“Who do you think Joe Biden’s going listen to?” Kaufman asked. “What do you think is down deep in Joe Biden’s innermost instincts? Where do you think they are? Do you think they’re with the poor, disadvantaged, with people of color, with middle class people? Or do you think they’re with Goldman Sachs?”
To Kaufman, the answer is clear, but some progressives worry that the Biden campaign’s vagueness about his economic team and the news about Summers reinforced their concerns. “Larry Summers Is a Dead Albatross Around Joe Biden’s Neck,” read a headline Monday in the Nation, concluding that if the candidate “wants to prove his bona fides to progressives, he’ll have to cut his ties to Larry Summers.” Others have started a petition urging Biden to do just that.
Memories of Obama
Jeff Hauser, founder of the Revolving Door Project, which scrutinizes executive-branch appointees, said Biden has pushed for something Summers opposed under Obama -- a stimulus bill in the trillions of dollars.
“There is responsiveness to the progressive wing that’s encouraging,” he said.
Mike Lux, who was the Obama transition team’s liaison to progressives and worked on Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign, said he sees progressives continuing to push Biden -- and for good reason.
“In past eras when a Democratic candidate won, there was, frankly, more trust,” Lux said, arguing that some progressives still feel stung from the experience of watching Obama, who they believed was closely aligned with them, take a different path once elected.
“When Rahm Emanuel was brought in as chief of staff and Summers” and Timothy Geithner “were appointed right away, it really shocked and depressed people,” he recalled. “And that experience combined especially with Elizabeth Warren preaching that ‘personnel is policy’ means people are thinking about it all differently now.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.