"The people-of-color, intersectional interests" argument has been dead for years, as any competent pollster would tell you.
I cannot respect some of the opinions expressed in this column. There are grey areas with evaluating the efficacy of "stop-and-frisk." Civil rights were nevertheless violated. But keep in mind that it's not racist to say the majority of murder victims were black. However, it's apparently racist to say the majority of murderers were black. And it's certainly racist to identify ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods with exceedingly high murder rates. There is indeed systemic racism that is preventing a successful remedy of this epidemic. But I believe Mr. Bloomberg was primarily thinking of the victims.
2
Well, here we go again. I have a feeling the "in-the-pocket democrats are desperately at it again. To maintain the status quo, and not frighten the money bosses, they are posturing to give us another low key centrist, with no imagination and not enough fire to make a difference. But given the alternative, corrupt con man Trump, where else can you go?
2
It is a mistake to take any group for granted that includes the black vote.In Florida a charismatic young black mayor getting the overwhelming support of black women was a given.His support was not as strong as predicted.Women of all shades of skin put priority on their child's educationThe Republican was for school choice the Democrat was not.The Republican out performed expectations.Black mothers rule.
Are Americans just bad at math? In what universe does a winning a majority of an 83% metric hold the same weight as winning a plurality of a 17% metric? I usually find that this author is well reasoned and provides fact-based, thoughtful commentary. This one seems "phoned in".
"minority and religious voters demand attention"
Lotsa demanding going on in this election.
2
What we resent is the NYTimes clear intent on imposing Joe Biden no matter what. If Joe Biden had what it takes to defeat Trump, Obama would have already said something favoring him. Not one word. I am reading Charles M Blow after reading Leonhardt’s “Bernie or Biden Period,“ which has a very favoring portrait of Biden only pointing to the content and intent of the piece. I read that, moved my head in disbelief of the NYTimes insistence, and hope to find a word of balance in Charles Blow. I am not a “Bernie’s bro.” I am very sorry seeing both Pete Buttigieg and Amy K leave the race. But, these many editorials favoring Biden upsets people because it is 2016 all over again. The Democratic machine in full. This is not fair. This will not end well.
4
Their needs to be some introspection in the black community, if only for the way money and pandering have influenced their political support.
For Bloomberg to get any black support is absurd.
So is the failure of black leadership to tell the ruth about Biden's record as it impacts the black community. The Nelson Madera arrest fabrication should be disqualifying, yet that is just one of MANY LIES he has told about his civil rights "activist" past.
2
The Bros and Busters have been drinking Sanders' Kool-Aid for the last five years, and as a result they appear firmly convinced he'll be able to deliver on all his pie-in-the-sky promises.
And what are the real odds he'll be able to enact any of them? 419 to 3, which represents the 422 bills he introduced as lead sponsor while in Congress the last 30 years and the THREE which passed. And TWO of those were routine bills to name post offices!
Don't believe me? See for yourself: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/what-bernie-sanders-really-got-done-in-his-29-years-in-congress/ar-BB10CNVN?ocid=spartanntp
I want Bernie to win by far. Biden is a meandering, I-challenge-you-to-push-ups-fool. However, my God, if Bernie doesn't make it, and Warren doesn't make, Bloomber CANNOT be the candidate please! Would take Biden over Bloomberg without a question.
1
The Bernie Bros are out in full force
Anything that is good for Biden really isn't good - the classic "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" Plus many of their comments are arrogant and also borderline racist
Then there are all the conspiracy theories related to the DNC establishment and Corporate Media - basically the Sanders version of the trump conspiracy theories always being pushed out that the same people ridicule. As if it's not possible for people to support Biden over Bernie unless there is some nefarious scheme
2
Oy vey! Terrifying.
Energy. Of course, this isn't Fox News (Faux News?)
Blow's irrational hatred of Bloomberg is not helpful. Bloomberg will do as much or more than anyone to push a Democrat toward the White House this year. Blow's race above even exclusive of all else outlook is divisive and, as he would phrase it, repulsive.
I listened to Andrew Yang, still the most perceptive and reasonable now former candidate, on CNN lay out his prediction. I can see the election following the trajectory he outlines. Bloomberg has a role to play yet and fools like Blow should show appreciation.
Rational analysis. So refreshing.
Joe's got the support of billionaires and the NYT. Bernie doesn't. Joe has business experience (he ran a family business in Ukraine). Bernie doesn't. Joe is happy and likes to spout gobbledygook masquerading as nonsense. Bernie is not so happy and tries to make sense. Joe likes the money of billionaires. Sanders does, too; he wants to turn them into millionaires. Joe promises to be the Great White Uncle to blacks. Bernie wants to be their Santa Claus. It's clear who will win.
1
Blow's irrational hatred of Bloomberg is not helpful. Bloomberg will do as much or more than anyone to push a Democrat toward the White House this year. Blow's race above even exclusive of all else outlook is divisive and, as he would phrase it, repulsive.
I listened to Andrew Yang, still the most perceptive and reasonable now former candidate, on CNN lay out his prediction. I can see the election following the trajectory he outlines. Bloomberg has a role to play yet and fools like Blow should show appreciation.
Rational analysis. So refreshing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb_3Og7XlLs
I'm imploring all the commenters not to say anything positive about Bloomberg lest Blow notices and writes a fourth article on how the former mayor is a racist and not fit for the presidency.
1
No matter what the ostensible topic of Blow's op-ed is, he manages to twist it into an excoriation of Bloomberg. Without getting into a comparative analysis of the candidates and their positions, I have to say that I find this tiring and unnecessary. Blow has authored no less than four op-eds strictly on that topic, and he gets into it again here. We have heard his opinion, which is one among many. I would like to read a variety of perspectives instead of this repetition.
The results from South Carolina are way overblown in importance. I lived there for ten years, and was politically active. One main takeaway from my experiences there is that South Carolina voters, black and white, largely prefer a candidate who they know. Even if the opponent is superior, familiarity is the biggest plus. and as we saw in this primary, it can put the better-known candidate ahead. I doubt this is a main criterion elsewhere.
6
Sorry, but I want Bernie to stay in the Senate. And Elizabeth, and Kamala, and Amy...who I understand just suspended her campaign as well. We need them there.
If Joe Biden adopts some of the same ideas as the others, and if he picks a good person for VP - maybe he will get the support he needs. He might just be the best one for the job, now.
4
As much as the now familiar narrative goes that Iowa and New Hampshire are not representative of America I would submit that neither are the voters that Mr blow makes reference to in South Carolina.
Americans in general and most certainly Democrats are not socially conservative fixated on religion. Perhaps in South Carolina and other Red States the argument that Mr Blow makes in this piece may have some merit, but it bares no relevance to where the majority of Democrats live.
So Thanks but No Thanks for the 'Warning " the Democratic Party does not need to run a candidate for President that is a good fit for states like SC , where only Republicans win state wide races.
5
It was commonly accepted that Biden was going to win in SC for the past few weeks. Thus, his winning is proof of nothing. Let’s see what happens in the election tomorrow. My guess is it’s Bernie across the board.
4
I'm thinking my problem may be more with Bernie supporters than Bernie himself. Why can't anyone talk about Bernie without denouncing the "elites", the corporations, and the super rich? Are all these groups worthy of our hatred? Why do we have to identify enemies to win an election? My concern is that one day some group may think that I'm an elite, and I'll be dispatched to a reeducation camp for the rest of my life.
5
It's great that the conservative energy of older black voters has so much influence on this election and everything, except it's not. It seems like older South Carolinians in general have been relying on Biden's relationship with them over years and years. Why has everyone suddenly forgotten his routinely poor performances in debates as well as his uninspiring events from before this win? Biden picked up momentum from the fear of Bernie, but I do think it's very relevant to take into account the fact that we are never going to win states like South Carolina or Alabama in the general election if Biden and the moderates keep insisting on being nominated because of the antiquated notion of the supposedly pragmatic conservatism of that viewpoint. Biden has been pandering to this particular African American demographic and doesn't even have a consistent record protecting black interests. I wish people were able to not be swayed en masse all of a sudden because of a South Carolina win to help a candidate who hardly made any effort in the swing states and is relying largely on name recognition and his association with Obama. I'm demoralized, as a Bernie person, who also realizes that many African Americans do support Bernie and, like Cornel West, even liken him to Martin Luther King in the consistency of his calls for social justice and basic human rights for all.
6
Something to consider: Winning a Democratic presidential primary in any of the deeply red states, however decisively, is no assurance that the candidate has even a remote hope of winning that state's electoral votes in the general election. That primary victories in those states carry such weight in determining the eventual nominee -- and in raising voter confidence in that nominee's chances in the general election -- is consequently problematic at the very least: The "momentum" such victories create is essentially illusory when it comes to the likely outcome of the endgame.
We saw this in the 2016 campaign, and it looks like we're seeing it again now. Just something to think about...
5
The Democratic party, my party has finally woken up - we need to unite and concentrate on November. I applaud Amy and Pete - they are our future. I am glad Warren is staying in it for now - that should help the DEMOCRATS. Joe Biden WILL accept Bloomberg's financial help - and I applaud that.
I don't want a revolution - right now I just want my country back.
4
Some of the comments praising Pete Buttigieg really sound like obituaries; yet, most assume he will come back some time in the future.
Pete Buttigieg, the moderate's new Jesus?
1
Sorry, The idea of pandering to largely ignorant, superstitious people like the GOP has, at least since Reagan, is sickening.
2
So Mr. Blow continues his Bloomberg smackdown. Fair enough, but given his continual attention to the candidate, it would be useful for him to address why, in his opinion, so many black Congressional leaders, mayors, etc., have lauded this thoroughly unredeemable and vile candidate. Mr. Blow's lack of attention to this disconnect leaves the impression that perhaps Bloomberg's record is more complicated that he is given credit for, a conclusion the columnist may not want his readers to make.
2
This will be the third and last of 3 posts on this column, none of which I suspect will actually be posted by NYT moderators as "incivil".
There needs to be a discussion of why black turnout in 2016 in support of Hillary was not even close to the 2008 support of Obama.
That differential - ALONE - more than explains why Hillary lost.
Yet not one peep about any of that, all while the DNC and party elites attack Sanders, Jill Stein, progressives, the left, and Ralph Nader for their defeat.
Why is that?
5
Whereas I think Sanders is quite correct in terms of what would make the country work best - if he had the rest of government with him - that's just not going to happen. The Senate turns over slowly at the best of times and most of the electorate are so US-centric they have no idea that the rest of the western world has figured out how do healthcare and some other things WAY better than the US. So you're stuck in not going too far from where you are - but moving in the right direction. And it seems Biden is now the best hope for that, with Pete and Amy dropping out. So here's to the formidable Sen Warren, who's the smartest one of all of them in the race -> may she stick to her guns to the bitter end and thereby allow Biden to slip past Sanders.
2
The primary results in New Hampshire and Iowa were discounted and even dismissed by the anti-Bernie forces because their populations were unrepresentaitve of the country, being almost exclusively white.
I see: and the Democratic voters in SC, where the results are touted by the anti-Bernie/pro-Biden forces, are representative? Uh, no, not even close. C. 60% of the Dem. voters in SC were black. You think that's representaitve of the country? Keep thinking.
4
Some day we might have a national election where there are no such things as red, blue and purple states.
Until then any Democrat who actually cares how South Carolina or California votes is just not politically aware. Any Republican will win South Carolina any Democrat will win California.
Iowa - that's up for grabs -- Biden tanked. New Hampshire that's up for grabs, Biden tanked.
Even South Carolina, if you want to use it as a bell weather, Jim Clyburn won not Biden.
4
I don't think we should overestimate South Carolina's importance. If the rest of the country were like South Carolina, Democrats would never win a thing.
Let's be realistic: Joe Biden will not win the state of South Carolina in a general election. Most likely, no Democrat will. Which means that all those votes that Joe Biden won will in effect be counted for Trump in the general election. (Such is the absurdity of the Electoral College system.)
No one state represents all of America. As a country, we are far too diverse a mosaic, and that's a beautiful thing.
4
Dems are having an old fashioned 'High Noon' confrontation between Sander and Biden. 4 more years of Trump will likely force the compromise in 2020 that should have happened this year for Dems. Biden is no more moderate than Sanders is extremist. One is a corporate tool who promises the people he will stop Trumpism from stemrolling liberal landmarks like Roe v. Wade while doing nothing to progress the people's interests. The other is a progressive who hasn't overcome the old problems progressives have run into when getting on the ballot: accommodating the average person to change.
Biden is an extreme right wing dem and Sanders is a social democrat who hasn't enlarged his base sufficiently to beat Trump.
1
"In 2016, 78 percent of voters said that they attended religious services at least a few times a year. The problem was that Donald Trump won those who attended those services most often."
Of course it is WHITE evangelicals who are keeping a corrupt Godless president in power. This (white) evangelical pastor thinks that disqualifies them from being authentic biblical Christians.
8
You are a good pundit, always worth reading but a caution is in order. The chattering class hardly ever gets it right.
IsoFacist commentators, like Upton Close (he's the guy who said Japan could not have bombed Pearl Harbor until photos of Japan's planes smashing Pearl came in over the wire) told us Americans would not support another war in Europe.
In 1948 pundits foresaw a Dewey landslide. Many tried to get MLK to slow down because "the country wasn't ready". For others, Obama shouldn't have run because it was "Hillary's turn." And it was obvious Hillary Clinton would wipe the floor with Trump. We are the ashcan of pundit history.
The current fad is "Bernie is too radical" to win. Down ballot concerns are legitimate (and Sanders must show that he wants all Democrats to win, even those who don't agree with him). In the main, the fact the chatterers have turned their face against Sanders is a powerful argument for the proposition that he can win, even handily.
My concern its structural ; the Democrat's backbone has been the black vote. South Carolina says Biden is their guy. But now Latinos are also at the heart of the Democratic party. They were Bernie's in Nevada and will be in California. The two guys can't both be President so how do we unite blacks and Hispanics behind the eventual nominee?
That's the focus for Americans who recognize Trump's threat to democracy and liberty. Stop fretting over our Cold War allies, the democratic socialists
2
48% is a solid victory in a multi-candidate race, but it's not a "blowout".
What is meant by "people of color"? Doesn't everyone have some color, or is this a privilege reserved for a few?
1
@Jonathan Katz :"What is meant by 'people of color'?"
Anyone who doesn't consider themselves a white person. Unless you're an Hispanic who identifies as a white person (50+ % of current Hispanic population). Then you are a white person who is counted among the "people of color". I had a co-worker who was an immigrant from Mexico. I mentioned that he looked like he could be from Spain (i.e. a white European). Oooohhhhh, he did not like that.
Then again, you have folks from Western Asia who are Aryan but consider themselves Brown.
Will... Denver, CO
I realize it is part of the process to vigorously analyze what voters groups prefer and will do. But any Democratic voter group that plays designer politics with this election is self-destructing... Especially Blacks and Hispanics. At the end of the day, if Bernie wins the nomination what are the choices? Sit it out and stay at home. That would be ridiculous. All the fear mongering about Bernie's radical agenda is hyperbola. Let's remember we have a Congress and that no President ever rams through a preformed, pristine platform. There will be plenty of checks and balances on what Bernie could accomplish. Hopefully Democratic voter's higher order thinking skills will kick-in and they will realize it doesn't matter who the candidate is. Trump must go.
3
I completely agree, we all have our favorite democrat that we want to win, but we all must simply keep our eyes on the prize: trump must go. But it is all up to the electoral college and the Russians anyway ...
It's Bernie's to win.
4
Pete and Amy have dropped out, and will appear at Joe's Dallas Texas rally tonight to endorse him. Liz should stay in to split the Bernie vote. Bloomberg needs to get lost and throw his money and organization to the down-ballot candidates.
Bernie NO, Joe YES.
2
The political culture in South Carolina explains a lot: their is flaccid, at best, black leadership and the "in your face" politics of the Sanders campaign is too aggressive for the accomodationsist politics there.
I was down in Charleston in November of 2017, shortly after racist mass murderer Dylan Roof terrorized the place. Steve Bannon was speaking at The Citadel, and the best the local black leadership could do was muster a tiny "protest" which included agreeing to a location and tactics that were explicitly at the request of Citadel officials to "tone down" the protesters and move them away from media and attendees of the Bannon event.
2
Mr Blow a word to the wise, the religious voters you reference in your piece are Trump supporters, they do no support Democrats especially in SC.
As for minority voters as distasteful as their homophobia may be it is not representative of how the majority of Democrats feel .
So thanks but no thanks the last thing the country needs is a Democrat nominee focused on attracting the votes of bigots and religious zealots.
5
Is it really true that you can safely lump all black South Carolinians as a uniform group, and that they represent something about the larger black population of the US, (again, lumped as a uniform group)? I'm sure they hate that, as opposed to the notion of their "demanding attention" as a group.
One gesture the USA needs to make for itself, to really MAGA, is to restore the National Motto to "From Many, One".
3
It will be difficult for Trump to talk Socialist talk about Sanders when he holds such high regard for Putin. And Trump will be weakened even more than he is now when the economy soon slumps. Even if Biden wins the nomination, Bernie will have educated an entire young generation into how ripped off we all are by moderate Democrats, and it will have all been worth it. Vote Blue no matter who, even if it's Bernie.
5
The main takeaway from the South Carolina vote is that the more things change the more they stay the same. Voter statistics show the dismal state of primary voting not just in South Carolina, but across the country. Voter turnout in 2020 was slightly better (16.4%) than in 2016 (12.6%). Bernie Sanders received more votes in 2020, but on a percentage basis did worst than in 2016 - 26% versus 20%. With little competition, Hillary Clinton received 73% of the votes in 2016 while Joe Biden received 49% of the votes in 2020. But if you combined all moderate candidates on the ballots in 2020, the total percentage moderate vote was almost equal to the vote in 2016 (Biden 49%, Steyer 11%, Buttigieg 8%, and Klobachard 3%). So, what are the takeaways from South Carolina? Most registered voters still don't vote, but moderates dominated the voting. What does that tell us about further primaries? Not much.
1
Mr Blow - there is a chasm of difference between the religious voting blocs that frequency of attending religious services does not show. I am a progressive Christian and there are plenty of us who vote Democratic consistently.
4
For one simple reason, I will not vote for Sanders as much as I like hiim and his ideas. I am a realist. Democrats need to win not only the presidency, but, also, the House and the Senate to get anything done, even just the repair of the damage that has already been done to our democracy, let alone pass any new programs.
Even if every Democrat turns out to vote, we will need some disaffected Republicans and a lot of independents to win all three. Bernie does not have the coat tails to do that. Biden does!
We ignored the Heartland during the last presidential election. Let's not make the same mistake again! Just imagine Trump screaming "Socialist" every time he opens his mouth? We must never underestimate the power of fear!
It doen't matter how right we all are about Bernie's democratic socialism. The majority of wavering Republicans and undecided independents just don't get that yet.
2
So far, Sanders has failed to reach anywhere near his 2016 percentages. Where he is winning, he is doing it by much smaller numbers, even with the moderate vote so split.
-He won NH by 1.3%. He won it in 2016 by over 20%.
-He decisively won NV, but lost it to Clinton by nearly 10% and is down about 1% from his 2016 number there.
-He effectively tied Clinton in Iowa in 2016, but is down over 20% from his 2016 numbers there.
He is not bringing out the kind of numbers he had in 2016, which should be worrying for general election consideration.
4
Sanders, Biden, Warren, and Bloomberg. The last one here came in too late. Biden and Warren have equivalent positions on many things but Warren has been more effective as a legislator against the Republicans, but our anti-female bias works against her.
So it boils down to Sanders who has lots of energy and TV charisma but who in the general election will be made the reincarnation of Karl Marx by the lying Republicans and the know-nothing about economics Midwest voters or Joe Biden who is middle of the road and mostly unthreatening but whose history is laden with “nice guys finish last” against the Rep money machine lobbying.
In a general election Sanders against Trump would be two men equally driven by their own sense of self righteousness but one fights for others, while the other fights only and always for himself and will say anything to win the point only to repudiate it five minutes or five days later. Will three years of lying make a difference to Republican voters or will it also take an economic downturn and a virus to turn them against Chaos Man?
Biden and Trump strike me as equally poor communicators: Trump is an empty ad slogan trying to say something meaningful but using at best incomplete sentences and ideas, and Biden is a stammerer which can be forgiven if he didn’t jump around from idea to idea and never complete what he wants to say. :(.
All these candidates are seriously flawed.
NOVEMBER TURNOUT IS WHAT WILL WIN OR LOSE US OUR DEMOCRACY.
2
For those that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
3
I'm 72 years old and a life long Democrat. If Sanders arrives at the Convention with the most delegates and some smoke filled room skullduggery is used to deny him the the nomination I will not vote for the illegitimate nominee in the general election. I'll sit it out and I'm sure a lot of others will too.
9
"Biden is not only benefiting from Barack Obama’s cultural residue, his more moderate policies speak to the moderate, and even conservative, streak in many black voters."
What a racist comment-Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of civil rights for a long time. He earned the respect on the black community on his own. This was earned in addition to his relationship with Obama.
2
Do Americans want to go to church with their tax dollars or see the doctor?
Taking on election on faith is a bad idea, in my view.
2
Klobuchar just announced she is dropping out. With her and Pete gone, that means many of their supporters will likely turn to Biden. We are down to Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, and Warren (well, I guess Gabbard is still technically in, but she isn't a factor). Both Warren and Bloomberg have given no indication of dropping out. Black voters generally do not like Bloomberg it would seem. Between Sanders and Warren I would lean to Warren. I really am luke warm on Biden. All four of these folks are over 70 - interesting and frankly rather perplexing to me. Sigh - I'll be honest. I'm not excited about any of them. But I certainly will not be voting for Trump.
5
@dairyfarmersdaughter we love both Warren and sanders. It’s possible.
4
If Bernie had won his first primary as Biden has just done, would he be getting as much attention from the media as Biden is.... No, he'd probably never have gotten to this point, since the media would be shunning him and saying he should have gotten out of the race months ago. Thank goodness for independent media and the huge grassroots movement that Bernie has generated since his 2016 run.
6
@Luke
He DID win the first primary and even, essentially, the first caucus. In Iowa, he tied in terms of Standard Delegate Equivalents (which are a political scam). He won handedly in the popular vote (or, as they called it, the first "alignment" and intentionally misleading term for "vote") AND he won the "final" alignment (as if there were many other iterations between the two... there weren't - in Nevada they, more honestly, called it the "second vote".)
2
It’s now down to Sanders and Biden. Warren hasn’t thrown in the towel yet but she has no path forward.
3
I will never forget that Bernie is the reason Trump is our president. When he lost the 2016 primaries, he refused to support the democratic nominee.
I will never forget that Bernie is not a registered democrat. If he were as honest as folks say he is, he'd run as a socialist. But no one pays attention to a socialist third party. He is taking advantage of the democratic party.
I will never forget that Bernie is literally buying votes by promising "free" goodies funded by tax payers. Criticize Bloomberg all you want, but he's spending his own money to get his message out. He's not buying anybody's vote.
10
@Janet you are wrong. Also remember that Trump made the same arguments Bloomberg is making.
We need government officials to represent the people not buy elections with their money.
8
Janet, if Bernie gets the nomination and goes on to defeat Trump (despite the improved economy, his improved popularity and that he's the incumbent) would you THEN acknowledge that it is Hillary Clinton (and her campaign, the DNC and the media) who is the reason that Trump is our president?
6
@Karen, Janet is correct AND in addition Bernie has done nothing positive in all his years in Washington other pass some bills to name some post offices. However, he has voted AGAINST the Brady Bill 5 times, AGAINST legislation to sue gun manufacturers. He’s a lot of talk and nothing else. Every 4 years he registers as a Democrat to run for president than goes back and becomes an Independent. And he never told his supporters in 2016 to Fully support Hillary. What a loser.
It's the path, people. The best candidate needs to have a superior team in place before the election. Sooner the better. Buttigieg dropping out changed the dynamics of the race radically because we can clearly see him in a very strong and able cabinet position.
Start by filling out the full executive staff org chart now. Who matters at the top is the one to build this org and hit the ground running immediately. Please remind people of the big picture. The Senate and the House races are critical. We need certainty.
Candidates: Please Present a Presidential team.
https://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov/ReadLibraryItem.ashx?SFN=Myz95sTyO4rJRM/nhIRwSw==&SF=VHhnJrOeEAnGaa/rtk/JOg==It's the path, people. The best candidate needs to have a superior team in place before the election. Sooner the better. Buttigieg dropping out changed the dynamics of the race radically because we can clearly see him in a very strong and able cabinet position.
Start by filling out the full executive staff org chart now. Who matters at the top is the one to build this org and hit the ground running immediately. Please remind people of the big picture. The Senate and the House races are critical. We need certainty.
Candidates: Please Present a Presidential team.
https://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov/ReadLibraryItem.ashx?SFN=Myz95sTyO4rJRM/nhIRwSw==&SF=VHhnJrOeEAnGaa/rtk/JOg==
2
I completely understand journalistic hyperbole, but come on. To describe Bloomberg’s “racial history” as “horrific” goes way too far.
Yes, stop and frisk was a mistake. And, yes, it did end up unfairly putting young black men in danger. But it was not intended to do so. And it was certainly not enacted out of racial animosity.
Personally, I would prefer Michael Bloomberg over Donald Trump, despite any past mistakes. If Mr Blow feels differently then he is on the right track. Bit if he agrees then perhaps it is time for him to tame his rhetoric.
3
The threat of a Trump reelection overwhelms all qualms about any possible Democratic nominee. Everyone who wishes to see the country remain a republic with the rule of law will vote blue, no matter who. If that isn't a majority, nothing will save us.
8
@Sam I Am I believe that any Democrat will win against Trump and corporate media is hard at work to protect the status quo.
I am fighting for Bernie, because this movement will not stop with him. No matter what happens the conversation has started and we need to restore justice and make elected representatives be responsible to voters and not to a few large corporations. Not sustainable!
4
The Republican oppo on Biden has me very very concerned. There's been a ton of footage of his less than stellar performances on the campaign trail, leading many to begin whispers of "is he sundowning?" I fear a horrible cruel but very effective non stop campaign in the general hitting themes of this, of the failed impeachment to protect him, of the DNC playing favorites etc. These would depress turnout in most of the map, it would look like 1988 with the dems carrying maybe 10 states. I always imagine how would I run a campaign against my guy, what would i do to hurt them. I have to say i have a ton of ammo i think would be effective against Biden. Making it more dangerous is how much coddling the DNC is insisting the coverage be, which means the narrative around these things will be shaped entirely by Trump and the GOP. Say what you will about Bernie but the Republican attacks on him will be exactly the same as the ones the DNC are launching non stop against him and they haven't slow him down at all yet, meaning he's already largely immune to them.
Just imagine the irony and the fun of watching the GOP try to flop and cry and whine about the Bernie Bro army unleashed on them. Forcing them into a defensive position of trying to whine their way into the white house. Even if you hate him you gotta admit that would be fun.
2
The minority voter who selects Mr. Biden from the Democratic buffet is as self-defeating as the poor white MAGA-hat-wearing southerner.
Minorities are over-represented in the enlisted ranks of our armed forces, and have therefore suffered disproportionate casualties in the reckless, undeclared, unwinnable, and unaffordable wars Mr. Biden has championed as both a Senator and as President Obama's right-hand man.
While the media, including Mr. Blow and his newspaper, fixate on the elderly white men who support these wars to varying degrees (yes, even Bernie voted for the 1998 resolution that served as GWB's springboard into the Iraq War), a strong, vibrant and young-yet-mature woman of color who has seen the human cost of war up close has been "disappeared" by those self-same media. This middle-aged white southern male is casting his Super Tuesday vote for Tulsi Gabbard.
4
@Charles
Right on, brother. I'm hoping Bernie will take her (or Nina Turner) as his running mate!
3
Ask the super delegates what their plans are for Bernie at the convention.
Sanders needs to see the writing on the wall and bow out. The powers that be will take it to the convention and "X" Sanders out regardless of these primaries. They want him out because they wisely know Trump's media machine will grind him up and spit him out.
Bernie is independent toast in a democratic toaster.
Set on "burn" not "Bern".
Even if Biden campaigns with Obama and he will....
he will not beat Trump.
he just doesnt have that.
Sanders has a chance at beating Trump.
Biden does not.
1
I’m ready to support the Democratic candidate, whoever it is. Which led me, yesterday, to wonder whether I should bother to vote in Super Tuesday primary here in MA. I’m not at all sure any of those remaining: Biden, Bernie, Warren, Amy or Mike, have the stuff to beat Trump.
I expect Trump will unleash fire and filth upon the Democrat candidate. Whether he will go most fiercely after Biden, Bernie or Warren is a question. We know he’ll attack Biden’s son, Hunter. We know he’ll try to turn Bernie into another Lenin. He’s got his attack teams ready.
So while we must focus on which Democrat is most fit to be President, I think we have to ask ourselves how well we think the nominee will do against Trump’s attacks. I urge them all to plan for a prolonged, vicious smear that will have no truth, but will manipulate images and sound bites to his benefit.
