Until last Sunday, Joe Biden was just a doddering old pol with his best days behind him, unimpressive in every presidential debate and certainly nothing special on the stump.
His performance in the first three presidential contests was embarrassing, and, to make matters worse, Biden was showing clear signs of mental decline, such as false memories (in fairness, it could just be dishonesty) and bizarre delusions.
After Super Tuesday, Biden is still the exact same guy described above, but he’s also the Democrats’ new front-runner.
Biden, whose primary campaign was on the way out, suddenly finds himself in a marriage of convenience with Democratic voters, who realize belatedly and with a feeling of desperation that they have no other viable choice for president.
It all began last Sunday. In a televised interview, Bernie Sanders reminded voters who he is and always will be by praising Fidel Castro and refusing to distance himself from revolutionary socialist movements. From that moment, he sank like a stone as Democratic voters decided they weren’t going to let this happen. Rank-and-file Democrats, it turns out, are not nearly as woke as their candidates or the media have tried to suggest. They aren’t stupid — which is to say, they aren’t socialists.
Democratic primary voters also probably considered former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, given his massive ad spending and his ability to self-finance. But, after his appalling, disappointing, infuriating performance at the Democrats’ Las Vegas debate, most of them were having none of it.
They also couldn’t go with Elizabeth Warren, who has polled weakest against President Trump among all the Democratic candidates.
As a result, Biden suddenly came back from the dead in South Carolina and won handily on Saturday. Then, with Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar finally dropping out and endorsing Biden, Democratic voters all around the country decided spontaneously and simultaneously that now was the time to settle for, well, that guy. They will line up, lockstep, behind the safe, establishment choice whom everyone had been anticipating as the winner last summer.
This hasn’t necessarily been a winning formula for either political party. Democrats elected their last three presidents by taking risks and choosing dark-horse candidates (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama). Their relatively inoffensive, “safe” nominees (think of Al Gore or John Kerry) tend not to do so well.
Before Trump, Republicans had also fared poorly in choosing inoffensive, “my turn next” nominees out of large, competitive fields. Neither Bob Dole nor John McCain nor Mitt Romney had what it took.
If he can hold off Sanders for a few more weeks and cobble together enough delegates to secure the nomination, Biden will surely be a tough opponent for Trump. But how strange that, having been given up for dead, he has become the one Democrats are desperate to settle for.
