Curry praises Biden for bringing presidential rivals into fold

By Scott Benjamin

Bill Curry, who worked in the Bill Clinton White House and is writing a book on Barack Obama, says Joe Biden is a better presidential candidate than Hillary Rodham Clinton, partly because he is embracing instead of shunning his former rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Biden is "doing what winners do in a primary, which is trying to find ways to put the vanquished candidates' messages into his platform," he said. "This is huge. It's something that Hillary didn't do. It's not her nature. And if she had done it, she would be president now."

Curry, who was domestic affairs counselor to Bill Clinton in 1995 and 1996, said Biden has even inserted some of progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders language into his speeches.

"You're hearing him say that health care is a right and not a privilege," he explained in a phone interview.

Sanders, who ran second to Hillary Clinton in the race for the 2016 Democratic nomination was the frontrunner for the 2020 nomination through February after annexing a virtual tie for first place in the Iowa caucuses, followed by victories in New Hampshire and Nevada. He also had raised the most money in a crowded field.

Biden won the South Carolina primary on February 29 and then after some of the other more moderate candidates immediately withdrew, vaulted past Sanders three days later on Super Tuesday and coasted to becoming the apparent Democratic nominee.

Interestingly, a year ago some political columnists predicted that Biden, at age 77 and with a more moderate platform, might make little progress beyond his previous runs for the White House in 1988, when he withdrew before the primaries, and in 2008, when he dropped out immediately after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.

Peggy Noonan, the Pulitizer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist, wrote in April 2019 under a headline that read: "If Biden Runs, They'll Tear Him Up."

The sub-headline added: "The Old Democratic Party Was Warm, Like Him; The New One Is Colder, Less Human And Divisive."

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne stated last April, "It will be good for the country and the Democratic Party for Joe Biden to run for president. But it could be hell on him."

Said Curry, who was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 1994 and 2002, "Many people in the media questioned Biden's political viability, age, his platform, his ability to organize and his fund-raising. But they appreciated his good qualities."

"They knew that he had a wealth of experience and knowledge, and saw his decency," he declared. "And a crowded field ended up helping him."

Curry said that Sanders' platform, which includes the Green New Deal and Medicare For All, "is embraced by a large number of voters."

However, he said Sanders didn't get a boost from his early victories.

"He is the only candidate to win major primaries and not get positive coverage," said Curry. "Major news outlets reported that if you nominate Sanders, you will lose" because many swing voters won't support him in the general election.

He added, "The overriding number of pundits said that Biden was the safer bet," said Curry, who grew up in Hartford and has lived for many years in Farmington.

"Biden didn't do anything in particular that caused him to jump ahead of Sanders," he explained. "But the Democrats have only one goal: defeat [Republican President Donald] Trump. And Biden seemed like the better candidate to do that."

In January, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote, "Biden has fixated his campaign on the Trump problem and fighting for the soul of America. Nearly twice as many Democrats say it's more important to beat Trump than to have a candidate with whom they agree on all issues."

Curry said, "People don't dislike Joe Biden. There were people who disliked Hillary Clinton, and that makes Biden a much better candidate than Hillary Clinton was."

"She also was so much a part of the policies of globalization that she lost votes from the working class," he said of the former Secretary of State, U.S. Senator and First Lady.

Curry added, "Biden doesn't have the charisma or the natural intellect of Bill Clinton or of Obama, but he works hard, he does his homework and he doesn't just show up. He's competent and knowledgeable."

He said although he is critical of some aspects of Obama's presidency, he still admires his accomplishments.

Curry explained, "Obama didn't think that the system was broken."

He criticized the former president for not getting a public option in his health care plan, making scant progress on climate change and doing too little to boost the minimum wage.

"If he had enacted his 2008 platform, we would be much more happy as a country," said Curry. "We needed it then, it is vital now."

However, Obama was the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to win at least two terms with more than 50 percent of the popular vote in each election. He left office with a 60 percent approval rating in an ABC News/Washington Post poll and was rated as the eighth best of the 44 former presidents in a 2008 poll by the American Political Science Association.

"Biden had a major role in getting legislation through Congress and in foreign policy decisions," Curry said. "His closeness to Obama will only help him."

He said he would like to see Biden select former presidential campaign rival Elizabeth Warren, the junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, as his vice presidential running mate.

However, he cautioned, "Although she is the best person for the job, I 'm not sure who is the best person to put on the ticket."

Curry lauded Warren for "being progressive and devoted to resolving issues of corruption and invoking corporate safeguards. She also is knowledgeable and hard-working."

Regarding the rebound from the pandemic, he said it will probably stimulate more of a need for a Green New Deal and such depression-era programs as a Conservation Corps and Works Projects Administration.

"If the pandemic had happened a year ago, the debate over Medicare For All would have been very different," said Curry. "You will not hear from the Democrats about an employer-based model again."

"[Sanders] didn't articulate the frugality side of health care reform," he said of the former presidential candidate's pledge regarding Medicare For All.

"Every other country has shown that it is the best way to save money," Curry added.

However, he said "progressives need to be very mindful that people want bold change but they don't want big bureaucracies."

Curry said he also hopes that, if elected, Biden would install more anti-trust provisions.

In his 2019 book, "The Great Reversal" (Belknap Press, 343 pages), New York University Finance Professor Thomas Philippon stated that America has given up on free markets. He noted that even in New York City there are only two Internet providers and nationwide there are only four domestic airlines.

Curry said, "The United States invented antitrust legislation. Europe now has a better system than ours. The European Union [E.U] stood up to Google."

Wikipedia has reported that the E.U. has conducted three separate antitrust investigations against Google for violating its competitiveness laws. NPR has reported that the online search and advertising company was hit with a $1.7 billion fine from the EU. in 2019.

Curry said a Biden Administration also should improve Americans' "right to privacy" from online companies.

On another topic, Obama has been hailed for his use of the Internet and micro-targeting.

University of Connecticut Political Science Department Chairman David Yalof has said, "What the telegraph was for Abraham Lincoln, what radio was for Franklin Roosevelt, what television was for John Kennedy, the Internet was for Barack Obama."

However, Curry said that more importantly, Obama had a vibrant message on change and a large "grassroots organization."

"The first progressive candidate to master the Internet was Howard Dean, who opposed the war in Iraq and supported civil unions," he said of the former Vermont governor who early in the 2004 presidential campaign appeared to be the Democratic front-runner before then-U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts rocketed to the nomination.

"It was effective in finding voters and allowing voters to find him," Curry explained. "But if you don't have an enthusiastic grassroots organization, it usually doesn't work. You can have electrical outlets and great appliances, but if the electricity doesn't come on they don't operate."

"I'm sure Biden can come up with people to run his computers that are as good as Trump's," he said. "He needs to have a message that people will rally around."

Said Curry, "But from my experience in the 1980s with the Nuclear Freeze movement, there should be a unanimity of message. The message should not be different in Montana than it is in Maryland."