And for us? Get ready to support your candidate with door-bell ruining, mailings, house meetings, get-out-the-vote rallies, twitter campaigns and donations. The future of this America depends on it.
4
@Dianne Olsen
vote amy!
In polls they all beat Trump.
2
The impeachment hearings in the house and senate revealed that the republicans have volumes on hunter Biden and joe Biden when it came to Ukraine matters. It did not look good. We should be prepared for that kind of ugliness if Biden becomes the nominee. Giuliani apparently is still collecting material...
3
Cool your jets dude!
Biden threw himself into this one, non-representative state where he had a powerful ally and a long coat-tail upon which to perch. So he won a few delegates, big whoop! Biden is the past, he is not electable. Trump would toss him around like a throw pillow and Biden would take it. He would take it because he and his family are the same recipients of privilege, at least while in office, as are the Trumps. They are two flavors of the same poison. Ok, in fairness, medicine and poison, respectively.
3
Donate to the democratic opponents of the following Senators. I am even contemplating traveling to one or two of the states to volunteer.
We will know for certain after the primaries, but these are the likely scenarios:
Dem Amy McGrath vs Mitch McConnell in Kentucky
Dem John Hickenlooper vs. Cory Gardener in Colorado
Dem Mark Kelly vs Martha McSally in AZ
Dem Sara Gideon vs Susan Collins in Maine
Dem Unknown vs Thom Tillis in NC
Dem James Harrison vs Lindsay Graham SC
Dem doug Jones vs GOP in Alabama – dem in a red state needs our support.
And there are several other contests worth watching as well.
7
Yes, yes, yes!
This is just as important, maybe even more important than the presidential race.
1
Biden is a bad candidate -- he always has been ... how will he get better? He will not.
Mikes chance was last time ... but, the Clintons controlled the party.
President Obama never worked on any race other than his own -- that was fine for all the Clinton loyalists .. they are still lurking.
Bernie -- I can't vote for Bernie
I find it increasingly difficult to read you to the end, Mr. Blow. Your biases are bile and they are uncleverly overt. Now Bloomberg is the "carpetbagger?" When last I looked, all those still standing fit that term, if you insist on using it. And whose campaign funds are "propaganda?" Only Bloomberg's, of course. Try shaping intelligent opinion rather than continuing to create your own petty agenda.
5
Let's be real: we always lower the bar for Biden. He needs to stop being coddled and do some heavy lifting. Black folk can't have his back just because he knows Obama. And btw, where is Barack?
2
@Mixilplix: Biden needs a low bar. He's never been much of a high jumper. He is, however, a good clown.
Obama did nothing for Black Americans. Biden will be the same.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/how-barack-obama-failed-black-americans/511358/
2
This process is stupid.
2
Because of the Electoral College, the votes of minorities in the South may have less importance, at least during the Democratic primary season, than the votes of minorities in swing states. There’s an assumption that all minorities vote like their ‘own’ group, no matter where they live. The data may not support this assumption any longer. The exit polls from Super Tuesday will be especially interesting to analyze and compare vs South Carolina. At this point in the Democratic race, black votes in swing states are now much more important than the votes of those in solidly GOP states.
2
What? No Bloomberg smear this week? Sorry Mr. Blow but I pay no further heed to your articles and comment strictly as a disgruntled customer of this paper in saying so. I didn’t subscribe to The Times for one-dimensional journalism.
5
Path forward is pretty clear Charlie - support Joe Biden, rally to the cause, crush the dangerous buffoon and the morons around him,
and return sense of sanity to this wonderful country.
1
Minority voters had lots of attention from Pete Buttigieg, Charles.
The simple truth is that those voters in South Carolina would never, ever have voted for Pete Buttigieg because, like me, he's a queer.
Instead, they voted for a shameless, tear-jerking apparatchik who cheated in law school and defamed Anita Hill.
I will neither forget nor forgive the calumny and hateful smears dumped on Pete Buttigieg.
And I will vote accordingly.
1
I think this is not a full representation of the diversity of the black vote, and it is also not a full representation of black support for Sanders. Blow is ignoring the fact that Sanders has significantly improved his standing with black voters nationwide (and in South Carolina) since 2016. He got the second highest share of black votes in South Carolina in this election, among five or six viable candidates. He's leading with black voters nationwide, and with young black voters by a whole lot.
3
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
1
I am a liberal Democrat who is fed up with so many of the issues always at the forefront in the party, and have lost almost all respect for the party. I sit at home wondering who is in charge. Nothing ever gets done when they are in power, it seems - letting a supreme court seat go unfilled instead of plowing forward is a prime example - while the oligarchy from both parties grows more powerful and the corruption and graft or the rich and unconscionable plows forward unabated. I understand why many citizens feel they have no good choice. As much as I hate the current state of affairs, and worry about whether we will ever recover as a democracy, battling back against unimpeded Capitalism and corruption, I am almost resigned to the idea that we may be looking at four more years of the breakdown of our laws and constitution and ideals and everything else we believed defined us as a country. Joe is more of the same, as evidenced by his son's graft. Is Bernie? I don't think so. Short of a revolution, I don't know how we effect enough change to ever sort this thing out, but in the meantime do we go with more of the same, or opt for throwing in a grenade and hoping for the best once the smoke clears? A very hard decision to make in our current state of affairs. Maybe we all need to start going to church or praying or something, because the democratic party needs help from somewhere, anywhere, and it needs it, like, um, yesterday.
2
Wise Democrats will listen to the people of South Carolina.
2
There is justice in the fact that black voters revitalized Biden’s campaign and he will go on to win this election, probably with a black running mate.
3
Gotta stop Sanders~!
4
@WildCycle
You cannot stop the candidate with the most enthusiastic and passion coalition in the Democratic Party. If you advocate for another candidate then do so. But efforts both legitimate and underhand by the Democratic Party to undermine the Sanders' campaign is going to alienate a significant block of voters from the Democratic Party for the foreseeable future.
4
I saw essays from several Times opinion writers with the headline "The Case for __________." Couple that with the Times endorsing two candidates. Now Charles Blow has written an essay "Warnings from South Carolina". I've got a migraine with so many choices and so many red flags to be worry about.
Which is why I voted for Biden early in North Carolina. Like a pair of comfortable slippers it feels good to see his approach--calm, soothing, uplifting, kind and generous.
After three years of Trump's hatred and division--today I heard Pence defending Trump Jr's puke inducing comment that Democrats want millions of people to die from the Coronavirus to make his father look bad--I just want peace and quiet in my life.
Biden offers me that. We had a wonderful eight years before this current disaster, and my strong belief is he'll bring the very best people into government to help him run the country. A country we can be proud of again.
Will it be perfect? Of course not. But it won't be divisive either, at least for not those who meet him half way.
As for Sanders, all he'll do is bring heartburn to the process. I don't like his approach, nor do we need to re-burn the country to the ground. Can anyone keep a straight face while saying we need a democratic socialist leading a political revolution?
Vote Joe. To coin one of his competitor's slogans--he'll get it done.
4
You’d better hope people get past your drumbeat of character assassination against Bloomberg. Whatever you might want to obsess about with Mike, Bernie’s creepy, reprobate past will be hung around his neck by Trump like a burning tire, and Biden will be smeared relentlessly about Ukraine and the stink of The Swamp that cones with it. Bloomberg is far from perfect, but not anywhere near as far as you want desperately for people to believe. And after you’ve done your best to tear him down, if the rest of us who aren’t as enlightened and woke as you are decide Bloomberg is our best shot at beating Trump and getting past the partisan rancor and drama to sound, boring good government, what will you do Mr Blow? Will you actually face up to the fact that there’s only one true racist in this race - Trump - and get behind this man you seem to hate so much? Or are your woke pieties more important to you than the future of our country?
5
@Michael Hogan
Sorry not willing to substitute one racist and misogynist for another. If Trump wins this election it's because America truly deserve four more years with him as President.
2
@Carl Well, no, it will probably be because we nominated Bernie Sanders. And the ridiculous equivalency between Trump and Bloomberg is a baseless smear tactic that Sanders and Warren supporters have been using that most people see right through. At what point does the willingness to admit past faults and demonstrate a sincere and serious commitment to change (Bloomberg) trump a concerted effort to hide fault and carry on as if everyone else is the problem (Sanders)?
2
"Religious voters" in South Carolina going for Biden and dismissing Sanders and Bloomberg is not-so-secret code that anti-Semitism has deep and wide roots in this country. As a Jewish woman living in NY but speaking with people around the country through my work, I've harbored the fear that the thought of a non-Christian in the Oval Office may drive out those compelled to hold their noses and give the corrupt idiot in Chief a second term.
Blow's piece come closest to outing this terrible truth, while the rest of the legit media just can't say it.
1
Charles,
Hear, hear!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/black-america-south-carolina-biden?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
3
The elephant in the room is the Corona virus. Trump has staked his presidency on the notion that Corona will not turn a genuine epidemic in the United States . He has basically done nothing to stop the spread, letting planes in from Iran, South Korea , Japan and Italy long after confirmed Corona outbreaks in those countries. If Corona spreads Trump will look absolutely incompetent . Add to that Wall Street is in free fall, if all of this continues Trump might as well not even run for re-election. Amazing , this sudden reversal in fortune.
A serious threat like Wall Street in free fall, and a pandemic will have the public searching for the best man for the job, especially one who can bring the country together . Sanders is too polarizing. Leaving Biden as the perfect candidate especially if Obama comes out of hiding and begins to campaign with him. The idea that a vote for a Biden is a secret vote for Obama who Biden can appoint to whatever cabinet position he wants and be close enough to give good advice to Biden, will create an almost perfect safe harbor for a country in need of one desperately. Jettisoning Trump and bringing back Obama through Biden is a wining ticket in every way you look at it.
Corona can be controlled, even if all hell breaks loose quarantines will bring it under control but Trump has turned something very serious into a political circus and he may turn out to be the clown.
1
I’m surprised at the number of Bernie supporter comments the times has chosen to highlight. I’ve rarely seen such a concentrated number of them in the comments section of this particular paper. Can the times verify that these comments are from readers in the US?
2
Yes!
1
Sad to see there is a Mike Bloomberg ad smack dab in the middle of the article, Mr. Blow, as I know you are not a fan - to say the very least. I wish you had more control over the ironic ad placement, even though I know you do not.
1
Its not even super Tuesday yet- these primaries are all small potatoes. Lets see what happens tmrw. Everything debated until now is just hot air.
1
So anti-semitism will play a big role in who receives the democratic nomination.
1
Both women in the race came up last. Misogyny in South Carolina!?
2
That was a rather rambling column. Not certain if he had a point or was simply typing out loud.
2
Charles Blow must be right about Bloomberg. Just ask the 75% of New Yorker's who approved of his job as he left office.
2
@Hal Paris
I could also ask the 66% of black voters that walked out the polls in South Carolina that disapproved of him.
It doesn't matter if Charles Blow is right about Bloomberg. It does matter how many people actually vote for Bloomberg. Right now, he appears to have a problem getting widespread support in the black and Latino community. That's a serious liability for his candidacy.
Nobody is going to win the Democratic Party nomination with just the support of white moderates.
1
Yes, but they are all apologizing and disavowing the policies they and Bloomberg favored, before the didn't. No?
Now back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
1
Democrats should be completely concerned that their base voters were able on their very own to identify a racist poser billionaire Republican and reject his attempt to buy the election, eh? This makes zero sense. Feel the Bern.
1
Bloomberg dragging his partner around on a string for two decades without marrying her undoubtedly does not go over well in South Carolina.
2
Obamas’s “Cultural residue?” Your identity politics just “jumped the shark.” Your subjectivism is out of control.
1
I thought Van Jones made an astute observation on Sunday - that, while Joe Biden likely would have won SC in any case, the heartfelt endorsement by James Clyburn on Friday contributed to the larger than expected margin of victory. Clyburn's has enormous influence in SC, comparable to say the Kennedy's in Mass. So it remains to be seen if Biden has real momentum going into Super Tuesday.
By the way, calling Bloomberg "horrific" on race doesn't leave that many stronger adjectives for Bull Conner, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Adolf Hitler etc. Bloomberg made a mistake on "stop & frisk" - so did a lot of politicians on the confluence of race and and crime including Joe Biden, the Clintons etc. I get that Mr. Blow doesn't like Mike Bloomberg but how does he walk back "horrific" if Mike wins the nomination? Most of us will take Mike over the Donald.
3
To those Democrats who still believe Black or Hispanic Americans will vote for a gay man, or a Jewish Socialist, or a white ultra liberal woman, you are deluded and self-absorbed. It is you, and not Trump, who will lose this election. And as a Democrat, I say you deserve to lose, and you shall. Your whining has become grating. You placing purity over winning is boring.
That you otherwise will nominate someone as visibly old and winded as Joe Biden is another gross error, and he will be our Bob Dole. Another candidate who got the nomination because it was his turn.
4
You called it correctly.
And when those demographic groups don't vote as the Dems hope, it will all be blamed on voter supression.
Clinton could have carried Michigan quite easily if the Detroit population had bothered to vote. That didn't happen... so the polling locations must have been purposefully overcrowded just as they were when I lived in Detroit.
1
Thin line between “people of color” and “colored people.” Tread carefully, mr. Blow.
2
The real question for Black voters is who has your back? I can understand why Black voters have a hard time warming up to most of the Democratic field. But any of the Democratic candidates is so far superior to Trump. Trump is trying to tell Blacks in America he wants to help them out of one side of his mouth and telling White America he will make sure they maintain superiority no matter what the demographics say out of the other side. I believe the term used to describe that is two faced. If you believe what he says and ignore what he does, you are a fool.
3
sorry charles. He can't remember, he can't put a sentence together. He's uninspiring.
what more could america want?
someione else.
5
Bernie is a pseudoegalitarian, elitist socialist who never should have been permitted to run in a democratic primary, nor should AOC and Ayanna Presley have been, either. These people are collectivist, politically correct adherents of racial and sexual politics, and unlimited third world immigration, to reconfigure the American electorate.
The so-called moderates, who have concocted social programs for every form of individual dysfunction, now must rely upon the electoral generosity of Afro-Americans to save their party tomorrow. To soothe their nerves, they are conjuring up the Democratic ticket. And....the Sarah Palin award for best vice presidential candidate goes to Stacey Abrams!
“Just wait until I get into Blair House!” Joe Biden exclaimed.
2
Charles, Democrats must face the fact that the slaves have left the plantation.
Trump will win over 40% of the Black vote.
Democrats can no longer just shout racist and expect Black people to line up and vote for them.
3
We can always count on Blow to boil everything down to race.
4
Mr. Blow: Did you mean black religious leaders in S.C. An impression is that white religious leaders, at least in the South are usually right wing.
1
Blacks influenced by people like you hate Bloomberg. You hate Bloomberg. Democrats need Republican votes to win. No democrat except Bloomberg (and maybe Amy) can stop trump in the general. Bloomberg hopefully can buy the election. Be realistic and stop hate mongering. Bloomberg is no raciest. You prefer Biden and his spawn Clarence Thomas? This is not a “who do you like” election. It’s a dump trump election. Nothing else matters. Cut the righteous indignation. Clear the air.
2
Charles Blow is a broken record on “Stop and Frisk”. Will Bloomberg ever be able to apologize enough?
4
@Democrat
No, he's showed us who he is and we believe him. No apologize or justification is necessary. For many he is just completely unacceptable as the Democratic Party nominee and we will NEVER vote for him, even if it means four more years of Donald Trump.
Deal with it!
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” — Joe Biden, August 8, 2019
You really want this dim-witted person to be our next president? I don’t — one oaf occupying the Oval Office is more than enough for me.
Sanders 2020
2
Charles needs some straws to grasp at. He doesn't have enough now with only South Carolina to pin his assumptions on.
2
What? No Bloomberg smear this week? Sorry Mr. Blow but I pay no further heed to your articles and comment strictly as a disgruntled customer of this paper in saying so. I didn’t subscribe to The Times for one-dimensional journalism.
3
Three old white men is the best the Democrats can come up with ? Geez.
2
You can slice and dice the demographics all you want, but the bottom line, which is becoming increasingly obvious, is that the Democrats are too divided, and are going to end up beating themselves. More than likely, it's going to come down to Sanders or Biden. If Sanders, we lose the moderates, and if Biden, we lose the progressives. It's that simple. Read the comments here on a daily basis for clear evidence. Buttigieg was the closest thing we had to a unity candidate, but he had his own vulnerabilities, and probably didn't have what it would have taken to win in the general. Barring a sharp economic downturn, or a major screw-up by Trump, he's going to cruise into a second term without barely lifting a finger. And, as a result, the Democratic party as we currently know it, having failed to galvanize in response to the most compelling issue it has ever faced, will cease to be a viable entity.
1
@jr
If "Big Boss Man" Biden, the Progressives (and there are way more Progressives than Moderates) go to Trump, and the 12% of Bernie supporters that voted Trump in 2016 stay with Trump, and none of the 47% of the apathetic electorate (93,000,000 votes made apathetic by the boring Moderates) ) votes Democratic either.
But if "Estimated Prophet" Bernie, all the Moderates will vote for Bernie because they style themselves as "adults" and "responsible" and will vote. Who for? Definitely not for Trump, who's no moderate.
But Bernie beats Trump right now nationally and in all the six states - so we don't even need Moderate votes. Heck, they could all vote for Trump and, like, who cares? Bernie has this in the bag, with or without them.
"California, I'll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine"
Because Delaware is the haven for credit card companies, and much of the financial industry, Biden has voted to make default much harder, assured our college graduates prolonged debt, and delayed any financial gains to the sinking middle class. Biden embarrassed Anita Hill, and pushed the 3 strikes your out crime bill that filled our prisons since the 1990's. His son "legally"worked for the Ukrainian energy company but the GOP will make that the albatross around his neck. Biden chooses not to be real in debates or rallies, fast talking and presenting a facade we all see through. He excites absolutely no one. We will have a rep-eat of the 2016 election, where Bernie will be blamed for Biden loss. Superdelegates will be the undoing of the Dems. Wake up!
2
I honestly don't understand why Biden curries such favour with African Americans. He hasn't done anything to stand out from other candidates on issues affecting the Black community. In fact Biden's pre-Vice President record is spotty when it comes to support for African Americans.
Far be it for me to question someone's choice but I feel Biden's support is a bit undeserved.
3
One of the phenomena going on in the United States right now is what I call the death of the dinosaurs. One of biden's most fervent supporters dinosaur Chris Matthews, is absent from the air so that he cannot Biden supposedly massive victory in South Carolina. But because they're dinosaurs they don't understand that of course Biden would win in a very conservative heavily African American state which he termed his second home. Of course they would miss the point that Sanders is able to turn out millennials in numbers no one else is able to turn out which will surely outweigh any underperformance he may have with dinosaur favoring Democrats.
That's the thing about dinosaurs... They don't see it coming just like they didn't see the meteor they won't see the fundamental political and social change going on in the US. But just like the Trump supporters dinosaurs of the right and dinosaurs of the left are going to be extinct sooner rather than later. The shortcomings of US social policy are about to be underlined by the Corona virus. This is going to give Bernie Sanders a tremendous boost. Extinction is the order of the day. I don't think you'll see Chris Matthews back on the air just like I don't think you'll see a second term for Donald Trump nor a first term for Joe Biden.
1
Biden is exactly what the Democratic party of the 21st century does NOT need..
6
"Every major newspaper and even NPR have gone after Sanders dissecting every possible or imagined weakness. But Biden gets one win and it's a love fest."
That's because Biden is more generally well-liked than Sanders. Plain & simple.
1
@Dheep'
I don't think he is generally more liked. He's more liked by exactly who voted for him, and no one else. The establishment Democrats and the DNC are praying the's more likable, but they're going to get the truth flung back in their smug faces come this November. This is a throwback to the old politics. No more.
2
"But, with Biden’s blowout victory in South Carolina, he breathed new life into his limping campaign" for three more days!!!
2
Once again, Jill Stein cost Clinton the White House. But agree that Hunter Biden will be an albatross, just like Bill Clinton was for Hillary. Trump was sexually profligate? Well, so was Bill. Made it difficult to use that issue against him. Trump is a corrupt nepotist? Well, so is Hunter Biden. True, the Biden case has yet to be proven, but when has that ever stopped Trump and his enablers?
1
Hmmm. Let's count the ways Biden has let down the Black community.
1. As head of the Senate Judiciary committee.He almost single handedly promoted Clarence Thomas to the supreme court by muzzling Anita Hill.
2. Voted with banks and credit card companies to tighten up bankruptcy laws. Usury and greed prevailed over the poor.
3. Voted for the strict crime bill that resulted in the incarceration of millions of minorities.
4. He recently endorsed and supported a Republican Congressman who actively worked to take down Obamacare. For his services he was paid $200,000.
5. He advised Obama NOT to take out Bin Laden.
Biden has demonstrated the worst judgement throughout his career.
5
@Mark
He is clearly not a man of the people. This is the corporate Democrat. He's the establishment. It's proof that Gore Vidal was right when he said that there is no progressive or liberal party in the United States; there are two conservative parties, with one slightly less conservative than the other.
2
Sorry, Charles, but warnings from Democrats in February in a deep Red November state, are utterly meaningless - really.
Warnings from pivotal swing states like PA, MI, WI, etc. are much more useful.
3
Lindsey Graham is Senior SC Senator AKA Trump top grenade jumper. Isn't that warning enough?
1
You overlooked the elephant in the room--conservative black church goers are skeptical about supporting a gay candidate.
1
It’s South Carolina folks how can we look at national election through this State, you could smell the political buyout Biden made with the congressman and it will not carry forward into superTuesday no matter how Mr Blow tries to will it.
Buttigieg would be wise to hook on with Bloomberg as the VP candidate. I firmly believe that the real black community would take a hard look at their body of work and not the sensational news focus. That ticket could beat Trump.
I am tired of old white guy presidents. They have accumulated a lot of biases and their brains don't work as well as those of younger persons. That's why I was sorry to see Mayor Pete go.
2
So you could have a young white guy?!
1
@Ajaxtol
Yeah. I am an old white guy.
@Clark Landrum
By the way, I voted for Obama twice. I would just like a younger president. I don't care what color they are.
y now, and based on his recent columns, I start doubting the message of Blow and its sincerity. Sorry Mr Blow, when you drew an equal sign between Trump and Bloomberg you lost me.
3
So interesting. Charle Blow shows how youth splinters race, and seniority coalesces moderation and religiosity.
Leave it to two really senior citizens to vie against one another, if this is indeed the path, now that the Bloomberg meteor seems to have crashed to eaarth.
I only wish Biden had been as lit up as he was campaigning in SC and last night. It almost seems to be Joe is a split personality, a new man born with success, but a downtrodden defeatest when the chips are down.
Whether he can ride last night into Super Tuesday is anyone's guess, but in today's world--full of Trumpian grotesqueness and a brewing pandemic--anything seems both possible and impossible.
Good luck, Joe, you're going to need it.
1
Stating that black voters need more attention is like saying Congress needs to do more to appease the Israeli lobby. Don't kill the messenger, but pandering to Black and Hispanic voters is exactly why whites aren't voting Democrat. The Democrats need to cease showing such blatant racial favoritism and people like the author of this piece need to wake up to the realization that constantly demanding separate and preferential treatment for blacks is guaranteed to create a backlash of hostility and not only from whites.
1
@Lisa R
No, the reason that there are white the do not want to vote democrat is because either they are racists, or they don't care about Trumps racism as long as they are benefiting economically.
If Trump wins the election this will be a major reason why.
1
Don’t worry, Charles. With “Brexit”, Trump will get about 20% of the Black voting bloc.
He’ll cruise to victory in November.
2
Who shut it down?
We shut it down!
Just weeks ago, Biden asked Amy to endorse him.
She declined.
Now, in her home state, Minnesota, Black Lives Matter protesters shut down an Amy rally — because she had convicted a black person for murder, and he got a life sentence. That was when she was a County prosecuting attorney, doing her job to keep people safe.
That’s it.
If you can’t get away with murder, shut down democracy.
Who shut it down?
Chanted the protesters,
We shut it down,
So, that, along with Omar and her Benjamin’s, is how Minnesota will flip red to Trump in November.
Congratulations.
But your murderer is going to stay in prison, for life.
Who shut it down?
We shut it down.
In Minnesota.
2
Religious people overwhelmingly vote for a thrice married serial cheater Trump who cons people in his business and is a divisive bully?
Black people reject a Christian-living gay man Pete who has dealt with feeling excluded his entire life because of the way he was born?
Logical disconnect here.
2
Biden is Hillary 2.0.
3
I wonder how many "religious voters" in South Carolina would not support Pete Buttigieg because he is gay?
1
I hope Pete Buttigieg becomes the DNC chair immediately. The party needs somebody to herd the Democratic candidates and to maximize the effort.In a normal year it would be great to have 20 candidates with only 5 candidates at most having any chance. In a normal year third grade level food fights for debates might be entertaining.
2020 is not a normal year and Trump seems more interested in pleasing Putin while engaging in corruption beyond anything the world has seen.
I hope Democrats vote for their preferred Democratic candidate and get out and vote in the 2020 election. Trump is truly a risk to Democracy and the fate of our country.
4
Charles, you missed the real story out of South Carolina; Now that Democratic Primary votes have been harvested, we can go back to ignoring South Carolina and the other Southern States because in November the game is the Electoral College and Trump has it locked up.
1
I really hate the way the race is over for the media after so few voters have spoken.
A lot of us are thinking hard about governance, especially with the coronavirus crisis moving around the world. First, Trump has cut funding that is essential for those agencies that usually are most involved in helping to control the spread of these things.
Second, I live in Bernie's state and have voted for him here, but I will not vote for him to be president. I honor his relentless reminders about inequality, etc. but Elizabeth Warren is the progressive who can lead us to better times and more fairness!
I was leery of the very leftist ideas at first, but see that they are really needed now. The person with amazing credentials is Elizabeth Warren, not just for her plans, which the media loves to mock, but for her record of effectiveness in the Senate and before. If dealing with the financial sector is what is needed, the famous one percent, she is the one who really understands what that means.
Her ideas are smart and would be effective and wouldn't hurt the one percent as much as they like to whine about. Many of the richest folks are ready to pay more of a fair share than is ever written about by the horse-racing media fans. This is our country we are talking about, not the Derby!
Do the Sanders people really think he can get anything done after decades of talking about things that need fixing, but doing little to make it happen?
It's high time for a smart female president.
8
For Senator Sanders to win the nomination, his inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats
will need to change. By not attending Sunday's Bridge Crossing Jubilee will cost him some Black votes.
Mr. Sanders has struggled to overcome his longstanding weakness in affluent, well-educated suburbs, where Democrats excelled in the midterm elections and he needs to explain to Americans what a Social Democrat is.
He needs to get flexible or lose to Biden.
3
@bmel47 Another moderate who has no real intention of improving the lives of people of color uses race (the Bridge Crossing) to shame voters with more sincere intentions to prop up a frail, weak, befuddled candidate whose voting record shows that he was complicit in the mass incarceration of people of color. Sanders, by contrast, has supported communities of color, including acts of civil disobedience for which he was arrested, for decades. Biden's racism is not negated by a Bridge Crossing or his ability to dupe voters in South Carolina that he supports the community. He just panders for votes all while working to maintain a system that has destroyed communities of color. Talk is cheap.
2
I’m as non-woke as it gets (while remaining a Democrat) and I rarely engage in the buzz saw of political correctness. But even I am feeling a little frustrated at the offhand dismissiveness be many commentators of the contribution of Democratic primary voters in South Carolina. It’s true that SC is deeply red and the general election voters will probably not vote blue in the general, but does that mean that the huge majority of Southern Black Democratic voters should be denied a chance to help select who may become their party’s nominee and, perhaps, the next president of the United States?
Do you realize that the opposite could be said about the deep blue states seeing as they won’t move the needle in favor of winning in the electoral college. If the commentators are dismissive of the South Carolina primary than the should also say that is the case with Vermont or California since both states will go blue no matter what.
In fact, by that logic, the only states who should hold primaries are swing states such as Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
179
@Swing State Voter
Taking your points further -- those so-called "progressive" Democrats who would naysay the collective electoral decision of the African-American Democratic Party voters in SC -- harken back to the dark days when such people were denied even the right to vote.
Imagine "progressive" Democrats putting themselves in the virtual position of denying the voting rights of African-Americans.
We, the "unwoke" fought for decades to create the opportunity for everyone to be able to cast a ballot. And now there are some among us who chose to disparage this because such voters chose someone other than their favorite? Sad, so very sad.
41
@Swing State Voter Yeah, that's why there's so much cynicism about our elections. Why do you think so many people sit out?
These candidates do what they need to do to win the primary but in the end only the swing state voters matter in terms of power (as opposed to a title).
The only way out is a NPV contest for the President.
12
@Swing State Voter This is literally true.
In the 2016 election there were only 16 states that were won by less than 10 points by either candidate and those are the only states that will be up for grabs this time. The others are so reliably red or blue that the way they will vote is a foregone conclusion except in the rarest circumstances (a landslide).
An odd and seemingly archaic system where if you are in the minority party of your state, in effect, your vote never counts.
