I'm also thinking African Americans in particular are either not targeted by, and/or are too savvy to fall for, Putin-style and Alt. Right-style stupid internet tricks and manipulations. Not like my white, right wing, elderly aunts, uncles, and in laws anyways. You should see what goes on on their Fakebook pages!!
9
Go Joe!
4
Rudy Giuliani is no doubt on his way back to Kyiv, if he ever left there in the first place.
6
Yes, it is truly a miracle that Obiden, the poster boy for senility, even remembered what state he was in. Now as for remembering what office he is running for that would be a toss up
3
I don't believe Joe Biden's big wins yesterday constitute a miracle. Instead, they confirm what most Democrats have known from the beginning (consciously or unconsciously):
1. It's going to take a man -- a tough man -- to beat Trump
2. Moderation -- not tit-for-tat extremism -- is the way to defeat the Oval Office Fascist
11
Joe Biden is Lazarus blinking.
2
There were meetings, there was a consensus: remove "the horse in the hospital", then go back to business as usual.
We apparently are too frightened. We have become a weak & timid nation that is scared of its own shadow.
2
"'What in God's name happened to Joe Biden,' I wrote...."
What happened was that you were wrong. I've noticed that about you.
2
BIDEN is Only Leading by a paltry average of 30 to 40
delegates, that's Pathetic!
SANDERS WON California, leave it to the great state of
California to recognize Biden's Superficial Image verses the
Real Substance of our Great Bernie Sanders who will be the
Next President of the United States of America!!!
BIDEN Paltry lead by an average of 30 to 40 delegates...
That's nothing compared to what Clinton got in 2016 over
210 delegate Lead and she still lost
Objectively and Critically speaking here we are Not talking
about a Major landslide by Biden but a very very tight lead.
The Only reason Biden slightly edged out the Great Bernie
Sanders is because Biden received desperate last minute
endorsements by the corrupted maniacal Dem turncoats
establishment losers (Amy, Pete & Beta) who were
promised jobs by Biden
As for some of the Voters, they need to critically and
objectively study and understand that Biden has No Strategy
and No Policies for the working poor and middle class
BIDEN is ONLY beholden and he again can be BOUGHT and
SOLD my Corporate Billionaires and American Greed of the
Financial industry....
Bernie SANDERS will get the NOMINATION without question
but in case the Dem's continue their Corrupted Rigged Play
for Pay then BIDEN will LOOSE to TRUMP and SANDERS and
WARREN supporters will VOTE for TRUMP and Not BIDEN as
they did AGAINST Clinton which is why she LOST
2
Well The Scarecrow (Sanders) who got a brain was not chosen.
Americans preferred The Tin Man ((Biden) who got a heart.
1
Frank, you complete me.
1
In response to @JA:
I am a 57-year old WM Bernie die-hard.
I am either sitting out or voting for Trump despite my despising him.
1. The moderate Democrat Establishment is obsessed with "stopping Trump" and "who can beat Trump". Not once have they really offered the electorate - especially the young electorate - anything beyond "We need the best person who can beat Trump." Where are the progressive ideas and urgently needed proposed solutions to the actual problems (especially affecting the young)? And why didn't you implement them when you could have? No. The Dems have been almost worthless these past 40 years doing almost nothing of merit other than mostly energize the GOP to make life a living Hell in this country. Yes, the GOP needs to go, but so does the incompetent Democratic Establishment. The best way to kill the GOP is to let them kill themselves and 4 more years of Trump help expedite that and bring on the needed revolution.
2. I've learned the past 4 years the USA hasn't imploded even though we need PROGRESSIVE solutions (not moderate) to the problems facing us. We can survive 4 more years of Trump.
3. I hate the Democratic Establishment now and am not so much voting for Trump as much as I am voting against the incompetence and crimes of the Democratic Establishment's systematic attack on Bernie in 2016 and since. Why reward such behavior? They are no different than the GOP - do whatever to keep or get power and delay the inevitable.
3
Biden’s performance in the debates was poor. I figured he had passed his “sell by date.” All of a sudden he is the front runner. Is something rotten in Denmark?
I said I would vote for whoever becomes our nominee...and I will. I believe Joe, with a lot of help on the campaign trail, can improve. George W. Bush wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but with lots of help from Florida, he won by hook or crook.
I believe Joe will select good, smart, caring, forward thinking men and women to advise him if he ascends to the Presidency. His choice for Vice-President is crucial to helping Dems win back the White House.
With Republicans denial of climate change; with Republicans belief in the fairy dust of trickle down economics; with Republicans not giving a tinker’s dam about the poor; with Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics; with Republicans love of the support of Evangelicals who want to take our country back to the 1400s where the Church controlled everything, and chopped off heads of heretics or burned them at the stake as a form of town entertainment...this is why I will never vote Republican.
5
Last night Democrats were like the young man who plays the field but when he finally gets serious about marriage turns to the girl next door.
They know it's time to stop screwing around.
4
I'm a bit late to the party here (with over 2,400 comments posted already). But I've read a few hundred of these comments and I see several trends in them, to wit:
First, the "moderates" are crowing - rubbing it in to all the "leftists" in the Democratic Party:
"See, WE'RE the REAL Democrats. Hear us (finally) roar. Now take your radical, lefty, pie-in-the-sky delusions and crawl back in your holes. And take that grumpy old Castro-lover with you."
Somewhere, HST, RFK, LBJ, MLK and the tens of millions of Democrats who supported their visions for full civil rights, human rights, health care as a right and the deep belief that the Democratic Party was the "champion of the little guy" in the struggle for economic justice are all weeping. The Democratic Party of the 21st century is scared of its own shadow - too timid to stand for anything more than the status quo.
The second trend I see in so many comments is that Biden has now become an "empty vessel" - a Rorschach test for every panicked Democrat to pour their hopes, fears and anxieties into. Joe the Good. Joe the Comforting. Joe the Healer. Joe the Trump-slayer.
Well I've got news for you. Folks are not inspired to vote for vague abstractions of hope and comfort. They vote for people who inspire them. For people who stand for something. For people who they believe will fight for their causes.
Joe Biden is none of these things. He's just a career politician at the end of a very long road.
(And yes, I'll vote for him).
4
If you are under the age of 40 most of your life has been a series of Dems operating on their heels at best and flat out being beat at worst. This stands true at the federal level and the state level. The signature piece of legislation our once in a lifetime president passed was so toothless that it only solved half the problem and may be continually dismantled by the Supreme Court until it is a historical footnote. Meanwhile the GOP has lost virtually no ground in state houses and governors mansions and they have more federal judgeships than ever including a majority in the SCOTUS. Abortion is somehow an actual debate again. Our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were unmitigated failures and yet the blank checks and bodies keep getting fed into the machine. The Drug War continually grinds against our neighbors and no alternative
A lot of “Bernie Bro’s” are not nearly as ideological as people think they are. They just want the DNC to have some teeth. To throw it back once in a while. To not apologize for our values. To act with the courage of our convictions. To make our coalitions as deep blue as the GOP makes theirs fiery red. Voters don’t care about socialism. Bernie may have been old but he had grit in spades and grit might be the only virtue Trump has at all. Trump was rewarded the White House on the basis of that. Millions of undecided and indifferent voters don’t care about ideological debates. They just won’t give their vote to fizzles like HRC and other so called moderat
3
Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle.
That's what the headline reads. Then the article states:
"They brought Joe Biden back from the dead."
So, who performed the miracle? Was it Biden, or was it "they"? I'm just confused about what the point of this piece is.
2
AN OPEN PLEA TO ALL BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTERS: If Biden becomes the nominee, as he likely will, and you choose to sit out the election in November, then you will have to watch as trump adds another 4 years to his reign of error. If you think you’re tired of his tyranny and incessant childishness now, add the prospect of 4 more years to what is already an international embarrassment. It’s because of thinking like what I’m reading in these comments that he got elected to a first term as potus. I know dozens of Bernie-bros who just would not, could not get behind HRC in 2016 after she became the nominee. How’d that work out for you ostrich-heads?
I’d vote for ANYONE other than trump and unless you’re good with watching as our constitution is further ripped to shreds, you and your compatriots should be willing to as well. I promise you this: If Senator Sanders happens to win the nomination, I, and many moderates, will be knocking on doors to get out the vote for Bernie even though I may not be in lock-step with his platform. This is NOT an ideology contest. This is a contest for the very soul of our democracy. United we triumph and send trump back to his nasty boy locker room. Divided we fail and have no one to blame but ourselves.
Peace
5
Should Biden become the Democratic nominee and goes on to win the 2020 general election, the title of this article will undoubtedly become a archival treasure of the NYTimes, "Joe Biden Just Performed A Miracle." No other way to best describe Joe's performance over the last 48 hours.
1
"Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle"
Yes, it certainly feels that way today, and I am overjoyed. Now to continue the ascent and get rid of this country's worst nightmare/threat and his criminal cabal.
Never has the phrase "Make America Great Again" had a more valid meaning.
GO JOE!
2
Miracle, be darned. He had the establishment behind him from the get-go!
2
Biden over Bloomberg? Good luck, now we will be stuck with Trump. Biden and Sanders still trying to be a President. This entire candidate selection has been a debacle, and I credit the NYtimes and certain opinion writers to discount Bloomberg who would have crushed Trump. Shame on the Times and now we get an Obama wannabe and lack luster candidate.
2
The NYT headline says it all, "Wall Street Breaks Out Checkbooks for Biden and Stocks Surge". The Biden surge has given new hope to the 1% who are in a panic over the popularity of Senator Bernie Sanders.
1
Hopefully, "Bernie's Movement" (BM for short) will now be flushed where it belongs.
4
Warren took out Bloomy, Bernie and meanwhile Trump. Biden benefited but all that matters is we get the best and brightest. Biden/Warren 2020. Live in 2021. Read to work.
No miracle! They've been cramming Biden down our throats from the beginning. Sanders scares them to death. That's why he's the right candidate..!! Biden is just more of the same we've endured through the last 40 years.
1
Maybe closing all those poll stations in places like Texas had more to do with the "Biden miracle" than the virtues of the man himself.
1
Biden is a "good man" who stands in the center after all those about him were losing their heads. He endures with gravity in an unstable time. He has powerful friends to help him now, Mike and all the gang are on his side. Now, let's stop exhibiting our compulsive angst. Let's back him up! Go Joe!!
2
A miracle?
An 80-year-old man with signs of dementia?
A man who can't get through a paragraph without forgetting what he is talking about or who he is talking to?
The very rich & powerful took over the race & must have offered Tom, Amy & Pete very large sweetheart deals to withdraw hours before the election was to start on Tuesday!
Why? Money it's always about money isn't it & everyone it appears has a price.
Biden can be controlled!
Biden has had the good fortune of being Obama's VP.
That's it.
He had neither the brains or temperament to fix us in 2008 & he surely won't in 2020.
It was all Obama!
God Help the United States of America!
Trump is going to win again thanks to the same idiots who picked Mueller before talking to him.
Boomers: 80 is old.
70 is old.
I'm in my 60's, my faculties aren't what they were 10 years ago & anyone who thinks an 80-year-old can do the job is lying to themselves! Biden can be controlled.
The way they thought they were going to control Trump.
He can be controlled. That's the problem.
God help us, Please!
3
Biden didn't performa miracle; Jim Clyburn did.
As a long time Democrat I'm switching parties. The Donald has done a good job. Not perfect, If he would do better it he stopped the Tweets. My opinion.
3
As an old friend of mine from Memphis used to say, that don’t make no sense.
3
In the beginning of the race I thought Biden was too old. BUT, as a naturalized German immigrant I remembered Konrad Adenauer, "Der Alte" who served as Germany's Chancellor from 1949 to 1963. He was 74 years old when he began. And he helped to usher in Germany's economic miracle. So Joe Biden is the man for these times/
3
Oh please.. Biden didn't perform anything, in fact he barely showed up.
--This was all about the voters. The voters stepped in and made a decision. Joe has pretty much run a lousy campaign, and been asleep at the wheel..--The only question is if he's going to finally wake up.
The one word that is missing from all the comments here; THE D-WORD - a long-term and an often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is severe enough to affect daily functioning.
Is this not Joe Biden today? Is the discussion of Joes' mental capability off-limits in liberal media and the democratic party apparatus, who want to beat Trump at any cost.
Why is it fair game to talk about age, Bernie's heart attack and Bloomberg's stents but not talk about Biden's mental challenges which become more and more obvious with each speech?
Voting Joe in as the democratic nominee will make a Donald Trump seem like a paragon of intellectual thought. Too bad the democratic party apparatus pushed out Bloomberg, who stood the only chance of defeating Trump.
2
Trump isn't fooling anyone when he attacks DNC of pushing Bernie aside.
The Con man got all his Bernie scenario down he welcomes Bernie, but
he is terrified of Biden who relates to most American citizens on his own terms and language of sorrow, loss, empathy and perseverance.
I really feel proud of Bernie and Elizabeth, what we have now in terms of healthcare is unsustainable, but let us get rid of gargantuan monster in a WH first.
Unfortunately, this country is not ready for revolution being paralyzed by existential fear, they just want a respite from the chaotic insanity and incompetence, they just gasp for a breath of hope, common sense and guidance.
I have a deep trust in African Americans communities, they know what they're doing, saving us from ourselves.
We will hear we've been waiting for too long...so true!
But maybe just a bit longer.
All I want is just to live another day so I can finally witness real transformational progress!
1
This was largely the triumph of the media, who've been harping on Socialism for months. Joe did it, Mr. Bruni? With no organization, no money, and no ideas? Where are Joe's detailed plans for getting America out of the clutches of the corporations?
The Party establishment wanted Hillary, and lo, we got her -- and Trump. The Party establishment wants Joe, despite his spotty record (Anita Hill, Iraq, payday loans) and his malapropism. I guess we're going to get him, too.
Suddenly, Joe is the miracle man? Nonsense. The media and the Party establishment waved the wand.
2
A Miracle, please Frank! This was orchestrated and it was disturbing to watch. The Democrats have demonstrated a consistent ability to continue to self destruct even while in motion. Biden is so clearly so mentally deficient compared to even 4 years ago I believe Trump will eat his lunch. They had a few good candidates but good luck in agreeing to one of them instead and it appears they were told to get out or pay politically.
Sadly we can't seem to come up with anything but retreads and just wait till we see the VP in waiting Im sure the results of SC deal will go on display real soon.
1
I usually agree with you, Mr. Bruni, but not this time. Mr. Biden's rise to the top was, in large part, engineered (resignation/endorsements of Pete and Amy) along with lots of fear-mongering by Dem establishment. I'm all for giving credit where it is due but I have doubts about Mr. Biden's "earned" front runner status.
2
Frank, thank you for a thoughtful and uplifting piece! Now, if only the NY Times Editorial Board would do a mea culpa for their totally botched Democratic Presidential Candidate co-endorsement earlier this year!
1
Joe believes in making his own miracles.
"The Russians don't want me to be the nominee," Biden said on CBS News' "Face the Nation," later adding, "they like Bernie."
In any other time, this would be mudslinging and redbaiting.
In this era, when every yahoo is an expert on the Russian psyche, it passes for wisdom.
1
Biden might step on his 'cape' occasionally.but his heart and soul are of a patriot American one we can trust!
2
Mr. Bruni you are losing my allegiance. It is not over , it has only begun . You have created conclusions which ignore the fluidity of the campaign. Biden is ‘burnt toast’ , an establishment Democrat with great baggage and NO agenda which addresses the National problems , and who advocates a failed strategy Obama tried -to cooperate with Repewblicons.
1
Here's hoping he picks Elizabeth as his running mate!
1
Reading through all these comments you see all kinds of emotions including relief, glee, joy, complaint's, conjecture & disappointment.
Now you get how difficult it is to be a politician. It is impossible to be all things to all people.
What America got: A Decent, HONEST, moderate well liked candidate that is honest who has enormous experience who is liked across a broad spectrum of voters from the Left to the Right.
What Americans didn't get: Their favourite Right/Left wing candidate that is tailor made to their particular biases.
Democracy works best when the people TRUST their leader and is well liked by a broad spectrum of political ideologies.
American's Trust Joe Biden. Joe Biden is this era's Harry Truman. Honest, humble and honorable.
I'm thinking he's the perfect candidate to get America out of the mess its got itself in right now.
We can all breathe a sigh of relief.
6
Biden has said he would only serve one term after cleaning up Donnie's mess and getting the US back on track. With that in mind, the choice of a Vice President becomes especially important not only to beat Trump but also for the future of the Democratic Party. Nothing against Bloomberg, Warren and Bernie Sanders...though clearly Sanders would not be interested or appropriate, but who is the next best in line? I lean towards Klobuchar or Buttigieg...though neither would agree with the other...over Harris or others. It will be an interesting run up to the Democratic Convention.
2
I am delighted. I will back and vote for Joe Biden. Joe stands for all that is decent and good and has for years and years. Joe knows what do to.
Let's turf out all the Republicans in Congress (well, we can't get them all out at once of course), so Joe can do what's needed.
I am delighted and astounded that the Democrats pulled together for the good of the party and the good of the country.
12
I wish and hope that Mayor Bloomberg will continue to spend some of his money to help the democrats beat Trump and take back the Senate. In fact, he and other billionaires around the country unhappy with Trump and McConnell should fund a number of super PACs to help save this country from these people with no respect for the rule of law or democracy and completely lack and sort of decency or empathy.
8
A fine analysis of the current status of the Democratic primaries!
Thank you!
3
Whomever they each choose as running mates will make an enormous difference.
It's silly to pretend that ANY of the three elderly men are not at risk of abrupt health catastrophe. I'm voting for the one closest to my views, with an eagle eye on the team-mate they choose.
Be nice if they'd do that with alacrity.
In the mail today was a flyer which on one side showed a pictures of Trump and Bloomberg...one labeled "the Bully," the other labeled "the Boss." Yesterday I cast my ballot for the other 'B' in the race, a choice that was not all that certain just 5 days ago.
I voted for Sanders in 2016...he had a vision that I and my children embraced. But for now we have to remove the cancer at the center of our government, and Biden is best positioned to do that. Better to remove the 'bully" and then pivot towards the future that so many of us hope for: A running mate (Harris, Buttegieg, Klobuchar) who is ready for 2024.
11
Donald Trump or Joe Biden. You've got to be kidding me that these are my choices in the "greatest" country in the world. 90% of Americans are in desperate need of real reform in healthcare, education, banking and insurance.
Yet Donald Trump or Joe Biden are the best answers we can come up with?
How long will the American people continue to allow their children to be used as profit centers for greed?
Another four years apparently....
7
Biden did not take back the momentum, he was graced with his victories by Representative James Clyburn and a tidal wave of African-American voters who, literally, rose up to save their nation. Give credit where it is due: Clyburn was the personification of mature and seasoned judgment, unshakeable steadiness at Biden's moment of crisis, and resolute courage.
Now Biden needs to focus himself, commit himself, at this late stage change himself into the serious candidate who can honor what was done for him.
18
Super Tuesday was the product of establishment/corporate Democrats coalescing around a non-threatening, presumably "safe" candidate. Biden, who will likely be unable, or, unwilling to move the country in a more progressive direction, is now being viewed as the empathic savior (did Democrats forget that voters don't care about empathy) poised to deliver us from anti-democratic Trumpism.
As fortuitous as the Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, exits from the race, as well as the Biden endorsements, Elizaibeth Warren, despite having no real path to the nomination, remained in the race, where she can reliably take anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of progressive vote from Sanders going forward. I can understand why Sanders supporters are angry.
Sanders supporters will not embrace Biden in the general election. Any of this sound familiar.
2
A miracle performed by Mr. Biden? I think not a miracle by Mr. Biden, rather a stark commendation by voters.
Bernie Sanders is counting on young registered voters to fuel his candidacy to the White House. Problem is, young registered voters historically have a poor turnout come election day. And those of us who do consistently vote - including this white, college educated, 50 something year old who lives in suburbia, realize just how expensive all of Bernie's "free" stuff will be.
I'm no Trump fan. But if a Democratic Presidential Candidate were to actually defeat the Trump Machine in November, -then- we'd have a true miracle to talk about. Cause it ain't going to happen.
2
Here are a couple of miracles we could use that we won't get. Health care for all and then top income earners and corporations paying their fair share in taxes.
Hey Joe! Try working a miracle on those for starters.
