Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Firewall stood firm for Biden

All that talk about the Joe Biden “firewall” in South Carolina showing cracks, fissures, weakness now appears to have been, well, just talk.

It held firm as the former vice president of the United States cruised to a smashing victory today in the Democratic Party presidential primary.

More than half of the state’s primary voters are African American. Biden depended on that base of support to carry him to victory. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ early wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and his strong showing in Iowa cast doubt on whether that firewall would withstand the pressure being applied.

Commentators described African American voters as “pragmatic,” that candidates’ strength becomes a factor in how voters would cast their ballots.

Then came an apparently pivotal endorsement from U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina political icon and the most powerful African American in Congress.

So, the firewall — if that’s what we’ll call it — got plenty of reinforcement.

It held the former VP in good stead. Now it is time to see whether a similar firewall forms in other states with substantial numbers of African American voters. You know, states such as, let’s see … Texas!

The primary caravan is on its way here.

national news

Get ready, Mr. VPOTUS, for the barrage from the current POTUS

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Now that Joseph R. Biden Jr. has cemented a smashing victory in the South Carolina Democratic Party presidential primary, it is time for the former vice president to gird himself for the expected barrage from the current president of the United States.

Yep, it’s going to happen.

Donald John Trump and his surrogates will resume their barrage that they turned on Bernie Sanders, still the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

They managed to pillory and plunder Biden’s name and reputation during the U.S. Senate impeachment trial by trying to link him to his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Then Biden stumbled in early primary states. Now he’s back in the game. I believe Trump and his team are most concerned about facing Biden in the fall than any other Democrat.

Thus, I believe Joe Biden needs to prepare for the onslaught.

Get ready, Joe.

national news

I guess endorsements do matter

It must be that some voters actually heed politicians’ endorsements of other politicians.

So it appears as the votes roll in from South Carolina polling stations. Former Vice President Joe Biden is piling up a huge victory in that state, thanks it appears in large part to an endorsement delivered Wednesday by U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the most powerful African American in Congress and an esteemed political icon in his home state of South Carolina

Now, what does it mean for the rest of the Democratic Party primary race for the presidential nomination? I am unable to predict how it shakes out.

Here’s my sincere hope.

It is that Joe Biden can wrest the momentum away from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner at this moment for the Democratic nomination. I do not want a far-left ideologue to run against Donald John Trump, the current president of the United States.

I want instead for Democrats to nominate a seasoned political pro, someone with mileage on his wheels, someone who can work across the political aisle. Joe Biden is that individual.

There. I’ve said yet again that Biden is my No. 1 choice. He is in the hunt as the primary parade heads to Texas and the other Super Tuesday states next week.

I remain committed to defeating Donald Trump. My desire hasn’t wavered a single bit since the moment this carnival barker declared his candidacy in June 2015. I intend to use this blog to the extent that I am able to advance that cause.

As the political junkies among us watch the results from South Carolina roll in, I am hopeful that Democrats are going to avoid driving off a cliff by nominating someone who I believe stands a frightening chance of losing to a president who never should have been elected.

national news

This guy has it right: All but Biden and Bernie need to bail out

Timothy Egan is a fabulous reporter and writer. I am in the middle of a book he wrote about the Dust Bowl, “The Worst Hard Time.” It’s a great read that captures the essence of the Texas Panhandle, where I lived for 23 years.

He also is an astute political observer. He has written in The New York Times that the Democratic Party primary field needs to cull itself now, get down to the two leading candidates: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

The rest of ’em need to go: Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg … and maybe even Elizabeth Warren.

Egan thinks there’s a good chance Warren will lose to Sanders in her home state of Massachusetts, which votes on Super Tuesday. Hmm. If she can’t win there, well, where else is there?

Read Egan’s essay here.

If I were king of the world, I would strongly prefer Biden over Bernie.

My sense is that the country needs to return to an old fashioned politician — and I mean that in the good way — who knows how to govern. Someone who knows the importance of compromise. We don’t need another “revolutionary,” which is how Sanders portrays himself and his legions of supporters.

Yes, I know that both of these guys are old. They’re both pushing 80. I am not all that far behind them on the road to eternity, so I can kinda/sorta relate to them.

The country, though, needs Joe Biden to restore some values of decency, decorum, dignity to the White House. I have had enough of Donald Trump. As for the rest of the Democratic Party field, heed Timothy Egan’s advice … and stand down.

national news

Early voting seems less relevant than ever this election year

I am delighted to be true to my belief in voting on Election Day, that I won’t cast my vote early out of fear that my candidates will do something foolish or drop out of the running.

