Reuters: Biden steadies ship while setting up impending clash with Warren

[highplainsdem]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-debate-analysis/biden-steadies-ship-while-setting-up-impending-clash-with-warren-idUSKCN1UR3MH

After two sets of Democratic presidential debates, it appears that Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, at least at the moment, are two high-speed trains on a collision course.

Biden, the former vice president, likely did enough at Wednesday’s debate in Detroit to ease concerns among supporters that his front-runner status was in immediate danger after his underwhelming performance in the first debate in June.

This time around, he mounted a more combative defense of his centrist candidacy, defending his long record in government and his work with former President Barack Obama, who remains immensely popular with Democrats more than two years since leaving office.

-snip-

Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, said Biden was effective in defending against attacks by Harris and others on Obama’s signature healthcare achievement, the Affordable Care Act, and other parts of the Obama administration’s record. “That seems to be a comfortable place to be,” Kondik said.

Kondik said some pundits had been premature in declaring Warren’s and Sanders’ supremacy over the moderates of the party after Tuesday’s debate. “That ignored the fact that Biden wasn’t on stage and is the clear polling leader at this point.”

-snip-

The article quotes Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who worked for HRC, pointing out the "stark choice" voters have between Biden and the Sanders/Warren wing.

The article goes on to say it remains to be seen just what that division means for candidates like Harris, Buttigieg and Booker who are trying to straddle the middle ground between those poles. He thought Harris seemed to be struggling at times last night "reconciling her progressive policy stances with her record as California’s attorney general" and that she may have lost momentum. He points out that Booker "preached party unity, but then attacked Biden," and that Buttigieg seems to have leveled off in the polls despite his skills at fundraising and debating.

Oliphant again quotes Payne saying that the more outrageous Trump is, the more likely Democrats are to emphasize electablity over progressive reforms. Payne says many Democratic voters will continue to lean on Biden "as long as they view Donald Trump as the existential threat."

[CentralMass]

1. I wouldn't be too quick in writing Sanders out of the picture .

[emmaverybo]

4. The article and the strategist did not count Sanders out. He is second to Biden in the polls with

Warren very close behind. The article, however, sees Sanders and Warren as the progressive wing’s
standard bearers, and rightly points out that Biden represents the more moderate approach, and thus this might explain why he is seen for now as more electable in the GE.

However, the takeaway is that we can not yet know whether Sanders and Warren are “winning”
in terms of debate until we see both of them, or at least one at a time, on stage with Biden. That
seems fair.

[Trenzalore]

15. Bernie has a ceiling

Everyone knows who he is.

[CentralMass]

16. Only time will tell.

[elleng]

2. I didn't know there is/was a Sanders/Warren wing.

[highplainsdem]

6. They've been divvying up about 30% of Dems polled for months. The main change is that Warren

now gets more of that bloc thna Sanders gets.

It's sometimes called the Sanders/Warren wing and sometimes called the Warren/Sanders wing.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article148160379.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/warren-sanders-wing-comes-short-n1037076

[CentralMass]

8. RelarClear Politics averages would indicat that Sander & Warren are tied.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html

I'm not a sycophantic supporter that is going to light my hair on fire over an election. howver I want to make the point that Sanders recieved votes from more then 13,000,000 people in 2016 and those who I know or have met are very solid liberal or progressive Democrats. I reject the the hatred from the Sanders haters,

Reagrding Senator Warren, I am a big fan, I have a photo on my phone of my oldest daughter and Senator Warren shoulder to shoulder in her senate office in D.C..

[highplainsdem]

10. You're right, and in fact today he's two points ahead. She ws 2 points ahead a couple of weeks ago,

and when I posted the message you're replying to I was thinking of an Economist/YouGov poll I posted yesterday that had Warren at 18% and Sanders at 13%. She's been ahead in a few other polls, but you're right that lately, on average, they're tied.

[CentralMass]

7. I believe that there is, While they have different approaches and philosphies they are both IMO

the best two candiates in the race when it comes to fighting for the middle and poor classes. They have a vison of a governemnt and an economy that that works for everyone and puts people first,

While I moved at the begining of 2015 I spent my first 54 years in MA and voted for Elizabeth Warren. I also always follwed bernie Sanders from nearby Vermont.

So while my atraction to both canidates might be parochial, I think that they share a similar philosphy, one that I feel is the best way to move the country forward,

[Cha]

3. ".. . He points out that Booker "preached party unity, but then attacked Biden,"

Kinda like Harris said.. ".. Voters don't want a food fight.. " right before she threw a plate full of Spaghetti at Biden"?

Thank you for the article and further explanations, hpd

[MFGsunny]

9. +100000 n/t

[highplainsdem]

12. Very good point, Cha! What Harris and Booker did was very similar.

[Cha]

14. Weird!

[silentEcho]

5. Warren needs to emphasize she is not connected to Sanders or his wing. Sanders people

did a major push to align/ride her coattails after the debate Tuesday night. She needs to detach.

[jcgoldie]

13. As a strong Warren supporter, the key difference for me is ...

...Sanders has baggage from how he handled 2016 after it was clear he could not win the nomination. I'm not trying to re-litigate that issue which is against the rules here anyway, but I do feel that a lot of Democratic primary voters like me have not and probably will not forget or forgive that. As close as he may be to Warren in terms of policy on many issues and as fiery and authentic as he may perform in debates, she is at the top of my list of candidates I am choosing between for my primary vote and he is near the bottom.

[SouthernProgressive]

11. That battle is the real deal. NT