The miracle began on Sunday (AEDT) in South Carolina with Joe Biden’s campaign on life support. After horrible wipeouts in Iowa and New Hampshire and a distant second-place finish in Nevada, the former vice-president had been written off. But backed by African-American Democrats, Biden demolished Bernie Sanders 48 per cent to 20 per cent in the Palmetto State.
Biden then appeared the next day on shows to argue that Sanders’s socialist views would drag down the entire Democratic ticket if he were to lead it. The message resonated. By Tuesday, Amy Klobuchar and former mayor Pete Buttigieg had withdrawn and endorsed Biden in Dallas, joined by former representative Robert Francis (Beto) O’Rourke.
Then, with virtually no organisation, advertising or time to campaign, on Super Tuesday Biden won 10 of 14 states, including substantial delegate hauls in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts and Minnesota. Late-deciding voters went decisively for Biden, as he converted supporters of candidates who’d withdrawn and some who remained.
It helped that money didn’t buy political love for former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg. His spending could reach $US800m — and all it won him was American Samoa and third-place finishes in most states. Bloomberg’s campaign counted on Biden collapsing, but the former vice-president rose from the political dead and won the week decisively. On Thursday, Bloomberg decided he could do more for his party out of the race than by continuing his campaign, so he folded his campaign and endorsed Biden.
Elizabeth Warren may have been Wednesday’s biggest loser. She ran third in Massachusetts, her home state, and failed to crack 15 per cent in her native Oklahoma. Sometimes the people who know a politician best dislike her the most.
Though it was Biden’s night, Super Tuesday still had a bright spot for Sanders. It will take days to finish counting ballots, but Biden’s lead in the delegate count, gained from victories in the South and Midwest, will likely be cut to between 50 and 70 when California’s final tally is known. With about 60 per cent of Democratic delegates still to be selected, that isn’t a big gap.
The contest is far from over. Sanders’s appeal to Latinos, young people and progressives points to his staying power and a long, drawn-out race.
Biden can’t count on momentum alone. While his Super Tuesday victories will generate more donations, endorsements and volunteers, the leftists backing Sanders will not go gently. At least the field has shrunk to the two candidates who have a realistic shot at winning.
Biden invoked a powerful argument when he said Sanders would hurt down-ballot Democrats. Framing the contest as a question of electability is fine, but it would be more effective if the former vice-president pointed out that Sanders’s extreme views and values are not those of ordinary Democrats.
Sanders is a true socialist, whereas most Democrats support capitalism, albeit with reforms and restraints. A lifelong critic of the US, Sanders has praised
anti-American tyrants for decades. An extreme isolationist and ardent protectionist, he’d eviscerate US national security. Biden needs to take seriously his rival’s desire and program to change America’s government, economy and culture fundamentally.
This isn’t the first time Democrats have faced an attempt by an extremist to hijack their party to transform America. When Franklin D. Roosevelt realised how radical vice-president Henry A. Wallace was, he allowed party leaders to remove the Iowan from the 1944 Democratic ticket. They replaced Wallace with a Senate backbencher named Harry S. Truman, whose views were in sync with those of Roosevelt and most Democrats.
As president, Truman still had to contend with Wallace’s efforts to move the Democratic Party far to the left. In response, the tough Missourian fired Wallace as commerce secretary, then beat him and his followers in every political contest he could, forcing them out of the party and annihilating them in the 1948 election, when Wallace earned 2.4 per cent of the vote as a third-party presidential candidate.
Sanders represents an existential threat to the Democratic Party. If he “Corbynises” the party like Labour in Britain, it will be difficult to reverse its leftward lurch any time soon. While that might be good for the GOP in the short run, it would be dangerous for America, which benefits from a two-party system in which both reject extremist ideologies.
Biden and other traditional liberal Democrats have a real fight on their hands. Wednesday was its start, not its end. But what an incredible start it was.
Karl Rove twice masterminded the election of George W. Bush
The Wall Street Journal
Meta’s ‘digital companions’ talk sex with users — even children
Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in ‘romantic role-play’ that can quickly turn explicit.
Real-life conclave rivals drama of movie version
The scene opens with a cleric turning up uninvited to a secret meeting of cardinals. It may sound like the Oscar-winning movie Conclave, but this is the real-life version.
Americans have just witnessed 72 hours unlike any other in the history of presidential primaries.