The Texas Democratic Party primary is coming up next Tuesday. Texas is one of 15 states casting ballots. Collectively they will select about one-third of all delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Milwaukee.

My guy is still in the hunt. Except that he’s got to win bigly in South Carolina, which votes on Saturday. If you want to the truth, I wish we voted on Saturday, too, but that’s another topic for another time.

I am longing to cast my ballot for a centrist Democrat, someone who knows how to govern, someone with a public service record that demonstrates an ability and a willingness to work with politicians on the other side. Yeah, that would be Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Now, if he flames out Saturday in South Carolina, he is likely to bail sometime after the Super Tuesday balloting. His name will remain on our ballot. However tempted I might be to reconsider my own vote, I likely will continue to stand behind Joe Biden regardless of the South Carolina result.

Still, waiting until Election Day gives me a touch of flexibility in the event someone else emerges from the shrinking field of Democratic presidential contenders.

I know this with absolute certainty: I will never vote for Donald John Trump. I don’t believe we need a radical change in political direction from this clown. I do believe we need someone in the Oval Office who knows what he’s doing, someone who understands the limits of his office and someone who can restore the dignity that the office once commanded.

national news

Do these endorsements really matter?

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a happy man today.

He received a ringing endorsement from a powerful South Carolina politician who said Biden is the best among the Democratic contenders running for president of the United States.

Rep. James Clyburn, a fellow Democrat, is all in with the former vice president. But I have to ask: Will it really matter?

Clyburn is the senior African American member of Congress. He is a fine fellow, from what I have been able to hear. He packs plenty of clout. It remains unclear to me whether his endorsement of Joe Biden is going to persuade South Carolina Democrats, who appear to be drifting toward Sen. Bernie Sanders in the late stages of the state’s primary campaign, to change their minds.

Which brings me to a significant point. Do endorsements of any nature really bring along votes?

There once was a time when voters waited to read what their local newspaper editorial boards thought about a campaign. They waited to see who the newspaper would endorse. They were motivated for two reasons. They either followed the newspaper’s advice, or — and this is for real — they cast their vote against the candidate the newspaper favored.

These days, with a plethora of information flooding us constantly, 24/7, nonstop, unrelentingly, many voters no longer look to those learned editors’ world views. They make up their minds, seemingly based on the views thrown at them by TV and radio blowhards.

It is becoming an exercise in futility for many politicians and others who get paid to offer their opinions on issues of the day and the candidates who are their champions.

The Dallas Morning News this year has announced it won’t endorse anyone for president. The paper’s editorial board didn’t say it, but my sense is that there is a possible back story borne of frustration that the newspaper would have little impact on its readers’ political leanings. So, why bother? The DMN instead is going to concentrate on the issues it deems critical to the voters and to the candidates who are seeking voters’ support.

I trust that Joe Biden will take James Clyburn’s endorsement seriously. He will ascribe high motivation behind it. Perhaps it’s merited. I will wait along with many other Americans to see if it translates into actual votes in a key primary state that propel the former VP back to front runner status.

national news

Actually, Mr. VPOTUS, you need to win … by a lot!

Joe Biden thinks he has the crucial South Carolina Democratic presidential primary in the bag.

Um, truth be told, he doesn’t. Even if he wins, it’s not tucked away. He’s got to win by a lot. You see, the one-time Democratic Party presidential frontrunner had the Palmetto State primary locked up. He was lapping the field. Then Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders started winning the early primaries.

Now it’s neck-and-neck between the two of ’em for South Carolina’s primary vote.

Biden said that a single percentage point victory over the field is enough, although he said he expects to win by a comfortable margin. OK, but expectations and reality don’t always mesh.

The former vice president of the United States needs to win by at least double digits. It would be better for him to smoke the field, to trample the rest of the remaining contenders — and that includes Sanders — into the ground.

Anything short of a decisive win spells doom.

It saddens me to say this, as I have staked my own preference on Joe Biden. I want his candidacy to succeed. I fear it’s teetering on the brink of failure.

State news

Beware of Super Tuesday mischief

Listen up, my fellow Texas residents. I want to alert y’all to what might be lurking as we prepare to vote on Super Tuesday.

Democrats are going to vote on March 3 for president, choosing from a still-lengthy list of contenders vying for the nation’s top office. One of them, a “democratic socialist” named Bernie Sanders, has stolen the momentum from the rest of the field. Sen. Sanders is going to march into Texas as the man to beat. I saw a poll just the other day that shows Sanders with a 3-point lead over Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Republicans, meanwhile, have no seriously contested primary awaiting them. Donald John Trump, the nation’s current president, is going to cruise to the GOP presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, millions of Texans have voter registration cards that don’t have a mark on them, other than their signatures. We haven’t voted yet in either primary.