5
To the so-called moderate ‘left’: please stop buying what is being sold to you. The establishment ‘left’ has overseen the most unequal distribution of wealth in history. It has voted to repeal the separations between commercial and investment banking. It has supported legislation making it more difficult for working families to discharge credit card debt in bankruptcy. It has voted for the Iraq war.
Is this what you thought they were campaigning for? Is this what aligns with your priorities?
To the people who can’t draw their attention away from Donald Trump: please stop engaging with the convenient fiction that he represents all that is evil. Our country is sick, and it’s not because of Donald Trump. But that narrative does conveniently help the truly powerful malign interests in our country.
Just a friendly reminder in case you have been seduced, again, by the politicians and the media, and perhaps the (maybe secret) perception that the moderate ‘left’ will be better for your 401k.
4
Congrats to Biden. Yes, the stars were aligned in his favor yesterday. Sometimes its turtle not the hare that wins in the end. I'm now focusing on his running mate. Will it be someone from the pack- or a fresh face? Great article Frank.
7
Well, time for the GOP to dust off the Hunter Biden files. It's time to torpedo a candidacy.
This will be 2016 all over again. Keep up the bad work, Dems.
8
@Stewart, and if it were Bernie they would dust off the Castro files. No matter who the nominee is, he will be a target.
10
@Stewart
@heidiwriter is correct. The Republican attack machine is waiting to deploy against whoever the nominee is.
Significantly, they have only nibbled around the edges of the Sanders campaign so far (in contrast to Biden's) because they wanted to channel and lull Dems into favoring Sanders, the candidate they consider easiest to take down. It almost worked.
Keep up the good work, Dems!
BTW, I am registered unaffiliated, not defending my own turf.
2
@heidiwriter
So supporting literacy programs, albeit in a communist regime, is a damaging as using your clout to get your son a job on an executive board.
The GOP is going to have a field day with Biden. Expect the Senate to get involved.
Bernie was never the real front runner. He simply benefitted from the long list of candidates in the moderate lane: Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Steyer and Klobuchar. Consolidating all their voters behind Biden was always the key to knocking Bernie off his path to unfairly grabbing the nomination.
I LOVE Bernie Sanders, but I don't think he had as much of a chance of beating Trump. Bernie is a great man who has changed America for the good ("health care is a human right!") but he's a bad politician! Bernie just would not stop saying that he's a socialist -- that's political suicide in America.
America just could not afford to take a chance on someone as politically inflexible as Bernie. He just wouldn't make the slight but critical changes needed to his rhetoric in order to win against Trump. The DNC would have had to stop him or Trump would plague this nation for another 4 years... and that would have been a disaster for generations upon generations of Americans!
10
Sanders supporters call this "trickery"? Is dropping out of the race to help the person you most believe in trickery? Likewise, Micheal Moore complained that Pete and Amy didn't stay in one more day. Why? Because he thought that would give Sanders a better chance. Sanders supporters are sounding like Trump with their suggestions that anything that doesn't help their particular cause is ipso facto "rigged." Sometimes people just prefer other candidates. That is called freedom of choice. I remember when Democrats were in favor of freedom of choice.
21
@Rex Clemmensen Maybe not trickery. But it was certainly strategy. Apparently Clyburn had been talking with Biden about endorsing him and revising his campaign since December. Pete and Amy dropping out and endorsing Biden with that exact timing smells of some backroom deal being made. Apparently Obama did call Pete.
I don't think you understand. You and I are not members of the same party. Bernie ran on your party due to the two party system. But you and I have completely different visions for the future of the country. We have nothing to unite over.
You are right, you do have freedom of choice. You vote for your guy. Just don't expect me to vote for your guy. In particular, just because I back Bernie and you beat him in the primaries, don't expect me to vote for Biden in November. I have freedom of choice too.
4
@James By the same token, if Bernie takes the nomination, don't expect me to vote for yours. This attitude that you can insult others with impunity, but insist all others MUST support Sanders needs to end. "If I don't get my way, I'm not going to play." That's an attitude that would embarrass a kindergarten student. You aren't holding us hostage that way.
14
I distrust the true believer of any stripe. Entranced by the purity of their vision, they fail to see the big picture. Self indulgent, with a bent for division over coalition
2
"And his impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Biden’s Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery. "....That is certainly the way it will be portrayed by Trump and the Russians.
6
Thank you Mr. Bloomberg for helping our country realize that
Bernie Sanders cannot beat Donald Trump. Thank you
for helping Democrats come together. Well done Mike !
146
@Irene Cantu
And thanks to Tom Friedman for his clarifying op-ed that if Democrats create a solid, respected coalition behind a candidate , they'll beat tRump easily. Biden made strides towards that by securing the support of Amy, Pete et al, even if there was an invisible hand guiding them. So many wrote that they read Tom Friedman's column while tearing up at the prospect of this concept being the one thing to bring the country together. That's what we all need to sleep well again at night. To feel that we are, as much as possible, one again. Not hatred of each other. Biden's Saturday night speech was a step in the right direction.
33
@Irene Cantu
Moderates refused to unify with the Progressives yet they assume the Progressives will unify with the Moderates and vote for Biden? Seriously?
You think Progressives will vote for a status quo candidate, even though they're 100% die-hard anti-status quo?
You think they will vote for Biden after being vilified for three years as "Bernie Bros?"
You think they'll vote for Biden after the dirty tricks the Moderates and Hillary's DNC used on Bernie in 2016?
(Read about how Hillary took over the DNC to launder money for her campaign against Bernie:)
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774
You think Progressives will not vote for Trump who is as anti-establishment as they are? Millions did last time and many millions more will this time.
Progressives would rather see the Moderate corporate Democrats (who are Republicans) go down in flames than vote for the status quo Biden.
Good luck against Trump who now has all the Progressive votes he needs for a landslide.
See you in November!
2
@Irene Cantu
You should really be thanking Elizabeth Warren? She alone took out Bernie and Mike and paved the path.
Well done Liz. Biden/Warren is the 2020 top team for Trumpy to beat. Strong and fierce. Ready to work. with a fully vetted team from the get-go.
Joe/Liz is a progressive Democrat dream come true.
1
I still like Bloomberg. All the more so that he saw early that he could just be in the way and had the grace to leave. That’s a sign of the character I thought he had. Now, on to President Biden.
14
While I can understand the frustration of Sander supporters, I think we need to respect the will and choice of the Democratic voters. If in the end, Bernie cinches up the nomination, I will get out and vote for him. But, for people to run around claiming that Bernie coming up second yesterday was a conspiracy against him is something straight out of the Republican playbook. If you want to embrace that Trump nonsense, that is your right. As for me, I would rather vote my deceased cat than vote for Trump. And by the way, staying home on Election Day and pouting because your candidate did not win the Democratic nomination is a vote for Trump. Let’s all pull together this year and vote Blue straight down the ticket!
20
@Somewhere In Texas
Very nicely said.
I'm a Vermonter born and raised, and love Bernie, BUT, was relieved that Biden had such a good showing yesterday.
Bernie I believe has a ceiling, and it is short of what might be needed in a general election. Medicare For All scares a lot of people, especially if it does not come by way of something more incremental, such as a Medicare option, which seems a no-brainer as a next step. Biden also would seem to have a more substantial coalition, in part because the Democratic Party is more amenable to his candidacy.
Two other points: kudos to Buttigieg and Klobuchar for reading the writing on the wall, and dropping out before Super Tuesday (and for Bloomberg subsequently following suit), and WHO CARES if Bloomberg spent a gazillion dollars on every vote he got. His main objective is to move DT along, which many across the land share. He can continue to do a lot of good with using his money in support of whomever is the Democratic candidate.
21
@edo
Thank You.
I agree but the person I was most impressed by is Mr Buttigieg. As Mr Buttigieg backed Mr Biden as defined.d I took a second look
8
@Alecfinn
What are you impressed with? He is 4 decades younger than these candidates. He was advised to wait his turn and promised a seat at the table, in the event of a nomination. That's not a conspiracy theory; that is the way this very real offer worked.
1
@Alecfinn
Yes I neglected to mention my admiration for each not equivocating on who they would support.
Biden didn't do squat. Big money put him where he is. The Patronage system in the south and subtle and not so subtle anti-Sanders messaging from opinion columnists and talking heads owned by the financial elite overcame Biden's weakness in debates, charisma and record.
But Here's the Deal...the Big Money of the democratic party do not care if Biden wins against Trump. In that race, Big Money wins either way. The race that matters to them is the democratic nomination...Sanders vs any other possible Big Money supported democrat. If Sanders were the nominee, he would crush Trump in the general. But Big Money would lose power. With Biden, they won't. It's that simple.
5
Trebor
Can't agree with your abstractions, surmises, theorizing. We're not yet in a post-truth world, and so votes count. If Bernie turns out support, he deserves it. If not, stop the whining.
1
@trebor Sanders outspent Biden by a considerable margin. It turns out there are some things money can't buy.
1
@trebor
Disagree!!!
Because Mr Buttigieg and Amy K. ( I truly liked her but I have a major problem with spelling her name to my embarrassment) and I would have backed them as a team.
Just an old white man's opinion...
The devotees of St. Bernie—not his voters, the Berniacs—might do well to take a deep breath, have a beer, and sit down and think about why it is that their ONLY explanations for getting whupped real good last night are conspiracy of Them, the weeniness of their fellow democrats and lefties, and black voters who don’t know what’s good for them.
I mean to say, something’s way wrong when you can’t even consider that maybe getting whupped had something to do with poor turnout among under-30 voters, or black voters thinking through what their best options are, or a general recognition that St. Bernie’s yelling and unrealistic plans are getting tiresome, or that maybe a million or so hard-working medical insurance drones don’t want to lose their jobs and neither do a whole passel of oil and gas workers, or that maybe folks want nothing to do with your juvenile Revolution, or anything else than being picked on.
Not a good sign, folks.
15
@Robert
Wow just WOW!!!
I truly like what Mr Sanders proposes my reservations come every time I think of cost factors.
I am 69 soon to be 70 and retired living on a fixed income, I think Mr Sanders and Ms Warren have great ideas but past practice is the middle class will be made to fund this stuff.
Increasing my tax burden would have a huge negative impact on what I have to live on.
I understand that the goal of these programs is to make a major difference in the future, but my future is not that far away and through my life I have always tried to make things better for most folk.
I am way too old and my health (that forced me into retirement) is not great so I need resources to help me. More of a t ax burden will not help.
Just an old white man's opinion..
5
After the last rigging of the election against Bernie, I did not fill out the top of the ticket in protest. I thought that the Dems would sort themselves out and see the error of their ways after 2016.... looks like they haven't. I will never again vote Democrat and as a true protest to their corruption, Trump will now be getting my vote.
3
My friends and I have been thinking about proposing Jim Clyburn for saint, as he has certainly had a large part to play in this miracle.
8
This headline should be retitled "Joe Biden Must Perform a Miracle"
3
Lets be Honest here and Call this Public Corruption for what
it Really Is....
Biden's last minute desperate Pleas promising all of them
Play for Pay & Quid Pro Quo....
Biden calling on Amy, Pete, Beta and Clyborne and by
promising them Jobs in the White House...
Guarantee All of you this is How it played out...
Which Only further REINFORCES that the Great Bernie
SANDERS cannot be Bought nor Sold for Bernie's Fierce
Unflinching, Conscience Driven Protections for We the
People....!!!
Bernie SANDERS is the Next President of the United States
God Bless you Bernie.....
We Love you Bernie.....
6
@FFILMSINC
Trump governs for 35 percent and ignores the 65 percent. He rejected as much of what Obama implemented as he could. Bernie would govern in the same way, implement what his supporters want and undo everything implemented by Trump. A President using the authority of an elected official without regard for the wishes of all. The policies of the country reversing periodically.
3
Two old white men edging closer and closer to senility. I am strongly rooting for Biden, but my goodness will it be interesting!
7
One thing that has to stop, is the stop a popular candidate because he'll lose in the general election. This ends up being rejecting the people who support that candidate and counterproductive. The smart way is to convince those supporters that there are better and more sustainable ways to achieve they want instead of the radical ones proposed by the candidate who they support. Try to start appealing to minds instead of playing with limbic systems reactions in people.
4
I certainly hope the Democratic establishment is not making the same mistake they did with Hillary in 2016.
Why do I have this uncanny feeling that they are?
76
@Andrew Shin
Because they are.
The first reaction of people in positions of authority facing a challenge that they have not addressed before is to ensure that they remain in control. Since events may overtake them and result in disaster, they have no rational solutions, and they fall back on the same behavior that delayed their rational attention previously--regain control and then deal with the problem.
13
@Andrew Shin Maybe, but they can avoid deja vu if Biden picks a progressive woman/minority as his VP. Everyone knows Biden will be a one term president. HIs role is to stabilize the ship and push it forward in the right direction. His successor will put up the sails and really get us going. Hopefully our progressive friends will be willing to vote for that.
38
@Andrew Shin If Bernie and his angry supporters (with good reason) don’t coalesce around Biden, Bernie will have cost the Dems the Presidency twice. Many of us won’t forget that, ever.
53
Biden didn’t perform a miracle. The DNC did it for him.
6
Trump is quaking (and no doubt stoking up Ukrainian "probes"). Democrats should be prepared to blunt or counter them.
5
Even when there was barely a pulse in Biden's campaign there was always the potential to re-ignite the old Obama/Biden coalition that elected a Black president (think of that in the context of the Trump era) twice!
But as Miracle Max said in Princess Bride, "Mostly dead is not completely dead."
Representative Jim Clyburn gave Biden a miracle pill in the form of his endorsement, and Mayor Pete, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto followed with their endorsements, which sealed the case at the very, very last minute.
Biden now needs to solidify his support by enlisting surrogate campaigners in a crusade (and he should start calling it a crusade) to return the country to decency, dignity, and democracy.
Those could include all of the above endorsers, as well as some earlier candidates, who were ill-served by scheduling two white states first. Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Andrew Yang, and Julian Castro should be invited to join the crusade to focus on constituencies with which they resounded.
Some of these might go on, if Biden is elected, to form a team with Biden to govern the nation in cabinet positions. Harris as AG, Buttigieg at DOD, and Yang at Commerce would be wonderful choices.
Announcing these at the convention, or earlier, with the VP (Florida congresswoman and Impeachment prosecutor Val Demings would be a great strategic choice IMO) would excite many and incite fear amongst Republicans, always a good sign.
Just look at the Dem they always feared most--Joe Biden!
5
"miracle"?
Biden just doing what the polls in January said he would
3
I'm just so relieved! Now the United States may have a chance to be decent and glorious again! There is no other way to beat Trump, zero! It is crystally clear from distance and see the mountains, not just woods.
Hooray for Joe!!!!
12
I wonder if Obama as vice President to Joe Biden is an option.
1
Any real connection between the delusional titles used by the media in "Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle" (NY Times) and reality?
Like coast watchers binoculars in hand & shortwaves to report we read of Russians influencing elections, Americans influencing elections, Corporate Republicans & Democrats influencing elections, but more so the endless corruption from 1919 Chicago Prohibition to today and the failed war on drugs.
Watched three informative videos on how America from paedophile scandals of Dennis Hastert involving boys, Jeffrey Epstein involving presidents & girls, to Harvey Weinstein involving corporations & the way we relate to the world.
Within a limited sense Irving Krystal was correct “The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism" at least not within Capitalism as it is corrupt & corrupts all it touches as Adam Smith stated it produces stupidity, ignorance and the inability even to defend one's country where Ludwig Mises worked for Austrian Fascists based on the premises Czar Nicholas II Russia lawfully owned 85% of Czarist RUSSIA in what Trump and Democrats envy.
Two of those videos were 60 Minutes productions interviewing Jack Abramoff who honestly claimed to own 100 US members of congress including Democrats & Republicans.
While Independents outnumber Republicans the old political order dies & the Democrat Establishment bucks for the GOP's job as yesterday's old news and they buy independents also.
Biden be not Proud!
2
Yeah, even a miracle needs a hand. Thanks, DNC.
3
Rambling, bumbling Biden was gone? He thought the vote was still ahead of him, on "Super Thursday." Please....
2
Headline: Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle
No, a miracle was performed on Joe Biden's behalf.
4
I can't wait for Joe Biden to be our next President and end Trump's reign of terror with his band of cronies!
11
Those of you who are Sanders supporters need to step back for a moment and reflect, what is more important, beating Trump or Medicare-for-all? I'm more of a Democrat now than I've ever been. To be sure, this started for me by having to endure eight years of incompetence by George W's administration. The powder keg that is today's Middle East was a direct result of W's invasion of Iraq, and we'll be dealing with that for decades to come. Fast-forward to the nearly unfathomable election of Trump, an Electoral College fiasco, and we are where we are, headed by an unhinged,undiagnosed sociopath. There is only one prime directive- Beat Trump. And, by extension, all of his pathetic, cowardly enablers in the Republican party.
We'll never know what might have happened in 2016 had the DNC not sabotaged Sen. Sanders' quest for the nomination, using all those undemocratic super-delegates to "install" HRC as the nominee. I'm with you on that, and also as outraged that it happened the way it did. But the past is not prologue.
Suddenly, but not surprisingly to me, Mr. Biden has surged to the forefront. Funny how times, and perceptions, change. When Mr. Biden and I were both much younger, he was considered "unelectable" by being too liberal. Now he is being sneered at by some on the left as, "Same old, same old". Don't be fooled. Know your enemy, and it's not Joe Biden. Meet me at the polls November 3, 2020.
187
@TRA "Those of you who are Sanders supporters need to step back for a moment and reflect, what is more important, beating Trump or Medicare-for-all?"
Medicare for All.
I don't like Trump. But I never cared about defeating Trump. I saw this entire election as a fight for the future of the Democratic Party. I had long decided that the Democrats have given me numerous reasons not to support them. If the Democrats don't nominate Bernie, it might be better for me and the policies I care about long term to defeat the Democrats in November.
"There is only one prime directive- Beat Trump."
I don't share you commitment to defeating Trump. I never did.
7
@TRA
I'm guessing that you already have Medicare, or some other secure form of medical insurance such as Tri-care, for you to consider having health insurance to be so obviously less important than having an embarrassing President. For many of us, we consider the current for-profit health insurance system to quite literally be a matter of life or death.
8
@James Do you really think that Bernie could get Medicare for all through Congress? I don't.
6
Trump and GOP machine will try and make Hunter Biden as center against Joe Biden. Democrats need to be ready to fight that battle and quickly put that behind them.
8
@Mir
Yeah, and Trump and the GOP will try to paint Sanders as a would be Fidel Castro. Dirty and misleading campaign rhetoric and few honest descriptions of workable plans free of fantasy have been seen by either Party front runners in forty years. They call it spinning, but it's really just lying to win political power.
4
If Biden win the Presidency it will be worse than Trump
winning in 2016.
The Elites will be in complete control and anyone hoping
for National Health Care will be at the mercy of the
Hospitals and the Insurance companies -
A Nest of Vipers if ever there was one.
If you take Sanders' and Warren's totals in most of Tuesday's
Elections their total is greater than Biden's/Bloomberg's.
Bernie stay the course, Senator Warren please endorse
Bernie so the Poor of America have some hope.
3
Joe has now consolidated the Moderate wing -- and has Bloomberg's money behind him.
Bloomberg can flood the swing states with wall-to-wall ads to promote Joe -- and, just as important, destroy Trump as only another savvy New Yorker can do. And he will do so.
I feel *much* more positive about getting rid of the Trump Cancer than just a few days ago.
11
Biden is a liberal and he supports solutions to the same problems as the so-called "Progressives" but through evolution and gradual processes not changing it very quickly. Now, nearly all of the supporters of Sanders think that the only reason not to make these changes quickly is a recalcitrant conspiracy of political elites trying to preserve their support from the super rich who fear change will make them just average income earners. The greedy capitalists verses the socialist humanitarians.
Great drama but utter fantasy. If Sanders were able to enact all the legislation needed to accomplish what he seeks it would be like the average person buying a half a million dollar luxury car and then facing the real bill for it. The country cannot replace fossil fuel based energy systems with the available resources in a decade without creating about two centuries volume of carbon gases because the means to do so is fossil fuel based. We cannot fit our health care system into the funding system of the UK or Canada by just redirecting how it's paid. We cannot just offer free college and technical school educations, anymore, without generating tax revenues that equal the fees paid by students because the President cannot tax anyone, it's the right of the House of Representatives who represent all, including those darned moderates and conservatives, to do that.
