Controversies test appeal of Democrats Biden, Buttigieg to black voters

[webfact]

Controversies test appeal of Democrats Biden, Buttigieg to black voters

By James Oliphant

 

FILE PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at an event at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, U.S. June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jordan Gale

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At various stages of their presidential campaigns, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg have each faced a central question: Can a Democratic Party that increasingly prizes diversity and progressivism support a moderate white man as the nominee?

 

Both candidates revived that debate this week, when they ran up against the issue of race, spotlighting their relationship with the African-American community, a vital Democratic constituency.

 

For Biden, it was his boast of working with avowed segregationists in the Senate in the name of civility and getting things done. For Buttigieg, it was dealing with the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of a black man in South Bend, Indiana, where he serves as mayor.

 

The controversies again raised questions about whether either is the best choice to galvanise black voters as the Democratic nominee against Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

 

Democrats have emphasized the importance of African-American voters for next year's election after black turnout dipped in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee.

 

"There is a huge elephant in the room this cycle - which is race," said Quentin James, executive director of The Collective PAC, which is working to ensure a black candidate is on the Democratic ticket.

 

At a fundraiser earlier this week, Biden, 76, talked of working as a young senator with Southern Democrats Herman Talmadge and James Eastland.

 

While discussing Eastland, a senator from Mississippi who described black people as inferior and fought against efforts to desegregate the South, Biden said: "He never called me boy, he always called me son.”

 

He was swiftly criticized by several other presidential candidates, including U.S. Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

 

When Booker, an African-American who is almost 30 years younger than Biden, called on him to apologise, Biden responded by defending his civil rights record and saying Booker should apologise to him. "There's not a racist bone in my body," he said.

 

Booker was visibly upset in an interview with CNN afterward, saying Biden, who served two terms as vice president to Barack Obama - America's first black president - had missed the point about the harm his words caused.

 

"What matters to me is that a guy running to be head of our party, which is a significantly diverse and wondrous party, doesn't understand or can't even acknowledge that he made a mistake," Booker said. "He knows better."

 

The front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Biden has long championed civil rights and was honoured earlier this year by Al Sharpton's National Action Network. At a fundraiser on Wednesday, he cited civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as an inspiration for entering public service and spoke of fighting segregation alongside the late Senator Edward Kennedy.

 

But James argued the base of the Democratic Party had shifted beneath Biden's feet. Since his campaign began, Biden has strived to persuade progressive elements of the party that he is in step with them on issues such as abortion and climate change. This week’s flap “continues a narrative for Biden that he is not in line with the future of the party,” James said.

 

Nancy Pelosi, who as speaker of the House of Representatives is the top elected U.S. Democrat, defended Biden on Thursday, calling him "authentic."

 

"Joe Biden seems to have tremendous support in the African-American community. But it's for them to decide, it's not for me to make a judgement as to how they're going to react to him," she said.

 

RAW RELATIONS

Buttigieg has spent the week dealing with a crisis in South Bend, after a white police officer shot a black man early on Sunday who he said had flashed a knife. The officer's body camera had been switched off. Buttigieg cancelled campaign events and returned home.

 

He has had at times a rocky relationship with the city's black residents, stemming from his decision to fire the African-American police chief early in his mayoral tenure and criticism that poorer neighbourhoods have not benefited from his efforts to revitalise the local economy.

 

Openly gay, Buttigieg, 37, has been an effective fundraiser in part because of backing from the LGBTQ community. But he has acknowledged he has largely failed to win over black voters in critical early voting states such as South Carolina.

 

"We know it's going to take extra work because I'm not from a community of colour and also was not a famous person when this process began," Buttigieg said last week in Charleston, South Carolina. "We're working very energetically, very actively, in order to invite more people and specifically black voters into this campaign."

 

Bolstered by his partnership with Obama, Biden has long enjoyed strong support from black voters in South Carolina and elsewhere.

 

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in Columbia, South Carolina, said that while that was unlikely to change, Booker and Harris, another African-American candidate, could now siphon off some of that support.

 

He said Biden erred in attacking Booker, who trails him significantly in opinion polls. "You don't punch down," he said.

 

Buttigieg, Seawright said, was in deeper trouble. "He's polling at zero percent," with black voters in the state, he said. The trouble in South Bend, "is just another lump in his political carpet."

 

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-21

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[zydeco]

Tom Wolfe called this, "mau-mauing the flak catchers."

[connda]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Can a Democratic Party that increasingly prizes diversity and progressivism support a moderate white man as the nominee?

Add the word "old" between moderate and white.  Time for progressives to get progressive and bring in the 'new blood.'  

[Baerboxer]

As part of the "reparations" being proposed and supported by large numbers of Democrats, perhaps all potential POTUS candidates should be Afro-Americans who can prove their ancestors were slaves? However, to increase diversity, the VPOTUS candidate should be an Afro-American from the LGBT community; and they should pledge to select a secretary of state from the Hispanic community who can prove illegal immigrants as parents.