This is the most compelling reason to award the election to the candidate who gets the most votes nationally, which could be accomplished if enough states would pass a law awarding their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
31
I admire what Charles Blow writes. His insights provide a steady dose of reason when chaos reigns in the punditocracy.
That said, he errs as do others in slicing and dicing the electorate based on ethnicity. That's not what's going on.
Inequality rules as an issue. The Elites playing off the 99% against each other with race and ethnic differences is The Problem. Only by uniting against self-serving Elite interests will change happen -- including beating Trump.
Bernie Sanders "gets" it. This is the message summed up by "Not Me, Us". It crosses race and color lines.
All of us.
233
@Barry C This is a very selective reading of the editorial, which also addressed Bloomberg’s spending, the “likability” factor and religious leanings. Apparently, for those who attend religious services, Sanders doesn’t “get” it. And, if inequality is your game, he’s not the only candidate who “gets” it. Bernie bros....
13
Bernie was a Brooklyn wannabe hippie who fled to Vermont to be a wannabe back-to-the-simple-life, back-to-nature pseudo bumpkin. He got bored with that and ran for office again and again until he was in the Senate representing a state with a small and similarly minded populace - both the truly rural and independent voters and the interlopers. (No dis to Vermont, but would Bernie have made it politically in NYC in the 70’s?)
His being in the race with his overly idealistic socialist agenda has even less justification than did Buttigeg’s, was whose political depth was criticized, but whose reasoned approach to the tasks at hand were admirable and appropriate.
Yes, we need a “revolution”, but we need a revolution with a basis in political reality, not a coup based in anger - again.
Bernie Sanders candidacy is being equated with Trump’s by some commentators - his seductive pendulum swing to the left versus the populist/conservative/right wing/true American support of Trumpism. It has the depth of reality TV:
Status Quo, “You’re fired!”.
Capitalism, “Get off my lawn!!!”.
Sanders’ numbers just aren’t there, despite the early symbolic wins (which matter less than they used to). The national electorate will deem him the Hilary of 2020.
The Democratic Party has politically incorrectly painted itself into a corner.
An open convention looms. Back to the “smoke filled rooms” - leaving the American Idol method of candidate selection behind.
10
@Rock On
No, it's not selective.
You didn't "get" my intent.
Your "Bernie Bros" slight is reprehensible.
13
Elections are hard to predict, as Hillary Clinton proved when she won the South and by far the majority of Black voters in the 2016 primaries but then lost the general. Many of the Southern states of course are guaranteed Republican in the general, so those voters could not help her. I predict Sanders will continue to have trouble in the South, but he will do well elsewhere, better than in 2016. I’ll be rooting for him.
176
@John Krumm
Elections are extremely hard to predict in an era of known election tampering about which the current Administration is doing nothing but sending thank-you notes.
Hillary won the popular vote and, I am sure, would have won much, much more without the nonstop manipulation of Trump's meat-head electorate, an unprecedented amount of disinformation on the stump, and James Comey's bizarre last-minute behavior.
Bro's: Hillary is not the enemy. She was an excellent candidate, and Bernie's resentment of her and undermining of female candidates is anti-progressive and counterproductive.
I continue to support Warren and i find the sage input of the black South Carolina voters to be very, very instructive. I trust them and I appreciate their opinion of Joe Biden, should Warren drop out.
Although Bernie reflects my positions on most issues, I doubt he will accomplish much in this climate, given his track record of failing to work and play well with others.
However ...
Any Democrat against Trump, 2020.
8
The tea leaves from the first four states are soggy and dark revealing little not just about the future but also about the present. What if it were just Biden and Sanders on the ballots? What if it were instead just two other candidates?
Trump supporters do not seem to steadfastly support the GOP but give almost reverential support to him. How will Dems behave in November? Will they vote - and in large turnouts - to defeat Trump, no matter the nominee, or will it be a culture of personalities on each side? How can the primary tea leaves let us know that at this stage?
As the past week has shown us, we do not move through time in a predetermined path. Things, as they say more crudely, happen.
2
I agree that this is more of a generational division than a racial division. I am a 68 year old white guy who likes Bernie's platform more than any other viable candidate in my lifetime.
Those of us who were born in the 1940s and 1950s got a good deal because when we were young labor unions were strong; the super rich paid a tax rate of around 90% on their earnings; and education, housing, and health care were all affordable. Under these conditions the working class prospered and raised children who had an opportunity for a good education. The reforms of the 1960s offered more opportunities to racial minorities and women.
This changed during the 1980 when the extremist Ronald Reagan was elected. He cut the tax rate of the wealthy; doubled the Social Security tax on the working class; cut regulations on Wall Street; cut environmental standards; appointed anti-union justices to the Supreme Court; and initiated the dumbing down of the news by withdrawing public funding from Public Radio and TV.
Those of us who are older still benefit from the reforms of the Roosevelt-Truman decades, which allowed us to save money, but the younger generations have grown up in an era of Neo-Feudalism, characterized by dead end service jobs and monthly duties to landlords and corporate creditors.
Bernie offers a return to progressive reforms that most of us who have already made it no longer need and are too lazy to take the time to understand.
365
@Robert Scull
Great comment! I really hope the boomers like us come out to support Bernie (or Liz) when it counts. Like tomorrow.
42
@Robert Scull I do agree. I am 63, retired, and am going to vote for the future of my children both young adults who work full time and have to struggle. I will vote for Sanders this spring and whoever gets the Democratic nomination. Hopefully the USA will recover from the nightmare of Trump
60
A really good summation. The same things have led me to support Warren.
51
I believe if Bernie is the nominee, that will very likely tilt more Senate races to the GOP. And perhaps house races too.
I think many people fear how Bernie speaks and the concepts he advances, which no European country would blink at.
I am stunned at the number of people who can not distinguish between 'socialism' and 'communism'. They are simply not the same thing.
Because of that lack of distinction lots of folks think Bernie is paving the way for some kind of Soviet/Castro US.
Basic definitions:
Socialism allows for property ownership, business ownership etc it has amore progressive tax system.
Communism is total state ownership and control.
Many people don't make these distinctions.
I think a Bernie nomination pushes more people to try to flip the house to the GOP, and keep the Senate GOP as a firewall against this fear and misunderstanding.
And of course people seem willing to ignore the many socialized aspects of our nation: Education, public health, defense, roads, highways, sanitation, utilities, police, fire, etc etc
@Equilibrium I have no idea where you get your definitions from (could it be a “liberal” echo-chamber?) but they are wrong. Socialism means the state’s ownership of the means of production. Communism means a classless society and is the last stage of socialism. No country in Europe is socialist today. Bernie is an old-style socialist whose ideas come from Trotskyism, not modern economic and social science.
@Mor
Maybe you get yours form the FOX echo chamber?
The single greatest representation of Communism in the american mind is the Former Soviet Union, likely followed by Castro, and China.
It was totalitarian, it was state owned and controlled, it was collectivized and it brought the country to it's knees economically and culturally.
From History.com:
Under communism, there is no such thing as private property. All property is communally owned, and each person receives a portion based on what they need. A strong central government—the state—controls all aspects of economic production, and provides citizens with their basic necessities, including food, housing, medical care and education.
By contrast, under socialism, individuals can still own property. But industrial production, or the chief means of generating wealth, is communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government.
Specifics can be argued. But most European citizens feel they live in socialist or democratic socialist countries, whether you think they do or not.
Without question they have a different social contract with their citizens, and they ARE NOT the bogey man of communism.
I have traveled extensively in the former eastern block including parts of the former USSR, and I have had hundreds of interesting and fruitful conversations with the citizens in these places.
@Mor
Also, my comment was intended to draw a distinction in the way people here look at things, not provide a textbook definition.
US citizens conflate communism and socialism all the time, no matter how distorted the definition.
I gave examples of things which are communal/social economically, for the purpose of trying to get people to stop freaking out about it.
No one can seriously argue that our healthcare system works well or is fair. Our economic system has a massive and growing income gap.
I am not for Sanders, and I think it would be a mistake for him to win the nomination.
But I am also tired of the conflating of his thinking and ideas, of which many are the norm in Europe and many other countries, with some stifling overbearing Soviet style nonsense.
Biden is 2020's Hilary. She lost to Trump and they tried to blame Sanders. Biden will lose to Trump and they will again blame Sanders, instead of acknowledging that the old D guard has not served its constituents. Every major newspaper and even NPR have gone after Sanders dissecting every possible or imagined weakness. But Biden gets one win and it's a love fest. Hunter's elitist privilege which resulted in a very questionable entitlement is an achilles heal and will weaken Biden's ability to take on Trump's nepotism and corruption. Its corruption too, only it's legal, and is a prime example of why the rest of us are disgusted with the D establishment.
661
Not one progressive state in the union. House Dems are mostly moderate. Senate is under Republican control.
This country has NOT demonstrated progressive bonafides at any state government or legislative level.
The only progressive candidate to win the presidency was Jimmy Carter.
111
@Practical Thoughts -- "The only progressive candidate to win the presidency was Jimmy Carter."
Perhaps you are correct -- a wealthy man who saw the light (like Lee Atwater, only vastly sooner), FDR won the Presidency FOUR times; more importantly, governing, if not running, as a Progressive.
We the People LOVE our Progressives .. so much so, the opposition had to put term limits on 'em.
73
@Jill
And who are you going to blame when Sanders implodes in the general? I can't wait to hear the silence from his supporters.
99
I won't be voting for Biden in the general election and neither will many people I know across the country (I have a large family spread out across four very different states). Enjoy another four years of Trump. Just as some voters here absurdly see no distinction between Sanders and Trump, I see no meaningful difference between Biden and Trump in terms of actual outcome. I will also no longer embolden the dying portion of the electorate that likes to pat itself on the back by talking a good game on pluralism and inclusion but rejects any candidate as "radical" who actually advocates policies that will help communities of color and those living on the precipice of financial ruin. If Biden wins, we will be hearing in four or eight years (it's not obvious that frail, befuddled, Biden will survive a first term) that only a "moderate" (read: immoderate) Democrat can win the White House. Enjoy 2016 redux.
5
I occasionally see comments suggesting that if Bernie doesn’t get the nomination it will depress turnout and ruin the Democratic Party. Apparently this will be due to shenanigans by the party elite just like in 2016. I thought Hillary won the popular vote in the 2016 primaries irrespective of any shenanigans. What’s funny is the assumption that all Democrats must turn out for Bernie if he is the nominee. It’s ok for Bernie supporters to stay home but not for supporters of other candidates.
6
@Christian This is a lie. No one claims that "moderates" (read: radicals) have an obligation to vote for Sanders. Millennial voters have a global perspective. We evaluate politicians and their supporters on a spectrum that includes western and central Europe. We don't view "moderates" (read: reactionary radicals) as ideological bedfellows or political fellow-travelers. You are not our friends. We view you as you viewed Reagan in the 80's. You are reactionary conservatives who have no regard for the people under 45 who support Sanders and Warren and who have reduced us to an over-educated debtor class living under the Damoclean sword of climate change. Your milquetoast proposals are morally inadequate because they do not meaningfully address the root causes of the problems the US faces, including climate change and income inequality. Your policies are delusional, feel-good policies that only serve your own interest of convincing yourselves that you are progressive, forward-looking, and compassionate. We won't blue no matter who and neither will you.
In the general election, EVERY candidate panders to religious voters, whether or not they are religious themselves.
If Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, he will be no different. In fact, he has already started to talk about how his faith informs his desire to help people.
1
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
3
Odd that Hispanic voters favor Sanders given their history with communism in Latin America. Praising the likes of Castro and Ortega shouldn't appeal to folks from that part of the hemisphere. The religiosity of blacks tracks well with their support of Biden; socialists tend to be opposed to "the opiate of the people." Perhaps the bafflement will abate after tomorrow--but I doubt it.
2
Gosh, Charles, if we’re going to use the South Carolina favorability ratings as a key indicator, I guess that means the Democratic race is over, since Biden led the rest of the field by a minimum 30 percentage points.
1
Yes the warning is for the Democratic party to stay on course for its base and indeed the Super Tuesday voters will have to give their support to what it is that will take back the White house and overthrow DJT indeed. Biden is the man and for sure let's have the cheers from Obama and honest and true working men and women that demand to win in Novemeber.
6
I normally agree with Charles Blow almost 95% of the time but not on this one. He failed to mention the recent embellishments of Joe Biden. He went around SC about him being arrested for trying to see Nelson Mandela over and over again. Also saying that Bernie Sanders was trying to challenge Obama around African Americans. James Clyburn callin Bernie a socialist and he knew better. By the way Bernie worked with Clyburn about the Community Health Centers. Politics makes a lot of people make up stories. There is a big difference in democratic socialism in Europe unlike the so called socialism in Latin America or communism in Eastern Europe. These people are contributing towards making Americans dumb. Still Feeeling The Bern!!!
5
No Democrat is going to win SC and will lose by large numbers. This leaves some holes in Mr. Blow's analysis and with important factors not completely explained.
SC for the most part is an ultra conservative state. This rubs off on those who live there no matter what your epidermis looks like. There are extremely few progressive leaders in the Palmetto State. That includes Rep Clyburn. At most he dabbles at its edges with no bold agenda.
There is a line to tow to fit among South Carolinians. Loyalty once established does not loosen very much even when better survival is in the balance. The SC Rep called on those loyal to him using character reference, not better policies to vote for Biden.
Although like elsewhere racism is a major abhorrent, getting along without rocking the boat is a watchword. Cue "To Kill A Mockingbird", a legacy that exists in more subtle forms today. Anyone who says they're liberal in SC is at most hoping things don't get worse.
5
South Carolina is a red state. All that really matters is the swing states. Then we'll talk.
4
Dear Charles, I am a great admirer of your writing but, in this case I feel you are overlooking an additional factor. Anti-Semitism. Despite the amazing and powerful diversity of our state here in NJ, Council members in Paterson and Trenton casually used the term “Jew them down” during the course of their political duties seemingly unaware that the term is offensive. What other tropes influence African American voters?
3
I am liberal enough to vote for Bernie in the general election if necessary. But too often his "followers" are as rabid as Trump's. Moderates, whether center left Democrats or Center-right lapsed Republicans who can't stand Trump, may well determine this election. So, can we keep the sniping at other Democrats to a minimum? Can Bernie rein in his supporters on their radical left podcasts who call people names and chant "Lock her up!" about Hillary just as Trump does at rallies? Can he persuade his "movement" to vote for anyone else should he fail to get the nomination? My nephew literally starts screaming at me if we have a conversation about any other candidate's viability, he is so smitten with Bernie and tells me in a huff that "No one else will save this country!" My friends tell me they have relatives who do the same. This is as repugnant to me as Trump supporters fanatical chanting, and their belief in Trump as a savior is essentially no different than many of the far-left's new appraisals of mainline Democrats as sell-outs and traitors. This country has made progress when we compromise. Today a win over Trump means we decide to stop screaming at one another and have some respectful conversations. I am not going to apologize for previously supporting Hillary, nor for being a college educated professional. We moderates are not the enemy, so stop treating us like we are!
6
sorry to hear about your relatives. Family!
love the person, hate the sin. This Berner nurse wishes you peace and tranquility.
" The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
1
What South Carolina really showed is that voters— perhaps African American and Latinx voters in particular— value candidates they feel they know and trust and who do not take them for granted.
3
So happy Black voters spoke loud and clear that they would never vote for Mayor Pete. Do better democratic party.
1
@Jonathan it isn’t that. Black voters are not familiar with new faces. They recognize Clinton Obama Biden that’s it. They haven’t been educated yet. The black congressional caucus PAC is very powerful in the south. They have the resources to influence barber shops churches and town halls where blacks congregate. These black leaders tell those voters whom to vote for. That’s how Hillary won in SC and so did Biden.
1
Is it possible the media is also the blame here? How many people in the media have mentioned Elizabeth Warren and her legion of black citizens who run her campaigns in the south?
4
After Super Tuesday, S.C. will be remembered as Biden’s fire-brick.
3
I'm tired of Blow's nonstop demonizing of Bloomberg. He has apologized repeatedly for stop-and-frisk, even though it sharply reduced crime rates, which Blow never mentions. Also, Democrat ideologues need to drop their prejudices against rich entrepreneurs. I like Mike as much as the other moderates and I'm not ashamed to say it.
5
@Ken what if Charles blow has something deep rooted against jews? Both Bloomberg and Sanders are jews. Wow now I get it, why he was so rabidly against Sanders in 2016. Never connected the dots...
Biden said Bernie isn’t a democrat so I guess I’m not a democrat. Neither are the 250,000 people who show up to Bernie’s rallies I guess. Thanks NYTimes for doing your best to throw the primary race to a guy who can’t even fill a cafeteria up with a hundred people. I’ll be sure to cancel you, and tell people not to click on your bait.
Democrats, you had Buttigieg drop to push Biden through. We won’t be voting for you ever again.
5
@Matthew Girard
Yes. And now it seems Klobuchar woke up with a horse head in her bed.
1
Charles Blow, I have posed this question to you here and in Emails, a question not only never answered by you but never touched in the Times.
How would America be changed if a proposal made in 2013 by Kenneth Prewitt, former US Census Bureau Director, were to be implemented?
The proposal was laid out clearly in Ch. 11 of the book published in 2013 and introduced in August of that year here in the Times by an OpEd that a Times Editor had asked Prewitt to write. The book:
"What Is Your Race? The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans"
The proposal: End use of the archaic system, the fatal invention of racists, that is used to place each of us in a "race" box, maybe even two.
Imagine that there were no Census Bureau database that could be accessed to aid in gerrymandering, to make it possible to discuss how a candidate must tailor her program because in state X, 35% of the population is of race A, 30% race B, and on and on. I have even found an article published by 3 sociologists who want the Census Bureau to formally name 60 races.
Only in America.
Your colleague Nicholas Kristof answered many comments in a coronavirus article yesterday. Time for you to try that?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
1
always check "other" and write in "Human".
1
@rolnrn - Yes that is exactly what I do but Kenneth Prewitt told me in an Email that in the 2010 census, live census takers could make a "correction"
I can be sure that nobody will answer my question posed since what I learn in the Times is that a large percentage of my fellow Americans cannot imagine not belonging to a "race" and if they can, others will assign them to a race. That is something Professor Dorothy Roberts taught me at the beginning of her masterpiece: Fatal Invention - How Science, Politics, and Business Re-Create Race (in America).
Human
1
Now, if Biden can just stay out of the Nursing Home long enough to become President, we are all good.
3
@Michael well...the Ukraine matter will become front and center as soon as Biden gains delegates...
Conflict of interest with Biden as VP and his son a board member of burisma in Ukraine. Even diplomats thought it didn’t look good. But Biden didn’t think it mattered. After all John Kerry who was sec of state, his stepson too was doing business in Ukraine, but he has good experience and qualifications, Hunter didn’t have either of those.
@petey tonei
Really? Hunter Biden is a Georgetown and Yale graduate, did a year of church service after graduating, and among several business ventures was also the Chairman of Amtrak, resigning when his dad was VP. The son who isn't qualified is Sanders' son, who his father made head of The Sanders Institute at $100,000 a year, pretty hefty for a Vermont kid who'd never make that kind of money outside of Vermont.
By any objective criteria, Hunter Biden has an impressive CV with real experience.
3
Everyone wants a Chrystal ball and the glass hasn’t been melted. Relax and tell your friends and relatives and neighbors to get out to vote, Please.
If Donald Trump appeals to these church-going voters more other candidates, then a having gratifying liar and a hypocrite do a few favors for them is obviously more important than electing a President with integrity. Personally I would not suggest that Democrats condescend to woo such a foolish demographic. Rather, trust that the God for whom they profess so much respect, and who has warned them from Genesis to Revelation about the dangers of making deals with the Devil has a lesson in store for them they are not expecting.
2
Had other plans for Nov 2020 anyway. Thanks Democrats.
Biden?? Do we really need to nominate a befuddled, incompetent and, yes, corrupt person to run against Trump? I am not a woman of color, but everyone that I know well enough is not for Biden.
3
These good folks are clearly not thinking with their heads but rather with their emotions and fear.
2
As a gay person, I’ll give respect to religious voters respect when they give respect to me. When are religious African Americans going to be called out for their homophobia? In my view, they are as bad as the Evangelicals in the GOP.
3
Biden-Booker. The winning ticket.
1
No early white states count like Iowa & New Hampshire, but let’s all rave over a black state primary like South Carolina. Reverse Racism
1
Again, Mr. Blow focuses intently on Bloomberg’s sins while ignoring those of Biden. From Mother Jones: “The racial order Trump has promised to defend, Biden helped to build.” Come on Chuck, help a fellow democrat find the truth.
4
After Saturday - will any Democrat visit SC again? No - SC is not going to vote for a democrat so why is al the media saying how important it is?
Pick a purple state and have the first 4 contests there. Then you can say who has momentum.
3
Republicans are fairly monolithic believers and voters, unlike Democrats who have “the big tent” of widely disparate beliefs. This makes primaries, and especially this primary very divisive for the Democratic Party, unfortunately. Mr. Blow is not helping the Democratic cause with his “musts” and litmus tests for the candidates.
As for me, I’m not thrilled with a single candidate but I will do anything in my power to prevent Trump getting a second term. That is the primary objective and anything other than that at this point is distracting noise. Like this Op-Ed and the many like it filling the NYT these days. I am getting irked by this non-stop bashing of Democrats and wish it would just end now.
2
Your religious observation correlates with my experience living and in the deep South for many years. Southern blacks are Christian and have deeply held beliefs. Because of a long history of victimization by business people, predominantly Jewish, and religious leadership I found that Jews always found it difficult in southern society. A New York Jew, like Sanders, was always seen as unseemly, rude and obnoxious. Old prejudices die slowly. With a mixed race marriage we had to leave, a decision we still occasionally regret. While we are for Sanders, our closest friends, black and southern, are for anybody but....not on policy but on style....the New York accent, the crazy hair, the wrinkled suits, the lack of cool, the passion, the hand waving. Black leaders like Clyburn dress well, and are all about impression. I am afraid all the effort Sanders has put into the black south is focused on getting the nomination, somewhat useless, and ultimately a waste of time and money. Biden Harris looks like the ticket.
2
like a duck decoy Biden looks like the ticket
I think Biden's successful firewall could have been seen from December. But....as Shields put it on PBS Fri, the Dems haven't carried SC for 11 Prez votes. And while all the pundits swoon over the potential Black vote in the primaries in TN, AL, AR, and so on, fact is Dems won't win those in December.
Second, I suspect there is a "cultural" divide between old south Black voters and northern and CA(/NV). & Biden may not do so well as SC in say MI, WI, PN...
Add in the impact of potential Hispanics in the SW of the US (CA, NV, AZ, NM, & TX) where possible pick ups exist, including down ticket.
What needs to be done, debate- wise, is to move away from dignity and such, to a few big Qs. What to do if another 2008 happens? What to do if the Supremes invalidate ACA's pre-existing requirement? Or even ACA itself? How to avoid the impending default crisis for student loans (re-establish bankruptcy instead of allowing a false lender security that exists for no other biz...)?
Getting rid of Trump is just the boobies prize...
2
@M. J. Shepley November of coirse
I will not vote for any Democrat candidate who does not support Medicare 4 all. (I voted for Obama for a second term and I am sorry about that.)
Clinton and Obama were both Repub lite worrying more about Wall Street than Main St., the banksters than the depositers.. # Why we have an abysmal interest rate.
Obamacare is a sop to the insurance industry and the CEOs and shareholders and keeps the costs of medicine in the USA very high. It is NOT anywhere near single payer universal.
And gasp, the banks might not be able to keep charging those with student loans exorbitant interest until they day... (Trump defaulted time and time again with no consequences)-- can we have some sympathy for those who got duped by the for profit colleges -- such as the one for which Bill Clinton (no pride or ethics there) served as provost or infamous Trump U.
I will not vote for Trump lite (Biden or Bloomberg! -- altho Mike at least did really improve the health of everyone in the world by the smoking ban in NYC setting a standard. What decent thing has Biden (anti-busing, pro Obamacare) done? NOTHING. Go away. already.
3
In the US as long as it does no damage to the ruling world power (Anglo-American) as it is to be cast into the lake of fire fully functional by Gods Kingdom then authoritanism is likely to be the new feature as the people have no idea what it is to be a real liberal anymore.....
An alliance to perpetuate freebees and social welfare programs. No real progress here. No intent to become productive citizens. No desire to become mainstream Americans. Only a desire to keep complaining and using race like a credit card.
1
I think Charles should write a column about the anti-gay feelings of the black community. Mayor Pete was a target of this. As other groups do not get a pass on anti-gay bigotry neither should the black community. Fair is fair.
5
Good thing you wrote this before Super Tuesday. We will be talking about when Biden should get out after tomarrow.
3
When was the last time a Democrat won in South Carolina in a national election?
4
@Blunt
Exactly! Shades of 2016 all over again when Clinton swept all the southern states that weren't going to vote for any Democrat in the general election anyway. And that while Bernie won or came close to winning in many of the swing states, including especially the upper-midwest 'blue firewall states'.
Hello DNC/moderate Democrats! Your path to an EC victory will never ever be through the south for the foreseeable future, so who cares who carries those states in the primaries!!
The ghosts of ‘16 are calling. This time...the minority vote must turn out. Blue is the color.
2
Yes, let’s all vote for a communist/socialist who wants open borders and wants hard working Americans to pay for everyone else.
Trump 2020
1
South Carolina is a deep red state. The last time the state voted for a democrat was for Jimmy Carter, to which Sanders voters say, Jimmy who?
Don’t think of Black voters as a monolithic block. Black voters in South Carolina aren’t the same as Black voters in Michigan or in Wisconsin or in Pennsylvania.
Biden showing strength in deep South is useless. When asked which of the Super Tuesday states do you think you can win, Biden said Alabama. Do you know when Alabama voted for a democrat in the general election in the past 200 years?
Biden cannot win in the northern states which are the battleground states. Nominating Biden will be a disaster for the Democratic Party.
NYT and Media, stop making a big deal about Biden’s win South Carolina. It does not matter.
3
Judging from his interviews and on-stage performances, I can see and hear that Biden is either approaching senility or just dumb. Either way, he's incapable of running the country. Trump will eat him up. As for Sanders, he is the Democrats worst nightmare. That leaves Dems with MiniMike.
1
Sanders is the Plutocracy's worst nightmare,which includes most of the Democratic Establishment.
It's really too bad when you're party comes down to a 78 going on 79 avowed socialist vs a 77 going on 78 mentally challenged moderate (well, moderate according to the holy democratic church). Now that doesn't mean I want a 78 year old shape shifter or a 70 going on 71 self proclaimed native american who was fired from job for being pregnant. Nor does it mean I want a charmless middle of America candidate.
Sad, ain't it.
2
Ok - Biden it is.
Elizabeth Warren, Stacy Abrams or Andrew Yang for VP?
3
The columnist comes across as a black elitist who ignores the fact that Bloomberg's stop and frisk policy dramatically lowered the number of murders and saved the lives of many people of color who lived in crime-ridden neighborhoods.
Only if people of color committed crimes below those of other groups would he have a valid point.
4
I'm not sure that minority and religious voters demand attention ..
.. but they sure didn't seem to mind Biden lying through his teeth that he was arrested with Nelson Mandela and went to jail in South Africa.
1
You seem to have completely neglected to mention my candidate, Elizabeth Warren....... the neglect by the media is getting old.
2
Sanders is the selfish Pied Piper of chaos. People follow him
5
Biden’s blowout victory in SC won't live past Super Tuesday. Its a political stillbirth. The Democratic Party has cast him out like an old shoe.
The most incisive comment from South Carolina:
“If your house is on fire, you don’t bring the decorators in to redecorate while the flames are still raging,” [Charleston Minister] Darby said. “You put out the fire first — and then you redecorate.” [The NYTimes]
Amen.
4
Are you abandoning your support for Sanders?
Once again, NYTimes is running another negative Michael Bloomberg editorial. Okay Charles, I get it; you don't like Bloomberg. But why does it have to be day after day that we read that same message? Bloomberg really did have some wonderful programs and would be a terrific president.
5
Not only that, but Bloomberg is almost the exact antithesis of Trump: Bloomberg apologizes; Trump has never, ever apologized. Trump lies, MB does not. Bloomberg is self-made; Trump never was. Bloomberg pays his bills; Trump bankrupts companies. Bloomberg hires experts; Trump only hires his loyalists.
As I've often said on these pages, those dreaming of Bloomberg/Buttigieg, Bloomberg/Klobuchar tickets did so without care for black voices and votes.
Well, it bears repeating, no Democrat nominee shall be chosen without being vetted by black voters.
Black people WILL have their say, as Buttigieg just found out and others soon will...
2
Intersectionality solidarity is the biggest hoax since the 19th century's spiritualism.
2
I'm willing to bet Joe Biden's 1994 Crime Bill unfairly put more African Americans in prison than Mike Bloomberg ever did.
What's worse? The police wrongly slamming a young man up against a wall and frisking him over nothing or a young man sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug offense?
Where's Charles Blow on Biden's disgusting crime bill?
Not to mention Biden claimed 3 times in the last month that he was arrested in South Africa trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison - and Mandela hugged him in gratitude.
