IS BIDEN THE ONE THAT CAN BEAT TRUMP?

….Joe Biden on Super Tuesday.  It was his day.

After Super Tuesday, Biden is the one with momentum.

You may recall that only one week ago, the Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, the so called “Democratic Socialist” was on his way to securing the Democratic presidential nomination against a plethora of other candidates.

But then there was a miracle.

The highly respected black Representative of South Carolina decided to make a passionate endorsement of former Senator and Vice President, Joe Biden, and everything changed in only 24 hours.

Joe Biden had been left for dead as a candidate, but by receiving all the support of African Americans and winning all of the Southern states primaries, Biden is the one with the momentum.  Biden now leads in the delegate numbers against Bernie Sanders.

In one day after his victory in South Carolina Saturday, his rivals Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer left the race and Pete and Amy immediately gave their endorsements to Biden.  Even the popular Texan, Beto O’Rourke, joined Amy and Pete in giving his support for Biden.

And now that it’s obvious that Biden will probably be the nominee, even the Billionaire, Mike Bloomberg has dropped out and he has given his endorsement to Joe Biden.

As one of my favorite opinion writers, Dana Milbank wrote,  “A funny thing happened on the way to the revolution.”

Now, only seven days after all those changes in the Democratic race, it is now a two-man race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.  It’s hard to say when Elizabeth Warren is going to drop out, but as I said, it’s Biden that has the momentum.

This race will be a major item for political scientists in the future. 

They will study what occurred when the former New York mayor, Mike Bloomberg had his epic implosion in the previous two debates.  They will study Biden finally finding his voice in the South Carolina debate and the Representative Jim Clyburn’s passionate endorsement of Biden.  That endorsement gave the notice to the  African American voters in South Carolina to support and propel Biden to an astonishing margin of victory.  Then add the rivals of Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer clearing the field, which gave Biden a real shot at Sanders.  Add all the additional endorsements for Biden, and you have the current status.

Talks about becoming a “Come back kid!”  That is Joe Biden!

Because of all that occurred in the last three days, on Super Tuesday, voters across 14 states collectively delivered an emphatic message on the single biggest day of the primary season. They didn’t want what Sanders call “a revolution”. They just want to oust Donald Trump.

On Super Tuesday, the few bright spots for Sanders were hardly encouraging for him: They were states with heavy early voting such as California and Colorado, where many cast ballots before a surge of support to Biden in just the last few days.

Democrats on Tuesday rescued themselves from a repeat of what happened to Republicans in 2016, when the populist outsider, Trump, vanquished a cluttered field and no “establishment Republican” candidate had a clean shot at Trump.

But now the GOP has a different predicament. Democrats find themselves in a bit of a rerun of the Sanders-Clinton race of 2016. Whatever happens in the rest of the primary season, Sanders will have substantial support and a large number of delegates. If he loses to Biden and doesn’t embrace the Democratic ticket, his supporters might stay home in November.  And that could hand a victory to Donald Trump.

And example of those that may not be on the Biden Train, and might get on the Trump Train.  That example could be some on like a Southerner, Mr. Paul Taylor, who is a corner store cashier in an impoverished area of Charleston, S.C.  He is gay, black and says he’s a  Democrat, but he also says he may vote for Trump.

Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver made clear in an interview with NBC on Tuesday that the candidate Sanders would continue to lacerate the Democratic “establishment.”  Weaver suggested that Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Klobuchar are “establishment” politicians, and that is something that Sanders, despite his 30 years in Congress and 40 years in elected office, somehow is not “establishment.”

While Sanders retains enough power to negatively affect the party, it is unclear after Tuesday that he has enough power to lead the party.  Far from bringing new blood into the Democratic primaries, it appears that in some places the election turnout was very high in those places where Sanders did poorly.

But Super Tuesday did reveal a party still divided by ideology and demographics.

Democrats were split on Medicare-for-all, and as expected, Sanders did well among the very liberal, while Biden did well among the moderates. The young voters voted by a large margin for Sanders, while older voters turned out for Biden.

The problem is that those divisions won’t disappear anytime soon and not before the November election.

This is all the more reason for Democrats to focus on the one thing they all agree on, and that is: beating Trump! 

And the Democratic voters just made it clear they believe Biden is the one to do that.

Copyright G. Ater 2020