WASHINGTON – Despite his low approval record and the public’s concerns about his age, Minnesota Democrats – with the notable exception of Rep. Dean Phillips – are backing President Joe Biden’s bid for reelection.
[image_caption]Rep. Dean Phillips[/image_caption]
“I’m impressed by the Biden presidency and find the president to be a man of equal parts competency and compassion. I also believe American democracy is made stronger by competition,” Phillips said. “Coronations are antithetical to democracy, and competition always results in the best possible candidate – particularly at such a perilous time in our nation’s history.”
Despite Phillips’ call for “competition,” no major Democratic challengers are expected to emerge, and only two candidates have stepped up to run against Biden, author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy.
Biden kicked off his reelection bid Tuesday with a video that framed the race as a fight against Republican extremism and the possibility of another Donald Trump presidency. He also said he needed a second term to fully realize his vow to restore the nation’s character and integrity.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,” Biden said in the video.
Biden also has a slogan for the 2024 election, “Let’s finish the job.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who was Biden’s primary rival in 2020 before she dropped out of the race for the White House, retweeted Biden’s pitch for another four years.
“Let’s continue to work together to get things done for the American people,” Klobuchar said.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. Also retweeted Biden’s re-election announcement video – and repeated the president’s slogan.
“We’re building an America where everyone gets a fair shot,” Smith said. “We’re fighting for the future we want for our kids, our grandkids, and every generation that follows. Let’s finish the job.”
[image_caption]Rep. Ilhan Omar[/image_caption]
“President Joe Biden’s visit to Fridley in my district this month underscored all that we have accomplished as Democrats in the past two years — the biggest investments in clean energy in history, hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Minnesota and millions of dollars invested in community projects directly in the Fifth District,” Omar said. “It is for these reasons and more that I plan to support our Democratic President for reelection.”
Omar also repeated Biden’s message that the nation’s democracy is under threat by “Donald Trump and his fellow MAGA Republicans” and that Democrats need to be present a “united front to combat it.”
Omar also said she would continue to press the more-centrist Biden on “progressive change on issues like student debt, child hunger, immigration, and foreign policy.”
If Biden wins re-election, he’ll be 82 when he takes office and 86 when his term ends, once again becoming the oldest person to be sworn into the White House. Trump will be 78 in 2024.
And the president’s overall approval rating remains mired at just over 42%, according to political website FiveThirtyEight.
[image_caption]Rep. Angie Craig[/image_caption]
“Just as we have recently seen with the transition of leadership in Congress to Hakeem Jeffries, I believe that the party has enormous, new leadership that will be critical in moving America forward,” Craig said in an emailed statement. “So, while I’m looking forward to the next generation of leadership stepping forward, I respect the president’s decision to run and look forward to our continued work together.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was more enthusiastic about Biden’s announcement.
“As anti-democratic extremists around the country work to take away our rights, President @joebiden has defended our democracy and freedoms with decency, integrity and compassion,” the governor tweeted. “He’s had our back – and now we have his. “We’re ready to get to work for four more years!”
Walz’s support will be key to efforts by the Biden campaign to build a “blue wall” with the key Midwestern states to stave off another Trump victory, provided the former president is indeed the Republican challenger.
The governor was one of the signers of a letter to Biden and the Democratic National Committee last month urging they choose Chicago as the site of the 2024 national convention to solidify and expand Democratic support of the president’s re-election in the Midwest. The letter said Democrats took their eyes off the ball in 2016, losing Wisconsin and Michigan – which usually voted for a Democratic presidential candiate prior to Trump in 2016.
“The election of 2016 is a cautionary tale that the Democratic National Committee, now choosing where to hold its nominating convention in 2024, must take to heart,” the letter said. “In an incredibly polarized nation, whose electoral college model has a griphold (sic) on election outcomes, the Midwest is utterly indispensable to the party’s success and should be the home of its 2024 convention.”
The DNC chose Chicago over Atlanta for the convention.
Joe’s got my vote. He is arguably the best President of my lifetime, though that bar is sadly very low. I hope we can get him a second term with an even larger Democratic majority in Congress than the start of his first term. Even beyond Republicans, we still need to overcome the Manchin’s of the world.
Can’t wait for Biden to debate! Oh, wait. He won’t. He can’t. And the media won’t force him to.
If he runs it will be fun to watch the media play the Biden Protection Program.
This is certainly one of the most preposterous prognostications ever seen on Minnpost.
