that sort of "we aren't republicans, we aren't federalists" talk too. McCain himself was labeled a "maverick." Romney governed Massachusetts. Anyway, it was dying down by then, and Obama was an incumbent simply defending his ground. Like Sanders winning the primary in 2016, you also have to look at the times there too. The uniting sentiment here (to me, the message is that Trump, not Trumpism, is the problem, but Republicans went all in; they are Trump now) is a harder sell.
It also is a BAD sell. We need to move on. My opposition is in part based on worrying he would actually win (that plus him taking oxygen from others and the media giving him special favors is why I opposed him even running). We need to move on from what Biden represents. This is not about badmouthing the guy as horrible. But, the fact you sort of like someone is not grounds to marry them. How would someone totally ill-suited to the times actually be a good President ala that article? Isn't a fit for the time necessary there? The fact certain Republicans like the guy is pretty telling there. Biden is the sort that will go out of his way to compliment the "loyal opposition" and that rightly turns people off.
Don't know when the campaign will start in earnest though last time seemed to suggest it was sometime in the summer or fall before the first primaries and caucuses. So, we aren't there yet, I guess. But, I do worry and the editor's comments show how there is some serious Biden sentiment here. Do think at some point it matters who runs and on that front do worry about the full bore Warren. Putting aside that I think her skill at policy makes the Senate the ideal place for her, to me the general election candidate has to be less left leaning. The level of love by some on the left there (though someone like Jennifer Rubin, an actual Never Trump type, voiced some respect) is telling.
But, there needs to be a happy medium there. Someone like Kamala Harris or as noted Beto O'Rourke (though I think him weak as to experience and at times sentiment). Someone like Amy K. is a longshot but seems like someone who might sneak in if everything went right as a sort of compromise candidate. She's younger, a woman* and has less Biden baggage. Baggage that can be a real threat as a nominee.
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* Yes, I want a woman candidate, thinking it's damn time we follow the likes of loads of other countries and have a woman leader. Imagine the hard feelings if Biden, who the women pointing out him having a problem are already made out to be imagining things, is the nominee. AGAIN, the woman candidate is supposed to step aside (or is corruptly beaten by or apparently "stole" things from) for an old white guy.
We are already sanctimoniously (when some notable portion of them are likely to need to be pushed in fact to support another nominee) told we have to be loyal if Sanders is the nominee. No one that I can see is ready to refuse to support a Sanders leading the ticket. They do think it a horrid idea. That happens though. Not being Trump, we will be stuck with it and have no good reason not to go along. Let's not test it.
The TPM editor entitled comments on Joe Biden's announcement thusly but it's an oxymoron. Being a man of the past (concerns can be put in context, but the piece overcorrects, adding to its heart v. mind nature) is a core problem. Add his age, people being pissed off about certain things (like the sort of bias where media saying he's the one who really went after Trump, after Gillibrand announced outside Trump Tower and called him a "coward" and multiple candidates say he should be impeached) and some great competition. And, past failed campaigns suggesting his problems.
[More stuff: media talk about he is "the" grown-up in the race and how Elizabeth Warren owes her position to Obama (whose appointment of her was a major step in her career but reflects his respect of her long experience) and Biden (who Warren strongly opposed in the past regarding his role in the bankruptcy bill alone); otherwise, she would just be a professor. This sort of thing must at least in part be a result of Biden's people spreading talking points. It also underlines how upsetting, and I'm not even a woman here, these takes are. He's not "perfect" and in the process you are diminishing other candidates.]
If anything, aside from the lack of gravitas, maybe a guy like O'Rourke can be seen as a "perfect" candidate without being really ideal. He doesn't have Biden's baggage, avoids the racism and sexism (though maybe advances it) problems of a Warren/Harris or Booker/Castro, and comes off as a uniter. Biden brings Obama nostalgia, but again, with baggage, and it isn't 2008 or 2016. I think the uniting talk of Obama that received some criticism from liberals as naive fit the times there as well as the competition.
There was more room for optimism there and running against McCain required some of that sort of "we aren't republicans, we aren't federalists" talk too. McCain himself was labeled a "maverick." Romney governed Massachusetts. Anyway, it was dying down by then, and Obama was an incumbent simply defending his ground. Like Sanders winning the primary in 2016, you also have to look at the times there too. The uniting sentiment here (to me, the message is that Trump, not Trumpism, is the problem, but Republicans went all in; they are Trump now) is a harder sell.
It also is a BAD sell. We need to move on. My opposition is in part based on worrying he would actually win (that plus him taking oxygen from others and the media giving him special favors is why I opposed him even running). We need to move on from what Biden represents. This is not about badmouthing the guy as horrible. But, the fact you sort of like someone is not grounds to marry them. How would someone totally ill-suited to the times actually be a good President ala that article? Isn't a fit for the time necessary there? The fact certain Republicans like the guy is pretty telling there. Biden is the sort that will go out of his way to compliment the "loyal opposition" and that rightly turns people off.
Don't know when the campaign will start in earnest though last time seemed to suggest it was sometime in the summer or fall before the first primaries and caucuses. So, we aren't there yet, I guess. But, I do worry and the editor's comments show how there is some serious Biden sentiment here. Do think at some point it matters who runs and on that front do worry about the full bore Warren. Putting aside that I think her skill at policy makes the Senate the ideal place for her, to me the general election candidate has to be less left leaning. The level of love by some on the left there (though someone like Jennifer Rubin, an actual Never Trump type, voiced some respect) is telling.
But, there needs to be a happy medium there. Someone like Kamala Harris or as noted Beto O'Rourke (though I think him weak as to experience and at times sentiment). Someone like Amy K. is a longshot but seems like someone who might sneak in if everything went right as a sort of compromise candidate. She's younger, a woman* and has less Biden baggage. Baggage that can be a real threat as a nominee.
---
* Yes, I want a woman candidate, thinking it's damn time we follow the likes of loads of other countries and have a woman leader. Imagine the hard feelings if Biden, who the women pointing out him having a problem are already made out to be imagining things, is the nominee. AGAIN, the woman candidate is supposed to step aside (or is corruptly beaten by or apparently "stole" things from) for an old white guy.
We are already sanctimoniously (when some notable portion of them are likely to need to be pushed in fact to support another nominee) told we have to be loyal if Sanders is the nominee. No one that I can see is ready to refuse to support a Sanders leading the ticket. They do think it a horrid idea. That happens though. Not being Trump, we will be stuck with it and have no good reason not to go along. Let's not test it.
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