Which Biden just admitted never happened.
Yes Trump lies all the time.
We're Democrats. Heck, can't we do better than Joe Biden?
2
In the mean time others keep investigating Ukrainegate and the newest developments are statements by prosecutor Shokin that he had seized the assets of Mykola Zlochevsky, the oligarch owner of Burisma 10 to 12 days before he lost his job. That undermines the stories that Biden has been spreading that Shokin was weak on corruption, that the investigation into Burisma was on hold and that Shokin's firing was not related to it.
See https://ukrainegate.info/
1
"Horrific racial history?" "Repulsed impression?" I suppose this is an NYT opinion piece, so that is, not surprisingly, Mr. Blow's opinion. But no matter how the left desperately tries to paint Bloomberg as a racist (their favorite, ever decreasingly potent weapon), I know he is not a racist. I believe him to be a smart, thoughtful, and strong leader. His money is a bonus, not evidence of his evil plot to take over the country. Come on. Charisma? OK, maybe not so much, but charisma is at the very, very bottom of my wish list at this point.
4
Black voters in the South are a major Democratic constituency. In 2016 they gave Hillary enough of a lead to overcome Bernie's supporters in the rest of the country. (Sorry "Bernie Bros", including women & non-binary people; the primaries were NOT "rigged".) Of course they were a major part of the Obama coalition. And in the 1990's they so heavily backed Bill Clinton that Toni Morrison dubbed him "the first black president" when Obama was just a pipe dream. They certainly put Biden back in the race in SC; whether or not he can keep enough of them elsewhere remains to be seen. Unlike 2016 Bernie is now a known quantity to this group, so he's made more inroads; but he's still not as known to them as those riding Obama's coattails like Hillary & Biden.
1
It will be interesting to see the vote tallies for those who waited until Super Tuesday, and those who voted early. I am going to guess that those who voted early are the ones who are most committed to a particular candidate and those who waited are the ones who want more than anything to beat Trump. Therefore, they were willing to let South Carolina help make up their minds who among all the choices would be the one to vote for. If I was in a Super Tuesday state, that is what I would have done. (My preferred candidate is Amy Klobuchar, but given the results, now known, I would not have voted for her tomorrow. Too much at stake to be a blind loyalist to anybody.)
I am very sorry that it has come to this: a contest between two old whites men, while younger, more diverse candidates, such as Mayor Pete or Kamala Harris, dropped out. The US is in the grip of toxic nostalgia that is destroying the country. But my choice is clear: anybody is better than Bernie! And yes, this includes Trump. I came to this country as an immigrant. I don’t want to go back to the USSR. So it is Biden for now but if he can’t pull through, I will grit my teeth and vote for Trump in the general election. And I’ll call upon my friends in swing state (which California is not) to do the same. I’m glad that black voters apparently understand the danger that Bernie represents.
1
@Mor I am sorry that your experiences prior to coming to the US are still so present in your mind that you would think 4 more years of trump are preferable to Bernie. I do not want Bernie either, although I agree that this country needs to be taken in a different direction and I agree with a couple of his policies. If anyone will take us closer to Putin’s Russia ( misinformation campaigns to control the populace, rise of oligarchy, destruction of environment) it is trump. Bernie won’t be able to enact most of his policies anyway given a Republican Senate, and his uncompromising, yelling stubbornness might well cost us turning the Senate blue. Nevertheless, given the current destruction being wielded by trump and the Republicans I would vote for Bernie if he becomes the nominee. At the very least, and I mean the bottom of the barrel outcome, should Bernie surpass Hillary’s popular vote but the fools in the Electoral College states shove trump down our throats for another 4 years, this may finally galvanize the MAJORITY of the voters to become even more active and progressive.
BTW I have lived under military dictatorships and extreme fascist governments through my career and this is what I see as the definite existential threat of continuing 4 more year of trump. It’s a maybe under the cult of Bernie but a definite under trump.
Do that and you will have to take partial responsibility for the next two or three Supreme Court justices, who will be chosen by the extremely right wing Federalist Society through their useful idiot in the White House.
I hope you understand that. And I hope you don’t live in a swing state.
2
I won't be reading to much into Biden's victory. I think it is Pyrrhic and as it is the first also will be the last one he will have in this race.
3
One thing I’m sure of. No more fighting amongst the remaining rivals is absolutely necessary. Attack trump. There’s so much there. Go after that. Don’t give them extra ammunition.
4
I wonder if the pundits are making too much of Biden's victory in SC. Many of them complained that Iowa and NH were poor tests because they are virtually all white. But SC's Democrats are predominantly black, which is not the case in most of the country. In fact, the Hispanic vote in California is substantial and bends towards Sanders. We will know more this Tuesday but I will temper my enthusiasm for Biden until then.
3
I think of Bernie as a communist and a con man, but I will vote and volunteer for him if he is the nominee, because 4 more years of Trump will likely collapse our democracy.
I wonder if Charles will do the same if Bloomberg (unlikely as it is) is the nominee.
2
@Sparky I don’t want Bernie either, although I agree with a few of his policies ( healthcare for all, some level of free education) but not because I think he’s a communist! Like you, though, I have my eye on what really matters at this point in time - no more trump - and I will vote for Bernie if he is the nominee.
1
@Sparky you might want to do some research into Bernie. He is neither a con man or a communist. Fox portrays him that way, and the neoliberal dems hate him of course because he calls out their greed and hypocrisy, but as a Vermonter I can tell you he is the real deal. Do your research.
3
@ Sparky I second your comments on Sanders. I will support Bloomberg if need be. Sanders will require a clothespin on my nose at the voting booth but I'll bring one.
I think, unfortunately, what we’re continuing to see is that America is too cautious and decrepit to change.
Better a familiar old face than any woman, person of color or progressive, that’s all it boils down to.
It smacks of a country that has stopped trying, and just wants to grow old, and die quietly.
A natural cycle. When this present America is gone, things will finally change; but not until then.
4
Biden wins one out of four races and already the punditry and DNC are declaring him the candidate. The rest of us in the other 48 states demand to be heard as well.
6
The US is a de facto theocracy. And we impose it on the world.
You're viciousness toward Bloomberg is fascinating. The Democrats need to be pulled from the left margins that Bernie and Warren are pushing them to. The way-to-the-left position won't win. Period. Medicare for All is political kryptonite.
We've seen a lot of Democrats on the left come and go, from Gary Hart to Howard Dean, to....Bernie (who actually isn't a Democrat). I also saw George McGovern get slaughtered in a 49-State rout. Yet Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won and achieved much operating from a Center-Left position.
At least you're not harping on how Bernie can win against Trump....which is highly questionable at best, since his core supporters--the very young--generally don't vote.
If the Democrats end up with Biden, Americans will have a real, worthwhile choice, and an opportunity to right our very damaged Ship of State.
5
Why couldn't the religious voters care for other people's health care? Why couldn't they care for the earth (they inherited)? Why couldn't they practice what they preach, and reject a guy who brags about assaulting women?
if the religious cannot honor their own values, it makes no sense trying to win them over, because they are unreliable.
5
I can't stand Biden or Sanders but I would vote for Biden. If Sanders is the nominee I will stay home. Going off of a left-side cliff is not better than driving off of the one on the right side. If Buttigieg and Klobuchar both withdraw and endorse Biden, Sanders is toast and I can hold my nose and vote. And we might have a chance in November.
My choice always has been Warren, who in my mind, is the only one left who isn't a serious candidate. She has many of the same goals as Sanders but doesn't want to blow up the house in the process. She believes in capitalism but she wants it to function for everybody. She has actual plans in place and doesn't say stupid things like "I would bring it to the people" when asked how he plans on implementing anything he has planned. But Warren's chances are fading, sadly. Sexism is strong in America. A gay muslim man would get elected before a woman and that makes me sick.
Biden would surround himself with good people and listen. Sanders would only take counsel from Jane, a white-collar criminal who stole from and bankrupted a college (and would find following the wash your hands for 20 seconds directive extremely tough since it appears she hasn't taken a bath in 10 years).
2
@Jonny Walker it's clear from your comment that you haven't actuallt done any research into Sanders' record. Why don't you spend a couple of hours dong that, then come back.
I'm from Vermont. I know Bernie is not perfect but he is the best candidate in the field and would actually make a great president.
Do your research, and I don't mean Fox and MSNBC.
1
Right on! When are the Dems going to wake up that taking minority and religious voters for granted dooms them? Have they never heard that there are millions of left of center religious Americans?
Biden is such a weak candidate. Firstly, he stands for virtually nothing on policy, and while that may help him in garnering primary votes (how can you alienate anybody on issues if you stand for nothing?), it's not going to pan out in the general election. Also, Biden has so many weaknesses in terms of his behavior towards women over the years, his racist votes and comments, his plagiarism history and countless weird lies (like the recent one about getting arrested in South Africa). These would all become sound bites in GOP ads. In the general election, Biden would repeatedly tamp down policy expectations, as he does now, and Trump would promise the world. This is a disaster waiting to happen. And yet the DNC (as in the recent withdrawal of Buttigieg, which was prompted by the party's desire for a candidate who wouldn't threaten the top 5%) refuses to back the one candidate who can actually offer people a future in the general election, and who has virtually no skeletons in the closet. The press needs to immediately become more even-handed and stop pushing the "electability" argument in such a blind way. Status-quo Joe is not the answer for the crucial young and multi-generational, diverse intersectional vote. No Dem candidate wins without that population in the general election, and we have to get them to the polls.
3
Everything I read indicates the most pivotal voting bloc in a presidential election are the African-American vote. That being the case, it's a no-brainer for Biden to go against Trump. When Trump implored African-Americans with "what have you got to lose" it should be clear to them now that he has done nothing for them or any other minority group in this country.
1
So far, nothing new.
Despite all the sensational headlines and the debate/fund raising ballyhoo......american politics continues to follow the standard patterns set by 80 year old "bipartisan" status quo understandings about how to campaign.
First... there's the quirky "caucuses"...Iowa. Then the homespun, homey, personal touch of the NH campaign trails......Nevada tries to imitate Iowa........and then finally........South Carolina.....the first true test of Machine Politics.
And in each case, the predicted winner was, in fact, the winner.
Super Tuesday will be more of the same.
The only unpredictable primary is likely California.....which has both an extremely powerful DNC Machine and a flighty, unrealistic voter population......and thats a ramp up to massive election fraud.
Hope the FEC is watching this one, closely.
Biden is an anachronism. He is the DNC neoliberal's best hope to gain power and they now have put all their eggs into his basket at this point, with the Hillary stand-in, Mayor Pete, gone.
The problem is that Biden is done, toast, no inspiration, no leadership skills, he's a has-been. He is part of the past. He was ready to retire until Obama tapped him to be VP, and now that it's clear most people hate Clinton, he is the neoliberal's next attempt to hold onto power. The problem is that neoliberalism is killing the planet. Just like Trumpists, neoliberal democrats are more concerned with power and money than with life and justice.
I will vote for anyone who runs against Trump, and the neoliberal DNC knows this and is using it to blackmail us into accepting a low quality candidate like Biden.
6
This opinion piece is a mess. He starts off discrediting "identity based, intersectional politics" but then proceeds to build his entire opinion on ""identity based, intersectional politics."
Which is it Charles? I suspect that you know that "identity based, intersectional politics" are a delusion, but you all also know that to remain a member of the "thought leader" industry, this delusion needs to be maintained as part of your intellectual brand.
Or, is it more cynical than even that? Is it that you know that if "minority" communities are seen as full flesh and blood, as human as white communities, then it will be understood that communities of color are also just as diverse politically as the white community? But if this were generally understood, there would be a loss of power for one particular political viewpoint from within those communities. Why? because when the "black community", or the "latino community" or the "youth" community are no longer treated as fetishized caricatures of of humanity by progressive liberals, then you will just be like everyone else. A single voice in a democracy and not a privileged representative of a chosen class.
3
"It is completely plausible that black and Hispanic voters could consistently and repeatedly pick different candidates, "
Why would that surprise anyone?
The mantra from the Blow and the NYT OP-ED writers has been: "People of color will soon outnumber whites ."
And this will probably impact legislation favoring one demographic group over another.
However when you look at day to day living patterns you see the similarities among certain groups of people of color and whites (including the 50+ % of Hispanics who identify as white), namely racial segregation in housing patterns, racial segregation in public schools and flight from or avoidance of public schools systems.
Diverse communities? Look to SF as an example of diversity without Blacks.
As many have said before, among most Americans, we have more in common than we have differences.
Now back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
Biden would be a disastrous Democratic nominee. Don’t ever forget what he did to Dr. Anita Hill. And don’t ever forget his appalling vote in favor of the Iraq war.
Bernie 2020
5
Joe Biden’s platform boils down to pick me because I know President Obama. If that’s not shallow, I don’t know what is.
Vote Bernie Sanders for Substantive (Not Superficial) Change!
6
Sorry. I think the real question the results in S.C. raises is, “What if the nominee of the Democratic Party wins the nomination without the black vote?” Hmmm. The old Clinton playbook may no longer be good for anyone involved.
2
Who are 'people of color '?
Who are ' Latinos/ Hispanics' ?
Who are 'Christians' ?
Color aka race is related to producing Vitamin D and protecting genes from damaging mutations. Every human being has a color and belongs to the one and only human race species that began in Africa 300, 000 years ago.
Latino/ Hispanic aka having an Spanish cultural and language heritage has nothing to do with color aka race nor national origin. Any more than Anglo aka having an English cultural and language heritage.
Christian includes Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, 7th Day Adventist and Mormon. They are many meaningful sectarian divisions among those groups.
2
The main thing now is for t.v. networks to make as many billions off of us as possible. So stoke the debate my friend and help 'em out.
Can someone please tell me what the point of being a moderate Democrat is? They are just republican lights. They at best will hold the nation steady until the next wave of republicans come in and shove us even further right. This has been happening since Bill Clinton. We desperately need progressive leadership that will start the arduous task of pushing the nation back from the libertarian nightmare we have been increasingly living in since Reagan started the push. Go back as look at Koch’s presidential bid in the 80s. His radical libertarian platform has almost been completely implemented at this point. We are a nation in crisis and moderate anything is simply a delay of the inevitable demise. The democratic party needs to get bold and have some courage for a change. I had great hopes for Obama but the blue dogs undermined him and he lacked the political courage he had spoken about campaigning to just shove them out of the party and storm ahead the way Newt and his gang shoved all the Oder ate republicans out.
5
The irony is that Donald Trump never attends church. There's hardly a religious bone in his body. But he has big margins among churchgoers, especially the evangelicals.They seem to love having a sinner in the White House.
3
Charles is being a one man band to destroy Michael Bloomberg. He is persistent. I am white and can somewhat understand where he is coming from.
It is primarily based on New York's "Stop and Frisk" policy used to reduce crime in the city while Bloomberg was Mayor. The theory of the policy was for police to go where the crime was and prevent crime before it happened by having the authority to stop those segments of the population who were statistically more likely to be the culprits committing the crime. This in turn, in theory, would reduce the crime in the given area. Most people would agree with the theory.
This is where reality meets theory. The neighborhoods targeted were largely comprised of black and brown, poorer citizens, with the result being a disproportionate number of those who were stopped by the police were black or brown. This is where Mr. Blow's rub comes in.
History says the crime rate in those areas targeted have gone down, as did the rate in the city as a whole, which in theory improved the lives of those living there. One can make the case hat Bloomberg deserves credit for reducing crime, however he also owns the reality that he trampled on the rights of innocent citizens who were black or brown. Shame on him.
Bloomberg should demonstrate his admittance of guilt by personally making reparations to those communities by investing in them with his own funds as described in the following article. ...
https://lstrn.us/Bloombergstrategy
2
That’s a great idea. My sister and I yesterday both noticed how Michael Bloomberg’s apologies seem so hollow. It never seems like he’s sincere when he apologizes for mistakes he’s made. I guess that’s his arrogance coming through. It would be good if Bloomberg were to invest in black communities regardless of the outcome of his presidential bid.
One other point - are pollsters trying to account for Republicans voting in the primaries at the request of trump and his supporters? When conducting exit polls, is it possible for them to decipher who is actually a Republican voting for Sanders so that Sanders will be the nominee trump faces is in November?
1
@Esme Ferguson Thank you. I am actually leaning towards Bloomberg. He could pay the $1 billion over time, say ten years.
I believe he would gain more votes doing this than spending another billion on his campaign. Further, an added bonus is he would feel good about doing it. :)
Regarding religious voters. Trump won White religious voters, not Black religious voters. I am not sure where he stood with Latino religious voters. No Democrat is going to win the White religious vote becuase too many of the White religious vote are hypocrites. They vote a single issue -- abortion. Too many White religious voters put this above all other aspects of their Christian faith. I know this because i attend services with them every week. Finally, too many White religious voters believe that capitalism is somehow part of their faith and these White religious voters don't like the idea of socialism, despite the very heart of Christianity is a gift received (salvation) but not paid for by s/he who receives it.
3
That was so all over the map as to be incoherent. By employing the soft bigotry of low expectations, Blow aligns himself with the very people MLK lamented in his Letter. We get that black people don’t like Bernie, for whatever reasons, but don’t try to push some middle of the road approach. It’s too late for that.
2
The premise of this entire article is just factually incorrect. Actually Sanders IS leading overall among black voters nationwide in new polling data.
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-leads-nationwide-among-black-hispanic-white-voters-poll-1487934
Yes, he lost the black vote in SC but that isn't representative of black voters across the country
2
Biden is antiquated and silly. You mention his son and "he wants to beat you up". You mention Anita Hill and he sulks.
You think Trump will go easy on him?
Start being a serious candidate, sir.
2
A Biden/Warren ticket would be very difficult for Trumpie to beat. Biden could be the nice guy while Liz does the slice and dice.
My ideal ticket.
2
I'm dismayed that the NYT columnists continue to focus on electability.
Please focus on the candidates' policies.
2
Is it possible that Black voters in the South are more conservative than Black voters living in northern, eastern, or western states?
6
Just what are Biden’s plans for anything let alone the poor. The only thing I know about him is that he says he’s for people but he voted for a war that killed hundreds of thousands. Why because he weighed the tea leaves and thought it would work out better for him.
2
Well done, Mr. Blow. But I think we are still looking at the first week of the Tour de France. The Alps start on Tuesday.
If Biden does well on Super Tuesday, someone will be looking into corruption in Ukraine again. Purely coincidental, of course.
2
Bernie Sanders is well positioned to win on Super Tuesday.
3
Blow views others primarily based on their identity group, e.g race, religion, ethnicity ,and gender.
As such, he is, by definition, prejudiced.
His weekly Opinions flaunt that prejudice.
6
I'm surprised Mr. Blow seems to imply that South Carolina represents 'the black vote'. It does represent the rural southern black vote most likely but there are lots of blacks who are not rural and southern who are less bound by party establishment fealty and the patronage system.
I believe they are making a gigantic mistake in letting that corrupt system run them but it is after all, up to them. They no doubt would feel I would be making a mistake by asserting more directly against the privilege of wealth with my support of the two progressives.
Mr. Blow points out it's a mistake to put black and brown people in the same bloc and that is a good point. But it's also a mistake to put all black people in the same bloc. Young urban dwellers aren't bound by the same constraints in their thinking as older southern rural folks, black, white or anything else.
If I were betting I would bet Urban black voters are going to see things much differently than the inherently rural South Carolina perspective. They will have a perspective less beholden to patronage and more about what actual policies will address their needs in a deep and systemic way. The informed youth vote is larger, more informed and more active than ever.
As for beating Trump...Biden is not the guy. Like Clinton, he's the weakest candidate to put forward. He will get killed in a debate against Trump. He will become pugnacious and lose track of what the issue at hand is. Start stuttering and meandering off topic.
2
It's hard to take Mr Blow's analysis seriously when he blasts Bloomberg's campaign ads as "propaganda"... with a propagandizing message of his own. Mr Blow has made no secret of the fact that he views Bloomberg's "horrific racial history" as absolutely unforgivable, that it disqualifies him as a candidate much less president. At the same time, in a column that purports to analyze the SC primary he completely glosses over the fact that black voters in SC viewed Pete Buttigieg the same way because he is gay.
I'm not a Bloomberg supporter, per se, likewise Sanders and Biden. What I am is a Democratic voter who knows that there is no value in slicing the demographic the way Mr Blow is doing. There is but one path to the defeat of Donald Trump: Unity.
Pointedly describing the "repulsion" of voters to a specific candidate with whom you have a specific axe to grind, even if it is an axe that deserves grinding, serves a personal agenda at the expense of the larger goal. If Bloomberg is the candidate who can best form the coalition that runs Trump out of Washington then we all --- Mr Blow included --- need to line up and vote for him. Likewise, Biden, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, whoever is the nominee. What we need is more about how each of them can achieve this unity; not more about how large is the refrigerator each of them is dragging.
2
I've had enough of the Bernie supporters and their conniving and machinations. Just when you think a non-corrupt politician comes around, he plays the same dirty tricks as everybody else. I'm voting for Biden because of the way the Bernie supporters have treated me.
2
Basing one's political predictions on religious people is a fool's errand.
2
“It is completely plausible that black and Hispanic voters could consistently and repeatedly pick different candidates....”. Uh, yeah, just like white voters consistently and repeatedly pick different candidates. There used to be a word for this expectation that behaviour is predictable based on skin colour and ethnicity.
2
The black Baptist church does not approve of same sex marriage. Its a conservative church on marriage. I simply could not see Afro American Baptists voting for a President where the first Lady would be a man.
There has been tremendous liberalization on this issue over the last generation. It may take another generation for it to not make a difference with religious conservatives.
Joe rambles now. He won’t improve with age.
6
Biden’s fine.
Bernie’s fine.
Bloomberg is not. What the heck. I think that the NYT is in a NYC-worshipping, media-worshipping, money-worshipping bubble.
Trump is almost unimaginably destructively horrible—but this country needs his election to be an anomaly. If we elect Bloomberg (via superdelegates, or the electoral college—institutions that are not democratic) the cynicism will drive middle age people to suicides of despair and young people to fatal extremes of greed. No one will believe in a bright inclusive future.
1
Moderate Democrats support Elizabeth Warren. In fact, the word ‘moderate’, is one of those stealth hack-job tools, which have no meaning at all you can nail down, except this journalist likes this candidate. Good journalists don’t call forever war supporting, corporate stooge platform holders, ‘moderate’. Instead of a differentiation, it is a passive aggressive attack, refusing to call the others ‘immoderate’, which is silly and slanderous. All candidates are moderates! Their positions on issues differ.
Thank you,
Stefan
2
Biden is offering a reboot of the Obama years, when minorities were worse off economically than they are now.
2
Take as a given that most Times readers will vote for whomever the Democratic nominee is -- whether gladly or holding their nose.
How hard is it to understand that it's not who we will vote for, it's who folks who don't read The Times will vote for...folks who don't live on either coast, don't take to being told America is a failed state, don't trust ideology or who don't like being told Scandinavian petrol states are the ideal we should aspire to.
A Republican relation of my wife who I assiduously avoid because he harangues me about lefties most recently tried to provoke me about being politically aligned with "Chapo House" podcasts, Joe Rogan and the "Dirtbag Left", none of which I'm conversant in. In a mocking tone he asked how they were less homophobic, racist and misogynistic than the deplorables I disdain. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
I know how belligerent Bernie Bros are, particularly online. But I looked up Chapo House and scanned recent reporting on Joe Rogan's endorsement of Sanders. Talk about turning over a rock and uncovering political creepy crawlies that in my day styled themselves as the Spartacist League trying to co-opt radical groups like SDS, SNCC, etc. because they were "moderates".
What surprised me is Sanders refusing to disassociate himself from provocateurs who Trump should be paying (if he isn't).
The impression is Sanders as a dupe of nihilists out for chaos.
Talk about a hard sell this November.
5
Blow sees sweeping implications of the South Carolina vote especially regarding Biden.
Since 2004, Democrats running for president have lost by no less than 172,000 votes in South Carolina. Blows ignores South Carolina as a cemetery for presidential Democrats. Hillary lost by 300,000. As goes South Carolina, so goes the nation.
As Trump nods and waves to the largest inauguration crowd in the history of the American presidency, the grand implications of a South Carolina Democratic primary victory as foreseen by Blow will be their clearest.
4
Bloomberg was a Democrat before he ran for Mayor the first time. But in NYC it has been obvious that Blacks and Latinos don't see eye to eye to be generous. It is why Giuiliani, Bloomberg and de Blasio were elected mayor. The Blacks and Latinos have been so at each other they could not get behind a person of color to put in a strong performance.
You often make very valid points and share keen insights and then blow your appeal to moderates by using terms like “horrific racial history.” Questionable? Mixed? Yes. Horrific? No.
2
So according to Blow, Bloomberg has a "horrific" racial record, Sanders cannot win any black votes and Biden just benefits from Obama's "cultural residue". I understand that Charles would like another black president, but Booker and Harris simply did not inspire anyone.
I know it makes for deliciously angry Times columns, but certainly being against everyone who is not black could contribute to another Trump victory. Does Charles really believe a Biden, or even Bloomberg, would be worse for African Americans than Trump has been?
And, as an aside, 13% of African American male voters went for Trump in 2016. Perhaps some of Charles' questions--and frustration--should be directed at them.
3
"What would it mean for the Democrats to choose a candidate who couldn’t carry the black vote in a single state?"
Mr. Blow can imagine a majority of blacks in every state (any state?!) voting for Trump? A recent approval rating for Trump among blacks was 14%. What is his basis for the plausibility of such a scenario?
3
Now that the Democrats have fully embraced diversity as their highest value and have accordingly become a coalition of fringes, we get to watch it all play out.
Only a fool would have thought that all of these disparate groups would get along with one another. What’s been interesting is the process of elimination.
The first to go were the purveyors of spiritual woo (not an insignificant minority on the left). Out went Beto and Williams. After that it was culling time for the token and one note minorities - Harris and Castro. The practical moderate white and white adjacent men were next on the chopping block - Bennet, Yang, Delaney.
Now we’re up to the highest blocks on the intersectional totem pole. The well heeled gay white man, Pete, was the first to come down. And it looks like the affluent liberal women will be the next to go, along with the plutocrat technocrats.
Which leaves two groups left. African Americans, and Hispanics plus the young ultra left socialists. While it looks like most of the previously eliminated groups will pragmatically hitch their carts to Biden and the African American establishment within the left, it appears the Hispanics and the Young Left are having none of it.
And because the Democrats have pushed so hard for open borders and pro-immigration rhetoric, on Super Tuesday they’ll get swamped by the monster they created.
What an eye opener! Now the left gets to learn what the rest of us knows - sometimes, diversity is unworkable chaos.
The inconvenient truth Southern blacks and Blow will be forced to face is the relatively shrinking importance of blacks in Democratic politics in the coming years. First, there are still five times as many white voters as blacks. Second, both immigration and higher fertility rates make Latinos an ever more important group for national Democratic candidates. Who cares if you can win delegates with conservative blacks in little Southern states like SC, if your more progressive opponent can crush you with his much more important Latino vote in CA and TX? Third, Millennial blacks and their much more numerous fellow Millennial Latinos and whites are overwhelmingly economically progressive, and working together for a new politics, not conservative like Blow and Clyburn’s old church ladies. For the past few decades, the fat cats and their MSM media megaphones have used economically conservative Southern blacks to keep economic progressivism from getting near the Democratic nomination, the same way the fat cats running the Republican party and their media have used Evangelicals to keep their party economically far right. Starting with Super Tuesday, Sanders is going to blow the conservative black power that backed Biden Saturday right up, not least with the greater numbers of more progressive Latinos. The rise of the Latino West spells the political decline of the black South. And it’s a good thing, too—at least for neoliberal-hating progressives.
Sorry Charles, but I have a hard time believing that Biden's success was much more than benefiting from Obama's cultural residue. Biden claimed the mantle of Obama's legacy for himself at every opportunity. To hear him tell it, there was hardly a single accomplishment of the Obama administration that he wasn't a major player in. Sure he was representing the administration on various issues, but apparently no other messenger could have delivered as well as him.
He is old, he is a mediocre candidate who is prone to self-aggrandizing, with close to zero appeal among young people and a son who displayed questionable ethical judgement while his father was VP.
How will the Democratic face of the past be able to lead the Democrats into the future? I find it hard to see him as anything but a placeholder.
One last thing - will a Biden as President get his black supporters to turn out in the midterms, in a way they didn't for Obama? Because maybe just voting for the person who does the best outreach isn't enough. Maybe you have to keep on voting to support the people who will help pass your agenda.
2
Unite, Dems. Why the bitterness? All you will do is re-elect Trump. And, Dems, it would not be too bad if you mentioned God in one or two of your speeches, and if would be fantastic if just one of you came out against abortion. I know millions of us who are Catholic.
Can we bring back Booker? Seriously.
Why is Bloomberg horrific - because he checked for guns and violence in the obvious places?
3
Same as in 2016 when the they handed it over to Clinton (who was never on the side of minorities). It‘s a sad fact.
2
"(Mike2020)...could muscle his way into the races and force voters into submission and amnesia..." intersecting with "In 2016, 78 percent of voters said that they attended religious services at least a few times a year. " could be heaven-sent, but for whom?
