Joe Biden Puts His Foot in His Electability; A dubious argument to run on, and an admission he’s otherwise running on empty.

Tony Branco, Townhall

The American Spectator  "Joe Biden is setting a bear trap for himself by insisting that Democrats should back him solely on the “electability” issue.

"He even had his wife, Jill, as a campaign surrogate, admit to the party’s far-left base that their preferred candidates “might be better on, I don’t know, health care than Joe is” at a New Hampshire campaign event broadcast by MSNBC.

"Mrs. Biden, however, married that admission to a warning: “You’ve got to look at who’s going to win this election, and maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, ‘Okay, I personally like so and so better,’ but your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump.”

Tony Branco, Townhall

"Let’s play that again: “swallow a little bit.” Maybe this strategy will work, but Biden is just as likely to get his electoral hind legs maimed for the effort.
"Trying to sell yourself on the basis of electability has a long pedigree. Of failure.

"Lamar Alexander ran in the Republican presidential primaries in 1996 on the slogan of “ABC: Alexander Beats Clinton.” He finished third place in the Iowa caucuses and dropped out before the “Super Tuesday” primaries.

"Alexander tried again in four years. That time, he didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses.

The 1996 election may seem like ancient history to folks, but how about 2016? Is that recent enough?

"Both Jeb Bush and John Kasich were supposed to be more “electable” than Donald Trump and were explicitly sold on that basis. Both had experience governing large states. Both could “credibly” challenge Hillary Clinton. And both went over like a led balloon with primary voters.

"We can quibble with the judgment of those voters, but who exactly went on to be “electable” by defeating Hillary Clinton? Why, Donald J. Trump." . . .