Will Bunch: A Biden coalition is (barely) saving democracy. POTUS 46 must run again in '24.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/president-biden-midterms-2024-candidate-20221113.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/UE3XI

It was with nearly 40 years of cynicism built up from covering American politics corroding my arteries that I trudged down to Philadelphia’s Eakins Oval on the sun-soaked afternoon of May 18, 2019, to watch Joe Biden announce his third — and probably final, in my hardened viewpoint — run for the presidency.

An opinion journalist who’d watched Biden’s two prior White House bids crash and burn in Hindenburg-like fashion — my opinion was that Biden, who was then 76, was hogging a torch that Democrats ought to be passing to a new generation. The column I wrote that night had a tone of surprise at some of the young attendees who didn’t agree with a perceived centrist on every issue, but saw Biden as the surest way to rid America of Donald Trump.

When a 30-year-old Christian Perez from Hunting Park told me three years ago that voters craved electability and that “people just want some familiarity,” and when he was echoed by a 22-year-old newly minted Temple grad, Yasmine Hamou, who told that as a Black woman she was attracted by Biden’s appeal to voters who didn’t look like her, I should have realized I was there for the start of something truly historic in American politics.

This was the birthdate of what we needed to start calling “the Biden coalition.” They are the less-noisy majority of Americans who believe in counting the votes, in decency, in expanding civil rights instead of curtailing them, and — corny as it sounds to some of the Beltway pundits — in democracy. From college campus to leaf-blown suburbs, from predominantly Black city neighborhoods to Indigenous reservations, these voters proved just enough to rescue America from a disastrous Trump second term in 2020 — and they did it again in Tuesday’s midterms.

*snip*

[Just A Box Of Rain]

1. The Biden coalition gives us the path to victory in 2024.

100%

[WA-03 Democrat]

3. Agree whole heartedly!!!

[yankee87]

5. Spot on

Need decency

[Elessar Zappa]

2. Great article.

Really illustrates why we need Biden to run in ‘24.

[Grins]

14. Try reading the column vs the snip

[Elessar Zappa]

15. I did read the article.

[Tetrachloride]

4. Wiki - 2020 Biden Presidential Campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_2020_presidential_campaign

[republianmushroom]

6. agree

[Cha]

7. TY for this, Nevilledog! Very interesting.. mt

[Nevilledog]

13. ...

[Cha]

21. 💙🇺🇸🕯🕊

[bucolic_frolic]

8. I knew we needed copper-bottom stability, and I knew after the first Democratic debate

As Senator his office always released common sense press releases that were a mainstay in the Philly media market. Biden was always there. No one thought of him, no one noticed. It was just normal. I think he gave Obama more advice than we know, if only because Obama was relatively young when he took office.

When Biden underperformed in the first debate, I figured it was deliberate, and he and his team were smart enough to know the winner would be demonized by the others, so in the pack was the place to be. It just looked like strategy to me.

[AkFemDem]

9. I'm withholding my primary vote...

Until I know who is actually going to be running. But I certainly hope the “Biden Coalition” is part of the next administration in one form or another as well.

[orangecrush]

10. KICK

[Frasier Balzov]

11. I hope this doesn't mean that other candidates are being discouraged from running.

The torch must be passed to a new generation sometime.

It could be the right time while an anti-Republican sentiment is sweeping the nation.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

12. Seriously?

It will be political death for anyone who primaries Joe Biden.

[AntivaxHunters]

27. hard agree

[40RatRod]

16. I probably shouldn't post this as I am not trying to stir us but just wanted to see if anyone agrees

I fully support Joe running again!!!! However, at the end us his second term, we have to have a winner right out of the gate to run for President. I like our current VP. But I feel there are others who might have a better shot at the Presidency. Thoughts?

[Demsrule86]

18. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it

[BadgerMom]

17. Kick

Really insightful column. Thanks for sharing this.

[elleng]

19. I agree. Delete (barely.)

[Hekate]

20. KnR Thanks

[Silent3]

22. Amen to that! n/t

[DownriverDem]

23. Presidents who are primaried

are seriously weakened. Not a good plan IMO.

[Buckeyeblue]

24. I don't think Biden will run

I think if the midterms had gone sideways he might have thought that we needed to use the advantage (and odds) that an encumbant president brings. But given how well we did, I wonder if Biden doesn't feel like Democrats are in a good place to win in 2024.

But if Biden runs, we need to embrace that and go all out with our support.

[Joinfortmill]

25. Makes a lot of sense. We shall see.

[GoodRaisin]

26. The way I feel at 69 I damn sure wouldn't want to run at 76.

I think Joe is an American hero for doing what he is doing and firmly believe he was the only candidate who could save our democracy from Donald Trump. I hope he can make it another term, because I get the feeling we are still hanging on by a string.

My opinion is that if anybody deserves to be added to Mt. Rushmore, it’s Joe Biden.

[AntivaxHunters]

28. I'd love to see Katie Porter run along with

Ed Markey.

They have BIG support among young voters.

[dlk]

29. The "exhausted majority"

n/t