This is an important insight from Alby.
If that’s where Wall Street puts its money, (Joe Biden) be a contender. I’d say the odds are against it, but it’s not impossible. If he catches fire with the public, they’ll back him. Who else have they got? Gillibrand and Booker. Maybe Harris. They’re not going to sit it out.
For the past few cycles, we have had two money races. These races define the nominating contest even in the absence of any candidates. One is the race for Wall Street money described above by Alby. The other is the race for small donor money.
Howard Dean was the first to identify small donors as a possible route to the nomination. Wall Street identified the threat and used the media to execute an effective takedown. Obama knitted the two funding sources together, but only after he beat Clinton. Clinton won the Wall Street money race before the starter’s pistol fired but left small donors colder than cold.
To win the Democratic nomination and the Presidency, we’ll need a candidate that wins the small donor money race, thereby creating an actual base of voters, and manages to neutralize or co-opt the Wall Street money.
