A preview of Biden 2020
by Emily Jashinsky
| September 06, 2018 10:11 AM
With far-left candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the rise, some Democrats are probably hoping Joe Biden's brand of center-left populism will make a comeback. The best way to do that is nominate Joe Biden.
Though Biden has yet to make a decision on that front, he's campaigned on behalf of several midterm candidates in recent weeks. At a rally in New Jersey on Wednesday, Biden declined to mentioned President Trump by name, but slammed "raw, naked nationalism" and "phony populism," according to an account in NBC News.
The speech, which depicted Republicans as protectors of corporations and wealthy individuals, could well be a preview of coming attractions should Biden make a run in 2020. "Our single greatest objective … is to re-establish and broaden the middle class," he reportedly said, focusing on the Affordable Care Act and "labor rights," per NBC.
Biden, whose speech included "odes to the shoe shiners and sandwich makers of America," according to the NBC report, also brought up the Republican tax cut legislation passed last year, "warning about potential Republican moves to restructure Social Security or Medicare to offset the more than $1 trillion the GOP tax cuts are projected to add to budget deficits over a decade."
Biden isn't exactly a centrist, but he's also not Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. For Democrats, nominating Biden could have the appeal of killing two birds with one stone — slowing the party's rapid drift leftward, and recapturing some appeal with the blue collar voters Trump was able to sway. The question would be whether that leftward drift has already swept away any chance for Biden to succeed in the primaries.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/a-preview-of-joe-biden-2020
