What Is Biden’s Message
Joe Biden’s campaign looked all but lost at the start of the primary season in February. The former vice-president, 77, finished a poor fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.
But the turn came with South Carolina – where he won due to the support of the large African-American community – and on the 3 March Super Tuesday he won 10 out of 14 states at stake, establishing a sizeable lead over the Vermont senator.
Thanking supporters from Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, Mr Biden said Democrats, including supporters of Bernie Sanders, could beat Donald Trump.
“It’s more than a comeback, this campaign,” he said. “It’s comeback for the soul of this nation.”
What Are The Choices For Democrats
The Democratic Party has been involved in a lengthy internal debate aimed at deciding which candidate has the best chance of denying Mr Trump a second term in office this autumn.
Once a crowded field of more than two dozen, celebrated for its women and candidates of colour, the Democratic contest is now a race between two white male septuagenarians.
Mr Biden, a moderate, and Mr Sanders, a staunch left-winger, offer starkly different visions for America’s future.
Mr Sanders’ detractors say a self-described democratic socialist cannot win over the swing voters needed to capture the White House.
He is planning to transform the American economy with a multi-trillion dollar, higher taxation blueprint covering everything from healthcare to education.
Mr Trump’s election campaign issued a statement on Tuesday, saying both rivals for the Democratic nomination were “two sides of the same coin”.
“The Democrat candidate for president will be running on a big government socialist agenda regardless of the name on the ballot,” the statement read, ending with: “President Trump is on an unstoppable drive toward re-election.”
Sanders Does Not Have Backing Of The Democratic Establishment
And he often openly spars with them. Sen. Joe Manchin III , a prominent voice for the moderate wing of the party, refused to say if hed vote for Sanders if he were the nominee. Republicans are already trying to use Sanderss ideology against him and the Democratic Party. Heres Sen. Marco Rubio , who represents a state that could play a big role in deciding the presidency, trying to do as much.
Democratic Socialism sounds benign. Its not. Its built on Marxism.
Marco Rubio
Not helping his case is Sanders himself, who on Sunday praised former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
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Trump Can Absolutely Kill Him: Wall Street Shrugs Off Sanders
The finance world is treating the prospect of a President Sanders much like it generally dismissed a possible President Trump in 2016.
02/12/2020 12:36 PM EST
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An avowed democratic socialist narrowly won the New Hampshire primary, propelled by promises to jack up taxes on the rich, nationalize health care and take a sledgehammer to the nations banking behemoths.
Wall Street has so far reacted to the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders with a massive yawn because few in the industry think the Vermont senator has a real shot at becoming president.
Stocks continue to pop to new highs even as Sanders climbs the Democratic field and pledges to come after the wealthy with a zealous passion.
Thats because the overwhelming consensus on Wall Street these days is that should Sanders wind up as the Democratic nominee sliding past a handful of moderates also at the top of the field he would get demolished by President Donald Trump in the general election.
Theres no Bernie fear at all, because I think the general view is that he is just way too far left of a candidate to beat Trump and a more moderate candidate would be much more competitive, said Steve Massocca of Wedbush Equity Management. If Bernie becomes the candidate and you assume Wall Street wants Trump to win again and I think they do then this is nothing but good news.
There also remains some level of confidence across Wall Street that the eventual nominee will be someone not named Bernie Sanders.
Opinionbernie Sanders: Bail Criminalizes Poverty And Undermines Our Justice System
And, he beat a Republican incumbent when he ran for the House in 1990, and won his 2006 Senate race by flipping a seat that had been occupied by Republicans for 144 years. Whether he could do the same at the national level when Americans’ votes have to be filtered through the insanity of the electoral college and all sorts of voter suppression is unclear, but at the very least, Sanders detractors have little evidence that hes “not electable” in places that tend to prefer more conservative representation.
Even Donald Trump has seemed impressed: In an apparent recorded conversation released by Lev Parnas legal team, the president said that he believes Hillary Clinton wouldve been tougher to beat in 2016 had she chosen Sanders as her running mate: He’s the only one I didn’t want her to pick.
Sanders supporters believe his decades-long record of fighting for social and economic justice and criticizing the corrupt political establishment will turn out people in the general election who dont habitually vote a group that skews young, poor and non-white.
And, while non-voters skew slightly more conservative than voting Democrats on social issues, they not only support single-payer healthcare at higher rates, but 51 percent also want a Democrat who will fundamentally change America. Does that sound like anyone you know?
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Sanders’s Popularity With Voters Of Color Could Be Decisive
- Russ Walker/PA Post Recent StoriesRuss Walker joined PA Post in 2019 as executive editor. He previously worked at KING 5 News, the NBC-affiliated TV station serving Seattle and Western Washington. At KING, Russ oversaw the award-winning investigative unit and managed the newsrooms daily operations. His background includes stints as an editor for POLITICO, washingtonpost.com, FreedomChannel.com, American Health Line and U.N. Wire. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. Russ and his wife, journalist and cookbook author Kim ODonnel, live in Lancaster.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.
