Biden to court Black Caucus

[Agschmid]

[center][/center]

Continuing his pre-presidential campaign, Vice President Joe Biden will head to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation convention in Washington this weekend, according to sources familiar with the planning.

Biden’s expected to attend the Phoenix Awards dinner on Saturday night, joining President Barack Obama, who will be headlining the event at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and may participate in other parts of the convention as well.

If he gets into the 2016 race, Biden will be banking on a strong showing with the African-American community, particularly in South Carolina, where he’d be focusing most of his early state campaign energy. The CBC convention is the biggest gathering of African-American political power of the year.

The appearance will cap another active week for Biden full of stops primed for maximum political appeal: speeches at a solar energy conference in Anaheim and United States-China climate in Los Angeles on Wednesday, followed by a speech on the economy on Thursday in Detroit and an event on preventing sexual assault on college campuses in Ohio.

Source.

[Metric System]

1. Bottom line, he'd be attending regardless of the speculation.

[underthematrix]

2. Oh Dear Lord, please make it so. My guy! My guy!

We got your back BIDEN. The AA community will be there for him in droves.

[Number23]

4. Biden has said some flaky shit too about black people. But I don't think it would dampen his support

from black folks that much. At least he would be smart enough not to campaign with Cornell.

As I've noted time and again, if black folks ruled out and discounted every single politician who has said or done some untoward shit towards us, we'd never have ANY DAMN BODY to vote for.

I'd need to read more about his positions but I'm with you. I'd be happy if Biden tossed his hat in the ring.

[underthematrix]

6. I'm 65 so i go back a long way with Biden. I don't care if he said some flaky shit

because Biden is the type to admit it, apologize for it and move on, like he did when he made that "articulate" comment about candidate Obama. VP Biden has been at President Obama's side for 8 years even when some were trying to pressure him to run with HRC in 2012. PBO is loyal just like Biden. I think that's why they're become such close friends.

[Number23]

10. I agree that Biden would be smart enough to run on Obama's many successes

And the relationship he has with Obama is great to see.

They appear to genuinely have each other's backs which would also go a long way for the millions who support the current president.

[kath]

14. How do you like what he did to Anita Hill?

[underthematrix]

21. Biden didn't do anything to Anita Hill. I watched the hearings and

that's when I first fell in love with Joe Biden. He saw the big picture. if Biden runs, Anita Hill will probably vote for him. Seriously, AA folks don't see the world the same way white folks do because we have a difference experience of America in that America responds to us in a different way.

[PoliticAverse]

26. Anita Hill: Joe Biden Botched The Clarence Thomas Hearings

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20/anita-hill-joe-biden_n_5002189.html

Anita Hill: "Joe Biden Did a Disservice to Me and the American Public"
http://www.bet.com/video/celebrity/2014/anita-hill-interview-part-one.html

[underthematrix]

28. This is a new narrative about something that happened at a very different time

It is not truth. It is simply reframing a narrative in a way that's supposed to make BIDEN less attractive. But here's the thing. BIDEN is the Vice President to the first African American President and you can't get around that. He's had PBO's back for the past 8 years. And in return, if he runs, black people are gonna have his back.

So never you mind me. You just keep right on digging.

[PoliticAverse]

29. Biden was instrumental in getting Clarence Thomas confirmed, if you think that makes him

"more attractive" then dig away yourself.

[underthematrix]

30. Yes. I'm glad Clarence Thomas was confirmed.

And yes I can't stand him. but this was not about Clarence Thomas' policies. This was about something much uglier, old and nasty. and Joe Biden understood that and shut it down by neutralizing it. If the Anita Hill matter had never been brought up, Clarence thomas would not have been confirmed.

[Bucky]

16. I supported Biden in '88 and '08. I kinda like it when he says flaky shit

I think, if nothing else, the race will be better off for having more than two candidates.

(Sorry, Martin)

[underthematrix]

22. LOL! I love bden because he's smart and real and knows the policy history

of America. And he's a foreign policy expert and has great executive leadership skills.

[ram2008]

3. He's running

I'm convinced-- especially given today's polls, despite most people saying he'll sit it out.

