Reality-rocked Democrats pushed peers to “pipe down” and fake it ’til they make it amid concerning presidential poll numbers.
Whether or not the writing is on the wall for President Joe Biden remains to be seen, but in the meantime, leftist leaders called for unified gaslighting to once again drag their candidate over the finish line next November.
Speaking with The Hill, prominent party figures addressed poor favorability, primary challenges, and an uphill slog in the polls as proof that Democrats needed to unify to translate “whining” into winning.
Having lived this himself, former House Democratic Caucus chair and ousted New York Rep. Joe Crowley, who was primaried out of power by now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said, “We gotta pipe down the moaning and groaning and all the whining.”
“There’s too much of that. I think that leaches into the psyche of the voters as well. That’s got to stop and I think at that point, you’ll start to see Biden’s numbers improve, certainly amongst Democrats, but I think voter-wide they’ll start to improve,” he added.
Similarly, deputy campaign manager for then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 White House bid, Steve Elmendorf, acknowledged the woes but sought to disregard them.
“I’m not like, oh everything they do is great over there. Obviously, they need to constantly refine the message and figure out what works and there are challenges with various groups of voters and they need to figure those out. But I don’t think it’s helpful as a party for people to sort of run around publicly and complain,” he told The Hill.
Elmendorf noted, “he’s running for reelection, people need to understand that and so as a party, everybody should figure out how do we get him reelected. Like, that’s pretty simple. I’m in the Jim Messina, David Plouffe school of, people need to stop bedwetting and focus on how to win.”
Messina, the campaign manager for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection, had noted on X, “Polls a year out are about as good at predicting election results as a magic 8 ball would be.”
In addition to poor polling that showed Biden losing battleground states in Nov. 2024, Democratic strategist David Axelrod, who had to walk back remarks seemingly suggesting Biden bow out, recently lamented “I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse.”
“He thinks he can cheat nature here, and it’s really risky,” he continued, reflecting on the 2016 matchup between then-businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “They’ve got a real problem if they’re counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember Hillary doing that, too.”
Axelrod says Biden has 50-50 chance at best IF he doesn’t avoid Hillary’s 2016 blunder https://t.co/48XugUGpCL via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 20, 2023
Adding to the narrative of willing a favorable outcome, former South Dakota senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle expressed, “You have to be concerned, but you also have to take it with the understanding that a year of politics, especially in an election, is a lifetime. Things just change dramatically over that time. We don’t know what the next 12 months will entail. Is it concerning? Of course, but there’s plenty of time for circumstances to change.”
Speaking directly to voiced negativity he added, “Obviously, they have a point. In spite of the debate that we’ve had now for several months about age and about options, I think we have to acknowledge that it’s absolutely critical that we come together and we be as cohesive as possible over the next 12 months. And I know that’s not easy. But it’s essential if we’re going to succeed.”
“The only way we can ensure that we won’t fail is if we stay as unified and as aggressively engaged as we possibly can. And that seems to me to be the simple truth that the sooner we all recognize and acknowledge the better,” the former senator contended.
Heaping on, Holland & Knight senior policy adviser Yasmin Nelson, former senior policy adviser to then-California Sen. Kamala Harris, told The Hill, “Biden-Harris is the ticket, and it’s not in Democrats best interest to entertain anything other than that. The campaign has a year to show voters the difference they’ve made and the significant legislative success over the first term, amidst extreme odds. They have to remind voters of that fight daily and build the brand around that success.”
Along with an independent run from environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., primary challenges from author Marianne Williamson and recently all-in Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips as well as the looming possibility of a third-party bid from outgoing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D), Biden has his own record of failure playing out on the world stage and in the wallets of Americans with which to contend.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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