Bernie has his supporters indulging in suspension of disbelief, now, but reality will end that.
6
I think Joe experienced a miracle. It will be even more of a miracle if it reverses his senescence.
3
I think one of the amazing things that Sanders did was to move the middle. Frankly, Biden's middle isn't the Middle of yesteryear. Sanders et al moved the middle left and so even if Biden wins I think the middle of now is going to have shades of Bernie.
5
I hope now the claims that Bloomberg was buying votes can finally be put to rest. I’m not counting on it since he will now be accused of buying them for Biden.
3
Bernie or Joe? Joe or Bernie? Bernie, Bernie, Bernie. Joe, Joe, Joe. ............Trump.........I'm voting for the Democrat. Whatever my personal preference may be, I will support the nominee without regret. The alternative is in full bloom and on display every day and I don't like the prospect of 4 more years of his circus.
13
"And his [Sanders] impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Biden’s Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery"
No, this is not "trickery". It is birds of a feather (moderates) coalescing around the strongest bird. Klobuchar and Butigieg have been pragmatic all along. And, when they saw that their road was being blocked, they got together with the bird that most closely aligned with their goals. That certainly isn't Bernie.
And, as far as electability in the general election, Biden has a distinct advantage over Bern. He can expand his appeal to two sides, more liberal and more conservative. Because of Bernie's stance, he only has one way to go, cutting his expansion possibilities in half. Joe was not my first choice, but I can be all in with him at this point.
9
@BigFootMN
There's nothing pragmatic or normal about blindsiding your own staff. Both Pete and Amy's team were organizing events in Super Tuesday states. That's not what you do if you plan to resign and respect your staff.
1
@BigFootMN
He can please everyone, be they right or left, that makes him please no one and more prone to lose against Trump.
Sanders has convictions something worth fighting for that gives him the courage and the backbone, the strength he would need to fight Trump.
Trump has no scruple he fights dirty but he is also a coward and backs up if he can't win.
Biden does not have it to win against a man like Trump, the DNC picked the wrong candidate.
1
It has just been revealed that Sanders never approached Clyburn for an endorsement, which speaks volumes. In addition, Sanders was a no-show last Sunday at the tribute in Selma. I think he feels just because he supposedly "marched with King" in the sixties, he didn't have to make an effort to secure the black vote. Older black people are not stupid. Don't take us for granted; we are the base of the party and we know what we're doing. We're not interested in Sanders revolution.
159
@Donna Bailey I have two words...Anita Hill.
13
@Donna Bailey
Or he knows that he had no shot, and decided to spend his energy elsewhere. Like Biden chose to have only one field office in CA and have no field offices outside of SC when he was dead in the water.
But anything to bend over backwards to pretend that Bernie is a racist, when literally Biden is on record uttering several racist statements. Of course, those are excused as Biden's "gaffes", whereas Bernie is obviously a racist.
Clyburn wasn't going to endorse Bernie, ever. That corrupt fossil is only in office because the insurance companies want him there to rubber stamp their legislation.
17
@Donna Bailey I think he means well, but he spent decades representing a state that is 1.29% African Americans. That, and he has staffers telling him that he's done "enough" for black voters, "Look, you have lots of Latinos instead, they're a minority too!"
Contrast him with Biden. He's represented Delaware. a state with a population that is 22% African American and he vacations in South Carolina. He doesn't have to "figure out" how to address their concerns. Assuming Biden is supported by blacks just because of Obama, insults their intelligence and his. Maybe Obama chose him in part BECAUSE of the easy familiarity.
22
"Trump is going to have Biden for Breakfast and Spit him out
for Lunch, EXCEPT when Bernie SANDERS gets the
Nomination as Trump will have a very hard time having
Bernie SANDERS for Breakfast" (tm-c)
2
“Exit polls affirmed that Democratic voters care more about choosing the fiercest adversary for President Trump than about embracing a candidate whose positions they like best.” Good!
Bernie Sanders might be best for the country but in a democracy the one with the most votes wins, and in your country that means win the electoral college in a dozen competitive states. And since those states skew to an older demographic, and since old people tend to vote and young people do not, Joe Biden was the natural choice. Thanks, Democratic voters. Please don’t screw it up between now and November.
4
I am going to save this gloating mess for when it inevitably ages like milk and goes sour in moderates' mouths.
5
Biden is a dull candidate. Put Stacey Abrams in there as v.p. and the missing energy would be there! Or put her w Bernie for that matter.
2
Clyburn and South Carolina just performed a miracle. Stacey Abrams for VP!
4
"Trump is going to have Biden for Breakfast and Spit him out
for Lunch, EXCEPT when Bernie SANDERS gets the
Nomination as Trump will have a very hard time having
Bernie SANDERS for Breakfast" (tm-c)
2
Yeah, getting tired of this "back from the dead" narrative.
What had happened in the first three states was like he had a slow start in the first ten steps of a mile race.
SC wasn't back from the dead. It's just when the race got going on the first backstretch.
Invent drama. If you're a journalist, it's what you do. If you want to save on car insurance ...
2
It's worth noting that the withdrawal of Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg in the immediate two days prior to super Tuesday cast a strong shadow on the Tuesday result. Many voters weren't decided up to the last minute. Withdrawal of the moderates suddenly made it a clear choice on defeating Trump, and the mantle lay with Biden.
3
While Biden is winning a few states, Sanders is steadfast and just won California for the youth of America. Change is difficult, especially for has-beens, special interests, Corporations, the military, and political leaders of the past.
6
It's sad to read the disappointment in many of these comments. No single candidate has been perfect. And yet, every single candidate in the Democratic primary race has been admirable in some way or ways that made me proud to be American. Hillary won all of her debates with Trump handily and lost the election. She was sharp as a tack and knew every situation inside out. Mr. Biden's empathy and experience need to come through - as well as his plans for Americans healthcare and standing in the world.
I was so very heartened by the turnout last night. We need the turnout to win in the Fall.
12
I was a Bernie Sanders supporter and i voted for him in the Michigan Primary. About three weeks ago i suddenly decided i didn't want a President who can do nothing except scream at me, his face turning more and more red, and who had a heart attack in October.
About a week or so it dawned on me this man does not know the word Compromise. Never, ever would he be able to do that. What would he accomplish? Nothing?
I'm for Biden all the way. Compromise, decency, honesty are his middle names. I want to look up to my President, not down.
And yes, half agnostic me, did wonder if some turbo charged spirit was moving across this land.
"I spent 4 billion years working on this most beautiful, life enriching planet, and i will not see it destroyed by some mentally ill goon who would not hesitate in using an arsenal of nuclear weapons in blowing it all up if he didn't get his way."
13
Do you really think there will ever be any compromise with what has become Trump's party? It's an all or nothing fight to complete victory, compromises are not an option anymore.
2
@Dorothy Biden is capable of compromise. He's our best chance in defeating Trump come November.
I do wonder at times if the Dems have become a pack rat of snarling children incapable of seeing the future as it realistically is. You know, as a child and Santa came, a year would pass before he would come again . That year was like forever in your mind.
That’s no malarkey.
7
An overheard Sanders supporter (a few minutes after Bernie loses the nomination to Joe Biden)......”Damn, does this mean I gotta pay for my own schooling now”?
Yes Billy, it does..and will. Your hero is too radical and believes the monicker ‘Socialist’ is a good idea. In the USA? In 2020?
As Joe would say...C’mon man.
7
Mr. Clyburn performed a miracle.
5
@Nancie, Clyburn performed a miracle, because Biden sought his endorsement; Sanders did not.
4
@Nancie
Yes a Miracle? its called Quid Pro Quo - Pay for Play!!!
2
Perhaps some credit goes to the voters who were inspired by those in South Carolina.
8
I'm tired of the Sanders camps constant bickering about trickery when their candidate doesn't win. Enough already. Biden all the way to the White House please!!
14
Who really sees Biden going the distance and winning the general election? It is much easier to envision Biden pulling a James Stockdale during a debate that will convince the average American that he is not fit to be behind the wheel of a car much less the desk in the oval office. What will the democrat party do then?
3
If Biden can overcome his bumbling history of talking before he thinks. If Biden can recapture that Obama glow and if Sanders doesn't drag this nomination battle on and on... Biden has a chance!
Biden was not the intelligent choice (Pete Buttigieg)
Biden is hardly a revolutionary (Bernie Sanders)
Biden is not known for his compassion (Elizabeth Warren)
Biden will never be as clever as (Michael Bloomberg)
Yet, what Biden happens to be is the best all around choice.
Not the choice I would have made. There is a very good chance that Mr. Biden was not the choice -you- would have made... but Biden is the only -real- choice we have if we wish to win against Trump. That really is what this is all about... Right?
The real problem? Democrats need to be completely united against Trump. Be wary; We are talking about a loose political party where most members barely speak to each other.
8
@Allen Yeager
No Biden CANNOT beat TRUMP, not in your wildest dreams
2
@FFILMSINC it doesn't take dreams, it just takes voters, and they are definitely there.
I'm happy for the comfy-cardigan crowd, as pleased as they are with their new muddle-headed savior. Gives me a warm feeling to think of Joe:
1. Sitting through eight straight years of abysmal news from from Afghanistan, then telling us what amazing progress was being made.
2. Sitting by while Valerie Jarrett and Max Baucus cut deals with big pharma and medical device manufacturers to make sure there were zero price controls included in ACA
3. Examining his navel while Eric Holder let every single miscreant involved in the worst global financial crisis in 60 years walk away scott free.
Now that's my kind of Democrat.
8
Perhaps you could share: what EXACTLY were the laws that your financial miscreants broke, again? Do be specific...and you do get that there needs to be a law you’ve busted before you get hauled off to the pokey, yes?
1
@Glenn Baldwin true true, but its him vs Trump and Trump has divided the country and we can't progress divided.
@Robert
Sure. 1.) In ‘07 financier John Paulson contacted GS and asked them to craft a CDO comprised of toxic housing bundles he would select, and then bet against by buying AIG swaps. GS similarly bet against their own issue, then proceeded to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of toxic assets to pension funds and other institutional investors. GS paid a fine, but later Treasury paid them 100 cents on the dollar for their worthless AIG swaps. 2.) HSBC was caught red-handed laundering money for the Sinaloa drug cartel headless bodies a specialty) The bank paid Justice a fine.
Keep hearing about Sanders "rage" and "anger". Anyone out there enjoy the sound of Biden yelling and screaming into his microphone like an amped up sportscaster at his rally last night?
Sanders on the other hand responded with calm and some humor. If Joe is going to equate yelling at the top of his lungs with energy, and continue to be oblivious to the music of good oratory, he'll prove to have the same tin ear as Hillary... probably with the same result.
Glad I still have a chance here to for FOR somebody in a primary, until I have to just vote against DT in the general.
51
@William Barnett Biden is the only candidate who has been VP of the US. Surely that is relevant experience for being president. Biden doesn't yell any more than Sanders does, and Biden has a stronger record of working with others in government. They both are old and anything could happen healthwise, though I hope they will remain well. Biden is probably closer to the views of a larger number of voters than Sanders is.
21
@William Barnett What speeches did you hear? Sanders was bitter, accusatory and desperate. And he ALWAYS yells! Biden tried to unify Democrats and is usually calming and reassuring. He isn’t advocating a destabilizing revolution that wants to take peoples’ insurance away from them.
15
@William Barnett I don't care about the yelling and screaming. I mean, come on, we have Trump tweeting and screaming and accusing and lying every day; every hour of every day. Now we're going to nit pick about the tenor of Democrats' voices? What worries me is that Joe Biden stood there and told people to vote on "Super Thursday," after he just won - on Super Tuesday. No matter how poetic Mr. Bruni waxes, Biden is an extremely flawed candidate with memory issues.
7
Well, I guess that's what the powers that be in the Democratic party wanted. Amazing how everyone suddenly dropped out and got behind Biden. So, no real change, nothing to feel excited about. I would never, in a million years vote for Trump, he's a malignancy that will eat this country alive if he gets re-elected, but I was stunned and shocked by the response of the press to Bernie Sanders' victories. It really made me understand even the liberal side of the aisle. Follow the money. Always follow the money. I love Bernie. He would have really changed this country into some place less egregiously and cruelly capitalistic. Sigh. I'll vote for Biden but I won't knock on doors for him. So, you got your way. Congratulations. But Biden didn't come "roaring back." He was managed.
6
@Joanna Stelling Biden was not "managed." The roots of his victory came with his win in South Carolina. The establishment shunned him until then, but he proved his honesty and integrity still rang true with people in that state. THAT is why he will be the standard banner. Do not underestimate what he did in South Carolina, and he did that all on his own. He deserves what he has accomplished.
5
I too was struck with how transformative the sudden run of victories was for Biden himself, as a human being. He no longer resembled the man we've seen in the past year but rather the best vibrant version of him that many. of us were so fond of in the past. He will be a force to reckon with. Beware, donald trump. (I know. There's a lot between here and there, but what just happened was akin to a miracle.)
4
@PMJ
Slow down with the "miracle" stuff and wake up. A "miracle" is exactly how Mike Pence describes the "transformative" blessing of Donald John Trump's presidency. But you probably don't like that characterization. This was a strategized deal and so far it has worked.
1
For goodness sakes, Biden won yesterday fair and square. Now everybody put your big boy pants on and vote Democrat in November, whoever the Democrat happens to be. Biden is not worse than Trump. Bernie is also not worse than Trump. So there.
14
@Rupert To me Bernie is worse than trump because like him he is a divider and unlike him he doesn't even love the capitalism that gave him his 3 homes and all of our families our wealth. Biden is better than both of them: loves America and Americans and capitalism.
What the heck are you talking about? There was no miracle no parting of the sea no Lazarus moment. He never lost his footing. It was you people in the crazy media reaching for sensationalism. Trying to grab a headline. I laughed when you fools counted him out after the Iowa dysfunction and New Hampshire’s loss. OMG it was two states and you guys said uh oh he’s in trouble. If this proves anything it’s that Iowa and New Hampshire are meaningless so stop giving it so much creed! It’s so apparent that the media has not learned anything from 2016! Yes it seems to be a two man race now. Bloomberg needs to pull out and put all his money backing Biden and the dems in the senate race. Warren will not pull out she is too stubborn and will go all the way but that suits me just fine.
5
Media abhors a drama vacuum. It will fill one with whatever it can.
1
No Black folks performed a miracle. Black folks saved the Democratic Party so give credit where it is due. Now the ball is in Biden's court and he better run with it. Biden playing Trump's punching bag for months caused him to look weak and his polls suffered. When Trump punches Biden now he has to punch back in kind.
5
I hope Biden can take back the White House in November.
THAT feat would constitute performing a real miracle.
3
I am pretty sure if Biden ran in 2016 he would have won the nomination and handily the White House. Both shifty Hillary and horrible Trump would have been left in the dust. What a pity...
Of course, the reason for the no-show was first a tragic one, the untimely passing of Biden's son Beau. Also his unnecessarily respectful attitude towards "it's my time now" Hillary
1
Who ever becomes the nominee better make sure their closets are empty! We want NO SURPRISES - especially from their family members; I'm talking to you, Hunter Biden!!!!
2
"I regard it as completely unimportant who in the party will vote and how, but it is extremely important who will count the votes and how."
~ attributed to Stalin by his former secretary Boris Bazhanov
:: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stalin-vote-count-quote/
2
New Biden promotional gambit: blue hats with “TABA” - “Take America Back Again”. Drive Trump crazy!
2
Miracle? No doubt he had Republican help behind the scenes. If Trump is replaced, they'll be happy it's with a man on the verge of senility.
4
Out of approximately 320 million people it seems our three options for president are old men whose physical (Sanders) and mental (Biden, Trump) health are clearly failing. America, we really can do better than this.
I'll vote blue no matter what and wish no one any ill, but Warren, please stay in the race in case they both keel over before the convention.
4
Biden didn't perform a miracle. The Democratic Party leadership, the mainstream press--including the NY Times--and all the so-called "moderate" candidates have done everything they could to stop Bernie.
6
Why are Sanders supporters afraid of a two-person race?
3
As well as Biden, did....Senator Bernie Sanders, just gave an excellent press conference. That's why I like him and support him.
4
Sanders is selfish and self-centered. He knows he can't beat Trump and his supporters will vote for Jill Stein. An insane repeat of 2016. Then there will be a Supreme Court against us for 30 years. Again, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. Bitter should not win in 2020.
2
Biden will never be President and all of you know it..
You see the turn out for President Trump even though it is not necessary..You see the thousands and thousands showing up to his rallies but you chose to ignore the truth..
WE THE PEOPLE are taking this great country back.
We will defeat you..
3
I feel like a stranger in my own country. I do not get this at all.
5
No end of woe is vented on Joe BIden for being an Establishment Centerest. The same criticisms were laid against Barak Obama back in the day, and Obama's reward for getting *any* health care reform across the finish line was to be condemed by the conservatives and abadoned by the liiberals. I have a picture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in my living room. He's talking with President Lyndon Johnson.
By the time the Civil RIghts Act, the Voting RIghts Act and the Fair Housing Act are passed, the disasterous war in Vietnam will have made Johnson a one-term president, and rightly so. And the Party of Lincoln will become the White Party, before it beomes the Party of Stupid, and then the Party of Trump. Being President of the United States is harder than Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders will ever understand, different as they are. I'd proudly vote for Sanders over Trump. But Biden's the better choice.. We're still trying to hang on to shreds of the Voting RIghts Act, folks. Still trying to hang on to Obamacare, and get something on line for 20 million still uninsured.
5
Yes, Biden is "the establishment incarnate."
That is the problem. It lost in 2016, and it is very likely to lose again. It was rejected for very good reasons.
It never faced those reasons. It made excuses. It placed blame.
Now it is doing it again. Well, it can also lose again. Shame. There is potential, the same potential both times, that the establishment fears to take.
Why does the establishment fear that potential? Because it threatens the wealth and privilege of the real powers inside the Democratic Party, its donor base and established elite.
Yet, that is what the voters want to change, what voters rejected in 2016 and are very likely to reject again.
10
@Mark Thomason
The logic is straightforward:
If Bernie is the candidate all the Progressives vote for him and all the Moderates vote for him, because they want to beat Trump and they'll not vote for Trump, who's no moderate.
Bernie also instantly gets the votes from the 12% of Bernie supporters who voted Trump last time (that's 7,500,000 Bernie votes for the Democrats - even better, that's 7,500,000 votes subtracted from Trump).
Plus he gets lots more votes from the Independents (because he's an Independent). Bernie'd likely get some of the apathetic 93,000,000 votes that sit elections out - but he wouldn't need many.
If Biden is the candidate Moderates vote for him, but most Progressives will not, he's status quo and they hate status quo.
Worse, many would vote Trump because he's anti-establishment. Maybe 40% versus the 12% from 2016.
After the Bernie Bro disparagement and the fact that Moderates refused to back Bernie, why would a single Progressive vote for Biden? 80% voted Hillary last time and were screamed at for electing Trump. Never again.
Biden also instantly loses the millions of Bernie supporters who voted Trump in 2016 - Trump keeps them.
Biden does not now win the six states against Trump, but Bernie does. Biden won't win the southern states he won last night - those are all bright red Trump states.
Them's the facts. Biden will reelect Trump, just like last time.
The Electoral College is not the problem - the Moderates are the problem.
1
Well done NYT! You and the Democrat elites just handed the presidency to Trump for another term. So just what are you gloating about?
9
Gloating? No. But snickering at certain portions of Canada....
Even if someone like Frank is put off by Sanders, I don't understand why they are comforted by complacency in dealing with things that are urgent and real. For example the criminal recklessness of this administration in terms of climate change is terrifying. But the idea of the Paris Accords, if the reality of crisis is as severe and rapidly devolving as most scientists are saying it is, The Paris Accords won't put any real brake on it. The Green New Deal is a serious attempt to start looking at the problem and collectively working towards finding real solutions.
Another thing is why such a relief that medicare for all is such a difficult thing to achieve. Obviously it would have to be. The way private insurance is being fetishized by the "moderates" is pretty obscene. Insurance companies continually screw people over. How can most people understand the fine print of any policy until it comes back at you underlined in vivid colors telling you they will screw you and doom you to some horrible fate.