More than a little frustrating that the NYT continues to focus solely on the campaigns of the men while ignoring the women still in the race. If either Sanders or Biden are the eventual nominee I wil hold my nose, try not to gag and vote for them. Mr. Blow where is your analysis of the Warren, Klobuchar and (eye-roll) Gabbard campaigns?
2
Sanders huge blunder is that he decided to call himself a social democrat, rather than a progressive . The later would have been more "palatable" with the electorate and in tune with the history of American politics, vis a vis, TDR, FDR, and LBJ. The programs he is advocating are really not much different from those they have advocated. If you don't believe this, just read TDR's "New Nationalism" speech ( https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/new-nationalism-speech/ ). And, Truman favored a Medicare for All program..... So, Bernie's ideas are not quite so "radical" and "un-American" after all......
"It is...plausible that black and Hispanic voters could consistently and repeatedly pick different candidates, Biden for the former group and Bernie Sanders for the latter....Sanders’s outreach to the Hispanic community seems to have [succeeded better than with] the black community."
Well yea, Sanders has more support from Hispanic than African American communities.
But Blow, you fail to mention that - up to South Carolina - black support for Biden has been falling and, at the same time, rising for both Sanders and Bloomberg.
In fact, one recent Ipsos poll showed Sanders with more support from African Americans - no doubt most strongly concentrated among younger black voters.
[https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign-polls/484611-new-national-poll-shows-sanders-surpassing-biden-with-african]
Not mentioning that Biden-down/Sanders-up trend is a real misstep in analyzing South Carolina, because you are unable to use each stat - the SC win and Sanders' rising support w/blacks - to 'interrogate' the other:
That is: does SC undercut the 'rising support for Sanders' poll; and, alternatively, does the nationally rising support poll point to SC as anomalous for some reason - whether because of a stronger affection for Obama, or a specifically southern black caution on electability due to the south's racist history, e.g.?
2
I think I'd value the opinion of a black grandmother in South Carolina before most residents of Las Vegas.
1
I am very discouraged to find the Times promoting Biden, the conservative choice. As y'all did Hillary! If black voters see their interests as essential why didnt they want Corey Booker, who was uktimately the successful mayor of Newark ,for Pete's Sake? Instead of the guy who wouldn't allow corroborating witnesses for Anita Hill , and helped give us Clarence Thomas, and was instrumental in locking up black people back in the 'eighties? Even Obama didnt really want him but bowed to pressure to bring in a VP who coukd deliver PA. South Carolina is the first state Biden ever won in any of his presidential primaries. And the Benie people--zillions-' may just not cooperate and vote for him. Here in Colorado, where we have a lot of young people Bernie is a shoo in. ( I myself voted for Warren because I know Sanders will win) As he will in California. Even older bbn people are now going for him. The Times endorsed Warren and Klobuchsr . Why dont you guys stick with your choices?
Today's Democratic Party is dominated by people of color and millenial progressives. A winning combo?
1
"....Bloomberg, the billionaire carpetbagger carrying the weight of his horrific racial history, could muscle his way into the races and force voters into submission and amnesia, South Carolina waved a giant red flag"
This is a strange case of amnesia considering that Obama and Biden did nothing to help African Americans. Come to that, take a look at the Congressional Black Caucus and ask yourself how much has this crew done over the last 3 decades that many of them have been elected and re-elected? What exactly has Clyburn done? What they have done is join the Corporate Democrats at the feeding trough of K-Street cash and keep riding the identity politics train all the way to their bank accounts. It is not hard to understand why someone like Jesse Jackson who could be considered the African American Bernie lost to Bill Clinton in 92 and has ever since been in the wilderness.
Where did you get the sense that SC matters in anything?
1
“Biden is not only benefiting from Barack Obama’s cultural residue, his more moderate policies speak to the moderate, and even conservative, streak in many black voters.”
The term “cultural residue” must convey a complete historical amnesia. Biden helped give us mass incarceration, which disproportionately affected blacks. Obama bailed out the banks but shafted underwater home owners with his HAMP, resulting in history’s largest loss of black middle class wealth.
How can black conservatism overlook the fact that Biden has consistently supported Republican austerity raids on social programs?
3
The U.S. has generally been a nation of moderates for 155 years. Bernie Sanders will not be president. A race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be close -- and decided by economic conditions. If enough people feel they're doing well enough economically, they will vote to leave "well enough" alone. And they will likely vote for Trump, despite the daily drama.
3
I still think it's a mistake to consider "the electability argument" when you are voting in primaries. It's a fools argument because who can predict it? Have we forgotten that nobody thought Trump was electable and polls suggested the same? Perhaps a better question to be asking at this point is will Democrats really truly support their candidate, whoever it turns out to be? All along I think that line has been accompanied by the supposition that the candidate would be one of the moderates, and the progressive wing would have to compromise their principles and vote for the moderate. Now that it's looking like Sanders may be the candidate, or certainly has a shot at it, moderate Democrats have to stand up and say they will support the Democratic candidate without question, even if it is Sanders. And wow they might have to compromise THEIR moderate positions a bit, hold their nose, and do the right thing.
2
I think Bloomberg would be an excellent president. I think he's learned from his past mistakes. Charles, there are enough African American leaders who support Mike to testify to his desire for substantive change for African American and other minorities.
That said, I am getting behind Joe Biden. I have been for Bloomberg, but unless he can show an upset on Super Tuesday, Biden is our man. Sanders is alienating. I'd like Mayor Pete or Amy to be the VP. And I think Bloomberg will be behind this ticket too. As much as it may pain him, he wants Trump out of the Oval Office as much as we do.
6
The size of a win among Democrats in a state like South Carolina which is virtually guaranteed to vote for Trump in November is irrelevant to choosing the best candidate to beat Trump. As is the size of the win among Democrats in California, which is virtually guaranteed to vote for any Democrat in November. It is necessary to use common sense and perspective in looking at voting choices and demographics in the key swing states which will determine the outcome in November.
3
Telling people you are going to cancel student debt might sound great to the 43 million who owe. Medicare for all sounds great also if your back is on the wall with health care cost.Warren was roaring before she actually made he plan for health care public. Every debate up until this point has given all the candidates a pass on how their plans were going to be paid for. If anybody wins the White House and doesn't have the Senate also all of their plans are DOA. If the House is lost and the Senate is not flipped a Democratic president is just a figurehead. Promising a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage makes great press.
4
@Steven McCain
Yes, it does make great press. Kinda like War on Terror that cost trillions of dollars, went on for 18 years and got people nothing except serious health problems and funerals.
1
I think it's rather naive to assume that, in the event that Sanders is the nominee, Biden supporters will just turn around and vote for Trump.
It seems to me that, in that situation, most of Biden's supporters will continue to vote Democratic.
3
Mr Blow, despite Mayor Bloomberg's "horrific racial history" crime AND incarceration rates went down dramatically in NYC during his terms. Don't ALL city residents and visitors benefit from that?
And if you're going to use a pejorative term like "carpetbagger" to describe Mike Bloomberg than it applies to Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar as well, all from Northern states. The only difference is he's using his own money.
9
If Trump gets a second term, you can bet he will go after Presidential term limits. Trump supporters and Republicans will support this. If he gets a second term, he's not leaving the White House for a very long time. I personally believe this is what's at stake. Democrats have to figure out a way to win.
3
Nobody knows anything. Predictions are so much hot air. Vote your preference and trust the process.
So far, several candidates have had their one "win", Amy in NH (far exceeded expectations) and Pete in Iowa, and Joe in SC. Bloomberg has yet to appear on a ballot.
Despite predictions of experts, no one knows anything.
10
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
1
Given that the black population of South Carolina is in a state that will certainly give its electoral votes to Trump, the only question for the general election is how much that particular black population resembles in voting behavior black populations in states that are in play, i.e. not Alabama, Mississippi, etc., but rather, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc. If the choice is not Biden, will they not vote for Sanders or Warren? That is the question to pursue you pundits.
9
You seem to assume that Black and Latino voters won't line up behind the eventual nominee. While it is likely that Sanders will not get as many Black voters as Biden would and that Biden will not get as many Latino voters as Sanders would, either one will still likely get the majority of those groups. One other thing : Polling has shown a sharp generational split among African American voters (as well as the rest of the country): Younger African Americans prefer Sanders by a wide margin; older African Americans prefer Biden. South Carolina raises some issues worth paying attention to, but don't jump to any conclusions based on one state. A number of very diverse states are voting tomorrow. We'll probably have a much better idea after that.
5
Thought provoking as always Charles. I see a big disconnect on the religious voter issue you raise. It's a single word: trump. Truly "religious" people should honestly have a very hard time deciding on trump. Any of the democrats should stand at least an equal chance with trump in that sphere. As for "electability," I have to say that this word seems to me to be a code for delegimitizing Bernie. You as a faithful follower of polls must have seen repeatedly how Sanders trounces trump in state after state. Shouldn't this "electability" canard be retired by now? Sophisticated people know that conventional establishment democrats see Bernie as a threat to their entrenched power. They should feel threatened because it is they who are responsible for us too often losing elections. It's time to take a bold stand. Bernie Sanders is the bold leadership we need now. Joe Biden is yesterday's timidity that will give us more of the ineffective status quo. The choice is clear: stay with Uncle Joe and his warmed over platitudes; or join in with Bernie and jump forward on a new course of reform that everyone knows is sorely needed.
2
I see no obvious place to post this, but I was moved by Mayor Pete's campaign and am sorry that he has taken the necessary and courageous decision to withdraw from the race.
I think that he would be an excellent president, notwithstanding all the negative flak he would receive from a political party without two constructive ideas to rub together to produce a spark.
Smart, compassionate, strong, visionary and honest, he would have been as quick a study in the demands of the presidency as any other candidate, with the mature self-regard to seek and consider diverse ideas in formulating policy. He would gather the best minds to advise and inform him. He has withdrawn from the race for the good of the Democratic Party but more importantly for the country's future. May other candidates now follow his lead, and soon.
Mayor Pete is the anti-Trump and might have done well running against him. I hope that he will now turn his energy and resources to the support of the emerging Democratic Party leader, and perhaps run for the Senate at the next available opportunity, or for state governor, and later once again for the presidency.
Thank you, Mayor Pete, for taking a leap of faith on behalf of a hurting nation.
647
@John LeBaron I too was looking for a place to post a comment about Mayor Pete. He was not my first choice, but I have the deepest respect and admiration for him. He is a person to watch and whom I feel has a worthy and deserved place in political leadership. I hope he considers running for the US House or Senate in the near future. And who knows? Maybe he will be tapped for a Cabinet position if we do indeed elect a Democrat as POTUS.
119
@John LeBaron Thanks for this. I could not agree more. A sad day for the near future of America.
48
@John LeBaron Beautifully said, and thanks for taking the time to express what many of us are feeling.
46
The oracle of our times is polling and the simple fact that DJT received the votes of those who attended church most often tells us the election in November calls for unity. The contest is between Biden and Sanders. It is up to everyone of us wanting to deny a second term to DJT to vote for the eventual nominee. Remember the perfect is the enemy of the good.
2
It seems pretty clear from the results that many South Carolina Republicans voted for Biden in the primary. I'd guess close to 100,000. Without those Republican votes, Biden and Sanders tie.
8
@Michael Green Actually the data is in on that and you're actually mistaken. Biden actually really did trounce everyone this go round, and not surprisingly given that South Carolina is a state where he has deep roots.
We can't just make up facts when we don't like the answer.
2
Interesting that despite Buttigieg's Christian beliefs and practice, that this did not resonate with the so-called "religious" voters. My gut tells me that those religious voters still carry a lot of bias and misconceptions, especially if they had previously voted for Trump, who clearly does not espouse any modicum of Christian beliefs. This argument for reaching out to this group rings hollow for me.
4
"Donald Trump won those who attended those services most often."
That says it all. Good and devout Christians prone to follow the promises and declarations of literal translations and patriarchal interpretations of ancient writings will vote for Biden (or Trump) manipulated those who don't believe that stuff themselves.
3
I don’t attend church for fear I’d burst into flames, and these “clever,” confusions of Joe Biden and Trump are just plain dumb. Not to mention that sneering at people’s faith is the start of a long, ugly road.
Racial and ethnic groups do not vote in blocs, as we have seen. There is an economic class divide among all racial and ethnic groups, as voters are increasingly discovering. As an example, the African-American mayors of Chicago and Washington, D.C. announced their support for Bloomberg, as have Andrew Young and Al Sharpton. Reportedly, the mayor of Chicago has benefited from Bloomberg's largesse. The mayor of DC, as just one example, would not have been elected without majority support of the white community. Would Bloomberg's policies, if applied in DC, have benefited her constituency if applied in DC (stop and frisk and redlining)? Of course not. Some "leaders" of all racial and ethnic groups have betrayed their followers, which is why we should have learned by now not to divide ourselves along racial and ethnic lines -- or allow ourselves to be so divided. And if religion equates with the racist views of both Trump and Biden (although manifested in much more malevolent form in the former), combined with misogyny and hostility toward immigrants, maybe there needs to be a realignment of the party faithful. I can't see myself being in the same party with people who hold these views, regardless of whether they consider themselves religious. Biden's record may have benefited the black as well as the white elite, but hopefully the majority of us will vote our own interests, and he does not represent them. Same old same old is no longer good enough.
3
I see Joe Biden as an old politician, who's been out of the game for 4 years now, seeking to coast on the accomplishments of Barack Obama. Prone to exaggerating and being long-winded. Who unsuccessfully tried to become the Democratic nominee twice before - when he was in his prime.
But you know what? If he becomes the nominee, I will vote for him, and tell everyone I know to vote for him, because ANY democrat is better than Donald Trump. And that was true of Hillary Clinton as well.
Maybe black voters would be getting more attention if they turned up reliably at the voting booth, including at the midterms, to elect not just the politicians that speak directly to them, or look like them - but for the politicians who are most likely to further their agenda, or at least not reverse it. Maybe voters who failed to vote in the mid-terms for the Democrats who gave them the ACA, and failed to vote not only for Hillary Clinton, but progressive Democrats like Russ Feingold in Wisconson should be learning the lesson that not voting is cutting one's nose off to spite one's face.
4
My people, my people? How could African Americans vote for someone who supported mass incarceration, made sure their kids were saddled with enormous student loans and believes the way to solve budget woes is to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, not defense spending?
The Black vote saved Joe Biden just as it's has saved every Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson.
And what have we gotten for our efforts? A few cabinet posts. A few Black judges, and government program here or there.
Bill played the sax and then overhauled welfare on the backs of Black women. He also promised massive jobs training programs, but we got the cuts but not the jobs.
What we did get was more Black men in jail the in college. He also promised addiction prevention programs. But those got cut while prisons got built.
Even Obama decided to bail out the banks while Black wealth got wiped out. We now have 1/11th of the average wealth of a white family.
Yet we remain loyal to a system that continues to fail us. The only way we can make significant change in the 21st century is through systemic change, not more civil rights.
And a Biden presidency by definition stands for the status quo. If elected we'll get those cabinet appointments and a few judgeships.
But as Joe reaches across the isle he will compromise to the right, as he's always done, and we will be left with window dressing.
When will we ever learn?
13
Perhaps shortly after you bother to find out who passed TARP, because it wasn’t Barack Obama. Might be good, too, if you figured out just where it was that Joe Biden chopped Medicare, Medicaid and the rest—was it Candyland?
This is an excellent opinion piece, with a calm analysis of the Dem chances. It needs to be emphasized that Obama was greatly helped by the Wall St meltdown. McCain tried to play hero but failed miserably. He might have won if the stock market and the housing market had not collapsed. This is interesting, since Wubya was such an awful president, and as such one would have though any Dem would have won. But McCain might have. Why I do not know, and cannot understand.
Mayor Pete will be back in four years, a little older and hopefully wiser so that his soaring rhetoric has some substance and Trump, the elephant in the room, will not be there.
1
@Bill
I'll be voting for Donald Trump Jr. in 2024, as will the majority of Americans. We don't want your Socialist progressive values. Hey Democrats, your job is to figure out gender pronouns.
The South Carolina primary gave us a worn out ideas past century guy who is behind the male life expectancy age who won't draw in disaffected Republicans and somewhat to the left Democrats. South Carolina primary voters did not think big picture about ousting Trump.
5
I think America wants a "decency" candidate more than anything. Someone to end the insanity of the trump regime. And many of us do not want to fly to another extreme.
First of all, we need to get back to rule of law. We also need to get back to having intelligent, experienced people in the Cabinet and as heads of other government departments. We need compassion as a major attribute in our next president. We need someone who will lean on science and expertise and who will tell the truth to us.
We need someone who will not constantly offend more than half of the American population.
My first choice coming into election season was Elizabeth Warren. My second choice is Joe Biden. I am not fond of Bernie Sanders, though I do agree with some of his policies. I don't like his red-faced yelling and finger-pointing, his talk of revolution, and his my-way-or-the-highway approach to issues. That feels too close to the absolutism of Trump.
But, of course, I will vote for a dead cat, a mummy, or a pumpkin if that's who is running against Trump.
9
@KPB - Agree w/you 100% on Biden. I've been a registered Dem for 40 years. It amazes me when people talk about his connection to Obama but excuse his failure to account for the crime bill & treatment of Anita Hill. People refuse to connect that many past actions connect to present conditions. There are people who continue to struggle because of the crime bill's legacy. The terror of unleashed police, driving while Black or Brown; walking while the same; etc. This is one aspect of Biden's legacy. Put aside the horrendous nature of Clarence Thomas on the Court; just read the coverage of Mrs. Thomas, from her slander to this day of Professor Hill to her role in Liberty Central or her current function of as the doyenne of right wing loyalty lists? As a woman, I hate to say it but who would listen to her if Clarence Thomas was the also ran he should have become instead of someone Joe Biden supported for the SC? Until he accounts with something other than that's the past, I vote NO on Biden.
8
There should be a sensitivity about how we read the “Hispanic” vote. Sanders may do well with people from Honduras or El Salvador, but poorly with wealthier White Hispanics from Cuba. Similarly Biden may have the vast majority of multigenerational American Blacks, but Sanders may appeal to Ethiopian migrants in Iowa packing plants or Sudanese communities in Dearborn Michigan. The media seems to really oversimplify the “Black” vote and “Hispanic” vote. This piece digs into the nuances a little by focusing on age and religion but there are also large cultural differences between some of the communities.
5
The short speech that Joe Biden gave in South Carolina after his victory there was the best such speech by any candidate during this primary season. It was the embodiment of generosity and tolerance, humility and thankfulness, decency and respect, unity and welcome, hope and promise. Everybody should listen to that speech, whether or not Biden is their candidate. I am more progressive than the frontrunner when it comes to social issues like women's rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun control. I am also head-to-toe practical. If Bernie Sanders with his socialist schtick is the nominee, then we could very well lose the House and fail to win back the Senate. Even if he were to win in November, what kind of a victory would that be? This bone weary and utterly exasperated voter is sick and tired of division, unbelievable promises, bellowing arm wavers, my-way-or-the-highway movements, intimations of violence, online swarms of bullies, indifference in the face of racism and sexism.
5
If anyone can't decide between the establishment candidate Biden and the outsider movement guy Bernie... they should consider how each one voted on the Iraq war resolution, and what that vote says about the character and judgement of each man.
5
@spb
That, and the USA "Patriot" Act. Biden supported it. Sanders voted against it when he was a member of the House. The Act was the justification for massive surveillance of the American public, and for the total trashing of the Fourth Amendment.
1
The single most significant sign from South Carolina is that it revealed as hooey Bernie's claim that he's building a multicultural coalition and leading a revolution. Biden beat Sanders for the under-30 African-American vote.
3
I’m terribly disappointed that Biden won South Carolina. He looks backwards instead of forward. He tries to convince us he rides on President Obama’s shoulders while he barely manages to grasp his coattails. We Democrats need a strong candidate and, instead, we get Grandpa shuffling to the ballot box.
5
agreed, Sanders must address the religious voter and give that person a non racist, progressive candidate to vote for (ie not Trump)
he should also call himself a social-democrat, not a socialist, which he is not, plus that label only scares away the religious voter
my two cents
2
Why Biden and not Sanders? Look at the electoral college map. How many southern states can Sanders win? None. Biden can take Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. How many solidly blue states will either win? All. How many purple states will either win? Most likely it's a wash. How many Black voters will turn out in November? Many more for Biden than for Sanders. Now look ahead to a Sanders vs Biden presidency. Who has the far better record of working across the aisle? Biden. Who has the greater presence on the world stage? Biden. In a recent editorial the NYT called for a winnowing of candidates down to Sanders and Biden. Buttigieg and Steyer have complied. It's time the others pack it in and throw their support behind the more electable between Sanders and Biden, and that's Biden, hands down.
2
Thank you, Mr. Biden, and way to go. You are a great American and human being. Thank you South Carolina. African Americans, you are the soul of our country.
1
With Coronavirus/CORVID, we are moving toward a major global crisis of both health and economics.
Trump is completely incompetent – things will continue to get worse.
But could Sanders really deal with a crisis of world financial markets?
We need an American leader who can work together with our allies and trading partners on this.
Biden, as a boring but reliable unifier, is looking better and better.
3
Although 60% of the Democratic electorate in SC may be black, they still can't deliver the state's 9 Electoral College votes in November. The pundit class pays way too much attention to their choice just as they attach too much to the mostly white Democrats in Iowa. Neither grop can deliver in the Fall. Black voters in California have the ability to help deliver 55 Electoral College votes. Who they favor should matter a lot more than the choices in South Carolina.
4
What Bloomberg has achieved with his campaign is to make me hyper-suspicious of any posting supporting him. Knowing that he pays people to do so means ANY favorable comment about him could be just another advertisement.
His campaign is deceptive, Astroturfed, and cynical. I don't want someone like that in the WH. A smarter version of Trump is neither welcome nor needed. We truly have better choices.
Let Bloomberg put his money into anti-Trump ad campaigns. That is where it may do the most good. It would allow the nominee to focus on his own message without having to combat Trump directly in the media. We could use Bloomberg's help but not his direction or control. His understanding of the needs of ordinary Americans is based on rumor and prejudice, not understanding or compassion.
6
I am curious to ask, what is the common denominator that my the hispanic votes join the Black ones - using the paradigm presented by Mr Blow- the race?
Likewise what is the factors that separate both groups?
Aside of being minorities there are more differences than common grounds, and this may explain the differential votes turn out in different states caucus of Candidate Sanders and Biden who has been expressing that "without the black vote no one can win the presidency" , let wait and see.
2
The voter turnout in S. Carolina, particularly the white voter turnout, looks like Dems are finally woke to the fact an independent socialist was about to overtake their party. The parallels between Trump in 2016 and Sanders now are cringeworthy.
1
Charles Blow is making the same mistake that many in the media are right now. South Carolina black voters tend to be older and more conservative than black voters in other parts of the country. Sanders polls strongly with black voters under the age of 45 and that will be evident on Super Tuesday.
7
It may not matter which Democratic candidate gets the nomination. Donald Trump is the victim of bad timing. Had the corona virus appeared in February 2021 instead of February 2020 he would probably be a month into his second term. Trump has put all his eggs into the rising stock market basket, taking credit for its success, even though he had little to do with it. Now he has to own its failure as it plummets daily. His handling of the virus, which is responsible for the crashing stocks, has been more inept than George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Bush benefited from timing because the storm arrived one year after his re-election. Between the failing stock market and the laughable reaction to the virus, Trump's re-election could very soon be on life support.
3
Bloomberg is a spoiler. Politically he’s agnostic and will claim whatever’s helpful at the time. He’s really trying to re-elect Trump. But, as his record as the three-term Republican NYC Mayor comes to light, inconvenient facts dooms his pretension. Undemocratic when he bought an illegal third term when the City Charter allows two. Stop and frisk. Giving the city away to his real estate developer friends - he allowed the weakening of rent control laws- and displacing working families. Misogyny. On tonight’s TV program “60 Minutes” he was asked about his crass comments about women and he said 1) I don’t remember. 2) I’ve apologized. 3) those were the days. He proudly talked about his philanthropy, but as we see clearly, he’s now collecting on the IOUs That’s not altruism, but opportunism. Perhaps he could use his fortune elsewhere and build one or two hospitals in places that are in need?
The only way to change the system is to elect new blood to Congress that’s not indebted to the likes of Bloomberg.
4
The part and parcelling of the Democratic vote will be their eventual downfall.
2
Re: Bloomberg's "horrific racial history".
Please consider that both crime and incarceration rates fell dramatically in NYC during Bloomberg's tenure as mayor. Didn't ALL the city's residents benefit from that? Some more than others?
Enough with the lies and insults, voters are sick of it. By any measure Bloomberg has been a success in business and politics. He has the experience and the means to beat Putin/Trump. Nothing else matters.
2
@Mike
You are 100% correct, but the liberal media doesn't allow the truth, which is that Bloomberg's policy of Stop, Talk, and Frisk (the Talk is always left out) resulted in a dramatic reduction in crime. And I am a Trump supporter.
Maybe Bloomberg will learn that you can't buy votes and drop out.
3
The main thing is for all the groups who have their own agendas, rally around the final candidate.
1
The last two elections we went through the same thing. Maybe further, but Obama muddled the identity politics swamp.
First it was Bernie in 2016, he couldn't garner support from people of color, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Now in 2020, it's Buttigieg who couldn't get black support because of issues totally out of his control. A black police chief secretly recording private telephone calls, and a white officer shooting a black suspect. And being held to account with people yelling and screaming at him for not being able to quiet the waters like Jesus.
No, I don't believe the black community in America has treated either candidate fairly, and it is much to their own loss. Buttigieg's Douglass Plan would have gone a very long way ending institutional racism in this country, and no other candidate has a plan that's even a close match.
2
I think it’s more Pete’s gay identity that loses black support.
So, now it's either Biden or Sanders, period.
That's easy: Warren
5
I thought Mayor Pete served in our military, and in Afghanistan, because he did understand the concerns of racial and ethnic bias, and inequality. Anyway, I'll miss him. Pete, if you're reading the comments here, know that we think you're quite special - thoughtful and intelligent, authentic and hard working. Please find a place in our new democratic administration come November. We need you.
2
One more consideration: Can we count on younger citizens to actually bother to vote THIS time around?
"Nearly 60 percent of the nation’s Hispanic population are millennials (those now ages 24 to 39) or younger, while “half of the black population and 46 percent of the U.S. Asian population are millennials or younger.”
I've been waiting to see an impressive youth vote turnout since I cast my first ballot. In 1976. I do not believe the 18-29 crowd has ever exceeded 50% turnout during that time.
With climate change and the future of our democracy effectively on the ballot in November, I hope that finally changes regardless of who the Democrats nominate (which can also be decided by the young if they go out an vote in large numbers)
It is often said that "we get the government we deserve. "With Trump on the ballot younger voters may also get "the future they deserve.''
Please vote. Don't let my demographic (that will undoubtedly vote for Trump again) rob you of your future
3
One of my categories for the Democratic ticket is labeled "Fantasy." I created this category in order to bypass all the primaries and all the predictions and all the overwrought analysis. I needed a place to go, inside my heart/soul/brain, where the voice in my head says, "Yes, oh yes." My dream Democratic ticket is Michelle Obama and Sherrod Brown.
Mr Blow, your personal attacks on Bloomberg are distasteful. Stop and Frisk was racist in effect, not intent. Bloomberg is not a warm and fuzzy person, but he is committed to many excellent causes and initiatives, including the Greenwood Initiative. No politician has spoken as forcefully as he has on "white privilege'. Too, the class-warfare you (along with Sanders and Warren) are fomenting is getting tedious. Attacking the wealthy for being wealthy is as odious as attacking the poor for being poor--especially when the "billionaire" under your attack came by their wealth through a unique combination of luck, skill, and hard work. Bloomberg is doing more for the common good than most.
If you can keep repeating yourself, so can I. While I prefer Biden, if it comes down to Bloomberg or Trump, I'll vote for Bloomberg.
Shoukld Trump pevail in November (and I am hoping he doesn't) the jockey for both parties begins November 4th, the Wednesday after the election. Even 4+ years out odds on for 2024 would be Marco Rubio. Dems NEED to court someone with some experience, but another 75+ year old.
Charles enough already. Stop bashing Bloomberg. He does NOT have an horrific racial history. Stop and frisk was over done.Bloomberg acknowledges and apologizes for law enforcement that was over zealous in implementing this initiative. Look at his work with minority communities in education. Look at his broad based philanthropy. Look at his support of so many elected black officials. Look at his presidential programme for housing and business start ups for minorities. Be critical. But be fair.
What worries me is that Biden, like Clinton in 2016, will run up big delegate totals resulting from black support in the southern states but then blacks in the northern states that are in play like Michigan and Pennsylvania won't turn out in large enough numbers for him to carry them in the general election.
I also see Biden being dragged down by all the baggage from his son the same way Clinton was by the baggage from her husband.
