Jeb Bush 2.0

Joe Biden is the Jeb Bush of the 2020 election season

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Is Joe Biden (left) the Democratic Party’s Jeb Bush (right)?

After many of the Democratic Party’s debates, some questions people find themselves asking have been answered. Namely, who the main contenders would be after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. 

Although there are many more things to be worked out, something that has become clear is that Joe Biden’s performance has been less than stellar and that he is quite reminiscent of Jeb Bush.

Both candidates are strikingly similar, just on opposite sides of the aisle. For one, both Bush and Biden ran as more conventional establishment candidates, even though current trends point to populism. 

This does not promise good things for Biden, as running for president requires that you the people what they want. It is understandable that Biden fears labeling himself as a left-wing populist, as they do not have a very good track record with Walter Mondale in ’84 and George McGovern in ’76 both falling under the category. Still, there are politicians like Bill Clinton who are examples that populists can have a successful run.

A second similarity is that both candidates started with insane sums of cash and squandered it. Although Bush did hold the edge in this category, spending a whopping $103 million during the 2016 Republican Primaries, Biden has spent $62 million thus far, despite performing at such poor levels.

As many people continue to claim that money wins elections, it is clear to see from these two failed campaigns that this sentiment is just not true.

The main issue that Bush and Biden share is the amount of disappointment that they have been able to produce.

Third, both candidates started out polling very well in the primaries. This time though, Biden held the advantage compared to Bush. Both Bush and Biden led well through the early campaigns in January, but Joe came crashing down by much larger margins as he held double-digit leads in most states.

Bush, on the other hand, had several issues along the trail, such as the instances in which he asked voters to “please clap,” while Biden can hardly make it through a full sentence without sounding senile.

The main issue that Bush and Biden share is the amount of disappointment that they have been able to produce. Bush came from arguably the most powerful American political family outside of the Kennedys and was absolutely obliterated by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Biden has been in the United States’ government since Dinosaurs roamed the planet, including being the vice president to Barack Obama, the most popular president since Ronald Reagan.

You would think that each one could have done so much better, but it turns out that running for president is much harder than it looks.

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