Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

Yeah, the election went fine (hey, for all his flaws, Obama beats the hell out of either Clinton so I don't regret my primary or general vote). But the year was awful in every other conceivable way. We've only just now managed to top that economically with a pandemic for dessert, a "shittier 2008."

still don't agree with "because life didn't improve for most people over those eight years" and all of your justifications, milo

As has been said many times before, Trump's win was determined by tiny vote margins in a few key states. The fact that those margins were so small makes it so that his win can be attributed to just about any plausible factor you can think of.

How do you think it improved? Insurance, sure, though I don't think you'll find most people were that jazzed by the ACA. Same-sex marriage - but Obama didn't make that happen (and didn't change the situation for most people).

Median household income didn't recover to pre-Obama levels until 2016, while rent (and rent as a percentage of income) steadily rose nationwide (faster in cities). The cost of going to or sending your kid to college increased 20% over the Obama administration's tenure. Life expectancy actually began to dip over his last years.

the stabilization of a global financial crisis and rescuing of the economy. Restoration of our sense of well-being and security. Iran nuclear deal and commitment to work on climate change. Household income increased steadily in his administration after the republican 2008 recession, and the stock market kept rising. He protected dreamers and supported net neutrality. Obama was definitely instrumental in the eventual acceptance of same sex marriage with his official support for in May 2012 (which Biden preceded by a day). He cut the deficit, passed credit card reform, and reduced veteran homelessness through Opening Doors. Under his guidance we expanded the definition of hate crimes

How do you think it improved?

It may take more imagination than the average voter possesses, but consider for a moment the imaginary McCain or Mitt Romney administrations. That exercise in itself helps to clarify the areas of improvement. What Obama's time in office did not do was fix any of the structural problems besetting the USA. The furthest he got was the ACA, Dodd-Frank bank regulation, and the Consumer Finance Protection Agency. Considering the magnitude of the problems, these were minimal tweaks. Congress bears at least half of the blame for that timidity.

"The furthest he got was the ACA, Dodd-Frank bank regulation, and the Consumer Finance Protection Agency." those seem pretty significant to me

the stabilization of a global financial crisis and rescuing of the economy.

Restoration of our sense of well-being and security.

Iran nuclear deal and commitment to work on climate change.

(If we're throwing in foreign policy accomplishments, then you should account for drone striking weddings and extrajudicial killings of American citizens.)

Household income increased steadily in his administration after the republican 2008 recession,

You seem to be confusing "Obama bad" and "Obama didn't do anything" with what I'm saying. You started out expressing a lack of understanding about how we transitioned seamlessly from "the experience of Obama" to Trump - this is how. Someone who hasn't had a vacation in ten years doesn't give a damn about him nailing down the Iran nuclear deal. Someone who's moving every year to a progressively shittier studio apartment because rents are spiking doesn't care that he finally got on board with same-sex marriage when it was politically convenient. If your racist PD is buying excess mortars from Obama's DOD, you're not getting the warm fuzzies about net neutrality.

You can blame all of that on Republicans, that's mostly fair. 'He's just one man' and all that. Also doesn't matter. As the party that can't elect dogcatchers without the support of Black voters, Latinx voters, Asian voters, impoverished, working-class and lower-middle class voters, it is incumbent on the Democrats to improve their lives in meaningful ways if they want to win elections (and also because there's no reason for the party to exist if they don't). Getting the poverty rate almost back to 2006 levels after eight years in office doesn't really do that, does it? Why didn't Democrats pass card check before the 2010 midterms? How much did paid time off increase for workers between 2009 and 2016? A quarter of the country still gets zero, AFAIK.

(I've not suggested that this changed the 2016 election by turning voters from Obama to Trump - the bigger issue is that when potential voters don't see hope for a better life, they stay home.)

The rest you list go into 'accomplishments' (sort of - "protected DREAMers" should come with the world's largest asterisk given his deportation record), but most are not things that made a material difference in many peoples' lives.

those seem pretty significant to me

They are not negligible. Millions of people got pulled into Medicaid and millions more should have been covered, except for shithead Republican governors and legislatures. But the structural problems in US society are much, much bigger issues and these barely touched them. A democracy theoretically ought to be the best equipped to address these kinds of needs. Instead, we are rapidly becoming an unstable kleptocracy.

Obama did little to nothing for me and many people I know, and I'd wager that about 60% of us have a college degree, and some have advanced degrees, myself included.

All I witnessed was the expansion of a security state, ICE, drone bombings, increases in rent and thus homelessness, etc.

I lived out of my car and then out of a van for part of this time period, and not because of some cute shit for Instagram. I had an Obama phone and got food stamps and couldn't get anything more than a part time retail job no matter how many other places I applied to.

Milo has got it right. Many people saw no material improvement in their lives during the Obama administrations, and speaking for myself here, it is only middle and upper class liberals who view him in a positive light.

I didn't vote for him a second time because I didn't vote, and I didn't vote for Hillary because why would I vote for her, I lived in California and she is the embodiment of everything wrong with the Democratic party. Period.

All that said, will I vote this year? Yes. Will I vote for Biden? Yes. And I will be fucking angry about it, as everyone with a conscience should be.

