Have you ever agreed with right-wing Fox-Democrat Doug Schoen on anything? Never say never. In an OpEd for Fox.com after the debate, he wrote that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie were big winners and Biden-- every Republican's dream candidate-- was a loser. "All eyes, particularly those of Democratic leaders, strategists, and donors," he wrote, "were on Biden, who needed deliver a strong performance to reassure voters that he is ready for a general election fight against Trump. However, Biden was unable to break through and deliver the forceful showing that he needed, dodging a question regarding his son’s work with Ukraine and delivering several other uneven answers throughout the night. With each passing day, Biden seems to move further from securing the Democratic presidential nomination, and his unimpressive performance Tuesday night will likely result in a post-debate polling decline."Maybe Biden was thinking about how badly he's been doing among the small dollar donor base. He gets plenty of money from the wealthy, but small dollar donors are just not buying into his "back to normalcy" campaign promise to make no fundamental changes-- at a time when most Democrats want fundamental change.Biden has been burning through all those big money donations as though they are endless; they're not. He's raising far less money than Bernie or than Elizabeth Warren-- or even than the white bread conservative who wants his lame--Mayo Pete-- but he's addicted to private jets and he can't keep to a reasonable budget. So he's spending more than he's bringing in. CNN: "Biden's campaign entered October with $8.98 million remaining in its bank account, after spending more than $17.6 million during the July-to-September quarter. Biden raised $15.7 million during the quarter, according to a report filed by his campaign on Tuesday, shortly after the conclusion of the fourth Democratic presidential debate. The cash Biden has remaining a little more than three months before the Iowa caucuses puts him at a financial disadvantage to rivals such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who reported having more than $33 million stockpiled for the primary slog ahead. Sanders relied on small-dollar donations for about 60% of his contributions over the summer-- giving him a pool of donors to tap repeatedly before they hit legal contribution limits. Small donations accounted for less than a third of Biden's donors."Also from CNN: Consider this: Biden's total cash on hand is less than all of his main rivals for the Democratic nomination, including even California Sen. Kamala Harris ($10.5 million) who has dropped precipitously in polling over recent months. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ($33.7 million) has more than three times more left to spend than Biden, while Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren ($25.7 million) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg ($23.4 million) have well more than double Biden's total... Biden's fundraising situation is bad. And there are few signs it's getting better."Biden was relatively coherent on the debate stage, but that's about the only good thing I can say about him. Bernie responded to his mealy-mouthed bullshit about working with Republicans to get things done. John Haltiwanger reported for Business Insider that Biden and Beto were the two biggest losers of Tuesday night. "Biden stumbled through many of his responses, and offered a lukewarm defense of criticism over his son's work for a Ukrainian natural gas company while he was vice president... Biden has struggled to fend off these attacks, and that trend continued on the debate stage on Tuesday.In any essay for New York Magazine yesterday, Frank Rich seemed to say Tuesday was the beginning of the end for Biden. He acknowledges he's "always looked highly plausible in theory but repeatedly failed to deliver... lacking intellectual agility."
[H]e seems incapable of the improvisational moves necessary to take on Trump. He ducked a question about why it was okay for Hunter Biden to trade on his name for cushy foreign paydays, however lawfully, and instead repeated an anodyne soundbite three times (“My son’s statement speaks for itself”). This was a lost opportunity because Biden might have joined other Democrats in denouncing the nepotistic follies of his hypocritical Republican critics, notably Donald Trump Jr., Rand Paul, and Liz Cheney. And he might have passionately lit into the criminal White House conspiracy to strongarm foreign governments to soil him and his son. After all, Trump’s assault on the Bidens is the best argument for his candidacy-- it makes the case that Joe Biden is the candidate Trump fears the most. But unaccountably Biden has made only fitful use of this political gift horse in the weeks since the Ukraine scandal became front-page news-- even as his campaign’s fundraising has wilted.There were other examples of his lack of improvisational skills as well. After delivering a meaty tirade against the outrage of Trump’s surrender to Erdogan and Assad, he ducked the question of whether he’d send American troops back into the region. He couldn’t stop himself from repeating more than once his newly favored shtick (intended as a stab at Warren) trumpeting himself as the only candidate who’s gotten anything done. That claim is not only false, but is wielded as a dodge to avoid any treacherous policy question. Worse, it left him open to this memorable riposte from Bernie Sanders: “You got the disastrous war in Iraq done.” Sanders damaged Biden in a less explicit way as well. Post–heart attack, he seemed looser, sharper, and less programmed than he did pre–heart attack. He seems younger than Biden though in fact he’s two years his senior. Who would have ever imagined that Bernie Sanders could be a comeback kid?
Biden has 16 endorsements from current House members, primarily from conservative New Dems and Blue Dogs-- none with any clout to deliver any voters. In many cases, they're members-- like Texas crooks Vicente Gonzalez and Filemon Vela and members hoping for some crumbs to drop their way if he's elected-- who people look at and say, 'gee, if he's for Biden, I should be for someone else.' They have no followings because they have nothing to offer, just useless place-holders in a rotten system. On the other hand, right after the debate Bernie was endorsed by three of the most admired and meaningful members of Congress, AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib-- members who actually can sway voters. If you'd like to contribute to Bernie's campaign, you can do it at this link. Do it for our country and our future.