3
Well, you might try looking at your Evidence of Coverage (EOC) document, which because of that mean old corporatist PPACA your insurer is legally required to provide you in a shortish, clear fashion.
Good grief.
".....Biden is as smack in the middle of the party's mainstream, whatever that is." Frank Bruni. That statement is chilling. Trump and Sanders know what they stand for and direct their efforts toward achieving their objectives. If Biden and the party's mainstream aren't clear and united on their objectives, how can they hope to win the general election? Are they going to run as the Nostalgia Party? Elect us and bring back the good old days of Obama and Clinton? A little voice tells me that strategy is not going to work too well against Donald Trump in November especially in the swing states.
5
I don't sense a sudden mass Democratic love for Biden or a mass dislike for Bernie. They're both decent people and would be good Presidents. But Biden will be the nominee based on the simple fact most Democrats believe he is more likely to defeat Trump than Bernie, Mike, Elizabeth, Pete, Amy, et al.
2
Biden may have had his campaign resurrected, but I, too, am concerned about his candidacy. Defeating the current oval office occupant is an agreed upon priority, but I wish Biden had more presence of mind and control over what comes out of his mouth to reach this goal. He has been a go-with-the-flow politician, one who has less resolve to withstand pressure (e.g., GOP pressure) and less ability to persuade others with opposing viewpoints as shown during the Anita Hill hearings. And he has difficulty taking ownership of his mistakes, including his refusal to hear all evidence during those hearings. Given some direction, he can function satisfactorily. But as a leader who is giving directions, I have concerns. He may win the nomination, but ideally we should have a stronger candidate.
3
I am glad that Bloomberg's ads took on Trump directly and accurately. I would hope that whomever ends up with the nomination would be supported by Bloomberg and his staff to continue crafting commercials that point out Trump's nastiness, lies and shortcomings.
4
We have to remind ourselves daily as to where we are today. We have a wayward GOP and it's leader is an ignorant, evil man who is guiding us to certain authoritarianism. He has accepted help from tyrants like Putin and actually opened the door to others by request.
Biden, on the other hand, comes from the other side of our world and offers a rational, healthy alternative to Trump's madness. And, Biden will pull an excellent government together from a very large pool of competence and decency. What a change that represents!
Sanders is up to his old tricks now though and has started his Clinton like onslaught against Biden. Sanders is an old time demagogue and his followers follow his example. Sanders has votes (we don't know how many) from the GOP's program to inflate Sanders success in the primaries, Chaos.
If I had a wish, I would wish Biden would choose one of his former competitors for VP, Warren or Harris preferably. Warren would need to pull back somewhat but both would then have a decent shot at the POTUS job in 2024 as Biden will be a one termer.
1
Sanity has been restored to the Democratic party.
1
In the general election, I'd vote for a tree stump, if it were the Dem nominee, in order to dump Trump. I expect nearly all Dems, many independents, and even a few Republicans feel the same.
But, I'm not feeling confident about Biden. He's even more inarticulate than ever, says little of substance, seems significantly out of touch, is about as status quo as you can get, and he keeps harping on about working with Republicans, as if he's been under a rock for the last 15 years, including the 8 he served as VP. To be brutally honest, Biden doesn't have much more going for him than a tree stump.
Biden better pick a really strong, really diverse, and really inspiring team, starting with his VP pick (Stacey Abrams, please!), and including his cabinet picks, which he'll need to announce BEFORE the general election if he's going to have a serious chance of winning. Otherwise, I don't see how he does any better than Clinton, even factoring in Clinton's baggage and Trump's now record as president.
4
Joe Biden is a caring and kind person who will make a good President.
He will fill his Cabinet with talented people and he will listen to their guidance.
He will empower experts and return our nation to a focus on justice, equality, and science.
Just look at how he isn't afraid to admit error and credit other people with his successes. He fully embraced Jim Clyburn's endorsement in South Carolina and also fully credited him for his success there.
I will proudly vote for Joe Biden.
Bernie Sanders would make a fine President, too, but my vote will be for Joe.
4
We live truly in very scary times. We have a coronavirus which can potentially end up as bad as the Spanish Flu, we don't know. Climate change // global warming can easily end civilization as we know it. With such a backdrop is it so surprising that we end up choosing a Democrat who promises no fundamental change (alon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-nothing-would-fundamentally-change-if-hes-elected/). Its not only Republicans who fear change hence Biden. I hope this choice is better than Sanders.
1
As it happens—hold onto yer beret—I’m a leftist who voted for Biden out of two types of pragmatism.
1. I think he has a way better chance of whupping Trump. Feel free to show me the voter turnout numbers that say I’m wrong. Numbers, mond you.
2. I think he has a way better chance of actually getting progressive legislation passed. I already know he’s going to yank the imbecelic clurt cases and regulations.
Of course, I am also seriously bored with being harangued at by self-appointed heroes.
7
If adversity is the greatest test of character, then some of Bernie Sanders’ closest supporters (hello, Marianne Williamson)‚ have utterly failed.
To call what happened on Tuesday a "coup," as Williamson did, or characterize Biden's comeback as "the fix being in" shows an implicit contempt for the millions of ordinary Americans who support Joe Biden—and by extension, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. And as others have astutely pointed our, these reactions to Biden's victories also betray contempt and a large measure of naiveté about how the work of governing gets done in our system, even under the best circumstances.
You have to be able to play well with others, a wide diversity of others, including many with whom you disagree; something Joe Biden is good at and Bernie Sanders is not.
Big-money interests and Mitch McConnell are not going to magically disappear or cower before the cult of Bernie. So if Sanders fails to win the nomination, it will be for the most ordinary reason in electoral politics: he failed to build a winning coalition or expand his base beyond his acolytes.
5
Of course, I will vote for Joe Biden in November should he be the parties nomination. Let’s be clear, though, about what we are electing here. This man has supported any number of questionable military operations, including both golf wars, he has bragged about his cooperation with segregation as senators throughout the 60s and 70s, he led the nomination of the infamous Justice Clarence Thomas, he has made no substantial policy recommendations on any major major issues of the day, and he has a 78-year-old old white male who spent 40 years in the Senate. If the Democrats are nothing else from 2016, you think they would learn what tired of establishment politics
5
First Gulf War kinda made sense even if the Second was demented, Biden didn’t actually support that, it’s not a “golf,” war though that’s funny, the bit about Biden’s supporting segregation is just plain dumb, he didn’t lead Thomas’ nomination though he certainly fluled up the hearings, and I seem to recall an eensy something about marriage equality.
Anything else I can help with?
1
If - and there's a large if - Biden wins the nomination and if - and there's a massive if - he wins the presidency, Biden will not spell the end of Trumpian politics. Third Way Democratic policies that do not turn back the tide rampant inequality will never achieve that goal.
The country needs a reckoning with inequality. Sanders to me deserves the opportunity to fight for the other side. If the Democrats do not nominate him, they may win the election, but they will almost certainly lose the war.
6
Not one of Biden's Tuesday March 3rd wins vitiates the facts that he has a long record of favors to big banks, advocates cutting Social Security, and voted for the illegal Iraq invasion of 2003.
In regards to that last, recently, as in the over the last 12 months, he has again and again misrepresented this support for that war.
10
@Yaj
All fine except he has told us he is planning to do none of the above. All of the Democratic candidates actually do agree on the same aims and values. Specifically, all of them plan to strengthen Social Security and rein in and properly regulate the banks. As for the Iraq WMD lie, the bulk of the blame should be put where it belongs, on the Republican administration who perpetrated it.
2
@Robert -- "he has told us he is planning to do none of the above"
So which do you believe, what you saw him do for 36 years in the Senate, or what he promises now that he won't do any more?
5
@Robert:
"All fine except he has told us he is planning to do none of the above."
Who's he? Biden.
Biden has a 30 year long record of proposing cut to Social Security. His claims that he would are as believable as Trump's--so not.
" As for the Iraq WMD lie, the bulk of the blame should be put where it belongs, on the Republican administration who perpetrated it."
Biden voted for that war. Far more seriously while on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he prevented testimony from experts who knew how disastrous invading Iraq would be.
There's a lot you don't know about Biden.
You forgot about Bidens favors to big banks.
And I remind you that Obama offered to cut Social Security--but TeaPartiers wouldn't accept the compromise in 2011.
4
The Bark of Trump comes easily to the locker room bully.
Biden has the strength of his ideas. These ideas don't fit into the tight shoes of soundbites - especially when the hearer is with the "need to win".
Trump and his keepers can cynically outsmart any comers. The point to recognize is that the substance of intelligence is lacking therin - empty and insensitive.
I wish that the NYT would stop publishing the opinion of some many pundits who claim to see/know the future only to later find out they were wrong — these failed visions of the future skew people’s thinking on issues or candidates (i.e., Biden) often at a disservice to the public.
More traditional boots on the ground fact-based journalism and less punditry, please!!!
PS - and don’t forget how wrong many of these pundits were in 2016. Do we more of that?
4
All the Bernie Bro’s in this thread keep complaining of a hostile takeover by the party establishment, but can’t seem to clearly articulate what that entails. Seems to me like Bernie lost Super Tuesday the old fashioned way: by getting fewer votes than his opponent.
9
Biden came roaring back by winning states that are Red and Trump will carry in November. Let's see how the three remaining candidates do in states that now control the Electoral College----Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan. Our 'democracy' is a myth; it is now controlled by a handful of voters in a few states.
7
I hope Warren stays in just to siphon votes away from Sanders. Once Biden secures the nomination, she should join the ticket as VP. With her on the ticket, progressive Sanders supporters may be more apt to vote for it.
2
@DFM -- Except that Biden like Hillary will pick a VP far to his right, and then run a general election campaign of Republican vs Republican-Lite, which is nearer the truth than any of this.
4
what is amazing to me is that after three very small, very white states voted (some in a very failed manner), the presumed leader was crowned. Its an insane and flawed system that needs to change.
5
@theresa :
So you're saying Obama's win of Iowa didn't matter in 2008 because Iowa is mostly white?
Nevada, mostly white? No.
5
Remember that Trump was so scared of Biden last year that he tried to blackmail the Ukraine into opening a corruption inquiry into Biden and his son.
I think Trump is still scared of Biden, and with reason. Biden was part of the victorious Obama-Biden ticket, and I have a feeling a Biden-Kamala Harris, Biden-Cory Booker, or Biden-Julian Castro ticket would beat Trump-Pence handily.
7
@Jared :
Trump ran against Obama and won.
What you say: "Trump ran against Hillary, not Obama".
HRC promised to do nothing for the working class, just as Obama had done next to nothing.
Trump lied and said he would. Obama has a big share of the blame for Trump. Pretending that the US economy good in 2014-16, as Obama did, told people to vote for the other party--and many of those voters had voted for Obama twice.
2
Jim Clyburn just performed a miracle.
5
Sanders misunderstands the word “unify.” When he talks about unifying the party or the country, he means “Yeah, sure, anyone who wants to— whatever color, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation— is free and welcome to fall in behind me and my vision for the future of our country.” Not a vision we can all buy into, but my vision, but, hey, you’re free to buy into it. And if you don’t, then it’s because you’re a sell out or a dupe. A member of the establishment, as opposed to a a “real Democrat.”
In other words “Not us. Me.”
The Democratic Party is diverse in every way, including ideologically. What we share is a commitment to lower case “l” liberalism— a loosely overlapping consensus about civil liberties, equality and an economy that works for everyone.
That diversity is what gives us a demographic and numeric advantage, but to take advantage of it we need a vision everyone buys into.
I’m not saying I think Biden has done that— he still has to find a way to make his vision palatable to young progressives if he wants to really be the standard bearer of the Obama coalition. But last night proves he’s further along in unifying the party than Sanders is.
Last night also proves that Jill Biden is a ninja.
10
Biden had a good night because Warren eviscerated Bloomberg at the debate.. That was it.
Once they saw that Bloomberg was a flop, and then after the Democrat elders forced out Mayor Pete and Klobuchar, Dem voters had no place else to turn.
This wasnt some miracle. It was engineered. By design.
And voters took it hook, line, and sinker.
4
My mind was made up when I entered the voting station and saw around me, what appeared to Biden supporters. If Bernie’s supporters had bothered to show up, it would have made a difference. “Awwww, youth is wasted on the wrong people!” — It’s a Wonderful Life, by Goodrich, Hackett, and Capra.
4
Biden is unelectable.
10
JDK -- Didn't they say that about Trumpty?
2
Pretty much as I would have called it...OK (not the state), MA, MN, ME are surprising, but mostly in the sense that the favorite daughters didn't carry their home states. The government/establishment enclave in VA pretty much predicted that outcome.
As far as the southern belt of states, though MSM never said so, they were (look at the Establishment candidate's performance in 16) always in the Establishment column.
This was the easy March night for Biden. The unEstablishment candidate in 16 did much better in the north and west. Which comes up next...
And it must be pointed out that if CNN et al say Bernie is coming up short compared to 16, the Establishment candidate now is doing much worse than in 16.
Now, Warren. If she had done like Sen K and Mayor B odds are Biden would be spinning hard now. Is she for an idea? A cause? A Movement even? Or is this like that Mothers of Invention cover spoof on Sgt Pepper?
Or is she just meant to prevent the Progs from taking charge? Wittingly. In collusion with her old cabinet mate.
Joe needs to be asked some hard Qs. What, specifically, will he do to "add onto" ACA. What about the Medicaid fail in red states? What if SC cancels ACA totally?
What about student debt (Bernie!!! enter a bill to re-instate the right of bankruptcy...will Joe oppose)?
& someone should tell Joe we, little folk out here, don't care about empty empathy, or the DIGNITY of the Presidency. For us dignity equals $$$. No $$$, no dignity.
1
Reaching high and wide, Joe Biden's desperately caught the frantically thrust lifeline from the bow of his listing ship, previously sent adrift as recently as two weeks ago. With full bore panic setting in within the Democrat Party establishment, the hammer and sickle motif was deemed not yet apropos. With one fell Tuesday swoop, the cardiac kid has been supplanted by the knocking on the Alzheimer door malaprop mouthpiece. No wonder healthcare has been all the rage.
1
The only thing that will stop Joe is Joe.
3
Democrats will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against the worst president in American History. That will be the real miracle come November.
6
Trump is going to tear Biden apart, and then spend an additional four years destroying what used to be my country.
69
@J.D.L. It's certainly possible that Trump beats a Biden candidacy. But, it's a certainty that Trump would demolish Bernie. All over the country, people are reporting that they and/or their friends, who are not Trump supporters, would hold their noses and vote for Trump rather than support a "revolution." Wouldn't be my choice, but that's a reality. Promises of revolution scare people who have something to lose, which includes most of the people in most of the suburbs around the country.
39
@J.D.L.
Trump is going to tear apart any Democratic nominee. A few days ago, Trump assessed that he would be up against either Sanders, whom he described as a communist, or Biden, whom he described as doddering. Trump’s mocking is just a given.
25
@Mike
In alienating Sanders supporters, you just kissed 40% of your voters goodbye, yet again. Let's say 90% of them stay with you. You still need Trump supporters to cross over, which they will never do for Biden.
Sanders had the greatest appeal to independents. Biden does not.
9
Well isn’t this a bit of a surprise. These primaries have made the democrats look so fractured and rudderless. But in the blink of a political eye that’s all changed. Now all the people opposed to Trump and who were worried about a Sanders led campaign against him can breathe a sigh of relief.
Joe Biden is a decent human being and he’s the polar opposite of that festering pile of nastiness currently inhabiting the Whitehouse.
Looking in from afar I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the first time since 2016.
Go Joe!
3
I do not agree with the constant labeling of Sanders as liberal -in my opinion he is a radical-and Biden as moderate when he is as progressive a liberal as these times call for. He has evolved along with the times and is far more liberal in his goals than our adored Barack Obama. I am an extremely liberal democratic from a near socialist family background and I can't stand Bernie Sanders. He is selfish, nasty and untethered from any concept of the doable. Stop with the labels. Democrats care about other people. That's what distinguishes us from republicans, and it always has. No one is more caring than Joe Biden. I hope he picks Warren as his running mate because no one has a more analytic mind towards the problems this country faces. But he could pick Donald Duck and we would be so way ahead of where we are now.
181
@hazel18
Bernie is what the whole Democrat party truly is, He just owns it.
6
@hazel18
"He is selfish, nasty and untethered from any concept of the doable."
Other countries have done what Sanders is pitching. His ideas are definitely doable. It's just a matter of our priorities. Biden will keep the insurance companies and the drug companies happy and fat. Sanders wants to dismantle their fleecing of Americans. That's not radical on Sanders' part; in fact, it is a quite conservative, smart idea.
19
@hazel18 -- Biden is not progressive. He is a corporate tool from a small state owned by its massive out of state corporation presence. He did things like the crime bill and the bankruptcy bill.
12
The "miracle" performed was not by Biden. It was by African-American voters in South Carolina who revived a nearly moribund candidate who has now turned it around. This is bad news for both Sanders and Trump, whose camp cannot brand Biden as a raging socialist. They will dredge up the claptrap about Hunter but the tidings are positive for a Biden victory.
6
Bernie will get Liz' endorsement, but Biden will get Mike's money, and that should scare Trump.
We're going to see a lot of doctored videos of Biden. And speaking of doctors, let's hope Joe can make it over the finish line. Biden, with Bloombeg's money, is the last, best chance we have of replacing MAGA with truth, justice and the American way.
3
I donated to Biden’s campaign because I knew he was the only candidate who can win in the Deep South. It would be great if Biden’s mental acuity was not the defining issue because he makes mistakes when campaigning and occasionally speaking. He can speak in complete sentences and compared to Trump well there isn’t a comparison. Biden genuinely likes people and Trump loves himself.
3
Except he "performed" well short of miraculously. Recipient of right place at right time. Gold star for showing up. However, if performance actually matters, he is a definite underdog from here on out.
2
I think there a couple of reasons Biden is roaring to the top.
I am a Republican voter who supports Trump in many area because it is clear he tries to keep many of his campaign promises. However, the downside is the never ending non-stop drama 24/7/365. He has to have the last word on every disagreement and the mean streak gets old.
Biden is a centrist Democrat who, if elected, would be acceptable to most Republicans. We won't completely agree on everything, but he is a decent guy with a long Senatorial track record, thus he will know how to work within the system, forge alliances, and reach across the aisle on critical issues.
Sanders on the other hand is a rabid, finger stabbing elderly socialist lunatic who scares most of the country to death except for the lunatic fringe. Plus he has a zero record in the Senate for having done anything of substance in all the years he's been in office. Vermont, you can have him back with our blessing.
4
Joes in ..Bernie's out. Done and dusted.
3
Biden won in places he had not even competed (Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma). He won in Virginia and Texas. He "won and won and won, taking the overall lead in the delegate count."
What this tells me is that people are fed up with all of the other loud noises they've heard in the background.
I think the momentum Biden generated last night will sustain him through the November election. I really think people are sick and tired of what has occurred in the past almost 4 years and think Biden can be the elected change agent needed.
6
Well you are certainly reinvigorated. And that is great for Joe Biden. As a Sanders supporter, I don't mind Biden as I think he has given Sanders the most respect of any the candidates. I will continue to support Sanders up to the nomination. I don't suspect any trickery in Super Tuesday and hope that none emerges. Biden and Sanders differences are not personal and hope they do not devolve to that state. Biden will have to take on the Insurance companies with their premiums and policies, rid the country of these paper mill colleges that fleece the poor and hopeful, and restore the Clean Water Act that was signed into law by Nixon. May they carry on with a vigorous campaign. Sanders has earned the right to carry thru to the Convention due to his consistent campaign and fund raising. Pundits and supporters of Biden should be careful not deride Sanders for his continued campaign as that could dissuade voters like me from supporting Biden if he in fact wins. If nomination is lost in a straight up process, I would gladly support Biden (with Klobuchar?). Bernie...ya need to continue to continue explaining what Democratic Socialism and maintain support of 2nd Amendment...I think you lost many when you said you regretted your vote. You should just explain that the citizenry has a right to be armed and to defend themselves. I know it altered my perception and gave me pause. May they both stay healthy and take care of themselves and pick a great VP.
3
@Cliff
I urge people not to hear what Sanders says about Democratic Socialism, but what the website of the Democratic Socialists has to say, to wit:
"We believe that the workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own and control them."
"Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Democratic socialists favor as much decentralization as possible. While the large concentrations of capital in industries such as energy and steel may necessitate some form of state ownership, many consumer-goods industries might be best run as cooperatives."
See https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/what-is-democratic-socialism/
I am so happy for Biden and the democrats. I am so disappointed with Elisabeth Warren, the way she went after the moderates, and left Sanders untouched, tells me that she thought he was going to win, she probably was angling for VP. Timing is everything in life, she didn’t bow out when she should, and got a black eye from Massachusetts. She was way too aggressive, an unforgivable fault while women. Bloomberg and Biden, go win this one for us!
1
Good god, spare us the hagiography. Biden will be fine, a decent antidote to Trump, but he's not safe and dear to me. He's a shellacked, plastic-surgeryed, packaged centrist mainstream candidate who has little new vision and is too quick to tell tall tales. I wouldn't support him in a million years if it weren't for Trump. I'm no Sanders acolyte either but I get why people crave someone who seems authentically themself. That's the draw with Trump. He seems like a lunatic to me, but he's his own man, that's for sure. Joe lost the authentic vibe a long time ago. Also, it's not a coincidence that Harris, Warren, etc seem like hallucinations. It's not a coincidence that the race has contracted to center stage 3 over-70 straight, rich white guys. Systemic biases are alive and well in the US of A.
3
Dear Frank, I dont think that Mike Bloomberg wasted his money, nor should be ridiculed for his efforts. His ads were similar to the same platform that Joe Biden advocates, also he attacked Trump. How is that no return for your $ ? Also, Trump and the RNC have far more money for Trump's campaign. The Democrats need someone willing to spend on their behalf.
2
I was one of those people who swung to Biden after his win on Saturday night. I have been worried about his tendency to flub even the simplest thoughts from the very beginning. But when I really thought about what is necessary in a good leader, I decided that traits like humility, an ability to work with others, respect for expertise, and overall decency outweigh everything else.
I am sick to death of divisive, rude, and nasty politics. I watched Bernie last night elicit boos every time he referred to Joe Biden, and it made me feel sick. I do not want someone who thinks he/she knows everything to bully his or her way into the office. I am not the "establishment" but a school teacher, and this idea that the Democratic "establishment" is rigging the system against Bernie is nonsensical and insulting to those of us who decided to vote for Joe.
I respect Bernie's vision, but without a Democratic Senate, he cannot achieve ANY of it. With Biden, who will place competent, progressive leaders in positions of power, we can achieve so much! Who knows, by finding a way to expand Medicare without forcing it upon people, Joe Biden may just help Bernie's visions to become reality.
5
@Rae L Provided Biden can win, and there is no guarantee of that, no matter how many people glow and clasp their hands in joy when he assures them that nothing is going to change.
1
Trump is Revolution enough.....this country can’t stand to endure another 4 years of a Bernie Revolution.....even though his thundering Old Testament prophet shaking his fist to the sky message is deeply moving. This country is exhausted from fighting. It wants ‘moderate’ peace, at least for a moment.
7
Biden did not perform a miracle the DNC did. Their strategy and tactic panned out. SC was the wall they talked about after winning that they all lined up behind Biden, all the sudden endorsements were not by accident. MSM has been demonizing Bernie and Elizabeth for weeks now. The democratic establishment wants an establishment candidate, if that is not possible they will take Trump over Sanders anytime. They too are part of our DC millionaires club far removed from the lives of ordinary Americans regardless of skin-color. The parties tell us whom we can elect.
5
Political prudence tacitly dictates the VP pick's gonna 'have to be' a woman. Her identity, seems obvious...
Hillary and Liz this morning: sexism is alive and well in America.
4
Bill Brasky -- not this simple. Far, far from it...
2
Whiner in Chief Trump, who has no REAL friends, is losing his mind when he sees the lower performers backing Biden.
Maybe it's because , in part, the Dems don't call each other childish names, which in itself is a great reason to ditch the Oval Office Offal this election.
People are tired of the bullying, the nastiness, the cheating ( GO"s voting for Bernie yesterday, or for Biden thinking he would lose...one was on CNN around noon yesterday crowing about his dishonesty....A perfect example of the GOP...just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should ( vote in the other guy's party to make him LOSE...that's called cheating in my book).
O well. Trump will renew his viscious childish tweet storms from the Executive Bathroom....it's SO tiring.
We want a President who understands that once the Election is over, you are the President of EVERYONE in the USA. What we have now is so lopsided and obvious....what does the GOP expect?
And true to form, they are whining. NO congrats to the other team players, no adult behavior. Whining. Tweeting gibberish. Pouting. Looking for the worm in the apple ( that's rich!!!)
2
@Ignatz
Don't call each other childish names?
You mean besides calling their supporters old, fat, challenging them to push up contests, liars and dog-faced pony soldiers (i.e. traitors in modern language)?
1
Yay, no more “Mike will get it done” ads!!
2
We must thank the black voters of the South, who, stirred by the grave and stirring James Clyburn, voted in their thousands to give Biden his victory, and maybe, just maybe, to save this country. From itself. Again.
3
Biden didn't perform a miracle: establishment Democrats and the media performed a coup.
5
What, with endorsements? And basically at the eleventh hour when most people normally have made up their minds or already mailed in a ballot? Were Pete and Amy supposed to just stick around even when they knew they couldn’t win and refrain from endorsing Biden all in “fairness” to Bernie? That’s absurd!
Also, party leadership and supporters indirectly blocking an insurgent who isn’t even technically in the party by encouraging them to vote for someone else doesn’t really qualify as a coup anyways...
2
Hooray! They're letting us wear jeans on Friday.
Um...It's annoying they're telling us what to wear in the first place and it's even more annoying you're so happy about them "letting" you wear jeans on Friday.
Either it's okay to wear jeans or it's not. At least I can respect the fascists for their consistency. Purple people are annoying. Grow a spine and stand for something other than your own comfort.
3
Alabama. Arkansas. Oklahoma. Tennessee. Texas.
Biden took mostly red states that aren't going to go Dem in the general. This makes him the "safe" candidate?
4
Trump fears Biden most of all hence Ukraine fiasco.
4
It's still machine politics vs. the "political revolution" ... but it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings!
1
Remember who coined "Return to Normalcy" -- Warren Harding.
1
Miracle? What a load of malarkey! Biden emulated those oh so “successful” tactics that the Democratic old guard used to deal with the red menace of Bernie in 2016. And Amy and Pete should be ashamed to have played so unsubtle a role in this counter revolution. They all will have much to account for the day after the Presidential election in November.
5
Joe woke up this morning convinced he was just elected to the U.S. Senate
4
Bloomberg better not run as an independent. You media folks are on that, right?
Okay, what I will say is that the Buttibump is real.
Look for Joe to give candidate dropouts posh cabinet jobs... Klobuchar, Pete and maybe even Bloomberg and Warren. All except Bernie.
What we need in modern times is a president and a president 1a, b,c,d, or the like, all of whom having more impact on what sea changes happen in America and the world. Way past time to take away much of the one-man rule, as Trump has so absolutely showed that to be the most necessary change in American politics.
1
Nope!!!!
No miracles here lately.
Joe used the party machine that ignores wage earners .
Both parties .... two party system in general must finally be broken.
Unfortunately trump the bully has the entire nation under his foot.
He steps on our throats and threatens us daily.
Democrats just send out tweets. Congress and the courts are colluding against the voter.
I don’t care what each voting block decides or what polls say.
Based on the current primary results we are going full Monarchy.
Trumpworld will bring in Nikki Haley.
Goodbye pence.
I wanted a women candidate this time because a woman would have succeeded but the geriatric white men keep ruining our chances. Along with too much focus on money for the already rich superdelegates.
We voters are voting the limited choices you shove at us utilizing MSM to dissuade voting for something other than trumpworld or political machine world. Clyburn is Black but he is wealthy and he is focused on classism utilizing racialism to get his power base entrenched. He doesn’t care about wage earning Black folk in South Carolina. And what has Biden ever done for Clyburn ‘s constituents. Really tell me specifics.
It is bread and circus. I am very disappointed. I will write in a woman candidate on my ballot.
Doesn’t matter cuz if Bernie or Biden get the nod ..... trump wins again and it will be a devastating international blow to further Rights for wage earners.
2
The Democrats did what they absolutely needed to do. Congratulations.
1
The Democrat establishment elite will not be denied. Thank you, Amy and Pete. Call in your big favor any time after November, 2020.
3
In the immortal words of Herman's Hermits,
"Rise and Shine, Sleepy Joe!
Now's the time, don't you know,
To get into a new kind of dream you've been living alone..."
Let's hope decency wins the day in Milwaukee and then nationwide in November.
There’s lots of questions concerning Biden nominations...is Bernardo going to run as an independent, third party candidate ???
Is the Senate Republicans gonna investigate Hunter Biden in summertime! and cause lots to troubles to Biden campaign in the fall ???
Indeed, now Mayor Bloomberg drops out hopefully He goes and supports Joe Biden.
The Mayor got in late only because Bifden was performing poorly at the begining.
Go Biden go Joe !
2
A miracle ?... That's a little over the top don't you think.
3
The fear mongering by the DNC leadership and the MSM worked. I mailed in my ballot this morning for Sanders. Joe Biden said that if elected he wouldn't change anything. I am 70 years old without many years left to live. My concern is for the young people who have many years ahead of them. They need things to change and change for the better. The DNC is once again playing games, this is the Clinton- Sanders race all over again. Fool me once, but sorry not a second time. Since my state allows write in candidates I will certainly vote but vote for a progressive, Bernie Sanders.
7
I favor Biden. But I must admit his wins more likely reflect the unacceptable alternatives rather than his own merits.
1
What a ride! Biden started his campaign at the center of the podiums as the presumptive leading candidate. That lead withered as he appeared doddering and gaffe prone. He got his game back thanks to support in the right places, Clyburn, Pete and Amy. He's a decent and experienced man, far from perfect, but who was? So let's get behind him in a big way and defeat Trump. I hope his VP candidate helps bring him over the edge at that WOMAN : ) will become the next president in four years. And to Bernie Bros, just because we are centrists, does not make us any less progressive or liberal.
3
No trickery. Maybe, just maybe, the Orwellian geese that include practically every single columnist of NYT and WaPo drilled into every available ear the relentless refrain Bernie bad, Joe good.
All free advertisement, both negative against B and positive for J at the same time. Even Captain Mike could not compete with his half a billion dollars.
Do you see now what conformism can buy on the cheap?
2
@College Prof I’ll play the world’s tiniest violin if you Sanders supporters would sing a different tune!
3
After South Carolina and now Super Tuesday’s results I think a Biden/ Clyburn ticket would give Trump a proper thumping!
2
This is the best I've felt since taking back the house in 2018!!! Biden can nail Trump to Trump's wall!
4
The miracle was Pete and Amy dropping out and supporting Biden, and Warren not. Joe had nothing to do with it.
3
@Beefcloud But President Obama might have had something to do with it. Hmmm.
2
“Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle.” No, Buttigieg and Klobuchar did.
4
Joe Biden didn't perform anything. Correction: African Americans delivered a miracle to Biden, especially Jim Clyburn.
3
The "fork in the road" indeed. Now we'll see if Bernie can refrain from complaining that he has been forked by the Democratic Party.
2
My advice to Joe
Kamala Harris
Biden-Harris 2020
3
thank God at last! Maybe we will be free of angry Bernie, shrill Elizabeth with a plan for everything, and savior Mike. Let's get behind "sleepy Joe" and remove ignorant, dangerous Don.
1
A broken door bell would be a better POTUS than Trump .
2
Trump was meh about the Iraq War, while Biden was a cheerleader for it. How do you manage to be worse than Trump?
2
Trump has twice come close to starting a war with Iran. The first time he called the strike off with 9 minutes to spare on the advice of Sean Hannity.
Nobody could be as dangerous as the Donald. He’s impulsive and reckless. Joe isn’t.
1
People who worry that Joe won't be able to hold his own in a debate with Trump shouldn't worry. Trump is a narcissistic bully and incapable of being and sounding human...it won't take much for Joe to seem better and more relatable by contrast. It's not like either of these guys or the celebrity TV journalists who run these so-called "debates" are the Oxford Debating Society.
1
@Cowboy Marine
And ultimately the debates won't matter if 2016 is any example. Hillary ran circules around Trump and won all of them, but then went on to lose the electoral votes anyway.
IMHO, Trump supporters will be tuned in to watch a WWF-like spectacle. Joe should come on stage dressed like a gladiator with a sword, net and spear in his hand and demolish the orange monster. Perhaps then he'll get some of the monster's votes.
Biden is one gigantic exercise in denial while the middle class and the environment circle the drain.
5
"He won Texas, where Sanders’s outreach to Latino voters was supposed to put him over the top."
Is Frank joyous that Latino voters were put in their place.
When was the last time a column of Frank's"outreached" to Latino raaders?
2
Miracle....my left foot.
If you've been around long enough to understand how the DNC political machine works.......so far, so good, the Primaries are running exactly as planned.
Joe Biden remains the DNC hand picked candidate. All the other candidates are running to collect generous amounts of campaign cash from the gullible, who insist on believing in candidates that appeal to narrow special interests....student loans, blacks, "latinos"(whatever that means), gays, women, etc, etc.......
The money gets pooled after the convention and Joe Biden is nominated..........possibly with Elizabeth Warren as VP.
AND the convention is just up the road from DNC World Headquarters at the Mayor Daley Govt Bldg in Chicago.
Could it be any more obvious??
2
African American voters in South Carolina may have saved the Republic.
1
I think the only ones who are surprised by Bidens's great showing are the pundits and columnists at the NYT and other supposed liberal news orgs, who feed on controversy over fact, foment discord within the Democratic party, and promote ridiculous ideas, like an "unstoppable Sanders." I've recently read this latter statement countless times in the NYT and heard it on CNN and MSNBC--after just three primaries in all-white, tiny, unrepresentative states--and it sounded to me, and to anyone else paying attention and with a little common sense, exactly like the baloney it obviously was.
Will there ever be a return to real common-sense, fact-based journalism in the U.S? Will you guys ever stop hyperventilating over nonsense, creating controversy where there is none, trashing candidates you don't like because they're not "exciting" enough for you? Doubtful, but you might want to consider it, given declining readership.
2
This is all so disappointing. Joe seems like a nice enough guy, but he has no real mandate for our country other than being decent. No fire in his belly. No searing intellect. He will be no match for the dark lord that is Mitch McConnell. And his rapid ascendance smacks of DNC shenanigans, yet again. Maybe that's just politics, and after forty years of voting, I still don't get it.
That said, I will support him. When he wins, as I believe he will, I will find some small pleasure in knowing that Trump's 'perfect' phone call, and effort to take down Biden, blew up in his orange face.
3
Now, can he repeat it by flipping those battleground voters who went Obama->Trump -> Biden ?
The only person Joe Biden should be thanking is Elizabeth Warren. She single-handedly neutered Bloomberg during the debates clearing the way for Biden to be the moderate candidate. Once again, the success of a man is entirely attributable to a woman.
2
Yesterday was Donald Trump's worst nightmare come true...
3
“Rambling, bumbling Biden was mostly gone. In his stead was an exuberant, articulate champion.“
This is a ridiculous statement considering he confused his wife and his sister in this very speech. It’s very saddening that NYT has thrown its weight behind such a vacuous candidate who has articulated virtually no distinguishing policy positions.
5
@Sam
C'mon man.
They had just gotten on stage. The two women were flanked behind him when he grabbed his wife's hand, without looking at her, and said it was his sister. When he pivoted toward his sister and realized his mistake he commented their positions had been switched.
Have you ever been onstage at a press event? I have many times, and each time the position of the prinicipals was orchestrated beforehand.
Is this really the stuff you're going to focus on given the importance of the upcoming election?
It seems like a fix, Joe emerging from the ashes like a
phoenix, out of nowhere. He'll wander in debates with
trump. He's just an old white guy. Where are the new
ideas? Please pick Elizabeth as VP. She's very smart and
will prop Joe up.
3
A miracle? What were we supposed to do? The goal is to evict Trump, but, when Bernie started surging the goal morphed into stopping the delusional comrade. Now we all got what we originally wanted, the best shot at defeating the Donald. We might not have a psychologically deranged liar in the White House, merely a garrulous, loquacious, inept boob. No malarkey! We're doomed.
2
The miracle is that so many people vote for an incoherent - or possibly non-existent - message. The combined efforts of whomever pulls all the strings at DNC plus NYT plus WaPo - i.e. the Establishment - result in lies and idiocy being spread about Bernie. How come Buttigieg, Klubuchar, et al now endorse Biden? What were they offered? Or, what were they threatened with? I do not know what goes on behind the curtain which excludes us ordinary voters. Congratulations, moderates, on poisoning the well, misleading the ignorant, and saddling us with another loss like 2016.
2
When Trump gaffes and acts like an idiot, the GOP rally around him and say, "Well that's just Trump, being Trump"
So going forward into Campaign 2020.. The same deference must be granted for Joe!
"That's just Joe being Joe!"
And believe me Ole' Joe is going to need a lot of deference!
1
A MIRACLE ? You mean the DNC just took down the consistent front runner not backed by corporations. Shameful corruption , just shameful. Don't blame Bernie or bros or millenials when Trump mops the floor with Biden . Bernie ran an honest campaign , and they dog piled their losers Klobachar and Buttegieg on Bernie the night before super Tuesday .
It was planned . They knew their campaigns were going no-where after Nevada, and they would rather see Trump win , before a Bernie win.
This is not a democracy .
The Democrats have proved they are no better than the Republicans. Biden is a racist , lied about being arrested at some civil rights gathering somewhere in the world, called a woman a lying dog faced something or the other , and is backed by billions in corporate interests .
What a shemful show of corruption on the democrats side.
4
As long as Uncle Joe lip syncs his speeches rather than ad libs them he should coast to victory.
@God I hate to quibble with deities, God, but it's hard to lip sync in a debate.
1
Frank, your total bias towards Biden contributed to his win and now we're all going to suffer the consequences of having this yawn-fest of a corporate stooge for a nominee. This is no miracle. It's a result of columnists like you and your obvious biases towards progressive candidates. You make me mildly unwell.
3
Please enjoy your new front runner, "pragmatic" boomers, who will do everything in his power to promote the capitalist murder/suicide pact shared by Republics and Democrats alike.
3
"That's why they call it Super Tuesday," said a triumphant Joe Biden. This one day after HE called it "Super Thursday." Before that Joe called Chris Wallace Chuck Todd. Then he ran into a wall trying to cite the "truths that are self-evident." Not to him.
No joke, folks, this guy is seriously addled. The other septuagenarian longs for a new Russian Revolution, but Joe seems on the cusp of senility.
Come on, people, here's the real truth: Dems have no one to run.
1
Thank you media for getting the word out that Sanders is a socialist that will wreck the county and thanks to the other candidates for backing Biden. Now If Biden wins, us Bernie backers need to stay home in November or vote Trump just for fun. Bernie is our last chance to make all things right. Biden and the rest want to beat Trump and takes us back to a civilized corporate welfare state.
1
Biden's miracle is owed to a woman--Warren, who destroyed Bloomberg in his first debate--and an African-American--Clyburn, whose endorsement sprung Biden far into the lead in S.C. Let's just hope he can stay on his own two feet from here out.
120
@refudiate
If the Republicans prefer Trump he will win again. Biden will be toast, so far that is what it looks like.
4
@ARL Will see about that. There are only unsure Republicans.. Dems will vote for who ever is the nominee, PERIOD.
4
@refudiate
Thanks ref. At least someone else sees the scam we've all witnessed. And which the Pravda press has overlooked from the start.
2
Biden finally woke up! I'm not sure where he was before the last debate, but he sure wasn't in the race. Now...I want to see a Biden who is always alert, coherent, articulate, and energetic. I worry, as I've stated many times, about his cognitive stability. NOT his ability...his stability aka consistency! I do not want a "team" of anonymous people running the country...I want a President who is fully engaged. I hope I see what I want to see with Biden's future performance. I like him...I grew up in the same kind of family and neighborhood as Joe. I'm from Pittsburgh so I know many "Joe's". If left to his own and if he's in good health, he will be a good President.
Whew!
Whew!
Somewhere up there Boe Biden is smiling.