Also I am drunk, excuse the puerile nature of anything I write above.

ppl who typically skim milo's posts on the grounds that he is usually otm but annoyingly shrill should have it pointed out that he has been booming ittt

This is what he is running on.

You won't have to worry about my tweets when I'm president.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 30, 2020

how does he expect us to read that

"Y'all can go back to sleep, libs"

milo otm.

The ACA and the accompanying increased rate of Americans with health insurance is one inarguable advancement by Obama.

For nearly all other purposes, the top 1% did fantastic under Obama's 8 years and the bottom 99% did from "ok" to "fucked" during that same time.

Comparing Obama's 8 years to GWB's 8 years or a hypothetical 8-year McCain presidency as justification for why people were better off is just as spurious as comparing Obama's actual 8 years to a hypothetical progressive Obama presidency that did not materialize.

milo most def otm.

That means it won't be Harris. https://t.co/igkdYlqiEU

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) July 30, 2020

some "future"

what an idiot

lmao what the fuck is this pic.twitter.com/nbPUTm0aLq

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) July 31, 2020

It should be like a PBS pledge drive coffee cup, your body heat changes the picture to Old Biden

Bidey Joe Young

Saw a yard sign today that was in the visual style of the Biden campaign logo but it was spelled BYE DON.

Not a game-changer but decently clever

I'm now humming "Young Joe Biden" to the tune of "Old Man Lazrus"

"Tom Sawyer" for me.

yeah i'm feeling like the time has passed for a harris pick. i .. think it might be warren. just a tgif feeling

like maybe the dnc platform got a little more pushback than expected and now they have to do a more "lefty" thing. idk. i'm tired

i'm feeling like the time has passed for a harris pick

I'm guessing no veep pick will be announced until after the convention has started and not leaking the news is among the campaign's highest priorities. It is literally the only event guaranteed to draw the attention of the public to what's going on there.

Also, I hope some top people in the Biden campaign have a good grip on the difference between writing a speech to be delivered before a crowd of 10,000 and one to be delivered on a set, facing just a camera. The veep speech and Biden speech are the best tools the campaign will have to break through the fog of non-stop Trump nonsense.

and one to be delivered on a set, facing just a camera

IIRC you're supposed to awkwardly drink from a bottle of water while staring at the camera

read a couple more karen bass profiles and she's definitely my #2 choice now.

which profiles convinced you?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/31/karen-bass-vp-candidate-los-angeles-388430
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-karen-bass-fought-for-blacks-and-latinos-in-south-los-angeles-now-shes-on-bidens-vp-shortlist/2020/07/31/6d224a58-d1d3-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html

she's my congresswoman btw, but only since last year, so i've never met her or really learned much about her until the last month or two

thx!

all the possibilties are unpopular with allegedly essential constituencies (cuban americans in karen bass's case). other than warren (who is my #1 btw), i'm not sure any of those worries rise to the level of taking a material risk on the outcome of the general election though.

and given that none of the candidates are perfect, i like that bass seems to be the least likely to run for president.

allegedly essential constituencies (cuban americans in karen bass's case)

So Bass might make it harder for Biden to poach a reliably Republican voting bloc? I don't think this is a real problem (as in it has no chance of happening, VP pick or no VP pick).

condolences for El Jefe vs standing O for Trump

According to Lord Alfred, the reliably republican Cuban American voting bloc appears to be losing progressively minded younger Cuban Americans.

it wouldn't cost votes in any other state, i don't think it would cost enough votes to make a difference to florida unless things tighten considerably (biden is up 6% right now), and the democrats don't need to win florida. it's bullshit, but it's literally the only thing we know about in her oppo file, so you see it mentioned in every article.

According to Lord Alfred, the reliably republican Cuban American voting bloc appears to be losing progressively minded younger Cuban Americans.

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Friday, July 31, 2020

Miami-Dade is deeply, reliably blue; the geriatric Cubans just tend to be louder.

the people running this clownshow and trashing your favs through the press are the people Democrats decided to put in charge. this is what the administration is gonna look like! it's Chris Dodds all the way down! https://t.co/YIpH0feIiW

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) July 31, 2020

so

Uhhhh pic.twitter.com/LzWO259BNw

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) July 31, 2020

was into her too but ummm

lol angeles

A willingness to flatter a specific bloc of voters is trad politics, especially when your whole live audience is made of that bloc; that is different from endorsing Scientology. Still, this was not the best of judgment in the internet age. Everything gets videoed and it will come back to bite you.

sweet milkshake duck, caek

generally nagl to flatter a “bloc” known for abducting/abusing/stalking

considering how many of SoCal's electeds have directly or indirectly validated the church, and how many of those same electeds on both sides of the aisle have turned a blind eye to the decades of abuses perpetuated against South Central, this feels ... off https://t.co/KubQGsRIdu pic.twitter.com/jQRY87oslF

— sahra (@sahrasulaiman) July 31, 2020

nagl to flatter a “bloc” known for abducting/abusing/stalking

but her live audience didn't view themselves that way and they have both money and votes which are up for grabs. this used to be how every pol worked a campaign, saying whatever was tailored to the people sitting in front of them. that was before ubiquitous video/audio recording and instant mass dissemination by anyone anywhere to billions of people. now everyone can look at your nagl. she should have known better than to trawl in those waters.