| | | | Why Joe Biden's 'inevitability' campaign may be a mistake |  | | Joe Biden isn't running for president. Yet.
But it's already becoming clear what sort of campaign he will run when he officially enters the race sometime next month: One based on the idea of his inevitability.
This, from a piece by CNN's Arlette Saenz and Jeff Zeleny, is revealing:
"After a likely announcement in April, Biden is hoping to seize command of the highly-fluid contest through major endorsements and possibly selecting a running mate early to highlight the argument that the party's most urgent task should be defeating President Donald Trump, Democrats familiar with his plans tell CNN."
Major endorsements. An early VP pick. Both are clear signs that what Biden wants to do -- from the second he enters the race -- is make clear that the field is really him and then everyone else. That he isn't just one of the many candidates running, but that he's the heavy favorite.
Polling, generally speaking, bears out the idea that Biden starts the race on top. A new CNN-SSRS national poll showed Biden leading the field with 28%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 20%, Kamala Harris at 12% and Beto O'Rourke at 11%. No other candidate received double-digit support.
Count me skeptical of this Biden strategy, though. Inevitability isn't the sort of message that ever really resounds with base voters who tend to decide the identity of the nominee. And that's especially true in this current political moment, where both party bases have deep doubts about their own establishments. Hell, if inevitability was a winning message, the 2016 presidential race would have been between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, and Hillary would be president right now. Didn't work out that way.
By seeking to create the idea that he is the de facto nominee -- and to do so by leaning on endorsements from politicians -- strikes me as a somewhat tone-deaf approach to our current political times.
The Point: Biden isn't in yet. So he can still change strategic course. And I would.
-- Chris | | "I can still remember Pelé and so many others"
-- Donald Trump welcoming Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in the Oval Office, both exchanging soccer jerseys and Trump recalling the famous Brazilian soccer star. Trump called Brazil a "great soccer power." | | |  | How Pence became Trump's flatterer-in-chief | | If there's one thing that President Trump can count on, it's the unshakeable support from Vice President Mike Pence. From effusive praise to unwavering loyalty, here's how the VP became Trump's biggest cheerleader.
Can we count on you to subscribe to The Point on YouTube? | | | Only the Mountain Goats could pull off a song called "Cadaver Sniffing Dog." | | New Jersey senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker has actual Iowa roots to tout while touring the Hawkeye State -- he tells the Des Moines Register his family once lived in the now-defunct southeastern town of Buxton.
Buxton is now a ghost town, springing up in 1900 and disappearing 25 years later.
Buxton was once home to a mine where black workers were treated fairly, which drew Booker's great-great-grandmother from Alabama. When the town folded, some of Booker's family members remained in Iowa. | | Cory Booker: Will take his turn in a CNN town hall from Orangeburg, South Carolina on March 27, moderated by Don Lemon.
Kamala Harris: Is getting a major early boost from her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters in South Carolina. She's also making her campaign's first trip to Texas on Friday.
Elizabeth Warren: Wants the Electoral College to be abolished -- and said that reparations for the descendants of slaves is "on the table." Warren said both at her CNN town hall on Monday.
Beto O'Rourke: Will campaign in all of New Hampshire's 10 counties, beginning tonight and ending on Thursday. He's driven to the Granite State from Iowa in a rented van.
Seth Moulton: Touts his entrepreneurial experience, but the failure of a weight loss company he co-founded tells a different story. | |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY C-SPAN! 🎂📺🎂 | | | The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network turns 40 today. In its honor, let's remember some iconic moments from C-SPAN's four-decade history, like... Here's to 40 more! | | | | | | |
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