None of them ever lost a fight for the nomination once they declared (though we’ll never know if Hubert Humphrey would have defeated Robert Kennedy in 1968).Īs Democrats begin to think about 2024 - if only to cover their eyes from the likely train wreck that the midterms promise - their thoughts can be summarized simply: Will he? Should he? And if not him, who? Second: Since Alben Barkley failed to secure the 1952 Democratic presidential nomination, every Democratic vice president has eventually wound up as the party’s presidential nominee. Eight years later, when he left the White House after a second term with clear signs of declining abilities, he was younger than Joe Biden was the day he began his presidency. If he won, he’d be the oldest elected president ever. They are indisputable, uncontroversial - and they define the dilemma for Democrats in the next presidential election with stark clarity.įirst: When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, his age was a serious challenge. Let’s begin with two matters of historical fact. The class-action lawsuit accused the Trump administration - and then the Biden administration - of illegally delaying for years any action on the applications that borrowers had filed with the Education Department seeking debt relief. The proposed settlement is a possible ending chapter to a long-running lawsuit challenging the Education Department’s handling of the “borrower defense” law, which entitles federal loan borrowers to debt relief when their college misleads them or otherwise defrauds them. The agreement, which could wipe out more than $6 billion of student loan debt, was reached as part of a proposed class-action settlement filed in federal court Wednesday evening. The Biden administration has agreed to fully discharge the federal student loan debts of approximately 200,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by their college but whose applications for relief have languished at the Education Department for years. However, I think ambition makes people do different things,” said Cedric Richmond, a former senior Biden White House official who recently transitioned to a top role in the Democratic National Committee. He came through the recall election and he’s doing a pretty good job as governor. “Everybody is trying to be relevant for the next race. And they’ve been enough to elicit early brushbacks from allies of Biden and Harris. But taken together, the moves have been widely interpreted as a relatively young executive using the specter of a future presidential bid to shine a bright spotlight on himself.
He’s reminded people that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris separately trekked across the country to stump for him in his recall election.
Newsom has stressed that he isn’t challenging President Joe Biden - either on his stewardship of their party or as a candidate in two years. But the warnings turned a whisper campaign into something audible: Is the governor positioning himself for a White House run in 2024?
In recent days, the California governor signaled to his team that, for now at least, what they’ve referred to internally as his “Paul Revere” phase has gone far enough. For weeks, an exasperated Gavin Newsom warned Democrats they need to more aggressively confront Republicans in the national culture wars he’s convinced his party is losing.