Page 35 - Electability Argument News Today

Really curious to see which one of those competing visions go more towards. >> this has been the news that we have been focused on. whats your sense of how, you know, whether these numbers that show potentially other democrats besides so biden could beat donald trump. is that bad news for joe biden? >> reporter: well, it certainly cuts into his main armtd that he is the candidate who can go toe to go with trump exclusively and win. and so i think that what were seeing, though, in terms of how th...

Seem to be talking substance and then making the electability argument. and so it seems that the biden -- but obviously other democratic campaigns have to make a larger case because they dont have the kind of name idea that joe biden has as a former vice president. i will say that your panel makes a great point about the idea of trump needing to put something positive into the messaging stream. but when i was out with him on the campaign trail in 2015 and 2016, it wasnt a positive spin on heres ...

His read of the room was that the democrats who went after joe biden actually hurt because of that. that the room turned against them when they went after joe biden. we also saw yesterday the president playing into the bide b campai n campaign strategy. the presidents attacks on biden only elevated joe biden when his campaigns primary focus has been about his electability argument. what we did see yesterday in the three events joe biden did yesterday is his strongest event, perhaps, was the last...

I wonder if that kind of spirit is existing in todays democratic party, where this might look a bit jumbled, bidens in front, hes not a 50%, anything like that, but its there for anybody to win one and the party to kind of unite. >> and the one thing -- joe bidens done two things really well. he has made the electability argument very well. for the last couple of years, every person i spoke to said, we just need somebody that can take the fight to trump. and thats exactly what biden has done fro...

Iowa and elsewhere. you try to get a sense of whether people currently supporting joe biden are doing so with enthusiasm or because of inertia because they feel hes someone they know and they feel he can defeat donald trump. a lot of people still fall in that category. >> they havent seen a lot of him yet. theyll be out there the same day as president trump. david, there is something interesting about what we heard from the three other candidates. they are talking about joe bidens politics and h...

Weakened going into the general elections and why she wasnt able to get it over the finish line against donald trump. thats one argument. listen, you want to have a nominee, whoever it is, somebody who has fought a lot of battles, fought a lot of fights with different wings of the party and emerged ahead, and certainly thats what we see from biden at this point. everyone attacking him, primarily from the left, essentially saying this sort of small change isnt in order. its big change, big challe...

Aggressively, and to the extent are also trying to counter the that, you know, what they have argued over the last several electability argument which is days that that worked, that the bidens strongest argument if threat of tariffs worked to that you talk to voters because they effect, but my reporting so badly want to beat trump suggests that nothing in the saying just because hes agreement on friday truly expands beyond what they had perceived as -- as being in the already agreed to, and, you...

Remember this as well. hillary clinton in the same period of her campaign. the end of 2014 to 2015 when she announced. she started out plus 21. she was minus 4. you saw something similar. bidens unfavorable. not as high as hillary. but its not that far off right now. this is the thing to watch. as theres more media scrutiny. to his numbers, move into that same clinton territory, if they do there goes that electability argument. if they dont, maybe that argument is enhanced. coming up next, 2020 ...

Moderates. so when you look at the head to head numbers, and hes doing so well against president trump. that helps fulfill the prophecy for him that hes looking for that hes the best candidate to take on donald trump and the democrats top priority is, looking for the best candidate to take on donald trump. so that -- >> you know what? ive been thinking about that. to the extent that remains the case, thats great news for biden. im remembering with rudy giuliani. the moderate democrats could like...

If cheating joe becomes a donald trump twitter nickname -- >> it hits at the electability argument. joe biden is the safe harbor, isnt the risk. now theyre like do they run a sloppy campaign? that, to me, is the danger of this story, it actually introduces the idea what if he is not the most stable electable candidate? what if theyve got a theyre not ready for this? >> in this field theyve seen the trend where success begets success. if you appear to be doing poorly, your numbers slide. its so f...