As a newcomer to Pennsylvania, each week is full of surprises. This weekend, it was learning that Penn State is home to the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. Its big fundraising event is a two-day dance marathon in which hundreds of students dance without sleeping or sitting. This past weekend was the big dance, and the kids raised nearly $11.7 million for pediatric cancer research and to help kids and families going through treatment at Penn State Hershey Childrens Hospital. Started in 1973, the THON has raised almost $170 million over the years. You can still give at thon.org.-Russ Walker, PA Post editor
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.
Sanders Backs Biden As Ex
WASHINGTON Bernie Sanders has endorsed Joe Bidens presidential campaign, encouraging his progressive supporters to rally behind the presumptive Democratic nominee in an urgent bid to defeat President Donald Trump.
I am asking all Americans, Im asking every Democrat, Im asking every independent, Im asking a lot of Republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, the Vermont senator said Monday in a virtual event with Biden.
The backing came less than a week after Sanders ended his presidential campaign, which was centered around progressive policies such as universal health care. There were early signs that some leading progressives werent ready to fully follow Sanders lead. And Trumps campaign was eager to use the endorsement to tie Biden more closely to Sanders, whose identity as a democratic socialist is objectionable to Republicans and some Democrats.
Still, Sanders embrace of Biden was crucial for someone who is tasked with bridging the Democratic Partys entrenched ideological divides. Democratic disunity helped contribute to Hillary Clintons loss to Trump in 2016.
Sanders said theres no great secret out there that you and I have our differences.
By Joseph Ax
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But the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Sanders rising momentum in the race a near win in Iowa, a narrow victory in New Hampshire and a decisive win in Nevada has given him more credibility with Democratic voters.
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Who Could Win The Democratic Primary
I asked Ben Tulchin, the pollster for the Sanders campaign, to respond to these worries. A lightly edited and condensed transcript of our conversation follows.
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Greg Sargent: What does Sanderss winning coalition in November look like?
Ben Tulchin: If he wins the nomination, he will have a unified Democratic Party behind him, based on strong antipathy towards Donald Trump. That gives us a solid, very motivated base.
He does several points better than any other Democrat against Trump among 18-to-34 year-olds, which is a significant percentage of the electorate.
Bernie has consistently done better among independents than any other Democrat tested, particularly younger independents, which is an important part of Bernies base, especially younger independent men.
College-educated Democrats are going to be solidly with us, because they rabidly hate Trump. Young voters, independents, Latinos look at the overwhelming margin Bernie won Latinos by in Nevada. That puts him in a position to put Texas in play. Theres a small but fast-growing Latino population in North Carolina. Bernie could do well with Latinos in Florida.
Sargent: One of Barack Obamas alumni said on TV that for Bernie, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia are basically off the table. You reject that?
Bernie has strong appeal with working-class voters regardless of ethnicity white, Latinos, African Americans.
Sargent: Bernies rhetoric is sometimes more unifying than he gets credit for.
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Opinionhow A Socialist Candidate Can Win The Us Presidential Election In 2020
The social forces that propelled Sanders to the national stage in 2016 after years as an obscure voice for progress seemed to surprise even him and even more so than last time, hes running to win, not just to start a conversation.
Of course, his candidacy would never have taken off the way it did in 2016 or again in 2020 if grassroots movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter hadnt empowered regular, working class people to talk about our political-economic systems failure to deliver on their promises for all but a lucky few. And, more recently, the nationwide wave of teachers strikes both fed into, and was fed by, the movement behind Sanders.
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Would Republican Attacks Knock The More Moderate Candidates Down To Sanderss Level
One concern about our findings is that Republicans who say they would vote for Biden or Buttigieg might not really do so in November, after the general election campaign has heated up. After months of sustained attacks from Trump and Republicans throughout the general election, would the more moderate candidates still be more electable than Sanders?
To examine this possibility, we first conducted an experiment to identify effective attacks against each of the Democratic candidates. For example, Bidens historical support for freezing Social Security benefits undermined his support, but hearing about Buttigiegs sexual orientation and the fact that he met his husband online did not decrease his support.
Then, to examine the resiliency of each Democrats support in the general election in the face of effective attacks, we showed some of our survey respondents the three attacks that were most effective against each Democrat before asking them who they would vote for in a contest between that Democrat and Trump.
After showing three attacks against each candidate, we find that Sanders would still need the same large youth turnout surge to overcome his deficit relative to the more moderate candidates against Trump. When we analyze the data using the same approach described above that disregards what voters say about whether they will vote, we find that, after being shown the attacks, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, and Biden still do better against Trump than Sanders does.
How Huge Of A Turnout Surge Does Sanders Need To Be As Electable As A Moderate
The case that Bernie Sanders is just as electable as the more moderate candidates thus appears to rest on a leap of faith: that youth voter turnout would surge in the general election by double digits if and only if Bernie Sanders is nominated, compensating for the voters his nomination pushes to Trump among the rest of the electorate.
