Feuding among Biden, Booker and Harris is unpredictable force in diversifying Democratic Party

[bluewater]

Feuding among Biden, Booker and Harris is unpredictable force in diversifying Democratic Party
By Matt Viser and Chelsea Janes July 25th


As the fight to become the nominee of an increasingly diverse Democratic Party roars toward a second debate, Joe Biden has repeatedly found himself in bitter conflicts with the two most prominent black presidential candidates, Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kamala D. Harris (Calif.).

Their progressively ­high-profile battling carries risks for all parties involved, with Biden growing far more defiant in his responses, and Booker and Harris making more explicit overtures to black voters as a way to loosen the former vice president’s grip on a bloc that has kept him atop the polls.

The dispute marks a critical chapter in the fight for the soul of a party that was most recently guided by the nation’s first black president — and whose vice president is trying to ride some of that lasting goodwill — but the debate now is becoming more raw, less predictable, and with potentially perilous fault lines for both sides.

It will play out more prominently next week on the debate stage, with Biden standing between Harris and Booker for two hours with the potential of condensing weeks of criticism.
[snip]

The simmering debate — playing out amid the most diverse presidential field in history — contrasts with Barack Obama’s campaigns, which largely downplayed the history-busting nature of his candidacy. A University of Pennsylvania study found that Obama spoke less about race than any other Democrat in the first two years of his presidency since John F. Kennedy in the 1960s.

This year, the presidential contest has brimmed with issues touching on race, including economic plans tailored to black Americans, proposals meant to improve black maternal health and potential reparations for descendants of slaves.

“Racism was like the third rail of politics. It was something Democrats did not touch,” said Cornell Belcher, a Democratic strategist and former Obama pollster. “A decade ago, you didn’t hear any Democrat talking about systemic racism. You didn’t hear any Democrat using terms like ‘institutional racism.’ You do today. Almost every Democrat running for office is talking about the issue of systemic racism.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pre-debate-sparring-between-booker-and-biden-camps-spills-into-another-day/2019/07/25/52932134-aee4-11e9-8e77-03b30bc29f64_story.html?utm_term=.7b4598425e58

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. This is what Trump wants and he will run with it....

So knock it off Corey Booker and Kamala Harris.

State your differences and then go after Trump.

[elleng]

2. I agree.

[highplainsdem]

3. The evidence from polls so far is that Harris and Booker are failing if their goal is to diminish

Biden's support among black voters. Harris got a bump from the last debate but it's disappearing, and Biden still has much, much more support from black voters than she has. And Booker's support from black voters is in the single digits, the low single digits, in the polls I recall.

They should be trying to attract black voters by talking about what they've done. Not by smearing Biden and misrepresemting his record, which is probably backfiring and hurting them with the black voters who know what they're saying is wrong, and who don't like to see candidates trying to destroy the front-runner with nasty attacks.

[Thekaspervote]

6. Agree...as so many AA leaders have said- John Lewis following the last debate

“I know racism when I see it, and Joe Biden is not a racist.”

[wardga]

4. Too many Dem running for President

We have to many Democrats running for president.

[DesertRat]

9. Hi wardga. Welcome to DU!

[irisblue]

11. Wardga, I wish that some of them ran for the Senate instead

Welcome to DU

[Thekaspervote]

5. See Eugene Robinson's article. A much more seasoned writer

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287212861

[msongs]

7. hmm harris and booker are attacking biden. not sure how that is feuding on joe's part nt

[emulatorloo]

8. I think the WAPO authors are mad because Biden plans to defend himself and his record

rather than just lie down and take it.