 

Yeah for diversity and affirmative discrimination!!

 

Then of course the DNC could select who the hell they prefer anyway, just as with Hilary.

[user68677878]

5 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

All the 'new blood' are progressive Commies who given the chance will turn America into another Venezuela. 

Perhaps its needed for a wake up call

[from the home of CC]

what really concerns me is a trump reprise by default, it doesn't look good...

[Chomper Higgot]

Buttigieg gave a town hall live on FOX, recording available on Youtube. 

 

It is well worth watching and listening to. 

[Tug]

Any of thease guys would be better than Donald just look at today for that answere and as for vp Biden he has a long record of working with Ian for communiteys of color looking at the posts of the trump supporters imo they sound delusional and desperate 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Tug

[IAMHERE]

Just bringing up any black stuff in Biden's history so that in the real presidential race it will be considered 'old' history. The democrats must have a black on the team or the black vote will stand down like they did in 2016.

[Cryingdick]

It's pretty funny when you get this kind of result. The blacks won't vote for Biden because he is allegedly racist yet won't vote for Buttigieg because they are homophobic. Quite the little conundrum.

[Scott]

Troll posts removed along with replies.  

 

[bristolboy]

7 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

Just bringing up any black stuff in Biden's history so that in the real presidential race it will be considered 'old' history. The democrats must have a black on the team or the black vote will stand down like they did in 2016.

In this election African-Americans don't need anybody to vote for. Not when they've got Trump to vote against.

[Cryingdick]

1 minute ago, bristolboy said:

In this election African-Americans don't need anybody to vote for. Not when they've got Trump to vote against.

 

They also may not bother to vote unless somebody comes along who is compelling.

[Tug]

Just seeing Donald as potus is compelling in the extreme to cast your vote black white asian American Indian doesent matter look at how things are starting to pile up under his @=&$#administration!

[Cryingdick]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Just seeing Donald as potus is compelling in the extreme to cast your vote black white asian American Indian doesent matter look at how things are starting to pile up under his @=&$#administration!

 

This is the sort of post that makes your positions, in their entirety seem misguided at best.

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 

They also may not bother to vote unless somebody comes along who is compelling.

We can just look to the 2018 midterms to see how likely that contention of yours is.

[Tug]

31 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

This is the sort of post that makes your positions, in their entirety seem misguided at best.

Nope

[Cryingdick]

24 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

We can just look to the 2018 midterms to see how likely that contention of yours is.

The mid terms where Donald conceded less seats than Clinton or Obama? Nad after the fact the newly elected dems failed to accopmplish one single thing? I heard Pelosi speak the other night I had forgotten she isn't on the impeachment wing. 

 

It is pretty sad.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Cryingdick

[Cryingdick]

Th4 circular firing squad is just starting. Lest we forget the other piece of the puzzle is how anti-semitic the party is. homophobic and anti-Semitic isn't all that sexy.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Cryingdick

[bristolboy]

3 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

The mid terms where Donald conceded less seats than Clinton or Obama? Nad after the fact the newly elected dems failed to accopmplish one single thing? I heard Pelosi speak the other night I had forgotten she isn't on the impeachment wing. 

 

It is pretty sad.

The one where despite the huge increase in gerrymandering by Republicans, the Democrats scored their biggest win since 1974.

Extreme Gerrymandering & the 2018 Midterm

"Many Democrats are optimistic about their chances of winning a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. But in a new report, we measured how much harder partisan gerrymandering will make it for Democrats to win seats — and found that even a blue wave election akin to 2006 would be far from enough. Maps drawn after the 2010 tea-party wave to favor Republicans, particularly in big swing states like Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio, mean Democrats would need to win the national popular vote in 2018 by the biggest margin in a midterm since 1982."

https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/extreme-gerrymandering-2018-midterm

 

 

[bristolboy]

7 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

Th4 circular firing squad is just starting. Lest we forget the other piece of the puzzle is how anti-semitic the party is. homophobic and anti-Semitic isn't all that sexy.

 

 

Because Louis Farrakhan is not a fringe figure?

In the 2018 midterms 79% of Jews voted democratic.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/07/how-religious-groups-voted-in-the-midterm-elections/

So your nonsense about anti-semitism being a factor is just more evidence of wishful thinking.

[Scott]

Inflammatory post and reply removed.   Continue and face a suspension.  

 

[Tug]

1 hour ago, Cryingdick said:

The mid terms where Donald conceded less seats than Clinton or Obama? Nad after the fact the newly elected dems failed to accopmplish one single thing? I heard Pelosi speak the other night I had forgotten she isn't on the impeachment wing. 

 

It is pretty sad.

Total denial lol