There are reasons to doubt a Sanders-driven youth turnout surge of this size would materialize. First, people who promise in surveys they will vote often dont, meaning the turnout estimates that Sanderss electability case rests upon are probably extremely inaccurate. Second, such a turnout surge is large in comparison to other effects on turnout. For example, Sanders would need to stimulate a youth turnout boost much larger than the turnout boost Barack Obamas presence on the ballot stimulated among black voters in 2008.
Third, Sanderss electability case requires this 11 percentage point turnout increase among young voters in 2020 to occur on top of any turnout increase that would otherwise occur if another Democrat were nominated.
And this enormous 11 percentage point turnout boost is only enough to make Sanders as electable as the more moderate candidates, given the other votes he loses to Trump. For him to be the most electable Democratic candidate based on his ability to inspire youth turnout, Sanderss nomination would need to increase youth turnout by even more.
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Bernie Sanders Would Have Beaten Donald Trump In 2016 According To ‘every Single Poll’ Says Senator’s Wife
Alexandra Hutzler U.S.Donald TrumpTrump
As independent Senator Bernie Sanders gears up for a possible 2020 bid for president, the Vermont lawmaker’s wife said that had Sanders won the Democratic nomination in 2016, he would have defeated Donald Trump in the general election.
When asked by the Associated Press about Sanders’s chances of success in 2020, Jane O’Meara Sanders said that “every single poll” showed that her husband would have taken down Trump two years ago. The senator never had the chance to go head-to-head with the Republican nominee after losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton.
But many polls that hypothetically paired the two candidates showed Sanders with a large lead over Trump. According to RealClear Politics data, NBC/Wall Street Journal surveys had the independent lawmaker up by an average of 9 points. CBS News/New York Times polls showed Sanders ahead by an average of 15 points.
Sanders himself pointed out that he fared much better against the real estate mogul than Clinton, telling NBC during an interview in spring 2016 that “right now, in every major poll, national poll and statewide poll done in the last month, six weeks, we are defeating Trump, often by big numbers and always at a larger margin than Secretary Clinton is.”
When asked about 2020, O’Meara Sanders said that the guiding question regarding potential candidates will be: “Who can beat Donald Trump?
Joe Biden Extends Lead Over Rival Sanders In Democratic Presidential Race
Biden calls for unity with Sanders: “Together we’ll beat Donald Trump.”
Joe Biden has cemented his position as front-runner in the Democratic race to take on President Donald Trump in November’s White House election.
The former vice-president won Michigan, the biggest prize of primary voting on Tuesday, extending his lead over main rival Senator Bernie Sanders.
Five other states – Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota – voted on Tuesday.
Mr Biden also swept aside Mr Sanders in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho.
Mr Sanders won North Dakota, with results from Washington state still outstanding on Wednesday morning.
The Democrats’ next big election milestone is in a week’s time when 577 delegates are up for grabs.
To secure the nomination, a candidate needs the support of 1,991 delegates. Before Tuesday’s vote, Mr Biden had 648 to Mr Sanders’ 563.
The former vice-president had lagged behind his Democratic rivals in early voting states, but rebounded after big wins on Super Tuesday and endorsements from several former nomination rivals.
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Democrats Are Becoming More Okay With The Idea Of Government
With Sen Elizabeth Warren tiptoeing away from it, Sanders is alone on the debate stage embracing replacing private insurance with government-run health insurance. But in Nevada, entrance polls showed a clear majority of those going to caucus on Saturday supported Medicare-for-all.
Nationally, Democrats seem more okay with it, too. Sanders has made his campaign synonymous with Medicare-for-all. In the Post-ABC poll, 62 percent of Democratic-leaning adults say Sanders is about right on the liberal spectrum, putting him on par with more moderate candidates who oppose it, like Biden and former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Sanders Won In Nevada With An Expanded Coalition
Young voters, liberal voters and Hispanic voters all went decisively for Sanders, according to entrance poll results. Nationally, he leads by double digits among women and men in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll of Democrats. He is currently tied with former vice president Joe Biden in polls that ask whom people would vote for in the general election for president, a Democrat or Trump.
But: The big test for Sanders will be South Carolinas primary on Saturday, where the Democratic electorate is made up of a majority of black voters. An influential black member of Congress from South Carolina, James E. Clyburn, expressed skepticism of how Sanders will do there.
I do believe it will be an extra burden for us to have to carry, Clyburn told ABC News on Sunday of Sanders embracing socialism. This is South Carolina, and South Carolinians are pretty leery about that title socialist.”
Still, theres evidence Sanders is scaling Bidens supposed firewall with black voters. In Nevada, Biden won their support, but Sanders still got 27 percent of their vote, not an easy feat in a very crowded field. Outside of Nevada, the Post-ABC poll finds Sanders has more than doubled his support among black Democratic voters since January, support that has been driven by younger black voters who prefer him over Biden.
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