By Dan Murphy
The announcement that was a forgone conclusion for months, that former Vice President Joe Biden will announce his candidacy for president, finally happened last week in a videotaped message. Biden, who has run for president two times before, has never received the full support of Westchester County democrats, who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008 and former Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1988.
The real question for Biden, or any of the 20 democratic presidential candidates, is: Can they take away votes from Trump, and can they do it in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio? Out of all the announced democratic presidential hopefuls, Biden is the one candidate that still can interest the old Regan Democrats, and even a few Conservatives along the way.
Two examples of Trump votes and supporters who will give “Uncle Joe” a good look are WVOX 1460 AM Chairman Bill O’Shaughnessy, and my wife. O’Shaughnessy recently penned an editorial in response to a nasty column written by Peggy Noonan. I never thought those four words, nasty column and Peggy Noonan, would every go together, but she recently penned an editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled, “If Biden Runs, They’ll Tear Him Up.”
O’Shaughnessy writes: “This Peggy Noonan column in the Wall Street Journal and the Post is so sad. It could be the final takedown of a very decent guy. I hope not. There’s a shrillness and outright nastiness to many/most of the other Democratic aspirants. I’m probably for the president against all comers. But Biden and/or Andrew would give me pause… and at least make me think about it.
“My forebearers are from around Scranton. And Andrew is a son of Mario Cuomo. I hope Joe Biden doesn’t let the loonies – or the press, even someone we love like Peggy Noonan – yearning for the excitement of something new, drive him out. He’s a politician the way the folks of our father’s time imagined them to be. And that ain’t too bad,” wrote O’Shaughnessy.
Noonan wrote, in part: “The old Democratic Party was warm, like him. The new one rising is colder, less human and divisive. Don’t do it, Joe. Don’t run for president. It won’t work, you won’t get the nomination, your loss will cause pain and not only for you.
“Democratic operatives do not fear you will win the nomination – they think you’re too old, your time has passed, you’re not where the energy of the base is, or the money. But they do not want you taking up oxygen the next six to 10 months as you sink in the polls. And they don’t want you swooping in to claim the middle lane. Others already have a stake there or mean to.
“In the past you were never really slimed and reviled by your party; you were mostly teased and patronized. But if you get in the race this time, it will be different. They will show none of the old respect for you, your vice presidency or your past fealty to the cause. And you are in the habit of receiving respect. Soon the topic will turn, in depth, to Anita Hill, the Clinton crime bill, your friendliness to big business. You have opposed partial-birth abortion. Also, the old plagiarism video will come back and be dissected. It was more than 30 years ago, and for a lot of reporters and voters it will be a riveting story, and brand new.
“You backed the Iraq war. That question will be resurrected… and thrown in your face. The current Democratic Party is different from the one you entered in the late 1960s. Today’s rising young Democrats see no honor in accommodation, little virtue in collegiality.
“In the old party of classic 20th-century Democratic liberalism, they wanted everyone to rise. Those who suffered impediments – minorities, women, working people trying to unionize – would be given a boost. There’s plenty to go around; America’s a rich country, let the government get in and help.
“The mood of the rising quadrants of the new party is more pinched – more abstractedly aggrieved, more theoretical. Less human. Now there’s a mood not of ‘everyone can rise’ but of ‘some must be taken down.’ White people in general, and white males in particular, are guilty of intractable privilege. It’s bitter, resentful, divisive.
“Your very strength – that you enjoy talking to both sides, that deep in your heart you see no one as deplorable – will be your weakness. You aren’t enough of a warrior. You’re sweet, you’re weak, you’re half-daffy. You’re meh.
“It would be one thing if you wanted to enter the race to persuade the party on the merits of more-centrist approaches and working with the other side. But is that your intention? You’ve been apologizing for calling Mike Pence decent, and groveling over your ‘white man’s culture.”’ If you go with that flow, it will wash you away.
“It is hard for the political personality to say no – to more fame, more power, more love. To the history books. It is hard for a man who’s always seen a president when he looked in the mirror to admit he’s an almost-president. It’s hard to get out of the habit of importance.