3
Joe Biden's blowout victory in South Carolina's Primary wasn't big enough to pin our hopes for a Super Tuesday win on the former Veep gliding towards a win in November against Trump. The Super Tuesday results tomorrow could change the trajectory of the Democrats in favor of another old Senator, Bernie Sanders, who won the Iowa Caucus, the New Hampshire Primary and the Nevada Caucus. Meanwhile, the superannuated Big Three Democratic candidates, Biden, Bernie and Bloomberg, in their late 70s, can't count their chickens from their eggs today. The 4th B, young Pete Buttigieg, suspended his campaign in South Bend, Indiana last night, but didn't endorse any of the remaining candidates. No doubt, Charles Blow, racial history will be holding a high card in the Democratic presidential stakes this year, though there are no candidates of color in the Democratic race now. And sure as shootin', Mike Bloomberg will be suspending his campaign soon after Super Tuesday. Despite the millions of dollars he poured into his candidacy, former NYC Mayor for 12 years Mike Bloomberg doesn't have a snowball's chance this year. We all agree that electability against Trump is still the sine qua non of a Democratic victory in November. Donald Trump was unelectable in 2016, and yet he won our 45th presidency. Who knew? Go figure.
1
I wonder if all the Bernie supporters--including you, Charles--took the time to read the story in this newspaper about Sanders' activist supporters and their commentary. If the supporters of any other candidate were so openly making these hateful remarks, the Bernie Bros would be the first ones vilifying them. If Bernie had any integrity, he'd loudly and explicitly condemn them. Instead, his campaign leaders appear for interviews.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/us/politics/bernie-sanders-chapo-trap-house.html?searchResultPosition=1
I would be happy to vote for Biden, if he brings Stacey Abrams with him. But without someone more in touch than he is, I can't feel good about him as president. I don't feel good about Bernie, either, though if he brought Stacey, I'd feel better. Not just because she's a black woman, but because she is dynamic and competent, and also kept her cool under the strain of the scandalous outcome in Georgia.
1
Biden could have gotten one vote and the corporate Democratic party would have fallen all over itself singing his praises.
I will never vote for ANYONE that supported the Iraq War. You can list every lie and crude remark Trump has said and it still doesn't equal a single lost US life in Iraq.
2
If you tell people that they will get free, free, free, and they do not have enough life experiences to know that nothing is ever free then why would they not be in favor of that candidate? Add on to that Bernie's "stick to the wealthy mantra" which is about as socialist/communist as you can get that also plays right to those people.
@DC I think most Bernie supporters are intelligent enough to read "free" as "supported by taxes as a group, rather than individuals". Only dishonest actors spin it as meaning literally free.
So many democrats with so many views with the upcoming election. As my mom use to say, "time will tell."
Mr. Blow, you completely ignore the White voters who also played a role in Biden’s victory. I am white and live in Mt. Pleasant, S.C, part of Charleston County. I voted for Biden and was part of the majority that flipped my Congressional District (#1) from Republican to Democrat in 2018.
Don’t ignore the white vote in SC. It’s changing.
1
biden is another in the 40 year tradition of democrats acting like republicans before the republicans fully embraced the deplorables and said the quiet things out loud.
3
Very exaggerated Charles. You seem to have lost perspective.
Based on past voting behaviour, any of the Democratic candidates would be extremely likely to carry the African-American vote in probably every state where it is significant. The issue is more about turnout, especially in battleground states.
And please drop the harangue about Bloomberg. You have already published three editorials on the subject.
3
I find it sad and distressing that politics has become so focused on identity. Is there no one left who makes their voting decision based on national interests rather than the special interests of their particular identity group?
Blow's entire article is 100% description of such identity politics and, worse, Blow's promotion and advocacy of identity politics.
4
@Errol I think I understand what you're saying. Blacks, gays, etc. are "special" identity groups, and whites' interests are the same as "national interests", i.e. "normal" identity. Do I have that right?
I continue to find it odd that the NYT columnists commenting on the South Carolina vote seem to ignore the exit polls showing that Sanders, not Biden, won the under 30 African American vote. It wasn't overwhelming, but a win is a win. This suggests something of a generation gap among African American voters in South Carolina which could perhaps be reflected elsewhere. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/1/21160030/biden-black-vote-south-carolina-results
6
Mr. Blow, thanks for your timely analysis about this weekend’s election news. Could you please offer your thoughts (and perhaps data) on Warren’s campaign with African American voters by geography, age, and religiosity?
I am trying to understand the openness (or reluctance) to elect a woman vs. a Jewish candidate vs a “socialist.”
Of course Tuesday will bring much needed data to the mix.
2
Mr. Blow's reaction is entirely consistent with the instincts of his colleagues in the Times newsroom: dissect this latest development in the campaign and extrapolate its implications for maximum conflict.
Conflict drives the news, because it drives advertising dollars to the Times; it's the same impulse that caused the paper to contort Hillary's emails into a sprawling, multiyear scandal, and Hunter Biden's ill-advised but entirely legal involvement with Burisma into cloud over Joe Biden's campaign.
But unlike those other manufactured scandals, designed to drive page views, the coming Biden-Sanders contest won't have us sitting at the edge of our seats. Bernie's hit his ceiling, and 70% of the party wants someone else — anyone else — as the nominee. If that someone else is Joe Biden, well, that'll do just fine for the vast majority of Democrats.
As for the Bernie-or-bust voters? We never really had them anyway. They're not Democrats, the same way Bernie's not a Democrat; they have no plan to sweep Democratic candidates into the House and Senate — if they did, they'd recognize just how toxic Bernie's agenda is in the districts that handed Democrats control of the House in 2018. They can complain all they want, but they are not essential to victory in November.
I can’t understand why everyone is making such a big deal about South Carolina. It is a SOLID red state that will vote overwhelmingly for trump and his sycophant Lindsay graham. The election will come down to 5 states, the smart democrats understand this and are investing time and money there. Biden is not and that’s a problem.
3
What will undo the Presidential race is the inter-politicking of the Democratic party and the media creating fake narratives for headlines.
Mayor Pete dropping out before Super Tuesday makes no sense, but it is clear that he struck a deal with Biden to be his running mate.
True to form, Biden will not select a woman or a person of color. He only endears himself to the black community when he wants votes.
No one has forgotten what he did to Anita Hill or that he never did anything for the black community while he was VP.
Biden is the status quo. The tax haven he created in DE for banks, credit card companies and corporations is ALL any American needs to know to be leery of his Presidency. His loyalty is to Wall Street, not Main Street.
Warren is the only chance to beat Trump and turn this country around.
The fact that the media and Biden are trying to shove Warren out of the race, when she is filling events and raising big money (without the Russians), is evidence that she cannot be sidelined.
3
All voices influencing the democratic primary must know that the stakes are high. With power comes responsibility.
If these vocal leaders are unable to deliver the votes in the general election, they will be remembered next to Ralph Nader and Jill Stein.
Ironically despite the breadth of the constituencies with a voice we’re down to one 59 year old to 4 septuagenarian white people.
Biden is as much of a joke as our election system begging the question why vote in a rigged system.
3
I still do not understand why the media (and then, through repetition, the more swayable voters) place so much attention and improtance on a state primary in Iowa or South Carolina. The Democratic nominee, no matter who it is, will not get one electoral vote (and we all know that is the vote that matters) from either of those states. No offense, but why should we care what the black vote in South Carolina or rural vote in Iowa has to say. I am much more concerned with the black and latino vote in Florida, or Michigan. or Pennsylvania. I am even more concerned with what all Democrats in California and New York and Illinois have to say because that is where the greatest numbers of loyal and dependable Democrats are. The few Democrats who happen to reside in South Carolina are unfortuanately rather meaningless in the election picture and yet Mr. Blow wants us to look to them for guidance and a candidate?
3
Not one mention of Elizabeth Warren. Three old white guys and you miss the one person who is different and might be the best compromise candidate. This saddens me.
3
After all the sordidness Of the Trump Years, I want Decency. And I’m not at all Religious. At this point, my preferred Ticket is Biden AND Warren. Together. Only one word needed to define Sanders: Shouty. A milder version of Trump. They remind most Women of horrible Bosses and some guy they dated. ONCE.
Just saying.
1
Don’t you think more voters will want someone who has actually got things done in government? We want a president who understands us and cares about our needs, not just his own wealth and power. We want someone who knows how to ‘comfort with the comfort they’ve been comforted with’, and where hope can be found in something bigger than yourself and your own ideology! The Trump slump will lead to ‘Dump the Trump’ and a blue wave across this nation that will sweep over our country with the ‘better angels of our nature’ just in time to reclaim our leadership in the world for human rights and care of our planet, while tending to the needs of others. We will ‘treat others as we want to be treated’ and build communities of compassion and care versus hate and fear. The day of reckoning will come for those who thought they could ignore the needs of some, to benefit themselves alone.
Golly, I’m so glad that the Democratic Party and the pundit class are placing so much emphasis on the South Carolina primary, a state the party’s nominee has a less than zero chance of carrying on 3 November. With Buttigieg’s withdrawal tonight, Biden is hoping that black agnostic/atheist moderates like me (yeah, we do exist) will cast our lonely eyes to him. Not this guy. I’m turning my attention to my fantasy baseball team and my beloved Nationals. Sanders will never get my vote. NEVER.
I would like to know why Bernie, an independent , runs as a democrat.
Really.
1
Nice try. But if you can’t win support from Latino and white voters,you also cannot win.
3
The differences between Bernie and Biden are significant. The similarities between Bernie and Trump are also significant.
Bernie and Trump believe that the system is too broken to fix. Trump and his supporters believe that that the "Deep State" needs to be destroyed and a new, fascistic, authoritarian, white party will take its place. Bernie and his supporters believe that the U.S. capitalist system needs to be destroyed and a new, socialist, authoritarian, white revolutionary party will take its place.
That explains why over 10% of Bernie's supporters voted for Trump in 2016. If they were actual Democrats, Hillary would be president today.
Bloomberg was an excellent Mayor for NYC.
You may hate Stop and Frisk, but it made the city safer.
2
The fact that SC is represented overwhelmingly by black conservatives that are outvoted by white republicans in every election points to its uselessness in the primary. What difference should they make? Our ridiculous and undemocratic electoral system makes so many votes irrelevant it's hardly worth participating in the process at all and vast groups of people feel totally disconnected and powerless so that only those frequently practicing delusional faith even bother to participate.
3
Bloomberg’s “ Propaganda “
Just proves the adage...”Opinion is really he lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding.
Reality will top Ideology all the time.
1
There is much more than the thickness of a sheet of paper difference between Bernie and Biden. Unlike Trump both are men of principle; not astronomical liars; profane self indulgent boors. This election should be about character more than policy or ideology or grievances. Trump proves daily he is unfit perhaps a clear and present danger. Time to focus on rallying to win once a candidate wins the nomination.
2
“Trying to replicate the Obama victory is a fool’s errand. That was a lightning strike. It won’t hit the same spot twice.” Charles, you meant it won’t hit the same spot three times. It already hit the same spot twice. I agree.
Remember when candidates John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter had to persuade American voters they wouldn't let their religious beliefs influence how the governed as POTUS? I do, with longing.
3
The last presidential candidate to get a majority of the white vote was LBJ in 1964.
Biden won the plurality (48.4%) not the majority in just one state that he put his everything into winning. He’s still behind in delegates. So if you only want to pick the winning side as many media and establishment politicians treat this campaigning like betting on a horse race, Bernie Sanders is the lead.You already know who the monster is and how horrific it is living normalized under the Trump Republican administration.
So, now the status quo corporatist Democrat faction has to scare you further into submission with their new boogie men, Socialism and Bernie.
It’s no longer “anyone but Trump”, but suddenly it’s “anyone but Trump and Bernie”?! Divide and be conquered by Trump and Putin. (Negativistic Factionalism)!
Truth is that the neo-liberals and corporatists in the Democratic elite would rather have another term of Trump than the Progressive platform. Go figure?!
Don’t be fooled by their crystal ball fortune telling scare word, Electability. It’s a dynamic and active process measured by the ground game and excitement generated by the candidate, supporters, and their platform.
6
I’m always amazed they religious voters blindly follow a clearly immoral bad man like Trump.
A couple of more restrictions on Abortion is not worth the cost of supporting the devil as he welcomes the marketplace into the temple.
You just can’t follow Jesus and Donald at the same time. They live incompatible lives.
4
Black votes most definitely matter. I just wish they’d vote in their own self interest... as well as whites who mistakenly think that middle of the road is somehow the safe vote. It’s been shown to all who have been looking over the last 50 years that middle of the road Democrats just don’t cut the mustard, and only look out for themselves. Once in they just slide along. Many would call what they do backsliding. We need a very strong Democratic admin and Biden is not that kind of leader. Think BERNIE !!!
3
The Black/Hispanic split between Biden and Sanders should not surprise anyone.
Sanders wants to decriminalize border crossing, provide a path to citizenship for any illegal non-resident in the US and provide healthcare regardless of citizenship status. Why wouldn't Hispanics, especially millennials, support that platform?
Biden wants to continue Obama-era immigration reform, support DACA and 'secure our borders'. I'm not sure what that last one means, but it certainly isn't 'cross over anyway you can and we'll accommodate you". Biden was the supportive VP to our first Black President and wants to continue policies that were unachieved during Obama's administration.
Doesn't take a lot of brain power to understand why support is splitting between the two candidates.
1
Blacks make up perhaps a 3rd of solid democratic voters but they are not a majority. Biden hopes this saves him but the early voters will settle his hash in California when they vote for Sanders.
1
Here’s a thought: Bernie, take Stacey Abrams as your running mate. Wouldn’t THAT be awesome!!
4
Black votes matter. That's why SCis important. The disparaging of black peoples' povs by many posters here, and anecdottly by many Bernie supporters I now, differs only in degree from the racism of the Republican Party.
I find , Mr. Blow, your description of the Buttigieg candidacy as a fool's errand very offensive and inaccurate.
Pete Buttigieg was an excellent candidate for the Presidency and we would be most fortunate had he succeeded in his Presidential bid.
He never said that he was the next Obama. He didn't have to be that.
That's because he's plenty compelling in his own right as Pete Buttigieg. And he's not through, he'll be back in some capacity on the national stage, this past year was only a start for this bright New star in the Democratic party.
1
after South Carolina win, some of us are suffering amnesia: Joe Biden would be clobbered by Trump; I can see that unscrupulous politician going after this weak and corrupt man who did not object to his son´s ¨job¨ in Ukraine.
2
James Petigru famously described South Carolina as "too small for a nation and too large for an insane asylum" just a few months before the Civil War began when the Confederates bombarded Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861.
Things have gotten a little better since then in South Carolina, but not much.
It's Trumpistan, an old Dixiecrat state that turned Republican in 1968, outraged that the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were passed.
South Carolina remains one of the most conservative states in the nation; even its Democrats are conservative.
The chance that South Carolinians were going to vote for a Jewish fellow or someone who happens to be gay was a bit of a long shot; Biden was an easy conservative choice for many voters.
Super Tuesday will be very different from South Carolina's primary; here's who voting:
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Biden may win the 'conservative black' votes in those states, but there are also lots of moderate and liberal black votes in those states, not to mention millions of Democratic votes of varying pigmentation and political persuasions.
Joe Biden has a South Carolina primary victory to hang on his mantle, but that's about all she wrote for Joe.
America's problems are serious and require a fundamental refocus of politics back toward 330 million Americans.
Vote blue no matter who...and Feel The Bern.
11
Hear, Hear! @Socrates
1. Toe-to-toe debate chops will be required to secure a November win. (Warren, Sanders)
2. A coordinated, "Avengers" team effort behind the party nominee by every 2020 Dem pres candidate will be required to win against "Thanos." Anything less and you can hang it up.
2
I'm 64 but, nonetheless, I look at Bloomberg, Biden and Bernie and say to myself -- 'what's with these geriatrics?' It's sad that the torch is being passed ... well, backwards. And that may be one of the many reasons why we seem to be going in exactly the opposite direction of where we should be going.
Bloomberg's and Biden's ideas are rooted in a failed rotting 80's-90's liberalism while Bernie's are rooted in a 60's socialism that is even more pathetic but, admittedly, less hateful than Trump's 50's white nationalism.
God save us from ourselves.
2
Charles Blow criticizes reporters' penchant for story lines, and then offers us a story line: Biden is back! Minority voters are not progressive! The Democratic Party must move to the center, or face certain defeat in November!
Don't believe him. The future remains to be written, and voters, not pundits will write it.
2
If the 2020 Democratic convention is a repeat of the 2016 Democratic convention, Trump's handlers will be happy people. The Trumpsters, are not divided -- white bigots rarely are. The battle here is between change and corporations, and Biden has the blessings of corporations. Either way in a Trump-Biden contest, they win.
2
It depends on what kind of religious services people attend. I have been distressed by quotations as extreme as "Trump is God," but there are many opinions just short of that. If one has been worshipping a God who is cruel, racist, homophobic, and xenophobic, then attendance at church can predict victory for the president.
1
Saturday a majority of black voters in SC voted against their own best interests. Goes to show that voting for people who will intentionally make your life worse is an American thing, not a skin color thing.
Establishment candidates want a return of the Crime Bill, Stop & Frisk, health care for some, no job security or opportunities. Who do you you think squashed Obama's dream of Change? The top of the list were Pelosi and Biden. ACA pandered to the insurance companies. It was never supposed to benefit People.
1
Forget about "demanding attention"; the South Carolinians led the way. A true front-runner needed to emerge from the clump of candidates that kept dividing the vote, and now there is one. Some African-Americans familiar with the inside baseball may think they have to bang cups on the table to get attention in 2020, but the Democratic Party put Obama in office, twice, and the true heart of the party loves that he was there. Shed the baggage, focus on the prize, and lead.
Why describe Bloomberg as “spreading propaganda”? That’s inaccurate and wrong. You may not like the former mayor, but writing falsehoods about any of the candidates should be discouraged.
As a young person myself, I'm getting a little tired of being told how "young people have chosen Bernie and the progressives." Young DEMOCRATS perhaps, but many of us are not registered Democrats. We're also Republicans, Independents, Greens, and Libertarians, and many of us don't feel any sort of loyalty to the Democratic Party (Libertarians in particular have fairly strong showing among millennials and Latinos). We're still here, even if we've been left out of the conversation. Don't be surprised if the "young people" don't vote the way you expect them to on Election Day--or stay home.
2
Klobuchar and Bloomberg should drop out now and leave the race to Biden to represent moderates and prevent Sanders from winning. Buttigieg did the honorable thing by withdrawing. He is thinking about the Democratic Party he is a member of and about the good of the country.
1
After Tuesday - sadly, not today - if they have any sense after the dust settles, there should be an ending to several of these delusional campaigns. Biden, Sanders, and perhaps Warren will probably still be in the running. Tomorrow night's dropouts should focus on the vice president slot on the ballots. Sanders/Klobuchar or Biden/Warren would be worth considering. As it is now, the democrats are just spinning their wheels.
South Carolina might be a special case, given the significance of Representative Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden. Almost half of African Americans polled before primary day in SC said this made the difference for them. States differ, obviously, just as voting blocs do, and it isn’t obvious to me that other southern states — much less northeastern or midwestern or western ones coming up — will see African Americans (especially younger ones) voting for Biden in numbers as big as S.C. Obama’s mixed record on deportations may well continue to cost Biden when it comes to support of Hispanics, as we’ve seen so far.
7
In 2016 add those who voted for Sanders, the Green Party, the Libertarians, and Trump, and those who didn’t vote.......and a majority of this nation voted AGAINST both status quo parties. A 50% turnout (large for the US), shows status quo candidates are not winnable choices.
Nice to think a middle of the road, non objectionable candidate can win.....really? Biden is well respected, but he rambles, has no real program. He has real deficiencies against Trump. His misstatements can be put up against Trump’s deliberate lies for a false equivalence. Hunter Biden will be a hammering point.......while Ivanka’s Chinese trademarks worth millions get lost in Trump’s noise.
We need change. The Senate and the Electoral College no longer represent the majority of us fairly.....or even remotely so. The Supreme Court has been solidly on corporate payroll for years........Citizens United even allow foreign money by allowing corporations to shout while we district voters can only whisper. A Senator in Montana represents 300,000 people while a Senator from California represents 20,000,000 people......we no longer have a fair and representative republic.
And one political party likes this! There are now more unaffiliated voters than registered Republicans......and for the most part they can’t even participate in our two party primaries.
The evangelicals have sold themselves to Trump, no Dem candidate can win them.
5
Sanders regularly and consistently does better against Trump in national polls than Joe Biden. Sanders also proposes policies that would be of greater benefit to everyone including black voters. To imply that Sanders is not on board with black religious people is to forget that it was Sanders, not Biden, who marched with Martin Luther King. Biden wasn't there. Biden has also been very fluid about his claims to a civil rights heritage. The truth is he worked as a lifeguard at a pool that allowed black people. That's about the best he's got.
10
Right. Here’s one of his recent cringe-worthy statements.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” — Joe Biden
Sanders if he wins the nomination must show that he is flexible enough to allow for more moderate positions. Working with others is the only way in this country at this time to get progressives to unite strongly behind your and to get most of your ideas put into law.
Sanders supporters will say that standing your ground, letting others come to you, is the way to get things done. Does he know what people want absolutely? As a Senator he must know that working with others and
working with other's views is the only way things happen in a democracy unless you take the stance of Trump and McConnell who also believe they know what is best for everyone in our country.
2
@just Robert
I read recently in the Intercept that a DNC member installed by Tom Perez formerly raised money for McConnell and other Republican candidates. (As I recall, his last name is Owens). Biden, too, "work[ed] with others," including McConnell, to deliver Republican policies to the country. (Remember the "Cat-food Commission" on social security, to which Biden appointed his friend, Republican Alan Simpson, the latter of whom referred to people who relied on social security in vulgar terms unfit, in my view, for repetition in a newspaper (although widely reported in newspapers at the time)? That's the kind of "working together" I will vote against.
2
@just Robert Never going to happen. Sanders is incapable of compromise. He is not a Democrat.
Charles, you say that Biden has more more moderate and even conservative views than Bernie does. I wouldn't put it that way. I'd say that Biden's views are more realistic about what could be obtained trough actual legislation than Bernie's. Bernie is a visionary and pie-in-the-sky thinker. He is clearly not focusing on the reality of what he can get through Congress. Maybe happy visions are what the country needs right now to get over the catastrophe of Trumpism. But the better path is to focus on the art of the possible, and that's Biden.
11
@Max Dither
So Dems run candidates to the center-right. When they manage to win -- more because they are brought in as a clean-up crew rather than because of ideas -- they cut deals with the opposition where they get crumbs and cheer it as victory while the minority Repubs walk away with most of everything they want. When people criticize the results the Dem leadership huffs and says "that's all we can realistically accomplish."
This has been the blueprint of national politics since Bill Clinton. It's a huge part of the reason why have Trump in office today.
Change has to start somewhere. Or we can keep repeating the last three decades hoping for a different outcome.
7
@Allen I don't agree. The reason why the Democrats haven't had the degree of success in getting the full legislation they want is because Congress has either been split or entirely Republican. It's the GOP which is obstructionist to progress. Democrats are not the feckless wanderers you make them out to be.
Change is transitional, not immediate. The first step toward that is not winning the White House, it's winning both houses of Congress. If the Dems can do that, and can win the White House with someone who is realistic about what can actually be achieved within the constraints of a unity government, then can the country return to the kind of normalcy that brings progress. Bernie is hardly that kind of candidate.
Democrats bring prosperity to America. Republicans bring prosperity to themselves.
It appears Joe Biden will do well in southern states, many with high black voting populations.
Most , except Virginia, will overwhelmingly vote for republican ( I’m sorry to say ). This situation will give Biden quite a few delegates by the convention. Will winning delegates in “Red States” have the same practical influence as someone who wins purple and key electoral college states?
7
Those first caucuses and primaries in tiny, white states with less population than North Hollywood alone, have not been any indication of who will emerge when the vote is brought to large, industrial and population behemoths.
Iowa, New Hampshire? Really? So goes the nation?
8
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
3
Elizabeth Warren is the candidate who promises real change and a way to deliver it. She is not beholden to banking interests or corporate interests so she has my vote. The press is filled with people invested in the status quo because big money owns much of the press which is one reason she is considered radical just for wanting our democratic republic to work for all.
15
@Rodin’s Muse That's right, Warren Sanders OR Sanders Warren. They'd make a good ticket and the rich won't go broke but the rest of us will find clearer skies ahead
4
@jaco : Both the president and vice-president have to be over the age of 35. AOC is too young.
First, one news source reported that mail or drop-in ballots in California were coming in at a lower pace than in 2018. I suspect people were waiting to see the results from South Carolina before they voted. California is not a sure thing for Bernie.
Second, Hillary won California by 3 million votes. There are really a lot of votes there. If the people have not already mailed in their ballots do not support Bernie, Bernie will not win.
Third, if Biden can help the Democrats win the Senate and keep the House, we will all be better off.
Fourth, a lot of what happens after the primaries will depend on who Biden picks for Vice President. As of now I can't see Bernie choosing a vice president who would help retain centrist voters. If Biden picks well, he could substantially strengthen his campaign.
Finally, Biden is not perfect, he was not my first choice. But 4 or more years of Obama stability sounds pretty good.
7
The hopefulness and concern of Charles Blow, David Leonhardt, Frank Bruni, Michelle Goldberg, Jamelle Bouie and others on these pages is heartening, and reflective of the state of discussions I have with many who are fearful of a second Trump term. But I have recently realized that the Federal Government cannot be improved or corrected much through the 2020 elections, but rather, only kept from sliding into the abyss.
The discussions for the soul of the Democratic Party and who can appeal to what constituencies is really beside the point. The point is what Elizabeth Warren has been saying all along: this country needs big structural change, and few voters seem to grasp what that means or believe in the possibility for large - but common sense - changes. To wit: Abolish the Electoral College and vote on a Saturday/Sunday or a national holiday. Have a national primary (caucuses allowed if votes gathered on time) in May on a weekend. Get the profit motive out of health care. Make the wealthy pay more in taxes - a lot more. Trim the Defense Department budget. End gerrymandering. Overturn Citizens' United. Activate and engage the citizenry in national program to combat and mitigate climate change. Enact common sense gun availability restrictions.
The odds of enacting any of these changes are tiny, regardless of a Sanders or Biden win. The powerful have too much entrenched influence. Progress is not pre-ordained; our decline is likely to continue.
6
South Carolina is a harbinger of things to come.
In every state Bernie won so far, he's had fewer people vote for him than in 2016. He has not driven higher turnout as his followers promised. Quite the opposite. Even in Nevada, his single biggest win, he won a lower share of the total vote than in 2016, despite walking away with more delegates.
What Sanders has benefited from is not a progressive surge, but a divided field. There's no united moderate vote like in 2016. So even though less people overall voted for him, he still got the largest share of the pie in 3 states early in the race, when the number of contenders was highest.
But now that field is starting to dwindle, and the race is moving into states where his progressive politics do not play nearly as well. Expect more South Carolina results.
7
I was not aware of the candidates running on their records as religious observers (participants not bystanders). How this dubious factoid crept into Blow's dissection of the results from SC is worth discussing.
Are candidates today required or encouraged to discuss their personal religious beliefs, the place of worship they attend, and their frequency of attendance? Is membership in a sect that promotes intolerance better than being an avowed atheist?
Our founders thought this was an issue important enough to address in the First Amendment. How quaint.
3
Had a negative opinion of Joe Biden until I saw him on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." He impressed me with his dignity, his alertness, his personality, his confidence, his honesty. He's likable. And no one has more experience and insider contacts; even he and McTurtle could work together; they might not agree, of course, but they'll at least be civil with each other, no? Could use some civility right about now.
Am still a Bernie Bro, of course, but would joyously settle for a President Biden over He Who Should Have Never Been President.
What a difference a TV show makes!
6
We are frequently reminded that the reason the Dems could take back the House from the GOP in 2018 was the success of "moderate" Dem candidates in formerly GOP districts. While this is true, a lot has both happened and not happened since then, none of it good.
The Congress has passed no meaningful Dem-supported legislation, as Mitch will not bring anything up for a vote, and Trump wouldn't sign any good bill in any case. Yes, the Dems hurriedly impeached Trump, but found out there was only one reasonably honest and honorable GOP senator left willing to convict him.
Meanwhile Trump, having already signed the big GOP tax give-away to the rich, continues his lawless destruction of our democracy by taking vengeance on patriotic civil servants, dismantling essential parts of the bureaucracy - including those charged with public health and the climate - and generally sowing hatred and discord wherever he can.
So all we can say about our moderate-Dem controlled House is, well, things could have been worse. I mean we might have been hit by an asteroid.
Now Mother Nature, aided by overpopulation and our lack of preparedness, has sent a plague upon us, which may kill many thousands and wipe out Trump's roaring stock market and raging high-employment, low-wage economy, so that even the GOP will be tripping over themselves to vote Trump out, and yet some Dems think this isn't an opportunity for epochal progressive change?
If not now, when?
4
Four things seem certain:
1. Sanders will do well on Super Tuesday, but not well enough to win enough delegates to win the nomination outright
2. Biden will benefit from Buttigieg dropping out and will likely become the Moderate candidate that establishment and centrist Democrats have been waiting for
3. It will be a brokered convention, with super delegates playing a role in choosing the victor, in compliance with the rules established prior to the Primaries and which each candidate understood when they launched their campaign.