His whole "waiting to see if he's emotionally ready" is part an overall strategy; Biden 2.0. Crushed by the loss of his son, he's now matured and found his greater calling; he will run for President because it's what Beau wanted him to and because its his call to service. The new Biden is more serious, cerebral, but still maintains the raw authenticity of before-- the type of passion only someone whose spirit has been broken can have. It's the type of campaign that people could "root" for despite not necessarily agreeing with him on all the issues.

I predict Biden and Sanders will be the ones battling for the nomination in the end, and I'm ok with that.

[Agschmid]

5. I agree with most of what you've said...however I think it will be a three way race.

[underthematrix]

7. LOL! what a nice nasty analysis of Biden. I don't expect there

to be much of a battle.

[ram2008]

13. It wasn't meant to be nasty

But that is what my reading of the press, his interviews, and the trial balloons being floated lead me to believe.

[underthematrix]

18. Well Biden is already mature. Trial ballooning is part of the public spin.

DRAFT Biden is a large organization and will be ready to go in a New York minute. Biden seems to be putting all the pieces in place and I really like how he's doing it.

[ram2008]

19. I agree but his image wasn't that of someone "mature"

It was always that of a goofball-- even though that was an unfair media narrative. That is changing now though... whoever is behind the crafting of his new image has done an excellent job. From a political standpoint, they're making all the right moves.

[underthematrix]

23. a goofball is something different from someone who is gaffe prone

Did you mean the latter?

[ram2008]

24. Both n/t

[underthematrix]

25. Okay. I don't think anyone would describe Joe Biden who is loved by sides of the aisle as a goofball

When I think if goofball, I think of Sarah Palin or many of the GOP Prez candidates but not Vice President Joe Biden.

[artislife]

27. He did say Bernie was doing a good job

and that tipped his hand that he thinks Bernie is a real contender, not a flash in the pan. Will he run? Would have said no, but this turn of events has me on wobblier ground.


Do I want him to run? Sure, if he wants to. I don't think he will win, and I personally love him. I saw him speak at a Patty Murray rally. But he did push for things that hurt people; cc rules, bancruptcy laws, war, patriot act and the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings. Lots of womyn are still very pissed. I know, because I didn't remember that and posted I liked him on another board back in 2008....they were not happy with me.

[magical thyme]

32. "he's now matured" seriously? are you for real?

Like the loss of his first wife and daughter in a car accident decades ago wasn't enough to make him "mature" enough to find his "greater calling?' Being sworn in his first term as senator...at Beau's hospital bedside was somehow not mature enough?

?random=1442228796492

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. someone said Sept. 30th

He will take the Hillary establishment vote. He's not going to stop the revolution

[Agschmid]

9. If he gets in it will be a 3 way race...

Could be a loooong primary.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. there will be a few Bernies but mostly Hillarys

Biden is up for attack because he is the establishment and I don't think he can win against the GOP.

[Agschmid]

12. Any of our candidates will be attacked in the GE.

Hope they are ready for it.

[PoliticAverse]

31. If Biden gets in I can see him very quickly outpolling Sanders in the majority of states

and I can see the mainstream media turning the Democratic primaries into a "Clinton vs Biden" contest.

[HereSince1628]

15. Take it? You expect H> to hand it over? She refused to quit after it was a foregone conclusion

last time.

And her deeply loyal fans became dedicated to pissing on party unity.

Biden v Clinton will break the establishment into pieces like a Ming Vase thrown at a wall.

They've got to talk H> into surrender, and they've got to do it by mid-Nov when the deadlines for getting on primary ballots expire.

[Agschmid]

17. Why should she surrender?

Doesn't she have the right to run?

That kind of attitude annoys me.

[HereSince1628]

20. Yes of course she has the right to run, perhaps I was very unclear

If the establishment insists on running a plan B, it's got to be done in a way that doesn't create Biden v Clinton.
That will be an ugly thing and very tough on establishment dems. Imagine both contesting and splitting women, blacks, neoliberal/conservative dems, and superdelegates. It'd be bad.

It's also quite hard to imagine Clinton publically threatened in that way would ever back down. Pretty much the only way to get beyond a real brawl among establishment types would be to negotiate a surrender.

If that negotiation is gonna happen it must happen before the deadline to get names printed onto ballots for the early primaries, or the plan B candidate becomes a write in for early states...

Those deadlines begin mid November.