• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

2020 Presidential Election: Biden v. Trump

Any discussion of Biden's $700 billion plan released today?
 
How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich

https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/

When it comes to foreign affairs, Biden and his advisers are nonideological and mainly transactional. In Obama’s situation room, he sometimes urged restraint, according to people who were there, and sometimes was hawkish. Rather than being associated with a particular school of statecraft or a signature policy accomplishment, Biden is known for his intimacy with world leaders.

Tasked by Obama to end the Iraq War, Biden supported Nouri El-Maliki, the leader he knew, and rescued the Iraqi prime minister’s career even though it ended up fracturing the country. When Maliki narrowly lost in 2010, Biden didn’t give Iraqi political parties time to broker a new coalition. With Biden’s endorsement, Maliki gained a second term; he grew more authoritarian, which is now widely believed to have led to the rise of ISIS. Biden ignored experts who were skeptical of Maliki and preferred to glad-hand. “He came to deal with Iraqi politicians like local political kingpins in Delaware or Pennsylvania,” said Robert Ford, who was deputy ambassador in Baghdad from 2008 to 2010.

Biden’s foreign policy is a blank slate, onto which often-conflicted advisers from the national-security establishment will project actual policies.

There is no Biden Doctrine. “He’s not a guy who knows history. He’s not a guy who is intellectually curious,” said Emma Sky, who advised the U.S. military in Iraq. “It’s all about personal relationships.” Those close bonds may cloud his judgment. He has expressed “love” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even after he had defied the Obama administration and stood by the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as he assaulted protesters. In effect, Biden’s foreign policy is a blank slate, onto which often-conflicted advisers from the traditional national-security establishment will project actual policies.

If “personnel is policy,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren likes to say, we can learn a lot about Biden from his team. In addition to Blinken, advisers include Nicholas Burns (The Cohen Group), Kurt Campbell (The Asia Group), Tom Donilon (BlackRock Investment Institute), Wendy Sherman (Albright Stonebridge Group), Julianne Smith (WestExec Advisors), and Jake Sullivan (Macro Advisory Partners). They rarely discuss their connections to corporate power, defense contactors, private equity, and hedge funds, let alone disclose them.

I asked a Biden spokesperson if the campaign would commit to more transparency and expand the Obama-era pledge to strategic consultants. “There’s a difference between consulting and lobbying,” he told me. “There’s a pretty strong line there … So, presumably we don’t have a ban on people who were consultants at one time or another, since I’m one myself.”
 
Can’t wait to be most progressively drone striking civilians.
 
I've seen way more pieces warning Democrats about getting complacent than I've seen complacent Democrats.

This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.
 
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.

I'd add "exaggerated Biden scandal" to this list akin to Hillary's e-mails.
 
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.

You're worried about suburban Wisconsinites? Trump won WI in RURAL counties, not suburban ones. How long does it take for this to sink in - 4 years apparently. He won in PA, WI, MI, etc. bc he destroyed Clinton in more RURAL counties compared to normal margins in Presidential elections.
 
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.

I also worry about the angry/scared white vote. I hope I am wrong, but I am concerned at the end of the day, they’ll still side with Trump because they’re scared about black people rioting their towns and taking away their police.
 
I'd add "exaggerated Biden scandal" to this list akin to Hillary's e-mails.

The hidden story of impeachment is that Trump and the GOP burned through an exaggerated Biden scandal and it had no impact. That was their Benghazi and emails and it fell flat.

I also worry about the angry/scared white vote. I hope I am wrong, but I am concerned at the end of the day, they’ll still side with Trump because they’re scared about black people rioting their towns and taking away their police.

I definitely think a lot of white people default to “they’re going to take my stuff.” But that happens when the economy is doing well enough that they have the luxury to have irrational fears. Right now white people are scared about their lives and their jobs and if it’s safe to put their children in school. And many white people are vulnerable enough to understand how others are vulnerable all the time because society is structured to keep them that way.
 
Plenty of Fox brained boomer suburbanites around me are convinced BLM is a Marxist organization, any sort of monument removal or renaming is a part of cancel culture and an attack on their heritage, whatever that means.

These people are fucking morons with no nuance or critical thinking anymore. They’re led around by the nose by king moron. I don’t trust any of these people to divorce themselves from idiotic wedge issues to realize they have an increasing chance of death from a disease Trump is still pretending does not exist.

I very much hope these folks are an obnoxious and loud few.
 
I definitely think a lot of white people default to “they’re going to take my stuff.” But that happens when the economy is doing well enough that they have the luxury to have irrational fears. Right now white people are scared about their lives and their jobs and if it’s safe to put their children in school. And many white people are vulnerable enough to understand how others are vulnerable all the time because society is structured to keep them that way.

Worthless old boomers aren’t motivated by schools or jobs anymore. Safety is N/A because Fox doesn’t say its unsafe.
 
It is nice to write that without being overly concerned about a conversation ending derail.
 
I don’t know that it is necessary to label BLM as an organization “Marxist” but there is no doubt much of its organizing and demands are rooted in marxist theory.
 
Is it fair to say that BLM is a Marxist organization hell bent on destroying this country? Thereby invalidating all protests in which someone carries a BLM banner?

This is the level of discourse at which a disappointing segment of our parents’ peers engage.
 
How many of each have you seen?

I’d estimate about a dozen “don’t get cocky kid” articles and no Dems saying this is a done deal.
 
I’d estimate about a dozen “don’t get cocky kid” articles and no Dems saying this is a done deal.

Yep. Anecdotes, but all the anti-Trump people I know are super paranoid about people thinking it’s in the bag and losing, and all the Trumpers I know are super cocky and think there’s no way they’re going to lose.
 
Is it fair to say that BLM is a Marxist organization hell bent on destroying this country? Thereby invalidating all protests in which someone carries a BLM banner?

This is the level of discourse at which a disappointing segment of our parents’ peers engage.

And did you know BLM is funded by George Soros??? That rascal!
 
Back
Top