The Surge: Elizabeth Warren Achieves Liftoff

3. Joe Biden

He said something he shouldn’t have, again.

The front-runner is currently experiencing his worst crisis since announcing his campaign in April (and second-worst since the inappropriate touching accusations that came out just before). At a fundraiser in New York earlier this week, Biden harkened back to his early years in the ’70s when the Senate still had unreconstructed segregationist senators, but “at least there was some civility. We got things done.” Progressives, along with aforementioned lower-polling candidates looking to catch a break, hammered Biden for the walk down memory lane, suggesting he shouldn’t be touting his interpersonal relationships with some of history’s greatest monsters. Biden has refused to apologize, saying that his point was merely that it’s important to forge consensus where possible even with the worst sorts of people. Though this is an ongoing media mess for Biden that he’d do well to put behind him, we’re not sure yet it will make any difference in his polling. Older Democrats, his strongest demographic, have previously dismissed what younger progressives and the media viewed as five-alarm outrages, and a lot of voters enjoy happy talk about the good old days of “gettin’ stuff done,” even with white supremacists. In the long run, though, if Biden’s mouth keeps running loosely—a very good bet—it could accumulate into a serious dent in his chief asset as a candidate: perceived electability. If that perception dissipates, then so does Joe Biden.

from Slate Magazine http://bit.ly/31R6Zkb
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