Joe Biden's 2020 Rivals Sense Blood in the Water

[bluewater]

MIAMI, Florida—There is blood in the water and the campaigns know it.
For weeks, Democrats involved in the primary have privately warned that Joe Biden was a paper tiger—a frontrunner, for sure, but one with clear vulnerabilities and a defensive campaign approach. On Thursday night, in front of the largest primary audience thus far, they found their vindication.

The second night of a back-to-back debate in South Florida, the first of a dozen, featured four of the five top-polling candidates in the sprawling 2020 field. But it was a five-minute exchange between Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the only African-American candidate onstage, and Biden that changed the tenor of the two-hour broadcast and perhaps the course of the primary itself.
Harris’ blistering and personal critique of Biden’s position on school-desegregation busing in the 1970s placed the former Veep on the defensive. It also put the biggest dent yet into his greatest political asset: the aura of electability and inevitability that he has tried to build during his time on the trail. In the hours that followed, the other campaigns in the race rushed in to make the point that the man many perceive to be best equipped to defeat President Donald Trump was, in fact, not so formidable.
[snip]

Even those more ideologically predisposed to rush to Biden’s defense acknowledged on Friday that the evening had been a let down.
“It wasn’t good,” said Matt Bennett, Vice President for Public Affairs and a co-founder of centrist-Democratic think tank Third Way. “He seemed unprepared—it reminded me of Obama’s first debate with Romney. And my guess is that it was the same dynamic—a very experienced guy semi-ignores the prep thinking he is ready, and he’s not. He can certainly recover from this, and I expect that he will, but it’s going to take some work.”
[snip]

Statistically, the damage that Biden’s candidacy endured on Thursday night is hard to quantify, in large part because the data is not complete. But preliminary surveys show a complicated picture. Data compiled by the Democratic polling firm Democracy Corps showed Biden’s favorability with African-American voters actually going up a net 18 percent after the debate. Stan Greenberg, the longtime party pollster, chalked much of that improvement up to defensiveness over the perception that the attacks on Biden were attacks on the Obama-Biden legacy. But the same survey also showed that the percentage of people who would vote for Biden and consider voting for him went down 11 points from 81 percent to 72 percent.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/other-candidates-sense-blood-in-the-water-around-joe-biden-after-democratic-debate

[democratisphere]

1. Blood in the water.

So much drama. Get real!

[onecaliberal]

2. This walks right up to the line of right wing talking point IMO.

[George II]

4. Almost to the point of tripping over it.

[bluewater]

6. Daily Beast is rated solidly LEFT of center by several sources.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-beast/

https://www.allsides.com/news-source/daily-beast-media-bias

[George II]

3. Oh my......

[Honeycombe8]

5. Seems like a reflection on his more mild-mannered approach than he is normally.

And somewhat not prepared. Then again, his numbers were high enough that they had only one way to go: down. I and I'm sure others expected his numbers to start going down, as people became more familiar with the other candidates.

Time will tell. One debate doesn't make or break a candidate, unless he says something really off the wall.

[blm]

7. Another in your series of Dem-dividing posts.

Who do you REALLY support, because I don’t know any Warren supporters as keenly focused on divisive articles. Not here.

[UniteFightBack]

8. Thank you. nt

[tishaLA]

9. FFS it was one debate

Every candidate will have good and bad ones.

[crazytown]

10. Biden's favorability with African-American voters actually going up a net 18 percent

Both Cory and Kamala need a respectable showing in SC. The jury's out as to whether Kamala advanced with the voters she needs.

[bluewater]

11. IKR

That is in the OP article. I made sure to leave that in what was posted here.

[crazytown]

12. Yes, I was drawing out the implications.

SC will be the signpost for Super Tuesday.

[bluewater]

13. SC holds the fate of 2 campaigns

Biden's and Harris'.

Biden has the lion's share of the African-American vote at the moment, the question is can Harris earn that away from him.