A new Quinnipiac poll in California finds Joe Biden is the leader of the Democratic pack with 26% support, followed by Bernie Sanders at 18%, Kamala Harris at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 7% and Elizabeth Warren at 7%.
A new St. Anselm College poll in New Hampshire finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 23%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 16%, Pete Buttigieg at 11%, Elizabeth Warren at 9%, Kamala Harris at 7%, Beto O’Rourke at 6%, Cory Booker at 4% and Amy Klobuchar at 2%.
Biden plans to announce his White House run toward the end of April (likely after Easter, which falls April 21), Axios reports.
A new Siena poll finds Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has a positive 52% to 33% favorability rating among voters of her district nearly three months into her first term in Congress.
A Quinnipiac University survey of California voters released Wednesday morning found that two thirds of all voters and two thirds of women in the state say allegations that Biden inappropriately touched a number of women in a nonsexual way are “not a serious issue.” Fully 71% of California Democrats said the same in the poll.
According to April polling conducted by Morning Consult, women voters could be slightly more likely than men to pick a woman candidate as their first choice in the Democratic primary.
In the latest weekly survey from the firm, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were the top candidates across Democratic voters overall, but when the data was broken out across gender, women voters backed several of the top women candidates at higher rates than male voters. Biden and Sanders still led the field among women voters, but the third and fourth place were now occupied by Harris and Warren.
Good. I won’t vote for him nor give him any money, and I pray no one is dumb enough to support the performance artist rock throwing crank.
A new Wason Center poll in Virginia finds that, two months after a blackface scandal led to calls for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) resignation, 52% of Virginians say he should remain in office while 42% say he should resign.
However, Northam’s approval rating is now 40%, which makes him less popular in the state than President Trump, who has an approval rating of 44%.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) raised $6 million in the first three months of her presidential campaign, Politico reports. “The Massachusetts Democrat also burned through more than 85 percent of what she raised in the first quarter.”
CNN: “Warren advisers painted a picture of a campaign that is laying the groundwork for a protracted battle for the Democratic nomination and anticipating the possibility that the Democratic contest turns into a 50-state scramble to pick up delegates.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s town hall on CNN last night “bagged a paltry 491,000 in total viewers and 115,000 in the advertiser coveted A25-54 demographic,” Mediaite reports.
“For some context: in the first quarter of 2019, CNN’s 10 p.m. host Don Lemon doubled those numbers: on average, he bagged 1.16 million total viewers and 361,000 in the demo.”
“While town halls may not be as big a draw as Don Lemon, they don’t always bring rock-bottom ratings, as Gillibrand’s did. Kamala Harris’ town hall in January drew record ratings for CNN: 1.95 million total viewers and 712,000 in the demo.”
Bob Kaiser: “It’s a question that can provoke strong, often pained reactions from my contemporaries. Any one person’s answer reflects their sense of what it takes to be president and what it means to be in your 70s. In my own case — healthy, active, marbles still present but unmistakably 76 — this does not seem like a good stage of life to take on such a huge challenge. I have less energy and less stamina than I did 25 years ago. I find concentration more difficult and naps more necessary. Learning a new subject is much harder than it used to be.”
“For my generation, the archetypal presidential geezer was Ronald Reagan, the only man ever to celebrate his 71st birthday in the White House. But Reagan was a spry 69 when he won the job. If Biden or Sanders triumphs in 2020, we enter an unprecedented age of — well, of old age in power. If reelected in 2024, Biden would start his second term at 82, Sanders at 83. If Trump won again, he’d still be president at 78 — 15 years older than Franklin D. Roosevelt was when he died in office in 1945.”
“Several dozen contemporaries with whom I’ve discussed this article, and half a dozen gerontologists, agree that 50 is a better age than 76 to undertake perhaps the hardest job on Earth. The experts on aging (none as old as I) were generally more sympathetic to the idea that someone in their late 70s might be an effective president, but no one I’ve talked to thinks this is an ideal age for the role.”
We learned nothing from Reagan, he was obviously senile in his final year or so, now we contemplate putting yet another even older man in the White House. At this point I suspect much of Joe and Bernie’s draw is based on name recognition, hoping for the younger candidates to gain traction and perhaps take the lead.
While there is a correlation between cognitive ability degradation and age, I’ve seen a large of number of people, politicians and citizens, who would qualify as fruitcakes at a very young age. For evidence, look at many politicians (and citizens) in the GOP and other fringe groups.
Ageism, may not have it’s own #MeToo movement as other isms do, but just because no one is protesting in the streets doesn’t make it any less wrong. People should evaluated on their words and deeds, not the stage of life they have attained or yet to attain.