Analysis: Biden wrestles with his Obama problem

Joe Biden came to the debate stage with stats and one-liners aimed at the feisty group of challengers. But the weapon he used the most was just two words: Barack Obama.

On health care, immigration, and civil rights, Biden deflected blows from Democrats by invoking the policies and the popularity of the first black president. When it worked, Biden argued forcefully for saving and improving on Obama's signature policies on health care or climate change. At other times, Biden risked appearing trapped in a past many in his party have moved beyond.

"It looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn't," Julian Castro, Obama's Housing and Urban Development secretary said to Biden in a memorable tussle over the Obama administration's deportation of immigrants. Biden declined to criticize Obama's immigration policies. Castro, tapping into many liberals' deep frustration on the issue, was eager. "What we need are politicians that actually have some guts on this issue."

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2017 file photo, President Barack Obama laughs with Vice President Joe Biden during a ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington where Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Biden came to the debate stage armed with stats and one-liners aimed at the feisty group of challengers. But the weapon he used the most was just two words: Barack Obama. (AP PhotoSusan Walsh)

Such is the burden and the blessing of Barack Obama for Biden. The former vice president owes his title and his front-runner status to the former president. But it's far from clear whether running as an unwavering Obama loyalist is enough to inherit Obama's winning coalition of voters.

The base of the party has moved left since he moved out of the White House. As popular as Obama remains with Democrats, many of the young people, women and progressives who lined up for him are more than ready to turn the page. Biden showed Wednesday he's not going do it for them.

That is the tension that drove both nights of debates in Detroit between all 20 Democrats vying to take on President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the fight was over a battle between purists — Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — and a cast of lesser-known pragmatists. Warren and Sanders both argued for big ideas and bold plans — Medicare for All, free college — while others pushed for plans they claimed were better grounded in reality.

On Wednesday, it showed through as nearly every other Democrat on stage targeted Biden, the most prominent pragmatist there, piling on the attacks on his record and suggesting he should step aside for new ideas.

California Sen. Kamala Harris hit Biden for his health plan that preserves Obamacare and builds on it, arguing it didn't going far enough and would leave millions uninsured. Both Castro and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pressed Biden on deportations . When Biden declined to discuss his counsel to Obama on the matter, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker cried foul.

"Mr. Vice President, you can't have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can't do it when it's convenient. And then dodge it when it's not," he said.

When de Blasio asked Biden about his role in police brutality and civil rights issue, a frustrated Biden pulled out the Obama card again.

"I find it fascinating everybody is talking about how terrible I am on these issues," Biden said. "Barack Obama knew exactly who I was. He had 10 lawyers do a background check on everything about me on civil rights and civil liberties and he chose me and he said it was the best decision he made."

That argument has been working for Biden with at least one key slice of the Democratic coalition. Polls show he has strong support among black voters, well ahead of Harris and Booker, the two black candidates in the race.

In South Carolina, where some two-thirds of the Democratic primary electorate is black, Biden had the support of 51% of African American Democratic voters, according a recent Monmouth University poll. Harris landed at 12%.

But there may be limits for Biden in relying on his association with Obama. It' not enough for some young voters, including the young black voters Biden needs to push to the polls if he wants to avoid the fate of Hillary Clinton, another Obama loyalist.

"For a certain set of people, older black voters, Obama is golden. That's all you need to hear," said Branden Snyder, the 32-year-old executive director of Detroit Action, a group that organizes people of color. Snyder noted Obama campaigned for Clinton in Detroit, but the city still saw turnout drop and Michigan go for Trump. For voters roughly 45 and younger, "we've seen this before."

"The promises that were made, by and large, weren't met," he said, citing immigration and the uneven economic recovery that followed the housing crash. "We want the understanding of what will be different, of what your plan is."

Harris and other Democrats have tried to lay their own claim to Obama's legacy. Harris attacked Biden on his career before Obama, claiming the former president would not have sided with Biden in his opposition to federally-mandated busing to desegregate schools, or in his willingness to work with segregationist senators.

"Had those segregationists their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate," Harris said. "Cory Booker would not be a member of the United States Senate. And Barack Obama would not have been in the position to nominate him to the title he now holds."

Biden's campaign says they have no concerns about his close alignment with the former president.

"I think you hear him talk about the incredible progress and change that was achieved under the Obama by the White House," Biden campaign deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said. "I think what you didn't hear tonight frankly was a lot of other candidates standing up for President Obama."

Biden's resistance to the party's leftward drift may help him win traction with other key pieces of Obama's winning coalition — white, working-class and union voters that tend to be moderate on immigration and economic issues.

That may help explain Biden's most notable split from Obama — a break on trade policy. The former vice president declared Wednesday he would not rejoin Obama's massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as it was negotiated. He also suggested he would reject and renegotiate Trump's new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement

Upon hearing that, de Blasio showed clear surprise: "I consider that a victory," he said.

Hennessey is a national political editor for The Associated Press. She has covered Congress, politics and the White House since 2009.

Associated Press Writers Sara Burnett and Tom Beaumont contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, calling it “a dirty spectacle” that cherry picks weapons of mass destruction from all other weapons that should also be banned.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.

The resolution would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.

“Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding,” she asked. “It’s baffling. And it’s a shame.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicized,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.

Russia and China proposed an amendment to the U.S.-Japan draft that would call on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”

The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 “yes” votes required for adoption.

The U.S. opposed the amendment, and after the vote Nebenzia addressed the U.S. ambassador saying: “We want a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in outer space, not just WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). But you don’t want that. And let me ask you that very same question. Why?”

He said much of the U.S. and Japan’s actions become clear “if we recall that the U.S. and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space.”

Nebenzia accused the U.S. of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”

She called Wednesday’s vote “a real missed opportunity to rebuild much-needed trust in existing arms control obligations.”

Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement of the resolution on March 18 followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.

Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.

Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that the world is just beginning to understand “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”

It could destroy “thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend on,” she said.

The defeated draft resolution said “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.” It would have urged all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the U.N. Charter.

The draft would have affirmed that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”

The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries, including the U.S. and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

The draft resolution emphasized “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”

It reiterated that the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.

The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution would have urged the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”

At the March council meeting where the U.S.-Japan initiative was launched, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”

He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”

“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.

United States Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses members of the U.N. Security Council before voting during a meeting on Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

FILE - U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Tokyo. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday, April 24, 2024, on a resolution announced by Thomas-Greenfield, calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)