4. Bernie supporters will ratchet up their rhetoric, such as threatening to not vote, leave the party or even vote for Trump should Sanders not be selected as the Candidate.
Ultimately, I believe that Biden will get the nomination. And Progressive threats to sit it all out will be exposed as either nonsense or immaterial, given that so many of them live in already deep blue cities on the coasts. Biden will defeat Trump and dignity will return to the White House.
3
@John
The scary part about your scenario is how many progressive votes go away if Biden gets the nomination.
There is an unproven assumption that Biden will win a secret cache of moderate voters in the Midwest. Maybe so. But if he loses too many from the Democratic base, which is considerably left of Biden, Biden will lose.
2
@Chickpea
The argument that Progressives sitting out the election in protest of a Biden candidacy will alter the election is specious at best. The majority of Progressive support is based in large cities on the coasts, not in rural America or in the States that the Democratic candidate will need to win back from Trump to win the election. As has been discussed on this forum many times, losing votes from already deep blue states doesn't change anything from an electoral college perspective. Progressives appear far stronger and influential than they really are. Hard evidence for this is in the 2018 House votes, where all of the seats picked up by Democrats were won by moderates.
@John
If progressives are so weak, Sanders wouldn't have the largest numbers of individual donors, across the most states (especially outside the coasts) and the largest war chest.
All Biden needs is to keep blabbering on about things that never actually happened before his donors pull the plug and even Bloomberg takes his billions and goes home. Kindly billionaires that finance your dreams with no strings attached is the stuff of fairy tales.
The Dems nominating contest needs to be all about who can get U.S. (us) back on the right track to create an effective government that looks at dire issues such as climate change and long term infrastructure planning, and less about single-issue religious and racial/ethnic differences.
2
The outcome of the South Carolina primary demonstrates that the prioritizing of race over class during the past 50 years has played a critical role in moving the Democratic Party establishment far to the right. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, the Democratic Party successfully integrated the second tier of civil rights leaders into the political establishment. Welcoming the opportunities provided by affirmative action programs, the privileged sections of the African American middle class abandoned any identification with political radicalism, let alone socialism (which had been a significant influence on Black intellectuals and political activists). The presidency of Barack Obama was the culmination of this process. In South Carolina, the African American leaders of the Democratic Party have aligned themselves with the conservative Biden wing of the Party. However, it is doubtful that this conservative layer really reflects the views of the African American working class and youth in the major urban centers of the United States.
8
I'm not sure any lessons can come from a state with open primaries that republicans can vote in to skew the vote. We put so much emphasis on all the divisive history candidates have in their background that we are losing the message of what is important for our future. Biden is a washed up and boring candidate just like Hillary. Sanders was a favorite of mine in the past, but I'm not convinced now. Bloomberg has no pizzazz (very important also besides his views) but he financially can take on trump, inc. Tomorrow is another day and everything could change. There is so much going on right now in the news that everything is fluid. Will voters even show up at the polls?
2
I'll never vote for Biden and Bloomberg is out for too many people.
As for the Democrats, they are hoping for a brighter future and Sanders can answer their prayers. Only November will tell.
3
My thoughts entirely! I am so angry I find myself in tears out of a lack of anything better to do. I find this is stoaking my loathing not just for trumpers but for anyone who is satisfied with either Bernie or Joe and can't bother to entertain any other alternative. Ok, I think it's official, I think I don't like just about anyone. I feel like I don't belong in this world at all if this is all there is: Trump, Biden or Sanders.
4
Now let's think about this. Why did Sanders win only 17% of those who attend religious services "occasionally or more often than that?"
@Frank
Because unlike Biden, Sanders doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve or mawkishly exploit his personal family history to get their votes.
Sanders has the temerity to suggest that Jesus will not solve their economic problems or give them healthcare.
It is important to make the distinction between denominations when having a discussion about religious voters demanding attention.
The South is mostly comprised of black evangelicals and white evangelicals. We are starting to see more Catholic Churches now with the arrival of more Latino communities, but for the most part, when we talk about South Carolina and the South in general, we are talking about evangelicals.
White evangelicals voted for Trump because the white evangelical church is simply an extension of the Confederacy. The authoritarianism and the social hierarchy of the Old South lives on in denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention. These churches are more political than religious.
Another lesson to be learned from South Carolina is that white evangelicals who vote Republican followed Dear Leader’s orders and went to the polls for Bernie. You can view this data by county very easily. Just sort it by race, and voila, you have the whitest counties in South Carolina, and not surprisingly, these counties went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016. In those same Trumpian counties with the highest percentage of white voters, Biden’s margin of victory was lower and Sanders had a higher share. Doesn’t this sound like a tactic employed during Jim Crow? And it was mot likely white evangelicals who sit front-and-center on church every Sunday who did this.
So please, Mr. Blow, when you talk about religious voters, be a little more clear.
9
@Corrie
Meanwhile, in the reality-based community, well over 50% of those African Americans who voted for Biden said they did so because of Clyburn's endorsement. Not because they liked Biden's platform. I have yet to read a single NYT comment explaining their support for Biden on his stated policy grounds and Biden's own achievements (as opposed to just standing next to Obama).
So it seems that the Dear Leader in SC is not Trump, but Clyburn.
The "whitest counties" who voted for Trump in 2016 were also the ones who voted for Sanders against Hillary in 2016. But hey, that doesn't fit the narrative that only naturally racist white evangelicals can be manipulated, while the the black evangelicals are definitely not racist and absolutely independent thinkers who vote their conscience.
You explain away the lack of support for Pete Buttigieg to his lack of understanding of racial / ethnic minorities. But there’s a much more serious divide that Blow ignores: the long-standing antipathy to gay rights in the African American community, especially in the churches. Of all the Democratic candidates, Buttigieg was the one who spoke most often and openly about his faith.
Mayor Pete’s candidacy made history in a way that made those of us who are Christian AND gay very proud but it also demonstrated that there’s still a long way to go.
12
@Michael Cudney
No (gay) candidate is going to get very far lecturing people about what "true" Christians, Jews, Muslims, whatever, should believe.
Pete would have gotten much further if he spoke more precisely about his actual platform rather than imitating Obama and adding a religious bent to it. Obama canned the religious talk for a reason.
The leadership of the Democratic Party has known for decades what a global economy dominated by banks and corporations would mean for working class people and many in the middle class. It is absurd to claim Democrats "lost touch" with working class voters in the 2016 election. To the contrary, Bernie has support for his "anti-establishment" policies, and Trump does for saying he is --- while he is not, because Democrats, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Obama, Biden, Schumer and many others have supported global banks and corporations to the detriment of working and middle class people since the 1980s.
4
"What would it mean for the Democrats to choose a candidate who couldn’t carry the black vote in a single state?"
Okay, I know that the black vote shouldn't be taken for granted, but the probability that a majority of black voters, in *every state* at that, would vote for trump instead of whoever the Democratic candidate is, is as statistically close to zero as you can get.
Some rhetorical questions aren't worth asking.
1
I would hope that we can vote for someone because they are religious, not because we think they might espous religious dogma once they are elected. Separation of church and state is what is important. The state is for citizens, not religion.
3
I like Joe Biden - I just which he was 10 or so years younger. Although I favor Bernie's "liberal" ideas I don't think Americans are ready fo anything that one could possibly label as being "socialist" (at this time in American history.) What is important in the 2020 election, of course, is that the country rids itself of the Trump Tragedy that the present mis-administration has foisted upon us. I say, "Dump Trump" and "make America, America again!"
4
I'm practically always in agreement with Mr. Blow, but about the first paragraph here, I'll take issue. I'm a Sanders supporter and have seen plenty of evidence that the political "elite" have done more to object to him than any other candidate. The talk for the longest time was about Biden's "electability" from the start of his announcement. Of course, I knew it was name recognition and connection to a popular president more than details of policies and plans that produced such opinions. As data show, those details are now favoring Sanders when he shares them with the electorate. With each victory, Sanders is shown to be a front-runner, so there is the simple and plain source of diminishing chances for Biden.
2
Why people are investing their votes in the person most unlikely to survive his first term in office just boggles me. Progressives can have most of their ideological ideas validated through Warren, but for some reason the cult of personality that has developed around Sanders blinds his acolytes to the fact that whoever he chooses as his VP will most likely be president before the term ends. If I were a hard core progressives, I'd go with statistics for a man of his age who has already suffered a heart attack (and is loathe to share his medical records), and choose Warren.
9
@Patricia : The candidates most favored by younger voters are the oldest ones, and there's a simple reason behind it.
Back during the Reagan administration, the Republicans began a concerted effort to recruit young activists and groom them for the political ladder, starting with unglamorous positions like city council and school board. These people are now in their fifties and sixties, prime political years, and ideological hothouse plants.
In contrast, the Democrats have spent the past forty years coasting on the accomplishments of the 1930s through the 1960s, and to my knowledge have not only failed to groom younger candidates but have actively resisted them if they threaten the positions of established figures or if they stray from a narrow range of acceptable "moderate" positions. Look at their blacklisting of any PR agency that works for candidates who mount a primary challenge to an incumbent.
The result is a field that skews older. The Dems seem more interested in handing the nomination to the person "whose turn it is"(Mondale, Gore, Kerry, H. Clinton, now Biden) than in winning elections by coming up with solutions for this nation's pressing problems.
1
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states that Trump flipped? If not, it’s 2016 all over again.
I met Bernie Sanders in 1980 at a community college in NY.
He was an incredible orator then and is more engaging today. His message has not changed in 40 years. He has always been for the people.
Is American ready for Bernie....probably not. Is Mother Earth ready for Bernie...absolutely.
This race should stop being about the politics of the Democratic Party and start focusing on the fact in two generations the coronavirus will be nothing compared to the disasters that lay ahead for the entire planet both environmentally and economically. Bernie is the only candidate with the guts to go against the establishment and now it matters.
14
5 states matter in defeating Trump, based on current polling. People of color will be better off when Trump is defeated by any of the current candidates. That's all that matters.
4
South Carolina is a tiny Republican state whose political significance is only related to its use as a tool of the democratic establishment. How else could the party get such self-promotion from just a couple of political leaders (surely rewarded generously) and their tiny (in terms of actual voters) and reflexively faithful (in terms of voting variance) constituency. If South Carolina voted at the middle or end of the nomination process it would never make national political news, much like Iowa. (Who are probably on the political map because of the agribusiness subsidies they garner.)
5
I guess we'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out who the real contenders are but by then the also-rans should follow the example of Mayor Pete and gracefully bow out.
6
Bernie will cost the Dems the house and ensure a GOP senate, all of which means a right wing Supreme Court will gladly rule that Social Security, Medicare, environmental protections, and unions are unconstitutional.
15
@David Henry
Exactly! For those living in a blue bubble: out here in the real world where several vulnerable GOP senators are up for re-election, the GOP is running ads tying their Democratic challengers to Bernie Sanders. The ads show an interviewer asking Sanders if his free health care plan would include undocumented immigrants. Mr. Sanders reply is “Absolutely.”
Take a poll of Americans asking whether, with our current trillion-dollar deficit, their tax dollars should provide health care for all people in the country illegally and those who would come in the future; it certainly would not be a majority.
If the Democrats can take the Senate and maintain control of the House, the winner of the presidency won’t matter.
5
@David Henry
With respect, concerning your prognostications... Bernie, like Trump, was extremely popular in 2016. Did you foresee this? How about Brexit, Boris Johnson, what Mueller came up with, the Ukraine thing, Stormy Daniels/Avenatti, Cohen, etc.? Or when did you realize there WERE no WMDs? These kind of events are major. Don't you think we should check track records before embracing predictions that come without any grounding?
1
@carl bumba With a right wing Supreme Court, the future is easy to predict.
An interesting fact to keep in mind when asking who would be the best Democratic Party candidate is that primaries, unlike the general election, actually show us where the party faithful want to go.
The race up until now seems to be pretty much split between the progressive and moderate factions. It is unlikely that we will see overwhelming support for one of them at convention time. Since the spread is likely to be narrow it is of utmost importance that people put aside their differences after the convention determines the nominee. If convention delegates believe that Sanders is their candidate, or that Biden should run, it should be up to the rest of us to support whoever wins the votes necessary for the nomination. This race is too important to let personal concerns get in the way of electing a Democrat to the White House.
11
I am one of those mythical independent swing voters. I normally vote about 80-90% Democratic.
If Bernie is the nominee, I will be voting straight ticket Republican for the first time in my life. A banana slug would be better than Trump, but Trump is still less harmful than Bernie.
6
@SK
By what measure? Let's pick a topic where harm can be directly traced to actions of the President. National security, climate change (how he directs agencies to deal with it), trade, working with allies, health care programs...
What are your reasons for thinking Bernie would be worse for the USA on any of those topics?
4
@SK Would you vote for Warren? I think she is a candidate who could capture both Bernie and Never Bernie voters more so than Biden.
I’m an independent voter who would have trouble voting for Bloomberg. Ultimately Democrats will not be able to please all independents...
@M I would almost certainly vote for Warren over Trump. She's really too far top the left, and I don't agree with a lot of her policies, but I think she would actually be effective in driving some targeted improvements. She's also capable of working within the system and capable of reaching across the aisle and driving compromise. I see Warren as wanting to improve the system, Bernie as wanting to burn it dow.
Do any of the polling organizations publicize the number of refusals?
And what about the Indirect refusals of people who never answer an unknown call.
5
"black and Hispanic voters could consistently and repeatedly pick different candidates"....It is true that Sanders did well among Hispanic voters in Nevada. But Nevada is a caucus state, where Sanders supporters represented less than 3% of registered Nevada voters. Passion wins caucuses, numbers win elections. Maybe Nevada was a harbinger, maybe not.
5
As others have noted, Biden still owes Anita Hill an apology, and it is no small thing that he is in a large way responsible for Clarence Thomas on the Court. Kamala Harris may wind up as his vice presidential nominee, but she made quite clear that Biden was no champion of school desegregation nor particularly active in the Civil Rights Movement. He certainly has no "anti-war" record, and I will forgive him for protecting the credit card companies based in his state if he will forgive Sanders for weak support of gun safety measures as senator from a rural state.
Black voters in SC rewarded Biden for being a loyal vice president to Obama over eight years. That's not hard to understand. But the only reason to support Biden is the notion that he can beat Trump. Until SC that seemed very unlikely. We'll see going forward. But Joe is no progressive.
4
@akrupat
Biden never said he was progressive a la Sanders.
The irony is remarkable. By "religious voters" Blow and others mean "Christian" voters. I don't think South Carolina's Muslim, Jewish or other religious voters are a large bloc. For the record, I am an atheist/secular humanist, living person.
So "Christian" voters don't like the only candidate who is somewhat Jesus-like? Sanders, like the Christian hero who threw out the moneychangers, challenges the dominance of materialism and profit at the expense of humanity. Sanders wants to lift people out of poverty. Sanders wants the poorest among us to have dignity and health care.
But, Sanders is not in the "club," thereby rendering himself unappealing to the modern notion of "Christian."
Jesus, the historical or fictional version, would be a Sanders supporter.
17
@Barking Doggerel: Sanders wishes. That makes him religious. "Let there be affordable health care!"
I am hoping that the combination of two candidates dropping out and Super Tuesday forces some others to drop and the field is down to one progressive and one centrist to fight it out and then coalesce around a single candidate because South Carolina is a one off state like New Hampshire that if they voted later would not get much attention. The alternate outcome is everyone stays in until the convention, and while salivating Trump points to the group and says that the field runs as competently as the Iowa Caucasus
3
The timing and spacing of the primaries means that not all voters will have an equal say. For instance, by the time my own state (NY) votes, more candidates will have folded and the delegate math may well have made the outcome a foregone conclusion anyway. This is not the most representative way of determining a victor. It seems like a much smaller time frame, maybe up to one month, would be more fair to primary voters and give candidates enough time to campaign nationwide.
363
@NM ~
Certainly agree with you about timing! By the time April 28th arrives and I vote in the NY primary, most likely I won't have many choices and may not be able to vote for my first choice. It's not a fair system. I also don't like that a caucus, less democratic than a primary, begins the primary process for the Democratic nomination.
113
@NM
The Democratic primary process allots more delegates per capita to states that vote later in the calendar and to states with more registered Democrats. Since many states have a 15% viability cutoff for delegates, too many primaries at the beginning would be a disaster. There were dozens of candidates only a few months ago. A longer process is way actually better.
NY, NJ, CT will have a big effect on the outcome - since it looks like no one is running away with the election. So your vote will matter even if your first choice didn’t make past Iowa or Super Tuesday.
14
@Mary Ann Donahue
What a bummer that we won’t have as many, if any, real voting options as nearly every other state! I agree with you also that caucuses are not a good forum for voting and they certainly don’t speak to the general election- which one would hope that the primaries would do. So much could be better!
Thanks so much for what you wrote. Take care.
13
As some analysts point out, Biden's South Carolina hurrah comes after a huge dip in the polls at a time when people were mailing in their votes ahead of super Tuesday. A lot of people are voting by mail this time around and whatever bump he gets from South Carolina is unlikely to get him back to his lofty starting point.
The young, disaffected, and a sizable portion of the minority electorate are voting progressive and that just isn't Biden. For well over a third of this nation, going back to 2016 simply won't cut it. Going back to 2007, especially for millennials, won't cut it either. Biden has no empathy for the millennials he saddled with non dischargeable student debt. He has no empathy for the low-wage future and present they face. He has little empathy for my own generation, the lost generation of the Great Recession.
South Carolina voted. Now come California, Texas and a slew of others. Sanders will get the lionshare of the first two. If he wins Massachusetts, will the progressive spoiler finally quit? It appears not. She will keep doing her one job, helping Biden by remaining in a race she can never win. Buttigieg just quit. That helps Biden too.
Bloomberg was in Alabama today and a portion of his audience turned its back on him. There's another kind of warning.
Then, there are the superdelegates.
The warning to them is any involvement they decide to partake in will come at a cost: override voters and they will depress turnout, and ruin the party for good.
499
@mjpezzi
It's time for y'all to stop with the CT. Bernie lost by millions of votes in the primaries. Votes. Actual, real, voter votes. We didn't vote for Bernie.
221
@Sophia
Huh?
Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa, won the primary in New Hampshire and caucus in Nevada. South Carolina was never his to win.
121
@Rima Regas
Be careful what you wish for.
The biggest surprise on Super Tuesday will be Mike.
As a former Pete supporter since last April, I realized that he would not make it. So I decided to go with the only other mayor, one who has more experience of day to day governing and actual management skills than anyone, Mike Bloomberg.
He is going to give Bernie a run for his money and will get the nomination.
Warren will help hemorrhage Bernie. They are such great friends, she always says.
Biden will gradually fall behind.
Mike will save us from the extremist right and left.
Finally, our nation will be back on course.
People want stability, he said tonight on Sixty minutes, which reaches 11 million people.
They will vote for the one who will give that.
Mike may be boring but I will take boring any day over the alternatives.
53
I, for one, do not understand why Democrats should take any important lessons from SC. The last time it voted for a Democrat for president was 1976, when Jimmy Carter was running from neighboring Ga. Trump is likely to win it again. Taking cues from a state such as that seems to me to be foolhardy.
637
@James Ricciardi Agreed, but I was interested in knowing how the African-Americans there thought of the candidates. I would rather they be from midwestern swing states, but I am voting by Tuesday so I will take what information I can get. The minority votes rom Nevada were informative as well.
15
@James Ricciardi
Because it has a large population of Black voters and moderate Democrats. These are extremely important constituencies, vital to elections up and down the ballot. State electorates differ but you ignore these voting groups at your own peril.
Sanders people are dismissing SC only because he lost it by a wide margin. But SC had a Democratic governor and senator as recently as the GW Bush administration. Democrats flipped a House seat there in 2018. Don’t forget state level elections. Imagine if Democrats had forsaken VA years ago rather than fighting for voters and winning both the governorship and legislature. The myopia of Sanders and his supporters is astounding.
69
The article is about taking cues from SC’s Democratic voters. That’s a different perspective.
9
I'm not doing any more opining on the Dem primary until the Super Tuesday results are in. Mayor Pete dropping out when he did was courageous, unselfish, and should be clarifying for those left in the race. When all this week's results are in, those candidates in the bottom half of the field at that point should do the right thing as well and drop out. This week is going to tell a large part of the tale.
6
I am a Dem and a black woman with means. I am a lapsed Catholic, which means I’ve left the church, but I still pray. I voted happily for President Obama—twice. I will NOT be voting for Biden. Indeed, I sent a note to him that he needed to provide a full throated apology to Anita Hill and explain his participation in the 1994 crime bill. He’s been mealy mouthed on the latter and silent on the former. If Bernie is our Candidate, then I will be there for him with my vote and donations. I don’t care if Bernie prays or not. He gets that things have to change!
905
@KPB You support Trump if you do not vote for Biden if he is the candidate. Do you believe Trump made more forgivable mistakes than Biden or apologized for them or is better suited to be president? Really?
I think Sanders is a populist willing to sacrifice Pelosi and the senate to stoke his ego. He is unable to get anything done- couldn't fix or support a deal with Canada, so is unlikeley to succeed working with a non-ally. He has sabotaged legislation that would have helped those in need because it did not conform to his dogma. I find his slogans with no path to enactment just insulting promotion.
I wil absolutely vote for him if he is the candidate. I see a difference between him and Trump. SHould not be difficult for you to recognize a difference between Biden, or any of the Dems, and Trump.
186
@JT - John Tucker
I believe KPB is referring to the primaries here, though maybe I'm the one who got it wrong.
Let's all assume we'll all vote for the nominee.
Meanwhile I'm rooting for Bernie, NorCal & SoCal.
Bernie/RealBlueNominee 2020
38
@KPB .... since you address the religious factor---this is what I was thinking:
Blow says 83 % of voters who attend religious services voted for Biden, while Sanders won only 17% of that group.
So, then do religious people who attend services think that all of us have the right to universal, affordable medical care, so not to be exploited for private profit, so we can protect our lives, health, well being and financial security? Just curious.
What do their preachers preach about?
This crucial issue -- a matter of life and death-- should be high priority for any voters, religious or not, who have high standards of ethics and morality. Who think the govt has a duty to citizens, to represent the public interest.
Or is that being naïve, in 21st C America?
Interesting that in many other democracies, as I've read, people are much less religious than Americans, and religion has much less influence in their politics.
But these countries have had universal health care for decades, or generations. Appears that ethics and decency have more influence in their societies, despite lack of religion.
Anyway, seems for some black voters, Biden's link to Obama is more important than his past negatives on policies that affect blacks.
73
Here we all are arguing about who is the better candidate between Biden, Sanders, and Bloomberg. We are forgetting one important thing. My choice, the youngest of these four, Warren has the best chance of surviving the virus which must happen first.
9
In the end politics in America must take into account its founding raison d'etre. It remains a country where individual freedom is harnessed for spiritual quest as much as for material quest. That is what makes me so in harmony with this country despite more granular differences I experience as an immigrant from India. But then India is nothing if not a most fitting place for the primacy of spiritual quest in an individual's freely chosen life's goal.
1
South Carolina only matters in the democratic primary. In the general election, they have consistently voted red- even when President Obama was the candidate.
4
South Carolina as as much of an extreme as New Hampshire as being not representative of the electorate at large. What does it say about his ability to win key states? We'll see tomorrow.
3
It’s comes down to there running mate, Harris, Klobuchar, or Booker for Biden. AOC, Booker, or Warren for Bernie, and Klobuchar or Yang for Bloomberg. I know that Bloomberg is Democrat lite but I like his stand on all issues especially on guns and I’ve been Democrat all my life. I don’t know if this makes me Democrat lite also but I really think that Bloomberg will stay up late into the night thinking up ways to address America’s problems
7
@Cathykent78
I agree with your potential lineup for VP for Biden . . . but, Harris may be out because in the first debate, she accused Biden of being a racist (more or less). Klobuchar (my pick for Biden's VP), has the "zealous prosecutor" baggage vis-a-vis African Americans. Booker is out because he's a male. There's also Stacey Abrams. My problem with her is that she LOST the last large area wide race she ran in. I just don't get her allure. I don't know whether she would help with Georgia or hurt? I'm also with you on Bloomberg.
Check Bernie Sanders record on race , on fighting for the powerless and marginalized , on insisting we maintain and strengthen our social safety net , on women’s , civil , labor and voting rights , on LGBTQ rights , on consistently confronting and taking on the wealthy and powerful rather than colluding with them to commandeer government to be their personal concierge service .
Joe Biden has been a machine politician who’s sided with the donor class over the working class his entire career. I know people like him , I know he’s charming with a big , toothy smile but under that veneer he’s the same old , same old and not only uninterested, but incapable of bringing long overdue transformational change to a government that abandoned the electorate long ago .
Decency and integrity ain’t a performance . It’s a way of life demonstrated by action .
Gruff, grouchy Bernie Sanders has it in spades . Joe Biden has the appearance of it and that’s simply not good enough anymore .
17
@Paul G Knox: Sound and fury often signifies nothing.
1
This debate between candidates and their supporters is a healthy thing as it clarifies our positions and passions. This is true as long as we remember that beating Trump, obtaining the Senate and holding the House must be first Without this all our policy debates will mean nothing.
13
I was quite disappointed to see Mr Bloomberg was not in the primary here in SC. When he succeeds and is on the national ballot, he has my vote!
11
@Karl: He's on the ballot in the Super Tuesday states tomorrow.
While I understand that the media is drawn to Bloomberg and his exorbitant spending, he is a horrible primary candidate for the Dems.
Yes, he's given money to just causes and his heart is more likely than not in the right place. However, as you'll soon find out for real, his history on stop-and-frisk, his membership in the GOP, his NDAs, his... personality, all make it absolutely impossible for many Dems (this moderate included) to seriously entertain voting for him.
I have no doubt that if he ran as a third party independent, he would capture well over 20% of the vote. If he were the GOP nominee, he'd win in a landslide.
Bloomberg running as a Dem merely reveals how far our politics, and the GOP, have fallen since Newt Gingrich.
7
@Thomas Yes, in the primaries the question is which candidate Democrats will support. In November, forget about the other candidates. Pouting is not a good strategy. Democrats must vote for the Democratic nominee. You can't stay home and you can't support the alternative.
6
Is the concept of "race" even meaningful in a post-slavery world? We all share the same senses and contend with the same set of emotions. Color is superficial.
5
@Steve Bolger -- The height of white privilege!
The taxes needed to finance European socialism are shared by all, with rates in Denmark of 45%, in Germany 38%, and in France 46%. The US tax rate is 24%. The European system is not one of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. It is one if universalism. Our tax codes and loopholes need to be changed, but the Democrats survive with divisive rhetoric and by promoting visceral hate, e.g, women against men, people-of-color against white, the have-nots against the haves, the young against old, and illegal immigrants against legal immigrants.
Mayor Bloomberg understands our problems and is a businessman and manager, not a politician who gets nothing done. He does not deal in hysteria and fear mongering.
11
@Tin Cup NYC
Incredibly simplistic assessment of US tax rates at 24%. Marginal rates for ultra rich are much higher (40+%), and EITC for lowest earners means they do not pay taxes, but instead are paid by govt.
1
@Tin Cup NYC
"He does not deal in hysteria and fear mongering."
Never mind he called Bernie a "Communist" on live TV and is running around proclaiming the sky will fall if rank-and-file dems give him a nod.
Never mind Bernie (I-VT) is more of a Dem than Mike (R-NY) will ever be,
One thing you’re leaving out is the effect of the Clyburn endorsement. According to exit polls it had a massive effect. Not every state has a Jim Clyburn.
19
All in for Mike Bloomberg.
Have never seen so many independents, moderates, and sensible Republicans so excited about a candidate with real bona fides for CEO of the USA.
14
Shame it’s the democratic primary then. Turns out some of us have had enough of CEOs and crony capitalism.
The Democrats are going to get Trump elected again. Sanders Socialist policies will be rejected by the Majority of the Voters. Biden like Clinton isn’t Obama.
18
@HPS Even if it they were Obama, the Sanders supporters won't take anyone except their God who is perfect in their eyes, just like Trump is to his supporters. So I agree with your observation about Trump's reelection.
15
Sorry, the Sanders people I know, and I know many, are very clear: vote blue no matter who. They/we understand the existential threat of another Trump term as well as anyone.
2
As a middle-aged, middle income, female who attends religious services weekly, I'm over the voices of the NYT telling us that Bernie can't get my vote. He has had it since 2015.
22
@Mary
In fact Sanders campaign is deeply moral. It speaks to our common humanity and common human need - not our greed. He has both compassion and humility despite all the mud thrown at him by the media implying the opposite.
Too bad the elites are too frightened of loosing influence or money to look at him objectively. He is the most honest and has the greatest integrity of any politician in my lifetime.
Of note is that Blow uses a racial/ethnic distinction for the electorate voting for Biden, but then says that may in fact be younger (Hispanic) vs. older (African American) vote. Could it be that we let race define us even when it may not be racial. And then a question, Why is Bloomberg's advertising propaganda and other ads not? Finally, there is a serious concern for Democrats independent of how you view religion, if they are broadly perceived as the party that is against religious observance. It's less a matter of logic than it is of perceived empathy.
