Joe Biden: Candidacy and Overview

Joe Biden is the current frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic Nomination for the U.S. Presidency. He is a moderate with over 40 years of political experience. He, alongside Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, has a substantial lead over the rest of the Democratic field. Here is a careful look on Joe Biden as a candidate and why you may or may not want to support him.

Advantages

Joe Biden is politically moderate and is able to sound authentic and genuine to voters which gives him a broad appeal across the American electorate. As a political moderate he could potentially appeal to swing voters, conservative leaning independents and moderate Republicans who are not satisfied with President Trump. His authenticity can help him appeal the voters who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016.

His policy views also align closer to that of the general public than some of his more liberal competitors. He supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, free trade, campaign finance reform, universal background checks, criminal justice reform, and higher taxes on the wealthy, among many other things. These are all policies that are popular with the American electorate as well as Democrats.

Biden also has more experience than anyone else in the field including serving nearly 40 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as Vice President under President Barack Obama.

Disadvantages

The Democratic Party over the past few years has been moving to the left and many voters, especially younger ones, feel that Biden is too moderate and too “establishment”.

Additionally many of his previous views and votes directly contradict those of modern democrats. Including his support for the 1994 crime bill, his support for the anti-busing movement in the 1970s, his vote in favor of the Iraq war in 2002, and his support of some anti-abortion policies.

Young people vote in notoriously low numbers, and if they are not excited about the Democratic candidate, they may be less likely to vote. As young people are significantly more liberal than their older counterparts so a low voter turnout would disproportionately harm Democrats.

There are also concerns about his age. Biden will be 78 years old when he takes office in 2020 and 82 years old at the end of his first term. He would be 86 years old if he, like most American Presidents, ran for a second term in 2024. He has come under more scrutiny than the other older candidates because he keeps responding to questions with long rambling, incoherent answers making errors on the campaign trail. This has lead many people to question his ability to perform the highly taxing job of the U.S. Presidency.

Will he win?

According to polls Joe Biden is currently the frontrunner to win both the Democratic nomination and general election. Most polls have shown him with moderate leads over his closest competitors Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Democrats care more about perceived electability than any other characteristic while choosing their nominee this election cycle. This benefits Biden who has largely run on the premises that he has the highest chance of beating President Trump and currently does the best in polls against him.

Not all is looking good for him, though. Elizabeth Warren and to a lesser extent Bernie Sanders have been rising in the polls over the past few months while Biden’s support has been trending downward. And they are leading or even with him in several of the key early states, notably Iowa and New Hampshire.

Additionally, as Biden continues to make gaffes, some of his supporters may begin to question if he is the most electable.

According to polls if the Democratic field were to shrink to a three candidate race, Warren and Sanders would benefit significantly more than Biden, which does not bode well for him in the future.

At the moment the betting markets places Biden in second place for winning the nomination followed by Elizabeth Warren.

Stay tuned for follow up articles exploring the canidency’s of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.