Past Performance Predicts Future Performance.
Still waiting for a press conference!
To be fair, he took some hard hitting questions from children today. Examples:
1. He was asked the last country he visited. He couldn’t remember. That’s a tough one because it was to Ireland an entire week ago.
2. He was asked which team he was rooting for to win the Stanley Cup. He answered Philadelphia Flyers. Unfortunately they didn’t make the playoffs.
I would imagine his artful handling of these questions will scare off RFK Jr.
No pandemic excuse for hiding out this time around. His only strength is a compliant media that glosses over or ignores every one of his many gaffes and failures. They are currently doing their best to make sure Trump wins the GOP nomination.
I’d love to hear which viable candidate for the GOP nomination the media is holding down.
Uh, did you see how Uncle Joe owned the cons at the State of the Union address?
But seriously, I love this. You guys got months to lower the bar so Joe just has to step over it to exceed expectations. You set your own trap in 2020, and you’re going to do it again. I’d swear there is a DNC plant inside the conservative echo chamber. Semper Fi, dude.
Just listen to old Republican Jennifer Rubin. She provides the best strategy hints to us Democrats.
Trump has already made it clear he won’t participate in debates this time around. Do you think that’s because he’s mentally incompetent?
Obviously
Stop with the approval rating nonsense. The trump propaganda machine can buy what ever poll results it wants. Biden is a lot of work with little talk. Trumpers are all talk and no accomishment except for their oligarch sponsors. Teump voters get lots of tjeir favoritechate speach while their pokeys get picked by the grifter they worship.
When faced with a serious threat of irrational authoritarian fascism, liberal democracy does not need to fracture itself and its energies simply to prove its “strength”. There needs to be more of a reason for a challenge than this.
Let’s have the reactionary American right prove its “strength” instead…
Oh us Democrats will scramble some eggs during primary season and many voices will be heard. Hopefully we will again support whatever omlet we nominate. Whatever part of the Democrstic spectrum you are, we will be happy with and partly disappointed in those Democrats we elect. We know the R in republican means “Reverse” and 4 years of trump was a disaster.
I’m very disappointed Biden didn’t announce he was not going to run for another term and open the way for a new generation of Democratic leadership in 2024. A lot can happen between now and November 2024 that could make his candidacy simply not feasible- no one can bet on health issues for an 82 year disabling him. It would take a good year and half to make the public familiar with a new face on the national scene.
That said, Go, Joe!
A new generation? The fact is Dems don’t have any better options. Better to have the old white former moderate veneer to hide the radical agenda.
Whom are the Republicans offering us? Trump? The crypto-fascist DeSantis? The theocrat Pence? Yeah. some great options there.
Lol. If Biden had decided not to run there would be a dozen Dems running of all stripes, just like 2020. You guys (and the rightwing media) are the ones who have backed yourselves into the “no better options” than Trump corner.
And just so you know, Trump was the one who decided to run in 2024, it wasn’t some clever Dem (or “media”) plot. Do the ongoing prosecution(s) for Trumpolini’s criminal behavior help or hurt him with the Rightwing base? And if they help, why in God’s name do they? I think I know which side has the “radical agenda” here…
Keep whistling past the graveyard.
Oh yea, infrastructure and human rights are so radical. Look up the 1956 republican platform before you became the white supremacy, antisemitic, misogynist, poor trodden down white guy, corrupt, hate party
Democrats- fighting to make sure graphic sexual content is available in elementary schools across the country. Funny how you just say “book banning” instead.
Since the United States government is not an owner/operator proprietorship (Like the Trump Org.) personnel selection does play a role.
The Trumpian “I only hire the best people” Yielded:
3 Chief of Staffs
6 Secretaries of Defense
3 Secretaries of State
5 Secretaries of Homeland Security
4 Attorneys General
4 Directors of National Security
Oh, and you REALLY don’t want to hear the quotes from most of these folks about their recollections of the Trumpian management style. Let’s just go with Rex Tillerson:
“Do you know why Tillerson was able to say he didn’t call the president a ‘moron’?” McConnell asked colleagues, according to the book. “Because he called him a ‘f-ing moron.'”
C’mon fellas, is “owning the libs” so important that the above is all Okie Dokie with you?
Good old Sleepy Joe at least knows how to put in place a team and get it to to work together: Maybe a good trait in a President?
“C’mon fellas, is “owning the libs” so important that the above is all Okie Dokie with you?”
