The op-ed link. Winkler mentions Phillips twice, in the headline, and the final sentence.
Winkler focuses upon the big picture - Biden will run against Trump again, so what's his record, his mojo, his chops. And you know it is favorable, it is not House Republican stuff. Hunter is never mentioned. Properly so, since Joe picked his people carefully and collectively they did a good job. A performance deserving four more years. Read it all at Strib.
Final sentence, a clearly rhetorical question:
Congressman Phillips: What more do you want?
Good question.
Go figure the answer as you'd guess it. Whatever it is Dean wants is more likely focused on Dean than Joe, despite how the issue has been rhetorically posed. Worked and reworked. Keeping the pot on a questionable slow boil.
And Dean has not mentioned Hunter. He leaves that third-rail to the other party; his thing being ageism. As a contemporary of the Biden/Trump pair, being fine enough for my age, I think Phillips is barking wholly up Dean's tree, and not Joe's.
Perhaps it is a cynical view, but one could guess what Dean wants is his name in Strib headlining and coverage a few more times, with more than a few being even better. National coverage? It rocks.
BOTTOM LINE: Dean has Dean in mind more than party and more than Joe, or prove me wrong.
________UPDATE________
Ageism is ugly - unfitting for a member of Congress
What else is Phillips saying against Biden than age as an impediment? Biden's poll numbers are low. So, Phillips poll numbers would be better? Most of the nation does not even know who he is, even with this name-boosting stuff he's been pursuing.
This man has policy differences with Biden? Prove that to me. The fact is the man is a policy clone of Joe Biden. His voting record shows that, except for age difference, he's in Biden's camp, entirely:
https://ballotpedia.org/Dean_Phillips
Check it out. Every Biden/party vote, aye. NO DEVIANCE.
So, he admits Biden's done the job, the party backing Biden has done the job; but Biden has bad poll numbers.
Explain to me, please, how voters will like Dean Phillips, who most voters would not be able to identify in a police lineup, when they dislike Biden --- how will Dean Phillips, House back-bencher voting for every bill Biden and the party proposed, resonate where Biden does not - when he is no different from Biden, liking every single bill Biden has signed into law.
Oh. Right.
He's younger. Ageism.
___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
If Dean Phillips were with me on this, I'd take him seriously. There has been no indication he'd join in that criticism.
Gelato vs. ice cream cones is not a real difference, not politically relevant.
________FURTHER UPDATE________
This item is posted after the SHOW ME THE MONEY post, but fits here and not there. MinnPost had a longer report dated August 1, but ending paragraphs of that post noted:
Columbia University political science professor Robert Erikson thinks it’s important to know the identities of the Democratic donors meeting with Phillips this week to help him decide his political future. The congressman has not said who he is meeting with.
Erikson said Phillips could be a threat to Biden if he runs as a third-party candidate, syphoning off Democratic and independent votes from the president. He said Phillips would be a much more serious candidate than Kennedy or Williamson. But Erikson agreed with others who said the odds are long that Phillips would win the 2024 presidential election. Like others, Erikson said Phillips’ presidential ambitions are an enigma.
“The question is does he want to run for president or does he want publicity?” asked Erikson.
If you've had no nationwide attention previously, and you tout going East to shake money trees, you owe people disclosure of who you will solicit and why. It is part of an electorate getting to know you Statewide, never mind nationwide.
Who did he talk to and how was his presentation received matter. A bit of candor on those things would help defuse the speculation in the MinnPost closing sentence.
Is there a for-real dimension, or is it all hand waving to get one's name out?