Joe Biden certainly did appear to have it all wrapped up, didn’t he?
The former Vice President came into the 2020 race like an asteroid, and was almost immediately the frontrunner, on account of some conjured belief that he was enough of a centrist to steal votes from Donald Trump out in the midwest.
Now he’s the presumptive nominee, with only habitual I’m trying to make a point guy Bernie Sanders standing between him and the crown. Biden has the Vermont Senator smoked in the delegate count, but Bernie’s the sort of politician who will stick around just because.
How does the Democratic Party feel about Biden going up against Trump in November?
From the look of things – not good.
Democrats are publicly talking about “contingency options” for their July convention in Milwaukee in case the coronavirus persists in being a public-health threat. But privately, some are also talking about needing a Plan B if Joe Biden, their nominee apparent, continues to flounder.
Some Democrats are openly talking up New York governor Andrew Cuomo, whose profile has soared during the crisis, as a Biden stand-in. Yesterday, a Draft Cuomo 2020 account on Twitter announced that “Times have changed & we need Gov. Cuomo to be the nominee. Our next POTUS must be one w/an ability to lead thru this crisis.”
Charles Pierce, the politics blogger for Esquire magazine, wrote a piece headlined “With Two Words, Andrew Cuomo Established Himself as the Leader This Country Needs Now.” He enthused that Cuomo’s news conference last Friday “essentially (shutting) down the economy of his state . . . was a master class in leveling with the public.”
Cuomo has surely seemed to be purposely confrontational when it comes to the President as of late.
Fueled by favorable national publicity that governors rarely get, Cuomo has quickly become the standard-bearer for liberals who don’t want to quickly open up parts the economy at the same time we combat the coronavirus. This Tuesday, the governor tweeted: “We are not willing to sacrifice 1-2% of New Yorkers. That’s not who we are. We will fight to save every life we can. I am not giving up.” Last weekend, Cuomo told reporters he might go into Manhattan himself to yell “You are wrong” at people defying his lockdown.
Cuomo and Trump already have a long history of interaction in the Big Apple, and such a matchup would be entertaining, if nothing else.