Do you really need to ask? “Owning the libs” is all that matters to this crowd. Everything else is just waiting for a Duck Dynasty reboot.
C’mon, we haven’t even mentioned his frighteningly obvious mental decline….
Prop him up like “weekend at bernies” until the Repubs offer something better.
Bet you can’t beat Joe Biden on your best day. Trump is a word salad on his best day. 30,000 plus documented flip flops and lies. Double the covid death rate of most advanced countries, economic chaos, copious divisive hate speach, scorned by allirs, damaged nato, and ows money and allegence to russian and red Chinese oligarchs.
And this is an indicator of mental acuity?
3 Chief of Staffs
6 Secretaries of Defense
3 Secretaries of State
5 Secretaries of Homeland Security
4 Attorneys General
4 Directors of National Security
I’ll take a slow decline over full blown lunacy everyday,
None of the above please
It is a team game, despite the fact that TFG proved too certifiable to ever share the limelight. Consequently not much got done. Healthcare? Infrastructure? Debt reduction? We did get some NFT’s tho.
Over 70% of Americans feel the country is on the wrong track. Enough said!
I find your stat funny! Biden has corrected the sinking ship and our country keeps progressing. I don’t know if he really cares about approval ratings as long as the country is moving forward. Oh, he probably does care but he has a job to do and that comes first. And for that he has my respect!
Those are the people who want national healthcare and sensible gun regulations.
Many of us object to a sore loser defeated President who incited violence to seize dictatorial power that is the front run. Our country is very troubled, but only Democrats are working to solve our many problem. As in 2020, we need a candidate to beat Trump or someone like DeSantis who is equally vile. I think every Democrat agrees with that
Amen. Biden is like a good mule, he is a slow steady worker who gets the needed work done. The other is just a jackass.
I feel like the country is on the wrong track, but I don’t blame Biden for it. I blame the conservative majority on the Supreme Court and a system that fails to account for or punish bad actors, I blame a news media that treats politics like football, and I blame a wide variety of power hungry grifters who have figured out that inspiring rage is a great way to squeeze more money from the rubes.
“President Joe Biden’s visit to Fridley in my district this month underscored all that we have accomplished as Democrats in the past two years….millions of dollars invested in community projects directly in the Fifth District,” Omar said.
Spending millions is not an accomplishment. Is unemployment down in the 5th? Are literacy rates up? Are truancy rates down? Is crime down?
Not sure how POTUS/federal policy are connected to truancy rates. In terms of economic measures, MN unemployment is about as low as it gets. Both Walz & Biden get credit for that. Inflation is slowing. To address crime, dems at the fed, state & local levels are trying to ensure people have a path to success. That’s not just job opportunities, but having access to food, healthcare and a decent education. Dems are working on those problems but face Repub opposition across the board.
I hope Joe Manchin runs for the Democratic nomination. Liz Cheney as his running mate would make for an unbeatable combo.
Somehow, I’m not sure that the Dem senator most unpopular with the base (running with a Cheney, no less) would be “unbeatable” in the Dem presidential primaries…
Manchin won’t win his own Senate race, much less a national one.
Both Clinton and Obama were brilliant speakers, who ruled as moderate repubs during their terms. Biden is not that kind of speaker. He is known for gaffes…BUT he gets things done for the country…more than both those two…But for some reason we honor them and not Biden.
I don’t get it. We claim he’s too old, yet in 2 years, with a bare majority, he accomplished more for us and the country than either of them…and especially during an age of total repub obstruction.
Then we hear about the issues by repubs and Dems about his son, the same people who ignore the vast issues and corruption by trump’s children and Kushner, who also ignore that attempted repub violent coup, who still keep attempting to undermine our voting rights and democracy.
I’ve heard some say they won’t support him because of the secret documents, who ignore how uncontrolled is the safety of such documents by our govt.
Instead of honor for his accomplishments, the media keeps talking about his age, his gaffes, his son…not what he’s accomplished. Yes, the media is a problem, but so are the people…especially Dems…who choose to emphasize these issues, not his accomplishments.
I always wonder about the inanity of repubs…and now we are seeing it with Dems.
While I do wish the Democrats could put up a younger candidate, I can’t think of anyone prominent enough who would be more likely to win. 82 is pretty old, but some old people manage to stay pretty sharp, and Biden seems like he’s able to do the job.
I agree that Kamala Harris will be a big factor in this election, and it won’t be good. It would be better for Biden to pick another running mate, one that more people would accept as a potential president.