“But you’ll never be unimportant. You’ll be Joe Biden, a liberal lion of the U.S. Senate at the turn of century… So don’t do it. Wisdom here dictates an Irish goodbye – a quiet departure, out the back door with a wave and a tip of the hat to whoever might be watching,” wrote Noonan.
Like Bill O’Shaughnessy, my wife, who we will simply call Mrs. Murphy, is also a proud Trump supporter. She is also a Christian-Conservative and will likely vote for Trump again in 2020 (if Trump does, actually run for re-election – I have predicted that he will not run).
But when asked what democratic candidate would give her pause, Mrs. Murphy says quickly, Joe Biden. That answer, and Mr. O’s answer, should give Trump supporters pause, and why the Trump campaign immediately dispatched resources to Pennsylvania – Scranton, Penn., is where Biden was born.
The progressive wing of the democratic party wants him to apologize to Anita Hill for his role in the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearing of 1988.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who is also running for president, said: “I think she (Hillary Clinton) was treated terribly. Joe Biden is a mentor and a friend of mine, he’s a great American; everybody makes mistakes, I do think that was a mistake though and I think he should apologize.” Biden did call Clinton, but she later said it wasn’t an apology and wasn’t enough.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham had nice things to say about his former Senate colleague. “Here’s the problem for Joe: Does he fit into the Democratic Party of 2020? I don’t know. He’s a good man, I like him a lot; I disagree with him on policy. I hope he doesn’t apologize for the life he’s led because he’s led a good life.”
Biden, who raised $6.3 million on the first day of his campaign, has name recognition and ties to President Barrack Obama (even if Obama didn’t endorse him… yet), and that connection gives him an early lead in South Carolina, an early democratic primary state, and in the South, where African-Americans make up a large part of the democratic enrollment
Biden can also contrast well to his progressive democratic presidential contenders, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently suggested that all Americans, even convicted felons in prison, should have the right to vote.
Sen. Kamala Harris said that Bernie’s idea, and that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s suggestion to pay reparations to African-Americans for slavery, should be “part of a conversation.” Add to these ideas the new Green Deal, Medicare for all, free college tuition, and Biden could appear as the voice of reason in the democratic party.
Republican political commentator George Will did the presidential math regarding 2016 and 2020. “However, first things first: Who is most likely to reacquire the decisive real estate lost in 2016 by a total of 77,744 votes – Wisconsin (22,748), Michigan (10,704) and Pennsylvania (44,292) – out of 13,940,912 votes cast in those states, which have 10, 16 and 20 electoral votes, respectively? Biden, who last lived in Pennsylvania more than half a century ago, has almost worn out the ‘I am Joe from Scranton’ pedal on the organ, but his connection – Delaware is contiguous to Pennsylvania – might be enough to win Pennsylvania, where Trump’s victory margin was 0.7 percent,” wrote Will.
America loves a comeback and Uncle Joe is back for one more run at the presidency. Biden also has an American story to tell. His father lost it all and he grew up poor. He lost his first wife and daughter in a horrible auto accident many years ago, and lost his son Beau only a few years ago to cancer. This makes Biden an “everyman” because of his suffering – that great equalizer.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo supports Biden for president. “I think he has the best chance of defeating President Trump, which I think is the main goal here,” Cuomo told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “He has the experience, he has the background, he has the talent; I think he has the personality for the moment and I think he can unify the Democratic Party.
Very seldomly do you see a political analysis from Fox News, or MSNBC, about the 25 percent of American independent voters caught in the middle of our hyper-partisan political discourse. Or about finding a candidate, either democrat or republican, that can appeal to the other side of the aisle and swing a couple of thousand votes to their side.
O’Shaughnessy and Mrs. Murphy just told you that Biden is that kind of candidate. Apologies to Noonan, we loved your speeches for President Reagan but your cynicism in your latest op-ed does not equate with the lofty goals you wrote about our country in the 1980s.
Let’s give Uncle Joe a chance and welcome him back to the dinner table.
