Democratic Task Forces Deliver Biden A Blueprint For A Progressive Presidency

NPR ^ | 7/08/20 | Scott Detrow

[Libloather]

A joint effort by former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to unify Democrats around Biden's candidacy has produced a 110-page policy wish list to recommend to the party's presumptive presidential nominee.

Throughout the Democratic primary, Biden stuck to a more moderate platform, while Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and much of the rest of the crowded field courted progressives and advocated for broader structural changes. But as the United States faces a growing pandemic and unemployment rates at the highest levels in generations, Biden has been talking more and more about a presidency that approaches Franklin Delano Roosevelt's, with bold progressive ambitions.

The policy document - the work of six joint task forces appointed by Biden and Sanders in May - would give the former vice president a road map to that goal.

"The goals of the task force were to move the Biden campaign into as progressive a direction as possible, and I think we did that," Sanders told NPR. "On issue after issue, whether it was education, the economy, health care, climate, immigration, criminal justice, I think there was significant movement on the part of the Biden campaign."

[Pearls Before Swine]

I want to hear Biden actually say what they said he would do.

Ultimately, he would do what his handlers tell him to do. There may be a behind the scenes battle for control of the puppet strings, but I'd bet that the Obama/Jarrett team has the inside track.