No one cares about the veep candidates. No one.
They should when the presidential candidate is in his 80s. There’s a good chance she’d be president.
This is why McCain-Palin got whomped by Obama-Biden. Well, that and the realization that Democrats are better suited to cleaning up financial crises caused by Republicans.
As Ginni Thomas advised:
Turn loose the Kraken
As long as everyone on the right hates Harris, time for some truly unabated “own the cons” behavior. Look at her Senate questioning skills and she has abilities beyond most “lib owning” right wingers
Oh man, this would be the greatest gift to the GOP…..
As my Dad often said, “There are a lot of shoulds in this world.”
Voters should not back candidates who advocated the hanging of Mike Pence, but that goes on, too.
Sometimes. W needed Cheney to add ‘gravitas’; same for Obama-Biden. Trump needed Pence to appease the evangelicals.
But to switch parlor games, who does Trump pick this time? I’d guess Rep Margorie Taylor-Greene.
Yes, given the ever declining Trump base, he will probably need MTG to shore it up.
Chris Christie, in one of his more thoughtful moments, said the only way to stop Trump from the nomination is an opponent willing to punch him right in the nose. Over and over.
Did he mean literally?
When I think float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, I think Chris Christie…
Guess I find myself in agreement with Rep. Phillips. Would be nice to at least have some conversation. Joe is not an exciting guy, but boredom in politics is like boredom in investing, things are generally going in the right direction. The age issue is interesting, our indigenous brothers and sister look at age as the land of wisdom, some of us other folks not so sure, then again you got Warren Buffett well into his 90’s still running one of the most valuable and successful invest companies on the planet. So age by itself maybe not such a big deal.
When has he schedule a competency test? News conference? Plan for Ukraine? Plan for transitory inflation?
I just heard that 51 expert geriatric physicians want his health records released.
Biden should release his health records when Trump releases his tax returns.
He will release his plans when Trump releases his tax returns. Or schedules Infrastructure Week. Or shows his plan for replacing Obamacare.
Fifty-one physicians? Do you really believe the Daily Mail? I knew there had to be something dodgy about that outlet when “Paperback Writer” was the sing-along on The Beatles cartoon show.
Harris will be a factor if the media wants her to be one Thomas. In looking down the road, I prefer a younger, more progressive v p candidate.
Why has Harris basically been ‘missing in action’ this first term ? Is it because Biden wanted it that way? Is it because she just is not cut out for the job? or ?
Most likely because every time she talks it’s word salad nonsense. She checks the all important intersectional boxes which is all that matters.
Today Biden pretended to spontaneously take questions from reporters. He had a cheat sheet of which reporter to call and what her question was going to be. Even with all that help he couldn’t give a coherent answer. Yet he’s still Dems best hope for winning. So it’s going to be a lot of the media running interference for him and ignoring his obvious decline.
I know that hypocrisy is a charge that resonates only when a person has principles (“Owning the libs” doesn’t count), but before questioning anyone’s verbal abilities, shouldn’t you consider the aphasic sociopath who remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination?
Well, this entire article was about the current President, so I’m staying on topic. But it’s not a good sign when your only defense of Biden’s obvious mental decline (and the media’s collusion with Democrats to cover it up) is “yeah, but Trump is bad!” Which, again, is why the greatest wish of every Democrat is for Trump to win the nomination.
And you’re not going to own up to supporting him.
Since we have (as a practical matter) a binary electoral system, choosing one as better than the other althgouh one’s choice is not perfect is how we do things here.
Not surprised that the President decided to run again, very difficult to relinquish the reins of power. Though I did not vote for him, most certainly Trump would be a downward departure.
I think we will have our first lady President, Haley from S Carolina, a year and a half is a lifetime in politics, time will tell….
“I think we will have our first lady President, Haley from S Carolina”
I’ll take that bet. Haley will not be the Repub noinee, nor win the 2024 election for POTUS.
Perhaps 2028, after the GOP fully craters in 2024.
I’ll give you Haley at 10 to 1.
Gotta admire Phillips, not many would stand for a conviction like he has……
Trump won’t be a candidate, unless third party…..
I’m disappointed that Joe is running again. I think he’s doing a good job, but I agree with Dean. In fact, Dean would make a great candidate.
Last night he was on a far left channel for a friendly “interview” and he still had to have staff interject to police questions and correct him. This guy is ready for another 4 years? he can’t even function before 10am.