Blaming the 'establishment' for Bernie's not-so-stellar performance misses the point: Many Democrats were simply voting for a Democrat. No revolution. No insults. No yelling. Not an Independent that caucuses with the Dems. Just the person they think can beat Trump. I will vote for Joe next week in the Michigan primary. However, if Bernie does turn out to be the nominee, I will work like hell to get him elected. I hope the Bros would do the same if Joe is the nominee. Joe's Bros? It has a nice ring to it.
3
How's this for a ticket and slogan..."Biden-Sanders 2020: What the hell?"
Please Joe, don't screw up.
No. He didn't perform a miracle. The media and the pundits performed a miracle. Fear of 'them' won for Trump. And Fear of real equality won for Biden.
3
Is this an analysis or a panegyric that is one shade away from being a love letter to Joe Biden?
It is not Biden who shined on Super Tuesday; it's rather the Democratic Party establishment that rallied the votes and stalked the fears of the voters, using everything at its disposal: warnings from the top establishment figures, endorsements by others candidates and Democratic leaders, scare tactics by "analysts", and an unrelenting media blitz that caricatured Sanders, cheapened his message, and denigrated his ideas.
We saw that before when Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton four years ago; and we've been living the disastrous consequences of the Party's fatal decision to pick Hillary to run against Trump. It looks like the same history will be repeated again this time around. The last time it might have been a tragedy; this time it will be a farce.
3
To state the obvious, young voters need to realize that raging on social media is not the same thing as voting. This artificially propped up Sanders' campaign. Some commenters are saying here that they aren't excited about Biden, but look how many people turned out for him. Can you at least get excited about defeating Trump and ending this nightmare? Sanders proved he's not up to the task. And Biden can actually get some reforms through Congress.
4
I hope against all hope if Biden wins the nomination that Bernie won’t have sour grapes like in 2016. Which ever one of them wins needs to emphatically tell their supporters to vote for and back the chosen candidate. Whoever doesn’t get the nomination should also campaign for the nominee. This election is that important.
1
So (a plurality of) Democrats have voted for Biden, the man who stands up for – what exactly? As far as I can tell, his most distinctive claim for a presidential agenda is that "nothing will fundamentally change."
Enjoy that.
5
Better to have a Biden who steps on his own cape, than a Trump who steps on other's capes!
102
@snm -- There will be three feet on Biden's cape, two of his and one of Trump's.
4
@snm
Who has he stepped on?
1
I have to take issue with characterizing Biden as the “fiercest adversary” Dems could field against Trump. He seems to me confused and weak when put on the spot in a debate. When he uses his angry voice in an effort to appear strong, he makes no sense whatsoever and seems clearly to be acting angry on advice...an effort to persuade us he can match Trump on Trump’s own turf.
I fear we’re making the Hillary mistake. Field a safe bet and inspire no one, news reports of thrilled crowds notwithstanding.
4
I like Bernie but if he can galvanize moderate Democrats this way in the primary think what his effect on moderate Republicans and Undecideds would be in the general.
I'd like to see Biden and Sanders each make the same announcement this week: "If I win the nomination, I will pick Bernie/Joe to be my running mate. And on July 16th in Milwaukee, we'll accept the nomination together, along with our prospective 'team of rivals' Cabinet—22 men and women that Bernie/Joe and I have chosen together and who will campaign actively with us until November 3."
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I also can't see another practical way the Dems go into the election more united. Biden focuses on African-Americans and suburban moms, while Sanders focuses on Latinos and youth—and all the partisans postpone the circular firing squad until 2021.
Would Sanders and Biden have trouble governing together? Sure. But that's not the issue. The issue is winning on November 3. Nothing else matters. Let's all keep our eyes on the true prize.
2
If Biden picks Sanders then he will lose moderate support in November. I voted for Biden yesterday because I want Sanders stopped. If Biden adds Sanders, I won’t vote Democratic in the general election. And there are millions like me.
2
@Dwight An utterly unrealistic and undesirable possibility. Super Tuesday results indicate, among other things, it is an either/or proposition with the same-old, same-old Democratic National Committee.
@Dwight An utterly unrealistic and undesirable possibility. Super Tuesday results indicate, among other things, it is an either/or proposition with the same-old, same-old Democratic National Committee.
The simple fact is that the majority of Democrats are moderate to centrist. Bernie’s supporters will, I hope, join with us to take back our country.
4
Bernie's praise for totalitarian Cuba was insightful for a lot of voters. Of course one can always find something to praise about totalitarian regimes, if you really want to. They make the trains run on time? They built great roads in Germany in the 1930s.
Bernie said Moscow subways (built with slave labor) were great.
But that is all very offensive to those who lost relatives to their brutalities.
4
I am disappointed that so many Americans are afraid of democratic socialism, the policies that put the other first world industrial countries ahead of ours in terms of healthcare, education, and less poverty.
These things are just an extension of public grammar school and high school, Social Security, and Medicare.
We are paying $3.5 Trillion for healthcare, $11,000 average per person and 18% of GDP.
Both of those are twice what the other countries pay. They get some form of universal healthcare and we are ranked number 10 or below for healthcare and have parts of the US with infant mortality rates of a second world country.
All that money we are giving to private insurance companies could be redirected to Medicare for all and Yale / Lancet says we would save 11%.
We also have surprise costs, out of network bills, and too often having to battle with the insurance companies.
But I realize the Republican talking points are "socialism like Venezuela."
Our citizens are misinformed and believe these things. They don't see what the other countries have had for years and we will get some incremental fixes and the insurance companies will keep making money at our expense.
Having said that, I will vote for Biden or any other Democrat.
3
I still cannot believe the ultimate arrogance of the sudden call for Sanders to drop out and put his all might in Biden service.
What Biden has done the last 4 years? Nothing.
What Sanders has done the last 4 years is working on massive grassroots progressive organisation the like of which has never been seen before. Multiracial, multigender Democratic activist support to bring down Trump and above all to enact dearly needed legislation on healthcare, pay rise, education, ecology etc. The DemParty toward whom Sanders has tended a hand more then in few occasions to be met with hostility, media attacks ? As the grudge of Clinton’s Democrats prevailing today in both DNC and party is still very much alive.
Unity calls were made by Sanders camp long ago.
And refused. No unity call came when he was the front runner, it comes only now, when the moderates candidate was artificially propped up with Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Bloomberg convenient clearing of the field. And Warren staying to pull out progressive votes.
So basically if I understand right, in the name of unity , one that suddenly became dear to Democratic Party officials , Sanders is give them his work of more then four years and endorse the same but worst candidate then the one who lost against Trump in 2016. This is mildly said indecent. Why not unite around the candidate who inspire all this support even when the whole party establishment is against? Did you even think how he will poll if the party was behind him?
5
OK so the moderate voice was heard last night- hooray! Now everyone please put your money where your vote is and donate to Joe Biden’s campaign.
2
I voted for Bernie in MA because I knew I wanted one of the progressive candidates, and the dramatic coalescing around Biden alarmed me. I saw Bernie as a progressive's best shot at Biden. However, I have always acknowledged Bernie's flaws and it seems the majority of voters do as well. I am not hopeful for Bernie going forward, even if Warren were to drop out (which sounds likely).
Everywhere I turn I see division and discord between left-leaning people. There seems to be little room for nuance anymore. I haven't felt this depressed about the direction of our politics since Trump took the 2016 election. Don't worry, I will vote for Joe all the same if and when he takes the nomination.
1
The results are pretty clear so far. Deep blue geographical areas voted Bernie. Most others voted Biden and just want competent stability and legislated progressive change vs an unpaid for revolution swing and backlash. It's the country you and I live in. The House of Reps is Democratic because of 86% flipped seats in moderate areas and suburbs, not blue districts that went deeper blue progressive wing. The "establishment vs insurgent" narrative is one construction to explain why Sander's doesn't play everywhere. And the other is that of the history of the country's political system; of wing bases vying to gain greater share of the moderates, independents, and reasonable others (i.e. the center). So far, it seems the left of center but able to work with others to get something done Democrats are saying "No, we can't win with risky ideologues who can't compromise, can't back off defending Castro, and whose followers sound almost as cultist as Trumps."
1
As a person who supports the thrust of Bernie's ideas––even if I require much more math to back them up––I'm convinced now that Biden is the one to beat Trump. Bernie's campaign, brimming with idealism, has run into some harsh realities. Just as the world was not always ready for my ideas, it's not ready for Bernie's ideas. People change slowly. The naturalist Stephen Jay Gould said there is gradualism and then there is punctuated equilibrium. Punctuated equilibrium, or rapid change, is rare. It usually happens in individuals, not entire populations, and even then the change spreads slowly through the population. There is even the evolutionary idea of neutralism, in which evolution guards against too rapid change. One day we will get to Bernie's idyllic future, one in which, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, no one has to pay for their sins. Until then, we work toward that world every day. We change people's minds slowly. Consider me a Fabian, not a my way or the highway revolutionary.
5
I am in total agreement with Sanders on virtually every single issue, and I voted for him in the 2016 primary. But I am thanking God that Biden now appears headed for the nomination for one simple reason: Biden can beat Trump; Bernie can't. And apparently a majority of my fellow Democrats are in agreement. So it's time for all of us, young and old, red, black, and white, all genders, to unite and work our tails off to get rid of the greatest national scourge in the history of our republic. Only then can we start talking about a "revolution" again.
5
So the Democratic primaries are down to two choices:
(1) a passionate democratic socialist, or
(2) a stuffy moderate who used his office as Vice President to facilitate his son's corrupt activities.
Trump would have more trouble defeating the socialist.
5
@Fred Dorbsky
Other than the Republican administration FOX Limbaugh Psychobabble, put a little more meat on your contribution and accusation referencing court, grand jury proceedings, federal indictments RE "the stuffy moderate." Wait, there aren't any.
1
Biden didn’t use his influence to get Hunter a “job”. Hunter did that on his own. This isn’t about Joe’s abuse; it’s about Hunter’s greed and poor judgement..
If anybody did perform a miracle, it was Mayor Pete. As I saw the news of him exiting the race and endorsing Biden on Sunday, all I could think was "wow, so there was one grownup on that huge debate stage after all - and he just happens to be the one who looks like he's 17".
2
@Leonid Andreev - Don't assume it's all maturity on Mayo Pete's part, we don't know what he was offered by the DNC to step aside (cabinet positions, committe chairs, unlimited campaign contributions next time), the same goes for Klobuchar. Of course they (Pete, Amy) won't discuss this for fear that it might look like the DNC had their thumb on the scale.
1
@Leonid Andreev
I have to agree. Pete was the adult on stage who never lost his composure despite the opposition. Compare his mature, methodical, and well thought out responses to the angry, finger stabbing Marxist named Sanders screaming aloud and spraying saliva at the camera and microphone.
Pete has a future in national politics. Maybe not now, but in a few years. It is just a matter of time.
1
@Bill Even if any such back room conversations happened - big if - yes, it would still be an act of maturity. Conversations like this - pleading with spoiler candidates and begging or guilting them to drop out of the race likely happen every time there is a crowded primary field (see the republican primary race in 2016) but nobody ever drops out, for as long as they can keep dragging along and winning delegates; out of ego, spite, thinking that more delegates would give them extra bargaining power later - for whatever reason really.
Even if Biden personally promised Pete Buttiegieg a shiny medal, I would not see any reason to consider it "having a thumb on the scale" in any shady or illegal way. Certainly would take that over all the hateful vitriol Elizabeth Warren has been taking from the more fanatical Bernie Sanders supporters harassing her campaign trying to force her to drop out of the race.
1
We must elect Biden. Another four years of Trump is not sustainable!!!
3
Biden is the result corporate billionaires shoving a candidate down our throats. I’ll never vote for him.
5
The Trump campaign thanks you for your support.
3
Biden is far too conservative for me, a war monger, a corporatist guy of the sort who let the nation robbers (2000-2008) go unpunished. I'd have to be awfully gullible to vote for him.
7
Almost as astonishing as the Nationals winning the World Series!
Miracle? What has Joe Biden ever been except an affable, lifelong, party backslapper who had the good fortune of being chosen as the safe offset on the Obama ticket 12 years ago? Well, actually you could look at some of his votes and "compromises," over the years ... Well let's not. My response to voters seeing Joe as "moderate & compromising." Compromise with who ? The "Moderate" Mitch Mc Connell? And, by the way, you can't compromise with man made climate change. Biden is same old same old. And speaking of old. Look, Bernie, Bloomberg, Warren they are all old. (I voted for Carter the first time I could vote. I'm no spring chicken), but did you see and listen to Biden at the debates and pressers and campaign stops between debates? If he wasn't Obama's V.P. they'd wonder who is this guy wandering around up here? And, Frank, let's chill with the gushing about "adrenaline pumping through his pores" and rewind the tape on those appearances . Then compare them to Bernie, Warren, Amy K, Mayor Pete on campaign stops or their official sit downs with NYT reporters/ed board. Look, Bernie's MASSIVE turnout could have happened - Didn't. But if Joe is the safe choice for voters and party brass, the handlers better keep him on prompter, keep the leash tight. Plenty of Ginkgo biloba and sudoku on plane rides. If not I can see a future debate with Joe stripping off his shirt and challenging Trump to a fist fight. Humm, in today's political climate. Probably a landslide.
2
That's a low bar for a miracle.
4
Any Democrat on this forum who says they're not excited about Joe Biden should think about how excited they are about Donald Trump and go vote in November!
6
Did people just now wake up and realize that Bernie is a Marxist? Joe still offers Socialism lite. You’ll get your cradle to grave government control soon enough. Thankfully not in 2020 though. Mr. Trump will win big and that’s a good thing.
2
Did Joe perform a miracle, or did the media, slavishly chasing "influencers" on Twitter and their own fixation on publishing something to get more eyes on their site, con us all again, as they did in 2016?
3
a miracle... what were the dems choices? no miracle just common sence....
3
We want a hug, not a lecture.
3
I will, of course vote for Joe Biden in November. However, this is nothing to celebrate. This man in voted in favor of both Iraq wars and a number of other horrid military operations, was leading the Senate Judiciary committee when Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, celebrates his work with segregation is senators throughout the 60s and 70s, has taken money from any number of large corporations and big money lobbyists, has served in the Senate over 40 years, and is a 78-year-old old white male. You think if we learned anything from 2016 it’s that people are tired of establishment politics and They’re ready to move on. Joe Biden does not allow us to do that
1
Many people are voting their fears, not their hopes or values. They want to go back to "before Trump", not realizing that Trump is a product of that very corporate political system that Joe Biden so clearly represents.
Joe had better beat Trump, if he doesn't the DNC is finished. Even if Biden wins, my fear is that it will be a return to the glad-handing, back-slapping, Iraq War voting, credit card company politics of the "moderate" Democratic Party, where the rich get richer and working people still sink lower, just without Trump's bombast.
3
I called it several days ago, but no one would listen. I said that just as in 2016, Democrats would get cold feet on nominating a more aggressively liberal candidate and seek an (apparently) "safer" centrist choice, a "leftover remnant" from the "so-so old days."
I quoted my successor prognosticator Karl Marx, who said, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then second as farce."
We are barreling toward a repeat of 2016, and no one is listening. In a way, how could they listen -- amid all the trumpian/Republican rejoicing over their impeding victory?
We are handing it to the on a silver platter. 2020 Biden is merely an older, mentally declining version of Hillary Clinton, with a Burisma-by-proxy taint standing in for Hillary Clinton's $600,000 Goldman Sachs speeches. He is a vastly weaker version of the same package. Meanwhile Trump is vastly, vastly, vastly stronger than he was in 2016.
It's 4th down and 29 yards to go, 5 seconds on the clock for the Democrats. We either go deep or try the tepid, "safe" hand-off, hoping he'll break through. Biden's chances of that at his age are like Mike Bloomberg's chances of squeezing through the eye of a needle.
4
Okay, so show is how youth turnout is up, and St. Bernie has expanded his base.
Please don’t bluster. Use numbers.
4
@Cassandra Sanders only path, one he seems to acknowledge, is some overwhelming surge in young voters. That is simply fantasy thinking. Hillary did win by some 2.9M votes last time. And had African American voters or even Jill Stein voters come out for her, she would have won in a landslide. As Tuesday demonstrated, Biden appeals to groups who are absolutely required to for a Democrat to win; African Americans, moderates, suburban women. So the Sanders/Jill Stein voters can get behind defeating Trump or stick to their holy cause and drag the country down with them.
@stoosher
You mean the same fantasy thinking that produced Joe's miracle?
Face it, if Sanders has a resurgence and eeks out a majority, it won't be greeted as the wave of progressives finally rallying. It will all be Russian interference and Trump voters trolling his campaign.
Meanwhile, hold steadfast to the belief that all of Joe's votes are genuine, and not victim to Trump's trolling of making him the front-runner.
Although I share much of Sander's political and economic views (a Warren supporter here), it's time to fold. The youth surge he is counting on has not and will not happen; that's a Sanders fantasy. It's time to acknowledge that the only surge which happened on Super Tuesday was for Joe Biden among African Americans, middle class white women and moderates. Basically, the groups the Democrats must draw to win.
Anyone who watches Joe Biden closely on the campaign trail must doubt his mental acuity, discipline and stamina. He is miles from the two most qualified options Warren and Klobuchar in my view. But he has a liberal voting record with some flawed votes as any Senator might in 30+ year history. And no doubt will select a competent cabinet, probably from some of those admirable candidates in this race. Compare that with the clown show we have now.
Biden is a flawed candidate. But progressive enough to unite behind. Eyes on the prize, folks. It is imperative for our democracy, economic justice and the environment that Trump be removed. Eyes on the prize.
9
If Biden gets the nomination, we'll have what many of us dreamed of: a chance for a do-over of the 2016 election. Biden is a more natural politician than Hilary, can avoid the mistakes she made, and doesn't have to overcome the reluctance of some voters to elect a woman. Plus those who stayed home or voted for a third party candidate, and then watched the disaster that is the Trump presidency, will have hopefully learned their lesson. If Sanders gets the nomination, it will be a do-over of 1972, when the Democrat (McGovern) got creamed.
4
The people of South Carolina, many of whom Trump would refuse membership in his Faustian world, have shown us the way out. Whether by default or something else, it is now up to Joe. I hope he will start taking care of himself. I recommend a good protein smoothie several times a day and a high potency multivitamin daily. He should also up his fish oil, take Huperzine A, and phosphatidylserine, also known as "PS." Good luck, Joe!
2
Well if you call the Clinton Democrats uniting against Bernie Sanders a miracle, then I suppose we will experience a repeat of the Hillary fiasco.
4
Joe’s miracle has a source - Trump.
1
The talk of a "miracle" is misguided. Biden was always the best candidate.
our primary structure is broken. starting with Iowa and New Hampshire --these are not realistic depictions of nationwide voters. Iowa and NH were not real tests. The media pundits overplayed Iowa and NH, and the Dem party needs to scrap those starting points. How could the Dem party allow people of color to be so overlooked? Still????
Go Biden!
6
What a joke. Cue the "strategy" of insulting and lecturing people from the comfort of your laptops about how they need to 'get over themselves' and vote for Joe.
Most of us know how this is going to end.
5
Oh please. The gasping media coverage of Biden’s supposed “comeback” as if it was a great surprise, totally unprecedented, etc., etc. is very disingenuous, considering all the increased pile-on of Sanders-bashing from the media and other candidates in the last few weeks. Add to that the day-before Biden endorsements from 4 Dem candidates and what do you think was going to happen? Like lemmings, voters voted for the guy that had all the sudden endorsements ‘cuz gee, he must be a winning candidate now, better back him. Truly pathetic. America gets what it deserves when Trump is re-elected.
6
The DNC managed to shoot itself in the foot, in the EXACT same way they did three years ago, and you call it a MIRACLE? History will show, again, that these kinds of dirty tricks are a huge turn-off for voters.
November will be a cake-walk for Trump. How many losses will it take before Democrats get smart?
3
I am tired of reading about Biden's "miracle" and "impossible" comeback. Time and time again, the incompetent media pre-judges political contests, in this case declaring Biden's campaign dead based on 1 or 2 early debates and polls from Iowa. They always seem intent on calling the winner of a baseball game after one pitch has been thrown. Now, with egg on their face, journalists have to paint it as a "miracle" comeback.
I would love to see the NYTimes or other papers come out and admit the plain truth with editorials like: "We Were Wrong" "We Stupidly Over-Reacted Once Again Without Enough Facts"
2
Frank, And much to you dismay I bet.
