With the 2018 elections just a few months away, I am already thinking about who would make the best Democratic candidates for President and Vice President just 29 months away. I have my pick for President and it’s the same one I have had the past few presidential elections: Joseph R. Biden. I know some people bring up his age; we are approximately the same age, so I get that, but I think he is in better health then me.
Also, unless the Mueller investigation knocks him out, the probability is his opponent will be Donald Trump, who is also over 70 and therefore removes the age issue from the election. It does, in my view, require the Democratic VP candidate to be younger and my two favorites are Cory Booker, an African-American senator from New Jersey who is 49 and Amy Klobuchar, 58, and of course is a female senator from Minnesota.
If Biden is the candidate, a female or person of color for VP really ups the ticket.
Although I personally like Joe a lot, another very good reason for his candidacy is he can pull many who are in Trump’s base away from him. I spent the first 12 years of my working career as a union meat cutter, so I understood the Trump voter mind set and Joe can get them back!
When I was in graduate school in 1972, the presidential candidates were Nixon, Mondale and George Wallace. It was an interesting time because when I was on campus at Indiana State University, it tended to be McGovern and a few Nixon folks, but when I went to work later in the day, the meat department employees were 100% for Wallace. If that group were around today, it’s no doubt in my mind they would pretty much be for Trump.
It is imperative we get a different President in 2020. I say that as an American, not just a Democrat, who is extraordinarily concerned about the country under the current president. This is more then about politics, it’s about America’s future standing in the world.
With Joe’s, experience as VP under Obama and his years of foreign policy experience in the US Senate, he covers all the basics. Also, with the loss of his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi in a tragic traffic accident, he has certainly seen life as it is, not just as we would like it to be. He is kind and thoughtful, he really cares about the disenfranchised, the under paid, the folks having a difficult time with health care, opiate addiction, and growing suicide problems as well as key progressive issues such as climate change and incarceration rates among minorities. He also understands that America is built on immigration and we must find paths for new immigrants not make it harder and harder to get and stay here.
Whatever your position, current or in the future, on possible Democratic candidates, start working toward a D landslide in November up and down the ticket and get ready for the big one in 2020. The next presidential election is one of the most important since the civil war.
by Dick Goodson
Posted 6/25/18
3 Comments on "2020 Not That Far Away"
Need to focus on 2018 for now – but party could certainly do a lot worse than Joe Biden as the standard bearer in 2020. I believe if he had been the 2016 nominee that he would have defeated Trump. Its likely he saw that Hillary had the superdelegates, major donors, and DNC party bosses stacked against him. Whoever is the DNC nominee in 2020 needs to be more than “anti-Trump.” Need to be able to relate to the middle class and the Joe Sixpack, the white guy who works hard at a blue collar job and feels all of the party’s attention and outreach goes to non-whites as he’s not part of a “protected class.”
I have never voted for a Republican. I always vote. 2020 may be different. I could never and would never vote for Biden. But I will vote for the rest of the ticket.
Actually, relatively speaking, 2020 is a long ways away. This article could easily wait until December. For now, every thought, every effort, every resource should be committed to 2018. All that matters is November. One election at a time. Because the quickest way to neutralize Trump is to win this year. If we take our eyes on that and squander the opportunity because we are already fighting the next battle, all we do is give him 2 extra years to destroy what we hold dear. Discussing Biden, Booker, etc. detracts from Hubbell, Hart, Axne, Finkenauer, Scholten, Sand, Gannon, etc etc etc who need our attention today, tomorrow, and the next 19 weeks.