4
@HPower No Democrat is against "religion" but against religious justified "bigotry" against fellow Americans, who are legally equal to the religious bigots. Operating a business has nothing to do with religion. And "religions" to the extent they are income producing, ought to be paying taxes, like all businesses do.
@HPower
You are starting to see what I noticed very early on about Charles and that is he is a race manipulator and racial divider. Week after week it is him writing the same article through his race based lens.
How people are duped is beyond me.
1
When it comes to why Biden won big in South Carolina, is it only related to minority and religios voters? The short speech that Joe Biden gave in South Carolina after his victory there was the best such speech by any candidate during this primary season. It was the embodiment of generosity and tolerance, humility and thankfulness, decency and respect, unity and welcome, hope and promise. I am very progressive especially when it comes to social issues like women's rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun control. I am also head-to-toe practical. If Bernie Sanders with his socialist schtick is the nominee, then, whether or not he wins in November, we will not win back the Senate, and we will in all likelihood lose the House. That would be no victory at all. Surely this bone weary and utterly exasperated voter is not the only one, religious or otherwise, minority or not, who is sick of division, unbelievable promises, yelling, my-way-or-the-highway movements, intimations of violence, online swarms of bullies, indifference in the face of racism and sexism.
27
Presidents can change some things about the country on their own, but for the most part require a congress to support them. I think Biden is foolish to think that there are enough Republicans in Congress willing to work with him as president.
Sanders has a harder problem because he would not be able to wish universal health care into being. Obama needed 60 democrats to get ACA through, and he lost that majority in less than a year. What happens if Sanders wins but he has no congress behind him?
17
@Mitch Lyle
Moderates think that every program has to become law immediately or even trying for it was an error. I get that people are too afraid to hope for any improvement after forty years of conservative domination ("leadership" just isn't the right word); however, if you never try you stay where you are and that has become untenable.
If Sanders won the WH and the Congress remained in Republican hands, there would need to be work done to build public support for Medicare for All.
The approaching pandemic is doing some of that work now as people come to understand that we are all interconnected in ways we don't realize. People who are uninsured or underinsured are - through no fault of their own - both at greater risk than others and spread the virus as they do so much of the tasks of daily living for us. Countries with universal health care will fare better than those without it because their people will seek care earlier. That both saves lives and reduces the spread of the virus.
If the pandemic is as large as the flu epidemic of 1918, we may soon be begging for universal health care. Medicare for All is primary prevention of communicable diseases.
4
We do what we’ve always done. Keep fighting and moving towards the goal line.
1
The short speech that Joe Biden gave in South Carolina after his victory there was the best such speech by any candidate during this primary season. It was the embodiment of generosity and tolerance, humility and thankfulness, decency and respect, unity and welcome, hope and promise. Many Americans share those values with the voters of South Carolina. I am very progressive especially when it comes to social issues like women's rights, civil rights, voting rights, reparations, gun control. I am also head-to-toe practical. If Bernie Sanders with his socialist schtick is the nominee, then, whether or not he wins in November, we will not win back the Senate, and we will in all likelihood lose the House. That would be no victory at all. This bone weary and utterly exasperated voter is sick of division, unbelievable promises, bellowing, my-way-or-the-highway movements, intimations of violence, online swarms of bullies, indifference in the face of racism and sexism.
9
What the results show so far is that none of the candidates in the race is electable. The Democrats showed up at the most important party in decades with store-bought potato salad and past-date baloney.
8
Biden seems cognitively impaired, and does not excite the working class or youth. A vote for Biden is a vote for four more years of Trump, and a planet and democracy broken beyond repair.
9
@Miriam Osofsky
I too wrote Biden off in reaction to his debate performances. His responses seemed to lack clarity and direction. However, Jim Clyburn's comments to NPR's "Here & Now" program on February 27 led me to reconsider: "I would hope that Joe Biden was a better debater. Joe Biden had a terrible stammering problem when he was a child. And I said to him more than once, I think you ought to come clean with the American people and let people know that when you are looking in the camera, you are looking for thoughts, you're looking for the best way to express the thought, but you ought to come clean."
My own values align most with Bernie's and Elizabeth Warren's, yet I am concerned with the down ballot effects of a nomination of a far-left progressive, and a future inability to accomplish any of their initiatives with a House divided. I cannot yet consider Bloomberg given stop and frisk, so it's Biden for me at the polls tomorrow.
2
I’m voting for the candidate who opposes trump.
Charles- please tell us if you’re going to do that. If Bloomberg is the candidate, will you vote for him? Or will you stay home?
My thinking is that staying home is essentially a vote for trump. I don’t like all the democrat candidates, but I’ll still vote for the one who is ultimately selected.
Do you hate Bloomberg so much that you would essentially pass up a chance to vote against trump?
Thanks.
29
@Steve Ell if the choice is between almost-Republican and Republican-lite almost everyone I know will stay home. I am trying to convince them to go to the polls and vote the other races and instead vote 3rd or skip on the president, but for many it is the top race that drags them to hassle of voting (we don't have by-mail voting)
I think Bloomberg would get a lot of never-trumper or not-again GOP types - but whether it balances the Dems who stay home is the question. I think a lot of those potential GOP Bloomberg votes did not vote for Trump in the first place.
1
@Paul Voting is a right but not an obligation. you certainly have the right to stay home.
i want to have an active role in choosing who will lead the country and my vote is one way i do it. in my opinion, leaving the choice up to somebody else because you don't like the candidate is a cop out. sure, you can say "i didn't vote for him/her. don't blame me." i would rather say i exercised my right. it may not have had the outcome i hoped, but i didn't let somebody else somebody else determine the winner by my absence.
2
I’m all in for Bernie. The more i hear about how the incompetent DNC is panicking and hoping to stop him, the more I’m going to support him. No, I won’t stay home in Election Day if he doesn’t get the nomination, but I’ll never donate a dime to the party if they pull something to overturn the will of the people.
9
@Andrew Fine--but please keep in mind that mobilizing more moderate Democrats to support Biden is not "pulling something" and certainly is not "overturning the will of the people." I understand that Sanders supporters have some hard feelings about 2016, but if he doesn't win the nomination in 2020, please don't just assume that it is because of chicanery or unfair tactics. If we can't trust each other enough to accept the outcome of the nomination process [unless there is clear and convincing evidence of some sort of manipulation], we really have no hope of defeating Trump no matter who is nominated.
2
Mr Blow still does not address the issue that many black voters have a problem with Pete Buttigieg being gay. As the Times separately reported, a study conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group found that "being gay was a barrier for these voters, particularly for the men who seemed deeply uncomfortable even discussing it. … [T]heir preference is for his sexuality to not be front and center."
14
@Scott Pete has dropped out.
Unlike those in the previous states, the people in South Carolina got it. What matters most now is not some “pie-the-sky” liberalism, but a return to common sense and “normalcy.” The only way to do this is to depose Trump, and the only way to do that is with a Democratic candidate who will have broad appeal. The Democrats must attract as many previous Trump voters as possible to win in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (I would have included my home state of Ohio, but it is a lost cause as the Alabama of the north.) As for the left, including Charles Blow, who will be disappointed with a Biden nomination, as I have said before, get over it. The stakes are too high today to fret about not having your preferred candidate. The US is still a fundamentally conservative country, and, more likely than not, your candidate would lose, not only the electoral college, but also the popular vote. Keep your powder dry because you may have a future in the future. Biden may not ultimately win, but at least with him we have our best shot at ending the Trump carnage. And maybe even winning the Senate, while retaining the House.
16
South Carolina is voting red this fall, so politically speaking for the Dems it is useless. And the ability of a candidate to connect with religious voters is also useless. It’s probably not in voters’ top 5.
Super Tuesday will likely tell us who will be the party nominee. Not a Republican state in the south.
8
@Adam You are probably right. But, the delegate count is all that counts in the primary, whether the delegates come from in red or blue states.
1
@Adam Iowa went for Trump.
Charles, the Democratic Party is not going to fit itself to the more conservative tastes of black voters in states where we lose every election, year after year. We are not going to become just a modestly kinder version of the Republicans. The primary in South Carolina showed that black voters there like Joe Biden, but proves nothing about the general election. Primaries are not the point to politics, just the pregame show. It would be absurd to suggest that Democrats drop their advocacy of progress across a dozen major issues facing this country in order to cater to people in a state where we never win a single Electoral College vote who think Joe Biden is a good choice to lead our country over the next eight years. Just absurd.
9
@Neil Without the black vote, and a large turnout of same, Trump is reelected without a doubt. The Dem candidate for president has not won the majority of the white vote in over half a century.
It comes down to the convention.
I read a lot of lies saying Bernie voted for the superdelegates to be in the second ballot so he want to change the rules. It was Hillary and Obama that forced Sanders people to keep the corruption in. Try anything funny at the convention Milwaukee will feel the bern.
6
No. It is about people making their own choice, which, for whatever reasons, may or may not be yours, because their votes are their votes, not yours. Perhaps your personal favorite will perform well enough to secure the votes and delegates he needs to win, and perhaps not. If he does, then he will be the nominee. And if he doesn't, that's not corruption. It's losing.
ABIDING BIDEN If not Biden, then who? Not Bloomberg. Amy, Pete and Steyer are gone. And Elizabeth Warren was not mentioned in South Carolina. Though it irks me to say it, it may be up to the millenials to see Biden as the "least worst" of the candidates. I sincerely believe that such a designation is undeserved. Biden has been for the working person--the blue collar workers, since forever. One point that needs study is the fact that most Hispanics, if asked, identify with the African Americans more than the do with persons not of color. It is also worth noting that many Hispanics are of color due both to indigenous as well as African ancestry. So logically, a strategy for Biden and his team to embrace the notion of the Democrats as having a very large tent, welcoming persons of all colors of the rainbow and of all ages. Those of us designated as "white," still have some melanin, or dark pigment, in our skin. Even albinos have some melanin in their skin. The oldest human remains come from Africa, meaning that genetically, all humans share an African ancestry. Obama observed that the young voters participated in very scant numbers, as those aged 65 + voted at a rate of 70%, while those 18 to 29 voted at a rate of about 50%. Voter registration is the most crucial factor among all age groups. So the Democrats need to begin NOW to register everyone eligible so they can vote. Then hep them get to the polls!
8
So Biden lives to fight on Tuesday, then maybe lock up the nomination. Sanders would lose to Trump. Warren can't win the nomination. Klobuchar is not capturing imaginations. The others have dropped out. So, it looks like Biden. But it is painful to watch clips of interviews he does, struggling to get his thoughts out. Will it be two old white men to choose from in November? Really? Yikes!
4
The polls show Bernie beating Trump!! Stop repeating that canard as if it’s based on anything more than your personal biases.
A septuagenarian nominee blessed by Obama or a socialist promising free health care *and* open borders. Running against an incumbent who has delivered jobs, immigration sanity, etc.
Safe to say there will be a lot of finger pointing when this election has concluded.
4
Why would voters choose a moderate like Biden when they have Warren and Sanders who clearly understand the trials and tribulations the majority of people face on a daily basis? Church attendance should absolutely not enter the equation when the future generations could benefit from child and healthcare, the warped income inequality, the staggering cost of living and education. The people at Trump rallies swallow that Kool Aid. Better to write a column to educate rather than excuses for the fear of change.
7
Like just about everybody I talk to in my world, I will vote for whoever the Democrat is in November. I would prefer that it not be Bernie Sanders as I think he is too extreme (M4A) and comes across as an angry old guy. Also, I wish that he was a Democrat instead of an independent. That said, here in Arizona we will be having our primary election after super Tuesday and will wait to see who's left standing before casting my vote. I'm assuming that it will either be Biden, Warren or Sanders and trying to decide who I think is most capable of being president it boils down to Biden or Warren because each has shown the ability to get things done in positive ways. Of late I am asking myself the question "who would I want to be handling the coronavirus situation if they were president?" That narrows the field to Biden or Warren. It then gets dicey when I think about what Trump would do in the general election if it were Biden (constant gloating and on-going accusations over the Ukraine business) versus Warren and his endless use of the word "Pocahontas". In the end, I think I'd rather endure hearing about Pocahontas than Ukraine. I guess I've made my decision! Warren it is.
7
@Ann
Thank you for referencing the ability to "get things done". How to measure that? Look at their campaign. Sanders has the largest and most diverse groups of supporters, has raised the most money (all from small donors), has a presence in every state, has the most effective tech operation, and the most delegates. That is "getting things done". He doesn't talk about it; he does it.
Leaders have a vision. They hire good managers to "get it done".
2
Meh - another article which cannot make sense of anything that's happening with the Democrats who remain as divided as they have been for years . There are those who represent "traditional" FDR-like values - i.e. who represent working and middle-class voters and are committed to some level of provision of a social safety net, health etc. And then there are the pragmatic "moderate" - Republican-lite, or Wall Street Democrats who, like British Labour compromised in order to be "electable".
Either way they'll be struggling against a well-oiled, well-organized, united GOP who remain formidable political opponents despite their venality.
All South Carolina does is emphasize the ineptitude of the Democrats who cannot agree on who they are or what they represent. It's not principled to refuse to vote for the eventual nominee as many Democrats on both sides of the divide threaten, it's just foolish.
The GOP is counting on it .
6
Democrats are underestimating the power Trump has in this downward sliding country. He is trying to boost voter registration in his areas. 60 million Americans support him despite his antics. Trump has all but said that he will usher in an era of Putin/Erdogan style democracy.
Democrats get your act together.
7
I think moderate democrats's trick will backfire. To stop Sanders, they simply manipulate fear in votes' hearts. So far nobody shows us any real hope. after a few months, people will feel tired, then there will be a total disaster.
2
@pekingli You mean the moderates "trick" of voting, I see. I expect you will see a lot more of that.
Sanders, Warren, Biden and Klobuchar could all beat Trump if the voters get behind them. It's that simple.
The smart choice for anyone interested in reaching out to both the progressive/liberal wing and the more centrist wing is Warren. She's a Capitalist with very liberal policies who wants to tax the rich to achieve a strong middle class once again.
She would have the widest appeal to independents and woman along with suburban folks. I'm beginning to wonder about the Latino vote however. Is there a slightly sexist tone in that community in that it doesn't want to vote for a woman?
And why does the African american community not want to get behind the other center right Democrats?
2
I think you were referring to, the "Religious Right". Folks who vote their creed, which includes pro-life policies. To my mind, Trump was the straw, that broke their worn out camel's back.
With the stock market in a tail spin, Trump has lost some of his bragging, (lying) rights. Cold water has been splashed on too, many faces.
Concerning the polls, we are in such a state of flux, I believe many will not be openly honest about their deep seated thoughts. How could they be?
Now, that demographic will have to consider their alternatives.
2
Every step of the Democratic primary process seems designed to favor the most right-leaning candidate. Why these four rinky-dink pre-Super-Tuesday states determine who's doing well nationwide is beyond me.
It's just as ludicrous as if the first four primaries were in California, Washington, New York, and Massachusetts... in which case Biden would amount to a meaningless blip, and Sanders and/or Warren would win everything in a landslide.
As for Biden himself, he's a moderate alright... a moderate Republican. I'm baffled as to why anyone would prefer him over Sanders or even Buttigieg/Klobuchar for that matter. He's clearly deteriorating mentally, he's not forward-thinking in the slightest, he thinks it's still 1975 politically, he's openly insulted younger people. He's the quintessential "Vote for me because I'm not Trump" candidate. That worked out well last time.
9
No, the electability argument does not take center stage, as you put it, Nobody really knows who is electable, ahead of time. Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, and others have taught us that. Voters often think the candidate who they prefer is the one who is electable.
Without taking any sides in this contest, the best outcome would be if the candidate of the best character: the wisest, the most compassionate, the most adept, the most "politic," the most "alpha," the best negotiator, and the most inspiring, becomes the nominee.
Then, God wiling, creek don't rise, the sensible majority will turn out at the polls, and overwhelm the fools, the bigots, the misogynists, and the selfish who vote for Donald Trump and all the other Republicans.
2
The Democratic Party needs to purge itself of Sanders and his most virulent supporters. He is our Trump and they are MAGA hardliners. Giving voice is to authoritarian candidates unwilling to compromise and welcome people to a big tent and recalcitrant, hardline, my-way-or-the-highway supporters is an anathema to the principles of the Democratic Party. It may cost us the White House, but it's required to save our souls. The sooner Sanders' softer supporters recognize the dangerous elements of the candidate and his base of rabid supporters, the better. Sanders and these supporters put Trump in the White House, and like Trump and his hardcore supporters, will not be satisfied until the Republic is gutted, burned to the ground, and transformed into their narrow vision of a ideologically pure fantasy state.
5
@Mack
What we recognize is that you have been misguided by the DNC and its allies. Check out Youtube videos showing Sanders in W. Va. or ads made by his followers that will bring tears to your eyes when you see miners thanking him for saving their lives and caring about them.
Look beyond the spin and the superficial and see the person. He is kind, humble, and passionately committed to democracy for its own sake. He is the opposite of Trump in every way possible. Biden offers stasis; Bernie offers hope.
1
Day after day, the NYTimes continues to run negative editorials about Michael Bloomberg. Please include other voices.
I think Bloomberg is the only candidate who would do an excellent job. He's up to the task. All the others are legislators. They write bills, most of which are simply sitting on McConnell's desk collecting dust. Bloomberg would accomplish what we really need: restore honor and unity to this country.
3
I cannot comprehend why there is so much hoopla about a southern State that Republicans will win anyway, and an unenlightened voting block that repeatedly acts like mindless sheep, by supporting whichever candidate the hapless Democratic party establishment endorses. They do so in large numbers even when that candidate is as noticeably incoherent and weak as Joe Biden. In many ways, that choice explains why they are represented in the Senate by the likes of Lindsey Graham, and that affront to progressive thinking everywhere, Tim Scott. They truly get the type of representation that they deserve.
5
Though I like Bloomberg, I can understand why you dislike him.
However, I will vote for anyone the Democrats nominate because Trump is a danger to democracy, this country, and the entire world.
Will you do the same?
7
You conclude from South Carolina that Bernie has failed with black voters, and that he might not end up winning the plurality of black voters in any state. Isn't relevant that Bernie is currently winning the most votes from Black voters in national polls?
5
Mr. Blow describes the conundrum facing every remaining Democratic presidential candidate in this country.
What is left unsaid, however, is the futility of any Democratic outreach to Trump voters. There is no longer a Republican party. It has been replaced by a white nationalist party, the party of Trump. The vast majority of white men voted for Trump in 2016. Trump even garnered a majority of votes from white women. His voters are the ultimate identity voters. He has delivered on none of his promises, except to be the most racist president we have seen in decades. And his voters have rewarded him by remaining in lockstep with him. They will not vote for the most "moderate" of Democratic candidates, because as Democrats, we believe that this country is, and should be, home to people of many nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, and all of us should be given equal rights and opportunities. Trump voters, on the other hand, plainly believe that as whites, they are the only "real" Americans.
This means that for any Democratic candidate to win in November, he or she needs every possible vote he or she can garner from minority communities, be they African American, Hispanic, or otherwise. And many of these communities have proven themselves to be loyal Democratic voters, unlike white suburban soccer moms, whose loyalties fluctuate with their stock dividends.
Democratic candidates, play to your historic base for a change. It is the only way you may possibly win in November.
5
Go! Black voters, Go! You're showing your stabilizing centrality to the Democratic Party just when it's most needed. And, anyone else who's been supporting Mr. Biden, your support for him will now prove decisive--and his calm reasonableness is just what the nation needs and wants right now. Go for it!
3
To all of my friends who are switching to Biden in order to stop Sanders: please stop and think.
You are going to vote for one of the weakest major candidates in modern presidential history in the name of electability.
You also thought Trump couldn't win in 2016.
Just vote for whoever you think will make the best President.
12
First, ever since the 1920s, the US public has been schooled that socialism = communism. This meme is strongest among the older voters, but older voters are the most reliable presence on Election Day.
Second, no Democrat can win the White House without the support of the black community. South Carolina proved that only Biden has this support.
Third, Biden is the most qualified candidate. He has served an 8 year apprenticeship in the White House and has a 40+
year understanding of the Federal government and how to get things done, and high credibility with foreign leaders.
Fourth, the exceptionally high turnout in SC (500M vs 370m in 2016) are a harbinger of a blue tsunami that will sink Trump and his rogue party.
Altogether, the case for a Biden victory is strong. The Achilles heel is Biden himself. He is notoriously shaky in debates and such. However if he can keep it together, and hopefully with Bloomberg billions behind him, the number "46" could be a big part of Joe Biden's biography in years to come.
2
If Sanders enters the convention with a plurality of delegates but not a majority, and the super delegates pick Biden, will the Bernie Bros defect to Trump like some did in 2016? The super delegates should align themselves with whoever has the most votes on the first round. If moderates want to win the nomination they should pick one candidate and the rest should bow out. Warren should also bow out and endorse Sanders. (Too bad, she was my favorite.)
5
Let's see how the candidates do in the states that will actually vote democratic and, most importantly, the swing states. Biden will do well in the red states that we have no chance of winning. Not sure that it a strong electability argument.
6
Charles the one key thing you said is "replicating Obama in this election is a fool's errand". This is so true. There is just one Obama and he moved on 3 years ago, so forget about it.
The race is now wide open I think. Pete has wisely quit, Amy and Tulsi should leave too. We will see a whole lot of shake-up on Tuesday night and then there will be one or two. Joe, in my mind will fade away. I am hoping for Bernie and Liz to duke it out from there on. That is my 2 cents worth of prediction.
3
70% of voters in South Carolina were 45 or older. Biden does well with the older electorate.
For the millennials in SC, Sanders did well. As pointed out in this article, the Hispanic community is demographically younger.
Bernie is going to have a big day on Super Tuesday, especially in California, Texas and Massachusetts. With the latter, if Warren gets beaten in her home state, she ought to drop out.
6
@Cee But will the younger voters turn out on election day to support Bernie Sanders. History says they won't.
2
@Mark
History has not had large student loan debt leading to service sector jobs without benefits or a dying planet. Those things keep the younger generations awake at night wondering how they will survive.
Survival is a strong motivator.
1
Reality check POC
No matter who the Democratic nominee is, if elected he/she (my preference is Elizabeth Warren, but living in Arkansas, my preference is irrelevant) will give consideration to your concerns.
Trump Voters and their Confederate flags should give you pause. Trumpists imagine they will be the ones on the plantation up on the horse with the nice hat and the shotgun.
It is a binary system, chose wisely next November.
13
Once either Democrats in the Primary or Republicans in the general election thoroughly let Hispanic voters know that the DACA people would be protected right now if Sanders had supported comprehensive immigration reform in 2007, things will change.
Add to that he also helped prevent pathways to citizenship for the undocumented and asylum seekers as well as many other groups of immigrants, Sanders will be toast.
And the cherry on the Sanders Sunday is his support for Castro and Chavez which mean Florida will already be lost to us.
7
@OrchardWriting: Sanders is an infestation of the void of the Democratic Party.
And Sanders can't connect to religious voters, perhaps because he supports Communist regimes that are notoriously anti-Christian.
Older people have memories of the Cold War and how communists have oppressed Christians for their private religious observances.
Sanders once grilled a candidate for a federal government position about his religious affiliation when it was totally irrelevant to his prospective job. It was the result of Sanders' anti Christian bigotry and thus wanting to impose a religious test for office.
The Atlantic magazine covered it in June 2017: Bernie Sanders's Religious Test for Christians in Public Office.
4
@Barbara: Jesus is said to have advised people to pray privately, because doing so in public is more for its effect on people than God.
1
@Barbara
Perhaps readers would prefer to interpret the incident for themselves:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/bernie-sanders-chris-van-hollen-russell-vought/529614/
@Barbara Trump went to North Korea and "fell in love" with the ruling grandson of that truly totalitarian Communist state. He loves playing footsies with China, and it's all about balance of trade to him, rather than regime ethics. Ummmm, what were you saying again?
This will be remembered as the moment that Democrats woke up, winnowed the field and solidified core support around Joe Biden. Sanders is still likely to be ahead going into the convention, but Biden will be within striking distance. And when a brokered convention chooses Biden, the VAST majority of Democrats will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the right candidate won and the very real fear of Trump trouncing Sanders can be forgotten. Bravo Joe. Bravo.
13
Then Biden, the lackluster DNC-installed candidate, will lose to Trump because of low voter turnout.
11
@John If Sanders is ahead going into the convention and Biden gets the nomination from the old school superdelegates, there will be an eruption of outrage among the young in this country, one that will tear the Democratic Party in two for decades to come.
6
@Sidewalk Sam
Perhaps. Or perhaps the untested and still raw youth you speak of will learn an important lesson about compromise. Young people being idealistic and unrealistic is nothing new. Nor are vows of protest, shattering the status quo, or changing the world. Each and every generation thinks that they will be the one to do it differently, and each and every time they come to realize that change requires pressure and most of all, time. Moderate Democrats and even many long time liberals, like Krugman, understand this. They know why Party rules exist and how they may be invoked in the event of a brokered convention. It's only Bernie supporters that want to re-write the rules now that they doubt they'll achieve a clear victory. That is the essence and also the folly of youth.
2
I'm not sure that the contests before "Super Tuesday" have much sway in the final outcome of the race for the nomination.
Also, the most consistent voting block are elderly voters, not the younger ones. Hopefully, who ever gets the nomination will stand up at the debates with a list of page numbers from Trump's latest budget, detailing the cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in that document. If they don't forcefully say "vote for Trump and you can kiss your Social Security and Medicare goodbye", they will be making a big mistake.
Those voters in the suburbs are also likely to be a large block of swing voters. If the Democrat hammers away at Trump, saying they would not put children in cages, there's no response that Trump could make that would be OK to many, if not most women in the suburbs.
13
The rules were changed for Bernie and now he doesn't want to follow Rules. And I like Bernie. How about the voters who don't like him?
11
I'm struggling to find a core argument here, but I guess it's that "electability argument once again takes center stage." When did it ever leave, at least among pragmatic thinkers? And whether it involves a bit of a wince or not, Michael Bloomberg still presents as a strong candidate once we leave the internal struggles within the Democrat party and Mr Blow's own personal aversion to him. The arguments presented against him here are a CNN exit poll and reference to Mr Blow's own prior op-ed, which was also light on data-driven argument.
7
Why do we (Dems and 'Pubs) demand perfection of Democrat candidates while Republicans wallow in the imperfections of their own?
So far I've not heard one fault attributed to a Democrat that Trump doesn't exhibit in spades and while we fear the Democrat will be rejected for them Trump will be elected because of them.
Come November I will vote for whichever candidate is selected in the primary for the survival our democratic republic. Nothing less is at stake. Perfection can wait.
60
@Marie: Republicans wallow in the projection that everyone who is successful has to be at least as sleazy as Trump.
2
Agree!
1
It looks like Bernie and Biden will emerge a very close first and second and the super delegates will chose Biden. This will divide the Democratic party and it will not bode well against Trump. Biden and Bernie are two interesting contrasts. While Biden is the more loving, healing, respecting, caring leader of the two. Their plans suggest that it is Bernie who has the better plans for America's poor and the neglected. Even though Bernie's agenda does not add up financially he is far more liked as he says he will do more for the 99%. No one calls Biden Joe but they all call Sanders Bernie! It is because his plans are far more caring for the average American even at the point of busting the budget, he is more popular. All this is going to translate into more of a chance for Bernie than Biden.
There we go again, it looks like Bernie will end up with more votes and Boden will end up with the ticket to stand against Trump.
5
@Sajidkhan
I am a lifelong Democrat and very liberal. I want a Democrat to receive the nomination. I don’t know why a non democrat expects the nomination and rails about the unfairness of the process. If Bernie wants the nomination, register as a Democrat .
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@lyndtv Exactly. And in addition, Sanders is ineffectual at best.
5
@lyndtv I couldn't agree more. It irks me that Sanders remains an independent but expects all the rights and privileges of being a Democrat.
2
For those commenting that are convinced that Bloomberg is the best choice to beat Trump, please remember what happened in 2016. Trump won because he was able to flip states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sure, Bloomberg can win in the places Hillary won. But can he win back the blue-collar workers and coal miners in those states Trump flipped? If not, it’ll be 2016 all over again.
10
@S. Jackson: The steel mills are now banks of slag along riverbanks, and cheaper coal surface-mined out west is more than enough to supply the dwindling number of generating stations still burning coal, which leaves deep-miners out of the market.
2
@Steve Bolger
Those blue-collar people are still there, even if their industries are dying. Do you see them voting for Bloomberg or Trump?
1
Four states have voted, together roughly representing a middle point between the broad US demographic and Democratic primary voters (low on Latino voters though). And Sanders is comfortably ahead. Surely, this points to the fact that Biden will have to do much better among all groups, including Latinos as Blow points out, if he is to have a shot. Big wins in South Carolina and similar states will not be enough.
8
Actually Sanders is not comfortably ahead. after SC Biden leads in popular vote and delegates are virtually tied