I am suggesting there might be some mischief-making on the horizon. By that I mean that some Republican voters can cross over and vote in the Democratic primary for the candidate they want their guy, Trump, to face in the fall election campaign.

I mentioned Bernie Sanders a moment ago. Do you get my drift?

Sanders is a far-left winger. He talks a good game about being “electable.” I have serious doubt about that. He is a prime target of the GOP slime machine that is going to smear him as a godless socialist/communist. Indeed, many of his proposals have set himself up for the Republican attack machine.

Given that Texas’ open primary system enables voters to cross over into the “other party’s” primary, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see a gigantic Democratic turnout with numbers inflated by a significant number of GOP voters seeking to cause a bit of trouble among Democrats.

Consider yourselves forewarned.

local news, political news

Facing an electoral quandary

I have been “chatting” via social media with a longtime friend who has told me of her intention to vote in the Republican Party primary next month. She lives in the Golden Triangle of Texas and tells me she must vote in the GOP primary because of the plethora of local races that mean much to her.

I get that. I also have told her that I intend to vote in the Democratic primary because I have not yet built the familiarity my friend has with her community.

She’s lived in Orange County for decades. I have lived in Collin County for a little more than a year. I am not proud to acknowledge that my familiarity with local contests isn’t yet up to speed. However, I must go where my instincts lead me.

They are leading me to cast my ballot for races involving national and statewide contests.

We’re going to cast our votes for president on March 3. Super Tuesday’s lineup of primary states includes Texas and its big prize of delegates to both parties’ nominating conventions.

I am not going to restate the obvious, which involves my vote for president, or simply that I will never cast a ballot for the current POTUS. My chore now is to examine the Democratic field for the candidate of my choice.

My inclination is to support Joseph R. Biden Jr. However, it is not clear at this writing whether he’ll be a viable candidate when the Texas primary rolls around. He must win in South Carolina. The former VP is losing African-American support that he says is his “firewall” to protect his candidacy from total collapse.

Then we have the U.S. Senate race and the U.S. House contest. Yes, the impeachment battle plays a factor in my vote. GOP Sen. John Cornyn, whom I actually like personally, has been a profound disappointment to me with his vote to acquit Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. What’s more, my first-term congressman, Republican Van Taylor, also disappointed me when he voted against impeaching Trump of those high crimes and misdemeanors.

My attention is focused, therefore, on the bigger stage.

I will need to live through another election cycle to familiarize myself with local issues and candidates sufficiently to cast my vote with any semblance of intelligence. Hey, given that I live in a county that’s even more Republican-leaning than my friend’s home county in the Golden Triangle, I understand the need to get up to speed.

I will do so in due course.

national news

Just like that, Bloomberg becomes a factor

What in the world is happening to the Democratic Party’s presidential primary race?

Joe Biden has gone from proverbial hero to zero in the span of one calendar week. Pete Buttigieg has become one of arguably three co-leaders in the Democratic race for president. The “democratic socialist” who lost to Hillary in 2016’s race for the nomination, Bernie Sanders, is in the lead these days. Amy Klobuchar, fresh off her stellar performance in the nationally televised Iowa joint appearance, also is in the hunt.

And then we have Michael Bloomberg, the zillionaire who is skipping the early primaries in preparation for the March 3 Super Tuesday lineup of mega-state primaries, which include Texas and California. He has spent a couple hundred million of his own dollars (which will hardly make a tiny dent in his personal fortune) on TV ads and is now emerging as a legitimate factor in this primary contest.

What’s more — and this is my favorite part — he is getting under Donald John Trump’s skin. He is annoying the living daylights out of the current U.S. president. So much so that Trump is now tweeting his snark aimed directly at Bloomberg.

Sitting out here in Trump Country — that would be the Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs of North Texas — we are being fed a steady diet of Bloomberg TV ads. I think my favorite ad is the one featuring former President Obama touting how “Mike Bloomberg is a leader” who “gets things done.” The ads don’t constitute an endorsement by Obama of Bloomberg; they happen to be part of the public domain and Bloomberg’s campaign has appropriated the video of the 44th president saying those nice things about the former New York mayor. However, you have to believe the ads are infuriating the former Democratic frontrunner, former Vice President Biden, who is seeking to trade on his status as Obama’s wing man for the eight years preceding Donald Trump’s election as president.

Is Bloomberg going to emerge as the man to beat for the Democratic nomination? If the alternative is Bernie Sanders, I damn sure hope so. The party is courting disaster if it nominates the socialist-leaning Sanders as its standard bearer.

How many other twists and turns along this trail await us?