Biden is the right choice.
Bernie is a fraud and would never deliver anything if elected.
He should run as a Socialist and stop caucusing with the Dems.
I would have more respect for him.
4
In these dark days in our country, it give me hope despite vote suppression, in Texas some waited as long as seven hours to vote
2
At least with Joe we’ll get some good folks to repair the damage done by the GOP and 45s wrecking crew: I’d rather have some competence with my corruption...
3
Some miracle. The Democratic oprichniki got Biden's competitors to quit while leaving Warren in the race to dilute Sanders. The donor class is completely scared of Sanders.
If Warren were out and endorsed Sanders, then Super Tuesday would have tilted strongly for Sanders. Outside of the South, Biden only got about a third of the votes. Sanders also got about a third, but just slightly less than Sanders and Warren got a difference making about 10%.
It's a very close race between a far left candidate and the other one who has the appeal of a wet dish rag.
4
Biden's done nothing.
It's the other candidates that rub the voters the wrong way.
He is simply harmless.
1
I think you sound like a cheerleader - all noise. My perspective is this: There were many factors that worked against Ms. Clinton in 2016. One of them was that Trump dominated the conversation with her. She was unable to take charge of the discussion, pick the topics, and frame the race. As a result, Trump was also able to dominate the media stream, whether they were pro Trump or pro Clinton. It was Trump who was directing, and Clinton was not.
If Biden wins the primary, there is no doubt in my mind that, like Clinton, he will be unable to control the conversation, and the media response to the race. He will be unable to keep the conversation focused on issues, policies and values.
Almost all of the other candidates could dominate, or at least, have significant influence on the conversation in the 2020 race. And, that would mean influencing what comes out in the media. Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, all would put Trump, at least at times, on the defensive. Even our own Jay Inslee would be able to keep the conversation focused on what is important. Others too.
But Biden has never exhibited that skill. What confuses me is that so many people suggest that he is the most electable, simply because he is a moderate. From my perspective, if he becomes the Democratic candidate, we will have a sure loss unless he can dramatically shift how he communicates, articulates the issues and takes a stand.
3
Congratulations Mr. Biden. You give me reason for hope...and I thank you for your know-how, your decency, and your leadership abilities. Do you stumble now and then, as some of the naysayers claim? Of course, and so do I and so does everyone I know. As for the content of speeches, it has ALL been said; the rest is just reinforcement and a reaching for eloquence. A 92-year old dear friend of mine, in the last year of her life, wanted to vote and did, but when it came to listening to what candidates had to say, she would look at me, shake her head, and remark that she had heard it all before.
5
And if Joe does win the Presidential nomination and election, hopefully he will be smart enough to to surround himself with a competent and intelligent Cabinet. Maybe including Mayor Pete, Sen. Klobuchar, Mayor Bloomberg, Sen. Warren, and, yes, even Sen. Sanders.
You do realize how many of you are going to die because of the ACA left our access to healthcare without access to healthcare, right?
1
After 39 rallies do Clinton, after the misrepresentation on his supporters voting which as on official statistics show went in larger numbers for Clinton then Clinton’s supporters for Obama, you ask them to swallow again the same pill , lose the progressive shot at nomination and risk another 4 years of Trump?
After ms. Clinton who has thrown so much vitriol at Sanders treating him to « good for nothing » and accusing him of being the reason for her loss?
A New Yorker piece. Documenting his campaigning for her.
« As Sanders finished his speech in Raleigh—“We have to do everything that we can to elect Secretary Clinton!”—Clinton and Pharrell were on their feet, cheering. “Wow!” Clinton said, when she took to the rostrum. “Whew! I gotta say, after hearing from these two extraordinary men, I feel all fired up and ready to go for the next five days!”
Now, when if ms. Warren do the honorable act , bows out as her moderate co runners and endorse Sanders , Biden will face formidable opponent and 50/50 chance to lose , you are asking Sanders to betray the millions of people who has trusted him with their funds and time and hearts only because you believe that Biden have a better shot at Trump. Who lets not forget won against your moderate choice? This is mildly out insane.
Where were the calls for unity when Sanders was the frontrunner? Who has worked 4 years to create formidable grassroots support, a sudden call to give all to moderates so they can get it done as the last time?
1
I am sorry the Elizabeth Warren is no longer a contender. She can stay in the race a while longer, since she would be the most competent president and there are always surprises. I am baffled about why she is not liked; she seemed like the best compromise and the only one who could get disappointed Bernie brats to actually vote in November. No matter how Bernie fans perceive the legitimacy of his defeat, many will not vote for Biden. It was Bernie and his stubborn supporters who gave us Trump.
Trump called Warren "selfish" for staying in the race. He is scared of Biden winning before the convention. Trump knows he will beat Sanders.
4
Get real. Joe Biden didn’t do anything. He was the beneficiary of a massive rescue operation by the party. He’s like the hiker who gets lost in the woods, and a search party finds him wandering aimlessly, and then he is celebrated for surviving his ordeal.
4
I have no idea what his policy positions are, short of enriching his son.
3
I voted for Elizabeth Warren. Biden's support of Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court resonated in my mind and I couldn't pull the lever for him.
But,
I'll support and vote for Biden because he can beat the current abomination in the WH. So, holding my nose, and hoping for the best, he'll have my vote in November.
The Dems can win with Biden if angry Sanders puts the nation's good above his own ambitions and directs his minions to support Biden.
Otherwise . . .
2
As the Beatles proclaimed, “Money Can’t Buy Me Love” and now we know it can’t buy elections for a Democrat. The GOP is bought and paid for by dark money.
I thank Buttigieg and Klobuchar for endorsing Biden. Two Democratic candidates putting party and country before personal ambition. A concept foreign to the GOP. Their timing immediately before Super Tuesday was the miracle.
The true miracle will be Trump packing to leave. This is an existential election. If Trump gets re-elected, we can substitute the word democracy in Don McClean’s song.
Democrats are craving unity and that explains Biden’s momentous surge. We need clarity and now we have it. Biden must be able to respond to Trump’s ugly rhetoric with the grace and eloquence of Obama sprinkled with the strength and determination of Churchill. It will get very ugly. The GOP and their Roger Stone playbook will make sure of that. They are already throwing around the false narrative of Biden’s corruption in Ukraine. Biden must navigate the swamp of GOP tactics of lies and vitriol. They will fight below the belt. Biden needs so sting like a butterfly and dance like a bee.
I am praying for the miracle of a Democrat in the White House in 2020. If Biden’s surge is the first miracle, beating the incumbent Orange Menace will be the second. I will be listening to The Jackson Sisters singing “I believe in Miracles” as I pray.
Biden, a truly uninspired and uninspiring choice. I hope he picks an inspiring VP candidate to rev up some enthusiasm. And that he gets better campaign management, perhaps courtesy of Mike Bloomberg.
3
Joe and Amy. Has a nice ring to it.
1
Mission one for all: March Trump OUT of the White House, along with his grifting family. Biden will bring back decency and honor to the presidency. He'll heal the broken ties with our allies. He'll bring us back together again.
1
Joe is so decent and resolved to reach across the aisle to work with Republicans. Just ask Anita Hill how that actually looks in practice.
3
That was no miracle. That was money talking and a fever dream of returning to the good old days infecting the DNC.
4
Looks like it will be Decency vs. Monstrosity in November. America, it's your choice.
5
Frank, Biden didn't do a thing. The Dems are just being very cautious and rightly so. They just want Trump out and are not looking for a revolution, like all the kids supporting Bernie.
Now comes the tough part. How to get Bernie to quit without taking his band of Sandinista with him? 2016 all over again? I sincerely hope not. Hope Bernie has to good sense to not just hand it over to Trump. Keep your fingers crossed.
2
First know, I am a longtime liberal Democrat as well as a longtime Trump loather. I have never voted for a Republican and never will.
How anyone who has closely watched the cognitively deteriorating Biden thinks Biden can beat the morally and intellectually vacant Trump in head to head debates had better gett their heads wrapped around a second Trump term.
Biden won Super Tuesday because many primary voters haven't been watching Biden's decline. Many primary voters decided long ago (check the historic polling numbers!) that Biden is The One. Those voters felt no reason to watch Sleepy Joe bumble through the so-called debates.
Now the man can't even quote the Declaration of Independence's most well known and frequently sighted clause.
Of course Biden is a decent, even nice, three-time presidential candidate loser. And Trump is a corrupt, nasty, revolting one-time freak winner.
There is a mindset among die-hard, strangely low-information, Biden-No-Matter-What backers who have decided not to open their eyes and ears to experience the condition the sadly diminished Biden of 2020.
Now we have the nauseating prospect of watching Biden in the debates with Trump temporarily and repeatedly loosing a grip on what is left of his 78 year-old cognitive functioning. By shear force of will and bombast Trump will thump Stumbling Joe.
And the Blues will lose, staying home in droves rather than vote for the Embarrassing Joe.
3
Biden was the white horse that could benefit from the panicked reaction of the Democratic establishment and their corporatist backers. Biden is safely neo con. He has Obama's support which is essential. Sanders questions all the verities of the Democrat establishment. From the hostile neo con foreign policy to Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians. Sanders has won the new voters, the young and Latino vote has gravitated towards him. His universal health care has caused the health insurance industry existential fear. Biden's excellent showing yesterday caused health care stocks to sky rocket. But as the coronavirus could show universal health care is a national security issue. Sanders has struck a chord for a full scale effort to turn around the momentum of the relentless growth of income inequality. Its many manifestations are obvious to the middle class and poor.
3
Several months ago, I concluded the fix was in for Joe Biden, and that he would choose Stacey Abrams as a running mate, as he has said and they will win the election.
After President Abrams finishes her second term, Pete Buttigieg can run, with much more experience under his belt.
And after that, Trump will be only an embarrassing moment in our recent past.
Amen.
2
The most illuminating commentary on the race between Biden and Sanders. So insightful, and so well written I poured over every word. Frank Bruni stands out and excels among Times writers.
No, he didn't pull of a miracle. The whole idea that Sanders had a big lead, and, therefore, "momentum" (a metaphor, rather than a reality), was based on two primaries, Iowa & New Hampshire, both of which are scarcely representative of the voting body of the US (i.e., they're mostly white). The media, ever eager to build a story, took Sanders's 30 delegate votes and kept describing him as having an insurmountable lead. If the Yankees were ahead 1-0 in the bottom the first, would you call that an insurmountable lead? It wouldn't be fair, or accurate, to call a candidate a leading candidate until after Super Tuesday. This is a sad instance of the media making up the story.
1
I wonder how much super-PAC money Warren is getting to stay in the race and siphon off just enough votes from Bernie to help push Biden over the top. The DNC strikes again, just like in 2016.
2
How about a blue hat - with “Make America Good Again”. I finally feel my blood pressure returning to normal. Just hope it’s not premature!
3
Said it before, say it again.
Instead of spending $500 Million on ads to defeat Trump, why couldn't Bloomberg start a liberal think tank, and hire 10,000 people at $50,000 a year.
All employees are required to work at the think tank's headquarters........... which is in Kentucky.
1
No time for us to be picky in the 2020 presidential election
Any Democrat sitting in the Oval Office as President is far safer and better than Trump and almost any Republican these days.
Please take a pledge to vote on November 3.
2
"We are very much alive!” Can one really startle an audience with such a declaration?
Advance to Go. Collect $200.
1
Joe Biden needs to embrace some of the Leftwing's ideas or he will lose to Trump. It's called unity and compromise, Joe, and I don't mean with Republicans.
2
What's "miraculous" about the safe bet? Health care would have been miraculous.
1
@ND In case you haven't noticed, our current health care system, the ACA, is once again under attack. It may not be perfect, and you may find it lacking, but don't take its continuation for granted. Make no mistake: if it is found unconstitutional, its replacement will be far worse. And it is vulnerable precisely because Trump was able to appoint 2 Supreme Court justices. So before dismissing Biden too readily, please acknowledge that he (as well as any other Democrat) will at least maintain and hopefully strengthen Obamacare.
1
I prefer my miracles miraculous.
@ND Miracles are wonderful things to hope for. But meanwhile there are a great many financially precarious people who currently get health coverage though the ACA, and they depend on actual real-world gritty reality of political power.
Now imagine if the political tables were turned. Biden would have been attacked by the press during this critical time and Bernie would have gotten non-stop advertisement. Don't forget about the pied piper strat and a lot of the media propping Trump up.
Biden back from the dead? Yup. Walking dead. Zombie politics. Prepare for the nightmare to follow, especially for those in the next generations for whom the earth will provide no haven as it deteriorates while all the fearful flock to the middle and shudder.
5
I've always respected Joe Biden and liked Sanders's message, but Biden can deliver now what Sanders cannot. Biden has the experience and connections to select a stellar cabinet and V. P. He's respected around the world and has a history of honesty, compassion, and integrity. He's who we need right now to help us repair the damage inflicted by trump. I'm tired of being disgusted with republicans who have sold their souls to the devil. We as Americans need to do what's right, and what's right is not supporting liars and cheats like trump. Lying and cheating isn't winning, it's stealing.
9
It is interesting to read the comments by disappointed Sanderistas. Without realizing it, they repeat the rhetoric of the same Bolsheviks they swear they are not (and before you ask, I speak from actual knowledge of the source material). Lenin always said: “The worse, the better” meaning that only when the living conditions of the working class become intolerable, will they rise up. What do we hear now? Four more years of Trump, the planet will burn, then you’ll see Bernie was right. Disdain for democracy: the ordinary people don’t know what they want; and if they disagree with us, they are dupes of the bourgeoisie. I lost count of the comments to the effect that this is a sinister conspiracy of the “oligarch” who apparently managed to brainwash rural black voters and suburban moms alike. Reverse elitism: the elites of money and power are bad but we are the good elite, even if we are in the minority. Bernie’s speech last night could have (and possible was) plagiarized from Trotsky. I could go on but my question is: where did the “democratic” in “democratic socialism” go?
1
These results speak to the serious errors people make in mailing ballots far too early. As an easy example, how many more votes might Biden have had in, say, Minnesota, had not so many Minnesotans cast early ballots for Amy Klobuchar? There may be some instances (travel, overseas military) where mailing in early ballots is justified, but most folks are simply irresponsible for mailing in a ballot weeks ahead of time, most particularly early in a primary race with very many candidates, many of whom will certainly drop out before the primary date. C'mon folks, voting is a serious responsibility, not a matter to be taken lightly. PLEASE, wait until the last possible minute before voting. Consider dropping your just-marked ballot off on election day.
2
Revolutions eat their own children. I understand Sanders appeal to young people. If I was in my 20s or 30s I'd be supporting him too. Don't get me wrong! I think people under 60, especially those in their 20s and 30s are getting an awful deal. OK Boomers have done a bad job, socially and environmentally.
HOWEVER, look at what a fiasco the Arab Spring was...the French Revolution. Evolution and incremental change works best. The key is that the change has to continue to move forward.
I'm thrilled by the fervent activism of young people, who are supporting Bernie Sanders. Keep pushing the agenda. But remember, differing opinions are all right. Compromise and consensus work in the long run. That's why I support Biden.
Biden/ Buttigieg or Biden/ Klobachar decide and combine
1
@Sharon - Will you be so “thrilled” when those same young people decide to not vote for Biden if he’s the nominee? And PLEASE don’t blame Boomers. If those same virtuous young people (or their older siblings) hadn’t stayed home during the 2014 midterm elections, the Republicans wouldn’t have had so much power since then. There are myriad reasons for our climate degradation, and what’s happening can’t reasonably or fairly be blamed on any one generation.
Twitter isn't always right. And sometimes voters exhibit common sense. The single most important issue right now is not a policy, its getting the current president out of the White House.
5
I am discouraged by the choices presented to us by the Democratic Party at this point.
We can now choose a moderate centrist who will not be able to change anything unless the Dems capture the Senate and the House, and even then, things will only change very slowly and who knows if all the damage caused by Trump will be undone in four years.
Or we can choose a radical leftist whose ideas and policies are fully untested, who is willing to gamble a great deal of the country's economy to achieve his democratic-socialist revolution, and who is as uncompromising, dogmatic and rigid in his worldview as a 1970s eastern bloc politician.
And both of them are old, old white men who will probably never run for a second term anyway. Where is the Obama generation? I was born in the 70s; why isn't anyone of my age up to the task of running for President of the USA, while we are running pretty much every other democracy in the free world?
Why can't we have a young, energetic, pragmatic, left-of-center Democrat who can guide the country to prosperity, undo Trump's toxic damage and fix what is broken without destroying the economy in the process? Why can't we have a Trudeau, or a Macron, or even a Merkel for that matter?
3
@Andy Well, we don't. But one thing we don't want is Trump for another four years. Full stop.
2
We have what we have.
Idealists (necessarily) shoot for the moon while pragmatists work the best with what they’ve been dealt. This isn’t 2008 anymore. That ship sailed a long time ago.
2
I also wish we had someone in their 50ies running but they all dropped out. No support. And I think it was a surprise that the last two young candidates dropped out the day before Super Tuesday. The fix was in. Just not sure what the fix was yet.
1
I will vote for who ever is the Democratic nominee -
Trump must Go!
Bernie needs to take a serious look at how strong Biden won in the south and in Minnesota: mid-west - and - to everyone's great surprise - Biden won in Massachusetts.
Biden's strong wins on Super Tuesday clearly - with actual Votes - show - Biden has the outright voting support of very important states that vote for Trump - the east and west will fall in to vote for Biden - if, he wins the nomination.
Am saying this - as a Elizabeth Warren supporter.
6
“It was as if the meteoric and historic rise of Pete Buttigieg, who led in the delegate count after Iowa and New Hampshire, had never happened.”
I think Pete’s timing of suspending his campaign, his enthusiastic endorsement of Biden, his strong encouragement to his supporters to support Biden, his request that his supporters donate to Biden’s campaign, and the turnout of his supporters around the country to vote for Biden were really important. I think Biden recognizes this and more important, understands what an extraordinary person Pete Buttigieg is.
6
When Biden accepted Buttigieg's endorsement, he compared him to his son Beau. If that isn't an invitation to a vice-presidency, I don't what else it could be. A perfect ticket!
5
I understand the disappointment of the Sanders supporters. They have lost what they thought they had a lock on. But I say shut up to the Biden naysayers. The voters spoke and they choose Joe and we will do all we can to support him.
He will not bring revolution. But he will return competency and decency and progressive ideals to a country that is desperately in need of them. He will appoint smart, younger people who will do smart things. He will bring us back to a point where the revolution that Bernie proposes could happen when his young supporters have power in their hands. But this is not their time. That time will come, but only if we can stop the destruction of our fundamental values. Flaws and all Joe will turn the tide that must be turned.
7
Dream on ...Frank. I'm afraid your "miracle" will turn into a nightmare when Trump and Graham bring back the Hunter Biden issue and Joe starts fumbling his answers and being evasive. What short memories we have.The real "miracle",if you can call it that, is that big money didn't lose control of the narrative. Those of us seniors who benefit from MedCare monthly are afraid of Medicare for all.Why it's socialism.We can't have that,except when it benefits us.And...I will vote for Joe by the way.....reluctantly.
3
Instead of calling themselves the 99%, they should call them the 25% of voters in the Democratic Primary.
Joe Biden? Really? Where do we start? That he has made bankruptcy much more difficult for people (not companies) because Delaware is the stronghold of credit card companies? That he helped to sponsor the 3 strikes your out crime bill that has proven useless other than overcrowding our prisons? That he didn't treat Anita Hill particularly well during the Clarance Thomas SCOTUS hearings? That his son Hunter has been the focus of a 6- month GOP smear campaign that won't end anytime soon? With this checkered past, there's no shortage of ammunition for the GOP. Biden is a wooden candidate, everything rehearsed, no real person behind the facade: a classic politician. Zero inspiration. Prepare for another four years of the dismantling of our democracy, as he won't beat Trump and his cult followers.
6
I was gonna start with his beating St. Bernie like a drum last night.
The Democratic portion of the electorate yesterday stood up for decency and common sense in an era lies, corruption, and bigotry. It is about time.
2
What’s remarkable is how the voters took over what was a dissembling, neverending debate reality show and said it’s time to focus on Trump and winning back the White House and the Senate: “Pick a candidate with the best shot at these things and move ahead.”
