'He realizes now that he screwed up': Biden scrambles to recover from debate flop

[brooklynite]

Politico

Not long after his anemic performance in the first presidential debate, as his poll numbers began to slide, Joe Biden had conversations with nervous donors and personally assured them his campaign was on track.

“People were raising serious questions about his ability to be very aggressive against Trump,” said one person who spoke with Biden.“He’s listening. He seems to be more sure of himself after that first fiasco. I think he realizes now that he screwed up.”

Many Democrats — including his own donors and admirers — continue to question whether he’s capable of recovering from a damaging first performance. They wonder whether he can exercise the discipline necessary to execute a debate plan on Wednesday, when several rivals will have an interest in taking him down.

Seldom has a candidate so well-equipped for a debate projected so much uncertainty.

“The big question he has to resolve is if he’s up to this thing, if he’s vigorous and if he’s engaged,” said David Axelrod, a former Obama advisor.

[democratisphere]

1. MSM crap. Joe Biden is leading substantially in most of the polls.

Joe Biden will thankfully be the Democratic Presidential candidate when the BS and dust settles.

[ooky]

15. Yep.

[Indykatie]

21. I Think Those Depending on the Debates to Overtake Biden Will Be Disappointed.

I think a strong debate performance can boost a candidate's position in the race but it won't move a candidate from 8%, 10% or 15% to 25% or 30% especially when you consider that the top 4 candidates (Biden, Warren, Harris and Sanders) can raise enough $$ to hang on. Even Mayor Pete will probably have enough $$ and support to hang around longer than anyone initially thought. Biden doesn't need to hit a home run in the debates.

[Thekaspervote]

27. Indeed! As today's Quinnipiac shows

Their comments: “Biden regains his lead post debate.”

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3635

[PatSeg]

22. Yep

They're trying to create a story that does not really reflect what is going on. Joe Biden came across as unprepared because he didn't expect that sort of attack from a fellow Democrat. You could tell he was rather shocked. He would hardly go into a debate with Trump unprepared for vicious attacks. He just never saw people like Kamala Harris or Cory Booker as adversaries in the same sense as he sees Trump.

[wyldwolf]

2. "scrambles" to "recover?" This piece seems to be a month late

Biden has recovered.

[brooklynite]

4. The context is that he stumbled in the last Debate and now faces another one.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. Weird. I thought the context was that he's still trying to recover. That's what it says in the title

[thesquanderer]

13. He is. He's not where he was pre-debate. But realistically...

...if you're the frontrunner before the first debate, and one of only two with near universal name recognition... you pretty much have to expect to go down from there.

Regardless, I think it's widely recognized that his debate performance was unimpressive. And that to me is the bigger problem, I worry how he'll fare in a debate against Trump. I'm not sure he has it. He may poll great against Trump now, but I wonder if he'd maintain that once he's actually going head-to-head against him. I think other candidates may be more impressive in that arena.

[Drunken Irishman]

17. Pre-debate, Biden was 32%. Currently, Biden is 30%. His margin has also recovered.

Prior to the debate, Biden's closest competitor, Sanders, was 15 points behind Biden (6/28) - today, his closest competitor, Sanders, is ... 15 points behind on average.

[Thekaspervote]

28. Today's Quinnipiac poll has Biden at 34%

Warren 15%
Harris 12%
Sanders 11%

[LanternWaste]

10. Less context, and more a simple allegation

[thesquanderer]

12. Right. If he loses ground after each debate, he'd be in trouble by Iowa. (n/t)

[thesquanderer]

11. He's come back, but not to the point he was before the debate. (n/t)

[Drunken Irishman]

18. But he has.

Prior to the debate, on 6/28, Biden's average in the polls was 32% - he's at 30%. The margins are the exact same, as well, as prior to the debate, he led the second closest competitor by 15 points on average and today, according to RCP, he leads ... by 15 points. His numbers are almost identical to where they were prior to the debate.

[thesquanderer]

20. re: "on 6/28, Biden's average in the polls was 32% - he's at 30%"

30 is a smaller number than 32.

As I said, "he's come back, but not to the point he was before the debate." I don't understand how you can refute that by posting numbers that prove it.

There are other numbers, too. Poll average is only one. Look at specific polls (i.e. not an average of all polls, but the specific polls done by the same organization before the debate and now). Poll average is good for getting a general sense of where things are today, but a specific poll over time (or more precisely, looking at a number of them) would actually be better for looking at trends, since a polling average done at different times could be averaging different pollsters using different methodologies.

And perhaps the most troubling pre and post debate figures for Biden come from the analysis at

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=207639

[Drunken Irishman]

23. His margin absolutely is the same as it was before the debate.

It's factually incorrect to say he has returned to his pre-debate numbers, he has without question.

[thesquanderer]

24. Not without question. For one thing, margin is only one metric...

...and if his margin is the same, it means that the second place position has gone down just as much, but it doesn't mean others haven't gained at his expense.

That said, his Quinnipiac results released today look great.

It would be interesting to see new polls from Politico/Morning Consult and The Hill/HarrisX... those are two majors that still show Biden significantly trailing his pre-debate numbers both in total support AND in margin... but it's been about two weeks since either of them has released results.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Politico.

They seem to enjoy finding molehills to make mountains out of.

[Cha]

29. lol

[SidDithers]

5. DU rec...nt

Sid

[katmondoo]

6. Kamala has to also recover. Itwas a mistake to go after Biden for his past views on Busing

[wyldwolf]

8. right. After her little bounce, she quickly fell back to earth

[peggysue2]

14. That's true.

Kamala got her name out there, experienced a brief bounce and then came swiftly back to earth. However, from what we've all been reading, other candidates are taking that cue and preparing their own personal attacks. Booker, Gillibrand to name two, both of whom have nothing to lose with their current polling in the low single digits.

The target on Joe Biden's back is glowing. Now, it's up to him to turn it off.

Go Joe!

[Freethinker65]

7. Really? Pretty sure any seasoned politician would know race would tighten.

Politico seems to be exposing its agenda

[Princetonian]

16. I remember similar headlines when Barack underwhelmed during his first debate with Mittens.

Media loves to knock frontrunners and create a horse race.

[SouthernProgressive]

19. .

That's all this effort is worth.

[Cha]

30. lol

Thanks for making the effort.

[msongs]

25. more gossip from politico nt

[Polly Hennessey]

26. Don't think Joe needs to scramble from anything.

He is doing fine and still leading the pack. The debate that matters is between our candidate and moron mouth. Politico, seriously.

[tirebiter]

31. Evidently recovering from first place

Is rough.