Politico's Natasha Korecki: How Biden stopped his Iowa tailspin (note: it wasn't a tailspin)

[highplainsdem]

Despite the hyperbolic headline, this article makes some important points...and quotes Biden's campaign pointing out the false media narrative.


https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/03/joe-biden-iowa-turnaround-093616

DUBUQUE, Iowa — Sliding steadily in the polls and battling a narrative that he couldn’t endure the kind of rigorous campaign schedule Iowans demand, Joe Biden’s Iowa prospects were just about written off earlier this fall. Even his own campaign began to downplay expectations.

But with 31 days left before the Feb. 3 caucuses, Biden has managed to turn his fortunes around.

-snip-

“The feeling post-bus tour here is different, I think even outside the campaign,” said Biden’s deputy campaign manager for states, Pete Kavanaugh, referring to the “No Malarkey” bus tour last month.

Kavanaugh added that the former vice president had been working against what they called a false storyline that Biden wasn’t taking Iowa seriously and didn’t plan to take part in the time-consuming, retail campaigning needed to succeed in a state where caucus-goers demand one-on-one contact.

“We’ve been fighting the narrative since the late summer.The reality is he’s been spending a lot of time here. I think what the 8-day tour was — it just crystallized for folks how seriously he’s taking the state.”

Vilsack pointed to the endorsement from the 31-year-old Finkenauer as the most significant yet in Iowa for Biden.

“That’s a big deal because she’s obviously young, she’s an up-and-comer, people in Northeast Iowa know and love her. She has good connection to labor so it sends a strong message to labor,” he said. “He’s picking up momentum at just the right time.”

-snip-

“I think our theory of the case in Iowa remains viable,” Kavanaugh said. “At the end of the day, caucus-goers in Iowa, far more than any concern or issue want to beat Donald Trump. And every data point that we’ve seen privately and publicly still indicates they think the vice president is in the best position to do that.”

Biden’s chief pollster, John Anzalone, said the electability argument is a potent one because it means there’s plenty of room for growth in Biden’s coalition as undecided voters break in the final weeks and days before the caucuses.

-snip-

“Now that the field has narrowed down and people are making up their minds, they’re turning to the vice president,” said Frantz Whitfield, a Waterloo-based pastor and African American leader who has endorsed Biden. “People that I talk to on a constant basis from all different backgrounds say they feel the vice president has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump.”

Polk County Chair Sean Bagniewski said he’s seeing some evidence of moderates breaking for Biden late in the game.

“It seems like a lot of caucus-goers are giving Biden a second look in Iowa,” Bagniewski said. “Many Democrats see him as a reliable leader with wide popularity. Democrats desperately want to beat Trump and even some of Biden’s doubters admit that he’d have one of the best chances to do it.”

This is something I've been expecting, as I've mentioned here in the past.

Despite pundits who don't want Democrats to consider Biden urging people to vote with their hearts, not their heads, in the primary, and NOT consider electability, most voters aren't that foolish.

Most voters will consider electability all-important.

And the polls have consistently shown that Democratic voters consider Biden our most electable candidate.

[Gothmog]

1. I love the new endorsements and the new bus tour

Link to tweet

He launched a successful, eight-day bus tour through rural Iowa last month that sparked an uptick in volunteers, precinct captain requests and caucus commitments. He doubled his fundraising in the last quarter, allowing him to flood the state’s airwaves with ads.

This week, Biden’s Iowa fortunes picked up again when he landed perhaps the most influential Iowa endorsement to date — Rep. Abby Finkenauer, the second youngest person ever elected to Congress. That followed on the heels of endorsement from two other influential state Democrats — Tom Vilsack, a former governor and U.S. secretary of Agriculture, and his wife, Christie — and a well-timed cash infusion in TV ads from a pro-Biden superPAC.

Biden’s rebound comes amid a concentrated effort here. From Nov. 30 through this weekend, Biden will have spent 16 days in Iowa. By caucus day, he will have spent $4 million in integrated paid media, including broadcast TV, cable, Hulu, and social media.

The former vice president is on a second extended bus tour now — and the campaign just announced a separate surrogate bus tour next week with former Secretary of State John Kerry, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and various federal and state lawmakers from across the country.

[Demsrule86]

2. Good find...very interesting and now another bus tour...Go Biden.

K&R

[ritapria]

3. Is it coming down to Bernie v. Biden in Iowa ?

I don't know because there have been no polls taken in Iowa the last 2 weeks or so ...? Bernie has a helluva good organization in Iowa... They plan on knocking on 500,000 doors in the month of January ……… His Iowa campaign has been targeting non- traditional voters for the past 7 months ...Working class voters , People of Color , and young voters ….Those folks will never be fully accounted for in Iowa Caucus Polls of' " Likely Voters" …. Tonight , Bernie drew a crowd of what appeared to be around 800 (my estimate) in Decorah , Iowa - population 8.100 ( according to 2010 census ) ….And they weren't all young people by any means ….

[Gothmog]

4. JOHN Kerry to lead the We Know Joe Tour across Iowa

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

5. The electability question has been batted around for months on end

Pundits and pollsters dismissed the notion and supporters of other candidates diminished the idea. But all threads lead back to the overall concern that the electorate has: who has the best shot of taking out Trump? Because he is a true danger.

The question becomes evermore urgent as actual primary voting dates approach. The answer has remained stable: Joe Biden, who recognized on Day 1 that this was going to be a referendum on Donald Trump, that who we are as a country, the very definition of who we are as a people has been called into question, and that the recklessness Trump has demonstrated poses a huge national security threat, then . . . Bingo! Donald Trump lurches towards war with Iran.

Who is the only candidate with hands-on foreign policy experience? Joe Biden.

Though Biden was never my candidate in past primaries, I've believed from the start that this is the man's moment, that by some strange confluence of details and events he was made for this particular point in time where his knowledge, skillset and basic decency are what's sorely needed to put us back on track, restore our tattered institutions, return to the rule of law, so we can take up all the urgent business of the future. For everyone. I think it probably falls on one word: trust. Voters trust Biden to do what's right and what's in the best interest of the country and her people. And they want someone who knows how to get things done.

And now the stars appear to be aligning, the pieces falling into place.

Biden Time, 2020.