1
Biden calls for healing. Sanders vows to fight. That is the crux around which the rest of the primaries will revolve. I'm all in for healing first. We need a period of time to restore our basic values, our sense of decency, and our sanity. We need an interval of calm to flush Trumpism out of our system, to quiet the agitated, snarling beasts that it has let loose into the populace. Only then can we soberly face a fraught future. Sanders instead wants us to drop instantly into the fray, swords drawn, crying "Revolution!" That will only result in the beasts rising up in a combative frenzy. Not for me, thanks.
5
My college age students think Biden is an utter irrelevance. Instead of talking about tapping a Republican (Republican!) running mate, he should be looking for a young progressive.
1
@teach - Maybe it’s time for this society to stop seeking guidance and wisdom from the very young. Our youth-worshipping is sometimes ridiculous. And, btw, apparently many young voters didn’t find Bernie that “relevant,” either, judging by how many of them bothered to vote.
1
People who think those who voted for Biden aren't ready to fight tooth and nail to set this country right. They are wrong. We are ready to fight. We just don't believe in Pyrrhic victories, forlorn hopes, or suicide missions.
2
warren should drop out too.
getting whipped in both her home and adopted states should be warning enough that it's not going to happen for her.
a long fall from just a few months ago.
if she stays in, she's likely to siphon off sanders' support not biden's.
got a new comeback kid or so it seems.
1
Finally, the Democrats may be on course to correct their image of being a bag full of cranky cats and present a clear, humane distinction between their party and the chilling, reptilian solidarity of the GOP conspiracy.
As a scholar and educator, Bernie Sanders has made a priceless contribution to the painfully slow awakening of the American social conscience. But he's not a politician at heart - I sense he finds politics a distasteful wilderness but an effective route to reaching a wider audience with his clarion cry of warning. I doubt he has either desire or expectation to be POTUS. His aim is to get We the People to wake up and demand a rational, coherent and humane government.
Joe Biden may well provide the solution. Like President Obama, he has the knack of disagreeing without being disagreeable and never seems to take himself more seriously than the task at hand. If the rest of the DNC ranks were to approach him with offers to serve in his cabinet, the November event could be a slam dunk.
1
Bravo to Joe Biden, a true American success story of coming from behind and hopefully, going on to win the nomination. This is something that America needs at the present time as Trump and the Republican Party have led the country on a downward path to Fascism. I have no doubt with Bloomberg's backing and hopefully as a future Secretary of the Treasury, that the Democrats will go all the way to victory. This renews my belief in our Democracy!
1
Biden stands for decency. Great. Obama was decent, but where did that get us? It got us a half baked beggars compromise on health care. It got us the Merrick Garland fiasco. It got us Hillary. It got us Trump and Mitch McConnell ascendant over the wreckage of all that decency.
The middle class is being destroyed. What exactly does Biden propose, because it’s not clear and I don’t think he knows. He does seem quite clear on claiming credit for anything good that happened while Obama was in office. Plus last night he pledged to cure cancer, Alzheimers, and diabetes. So he’s got that going for him.
4
It never fails to amaze, how eager, “leftists,” are to repeat precisely Trump’s nonsense about the feckless black President.
You’d think they’d try to think a little more, but nope.
Is anyone considering that Biden said he would be a "bridge" president serving just one term? That means the Democrats will have to go through this all over again in four years. This is insane. They will lose the incumbent advantage and give the Republicans time to regroup.
Does this make sense? Only in the mid of the Democratic Party.
1
Joe Biden has integrity, morals and compassion. He will do what is right for the country. For him to say that Pete Buttigieg was like a son to him speaks volumes of the man. If we put forth our message and we are able to get legislation to his desk for Medicare for All, it's not like he is going to veto it. We need to work together to make health care for all (also climate change, income inequality, student debt as issues) a reality. It's called democracy and Joe Biden will want us to succeed.
2
Whose Democratic party is it anyway? That's a good question. I find myself wondering if it belongs to all those Never Trump Republicans who have crossed lines to vote for Biden.
The answer of course is that it doesn't belong to any one faction of us, and, whomever is the nominee, the results of the primary season will clearly reflect that, just as they did in 2016.
The party is divided, between those who want very little or very slow change and those who want big structural change and want it asap. The polls show it well; the divide is largely between older voters, who are comfortable and set in their ways, and younger voters who feel the pinch of a changed economy and a failing world.
Both must be considered and both must be appealed to if the Democrats have a hope of winning the election. All those who criticized Sanders for not sufficiently reaching out to the moderates must now pivot and, with equal force, push Biden to reach out to progressives.
His VP pick should be someone with that appeal. I suggest Yang, but Warren might be a more likely choice, given who advises Biden.
Biden needs to show progressives that he gets why they want revolution, or at least acknowledge that he doesn't get it and wants people around him do get it and can advise him. I fear he won't. I fear, like Hillary, establishment figures will just see that they won, see it as being proven right, and expect everyone else to get in line.
The analysis is actually pretty simple: Some percentage of Democrats - is it 70% or only 60% - don’t believe Bernie can win, don’t like him, don’t trust him and/or fear he’d hurt the party’s chances of taking the Senate or keeping the House. I support Biden, my 10th favorite choice of the initial 25.
If you like Bernie’s ideology, support Warren who is positioning herself to have say in the Party’s direction, even if she won’t be on the ticket. She got more done before being in office than Bernie has in his entire career.
Every major program people value now and want to protect and expand was delivered by shrewd politicians: FDR, LBJ, Kennedy, Obama, and of all people, Richard Nixon, who gave us the EPA and related legislation. Despite Trump and the Federalist Society the legislative branch still exists and all 50 states get represented, however unequally and sub-optimally. Revolutionary ideologues haven’t delivered. Trying to will these realities away by calling yourself an idealist is wishful thinking.
Political power to disrupt makes people feel good - we’re awash in that - political power to deliver is messier, enabled by coalitions of flawed, self interested mortals, pretty much what the founders saw in their emphasis on checks and balances. And it’s time to stop comparing Bernie to McGovern. McGovern was a great man with a terrible campaign; Bernie is a local politician promoted to levels above his capacity to be effective, who has a great campaign.
6
Very few people seem worried about Biden's mental acuity. Is it the truth that can't be spoken? Some of the things I have seen are concerning. I guess I would describe it as rambling incoherence. The debates were bad, but some of the stump speeches are frightening.
103
@Typical Ohio Liberal
As compared to what? Trump? Our very stable genius who would be his opponent? At least Biden would accept advice from his staff to compensate and not bluster that he knows more than anyone.
I just don't understand all the comments that say, essentially, on a scale of 1 to 10 Biden is a 7 and that's terrible, but it doesn't matter that Trump is a 1 or a 2 on the same concern.
69
@Typical Ohio Liberal I'm a little worried about it, and I'm also worried that Bernie could have a devastating coronary event. I think both should announce a running mate who is younger, more vital and able to work hard for 8 years, b/c I don't think any of the old men will make it through.
33
@Typical Ohio Liberal Sure we're worried: one never knows what will spill out of his mouth. But he'll surround himself with experts and restore the government. And if Trump wants to focus on Biden's mental acuity, Biden need only focus right back on Trump's.
58
Stop talking about Roosevelt, JFK and LBJ as if they were kings. They had solid majorities in Congress and had appointed many, many judges. The GOP pick party over person and win when they shouldn't because Dems squabble over the person. I am happy to finally see (in these comments and elsewhere), Dems waking up. If you want universal health care, you need to have the Senate and the Courts. If you want a living wage, you need to have the House and the Senate. If you want civil rights protected, you need to have Congress and the judges! It is time for Dems to start acting like the GOP and put party ahead of person. It looks like they are finally waking up to this.
5
The Democrat trickery you refer to but don’t describe is two centrists dropping out before the vote
and Senator Warren staying in with a dismal result for her.If she leaves the race and her supporters go Tom
Senator Sanders he could still win the nomination.
1
If you think it’s important to add Warren’s support to Sanders’ you need to add Bloomberg’s to Biden’s too.
Biden performed no "miracle." He can barely complete a sentence. He barely knows where he is at any given moment. The centrist/conservative rot in the Democratic Party jumped into a surly primary ocean and hauled the dazed and drowning gaffe-machine back on board the party boat, slapped a hat on him and declared him captain!
The Democratic Party has been captured for 50 years by Republican-Lite types such as these rescuers of old Joe, one of the worst candidates to ever run for president. In doing so, they continue their determination to never allow the party to return to its progressive core, never allow it again to really be the Party of the People. It will remain the party of the moderates, the centrists, the middle, the establishment, the nibblers around the edge of big problems crowd, the willing compromisers with Republicans, drawing ever rightward as they go.
And FDR-like candidate such as Bernie Sanders is unwelcome in this party. A movement of energetic, idealistic, compassionate, intelligent, bold and innovative progressivism is unwanted. They want to play it safe.
But is it so "safe?" The "safe" Democratic candidates lost in 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2016. Worse, the "safe" strategy lost the House, the Senate, 13 Governorships, 816 state legislative seats... oh yes, and a Supreme Court seat in recent history.
Now let's see if wobbly Joe can steer the ship, or whether another wreck is dead ahead.
11
@Russ I can't argue with any of these points. My only concern now is beating Trump, and given the fickle nature of the electorate as they get behind Biden, I'm not sure they will do the same for Sanders.
As to the trajectory of the Democratic Party, safely down the middle with a slight tilt to the right, it is and has been disappointing to see how gutless they are in terms of a progressive agenda. As some would say, 'spineless.'
Before Trump became president, I could go several days without wondering what the President of the United States is up to.
Now, one of the first things I think of (unfortunately) after I get up is "Oh no, Trump is still president. What is going to do now to damage the country?"
Biden is not my first choice, but if he is President, I am sure he will appoint a head of the EPA who wants to improve the environment and believes climate change is real, a secretary of education who believes in public schools, etc.
Biden would be just fine.
6
The problem with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders is not just that they are both old men well past their prime. That problem is bad enough, as neither one has any business running for the presidency. Age is a medical condition that affects a person both mentally and physically. We don't want our first 80-year-old sitting in the Oval Office.
But the bigger problem is that both men are poor campaigners and even if elected, would make poor presidents. Even if they were spring chickens, both men lack the pragmatism and the people skills to get things done. Both men have been professional politicians their whole lives, and have no accomplishments to show for it.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have two very different personalities and political philosophies. One of them has to win the nomination. But let's hope whoever it is loses the presidential race. We can't afford to have either one of them as the chief executive of the United States.
2
"Socialist Bernie is going to raise your taxes and take away your health care"
Good luck beating Trump when the above add is plastered across the battleground states.
These are the reasons Joe will prevail and the guy is good. He might not excite new voters but will at least not turn away voters like it happened in 2016
6
Congrats to Joe Biden! He did not do it himself. Buttigieg and Klobuchar helped him tremendously. They were very admirable. But the fact that he could combine forces shows that Biden is a very wise and good leader. I hope he will find an excellent running mate who can bring energy and hope to the country.
7
All the old white men vying for the presidency. Shocking. But I like both Joe and Bernie. At least with Bernie, the U.S. would have a hope of implementing a health care system that the rest of the industrialized countries have had for decades. Just please beat Trump, whoever it is left standing.
6
No, the numbers were always there. If we added up moderate vote for all the candidates against Bernie votes (Warrens voters are right and left of Bernie), Biden wins. At least when the facts count.
When drama exceeds reality it will be Bernie in 2020.
3
My overwhelming reason for 'riding with Biden' is this:
Look who he has to call upon if he needs to:
President Barack Obama and Former First Lady Michelle Obama.
All of the superb people who served for and with them during the 8 years they were in Office.
Unlike the current president* he is not afraid to pick up the phone and ask for help. His ego is firmly in check, he knows that its not a battle of who is the most powerful but rather what is best for US, the USA, the people.
He also has lots of experience on his own, and sure he has made some gaffes, who among us has not?
Bernie Sanders needs to do the right thing, suspend his campaign and throw his support behind Joe Biden. We need to focus on the big picture, not on independent goals. That big picture is getting the Presidency back before it can be further tainted by the GOP.
6
Here's what I hope for: Sanders withdraws from the race, endorses Biden, tells his voters the country is facing a crisis and they have to work as hard for Biden as they would have voted for him. Sanders then joins with "the Squad" as Biden's representatives in the more left-leaning states, pushing for the election of a Democratic Senate and House.
Biden explicitly states that he recognizes the obvious: Sanders' proposals have a ton of support in the country, and many deserve to be adopted. Most importantly, health care is a human right and we need to take it back from insurance companies, corporate CEOs, and big pharma by making sure there is a public option -- heavily subsidized and available to all -- that is much, much better than what insurance companies offer.
13
@mitchtrachtenberg Of course. Excellent strategy. Why is it that what is so clear to 'average' Americans seems to elude politicians? Is it ego? There would be a landslide election were Biden and Sanders to work cooperatively.
3
@CC I'd guess it's exactly what you say: mostly ego. But candidates also, as a matter of course, tell their followers that the world depends on their election, and it's difficult, once having done that, to turn around and tell them that the world now depends on the election of someone else.
Perhaps someday candidates will start telling their supporters that what *really* matters is that their party comes to power, regardless of who wins the primaries, and regardless of whether the party's candidate supports particular pet proposals. But is anyone who would say that likely to run for President? Or win primaries? Perhaps not.
Won’t happen, no matter what Bernie says. This is more than just Bernie, this is the progressive wing of the party voicing our disgust with whatever the DNC stands for these days.
1
Biden didn't perform a miracle. Would that he had. He seems adrift, giving speeches filled with lines out of some sort of politician's handbook. The miracle workers were Clyburn, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and now Bloomberg. Biden has been gifted the lead after a lackluster start and abysmal field effort. All the people involved in those other campaigns need to jump into Biden's and jumpstart him as a candidate and the campaign as an operation or Trump and his minions will eat Joe alive and he will be 0 for 3 as a presidential candidate.
4
Based on no data at all I would like to believe that many Democrats appreciate a very old school quality in Biden: Loyalty.
He was and is loyal to Obama and to the traditional values of the Democratic Party like fairness and compassion. In these very unsteady times some of us cling to those ideals and have less taste for lecturing and over the top rhetoric.
9
@EN Trump is all about loyalty, too.
@CC Yes, but only to himself.
The Vice President of the United States who was in the White House for 8 years pulls out a notable but not earth shattering lead over an Independent Senator with no party backing and no Super PAC?
Biden should be crushing it. His opponents should have no chance against him given his background.
By all historical standards he is absolutely underperforming across the board.
This is no Miracle, its barely achieving the numbers a VP should achieve.
It's more like a 'Whew, survived that, hopefully I can keep just pulling it off'. More liberal states are coming up.
We will see.
6
@Steve Wall Street Silicon Valley Hollywood entertainment industry big oil big Pharma big insurance big sugar big coke...are all breathing sighs of relief. They will continue to plunder Mother Earth as before, without ever being accountable. Pharma health care complex hospitals physicians will continue to charge patients most expensive medicine on earth.
That’s what Biden victory means.
Meanwhile our children grandchildren will live in a future wasteland we call planet earth.
2
@Steve Huh? He was terrible in debates, had no money, did not even compete in many states, but beat your guy Bernie.
1
@Irate citizen He is a former Vice President of the US with full support of the DNC all established Democratic party institutions and nationwide name recognition and access to all levels of government across the country. This is true no matter who I would back. It's silly to pretend he shouldn't be crushing it.
Also, were did I write Bernie is my guy? Your assumptions are showing.
Frank Bruni. I'm actually somewhat surprised that you are surprised about Mr Bloomberg dropping out. My thought from the day he announced was that he never wanted to be President. He brought money to the race and I said bring it on to counter the private donors to the faux president. He was just biding his time. He was one of the reasons the Dems took the House in 2018 and he will continue with his work to support the down ballot races during the 2020 elections. I'm hoping for a Biden/Stacey Abrams ticket!
5
@J. Clark With the support of black voters, it would seem evident that Biden will choose a black running mate.
In 2016, when Trump won the nomination, the republicans decided to stand united behind him regardless of whether they were anti Trump or not.
The DNC prefers to play dirty games by having candidates opt out to favor their preferred candidate: Biden . A man who flunked every debate he participated in, and whose program consists of the usual fluff.
I played along in 2016. Will see who wins the nomination. But I will not give my vote away nilly willy in 2020.
5
@Francoise Hembert
There was no wrongdoing here. And Francoise has certainly not provided any evidence of wrongdoing. The debates were reality TV. We need a real president, not a reality TV president. I believe Warren was the best candidate. It is sad that she never gained traction. Her campaign made a few strategic errors but I'm afraid the larger reason was gender.
As Frank writes here:
"... his impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Biden’s Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery."
2
Mr. Bruni, I like your newsletter . Today you seem giddy with the thought of Biden winning, but, as you know, it is because of the trio dropping out like dead flies in the last couple days. I will say this cannot happen with the speed it did without the enormous pressure and backroom deals of the corporate handlers and their crony Dems. Just add up the numbers. If Warren had dropped, just as the trio dropped out, Sanders will have wins in Texas, Mass, and NC. Some good news though is that the delegate allocation is proportional, so all the noise about Biden winning states, as just that- more noise than the substance. Though the news is not so good for Sanders. This spells four more years of Trump. Remember 2016- the corporate Dems (aka Clinton) vs. Bernie. It is a rerun of that movie. I know you would not like four more of Trump. So a bit of a surprise that you are so giddy today about a Biden win.
6
@Vijai Tyagi
"I will say this cannot happen with the speed it did without the enormous pressure and backroom deals of the corporate handlers and their crony Dems ..."
That is not factual. Klobuchar and Buttigieg have both said they were not pressured by anybody. And nobody could have pressured Bloomberg. They are smart people. The proper way forward was clear. There is no need to conjure up divisive and inflammatory conspiracy theories. By the way, it is looking less and less likely that Warren's supporters will flock en masse to Sanders. Her supporters like her precisely because she has everything he has and so much more besides. Her strengths are his shortcomings. Plus they don't like the whack-a-mole misogyny that has plagued his campaigns.
2
@Vijai Tyagi aWw Liz Warren’s daughter is also married to a Tyagi.
@Robert
Do you believe they will say in public or give a hint, yes, I was pressured to quit? Or, that a carrot was dangled before me. Time will ( or not) reveal.
They are indeed smart people, as you say.
I guess many among us are the ones who are not so smart, and they know that - that we the 'voting' people are gullible and credulous. They are in the business of manufacturing the consent of such people.
This is in sum the whole business of politics.
It's a house fire. And we've finally decided that we can't put it out by setting the other side of the house on fire or by preemptively burning the whole house to the ground. The Democrats do all agree, for instance, that good and affordable health care is an inalienable part of the right to life, liberty and happiness. The road to that shared goal, among others, might very well pass through Joe Biden, who could, in the end, be the more effective vehicle for the aims of the Sanders supporters. After all, the route to the Medicare amendment to Social Security, to the Civil Rights Act, and to the Voting Rights Act went through a master legislator and southern Democrat from Texas. And the highway to the Social Security Act, the WPA and the rest of the New Deal went through a rich elite Hudson Valley and New York City insider who had inherited his wealth. Contingent on other aims, e.g., winning back the Senate, if Biden is the nominee, he simply must offer places in his administration to Sanders, Warren or other advocates for their program--and they simply must accept those offers.
7
Voting for Joe Biden is voting for the Democrats and this party has shown plenty of talented people during the nomination process. Decency and talent both is needed. One doesn’t need to be excited about Biden but about the prospects of making America decent again. I am glad Bloomberg stopped wasting money and started to focus on change.
5
I would say it is less of a miracle and more that the Democrats know this election is about ridding trump and all he stands for from government. I want a president we can ignore 5 days a week to quote an unknown source. It's time to take the Senate and the WH so the Dems can, again, clean up the mess the Republicans leave (see Obama, Barack).
15
A miracle for some, a nightmare for others. We had a number of exciting, energetic candidates. The Democratic establishment chose to sacrifice two of them to stop Bernie. They succeeded in corralling the voters behind a decent good old boy. But we all know that Biden's prime time has passed. He lacks sharp mind. He lacks new ideas. He is profoundly uninspiring to those voters who demand real change. It might take another miracle to mobilize progressives and independents to vote for him.
13
@Liba No one 'corralled' me or any of the other voters. The people voted. The people spoke.
I did not vote for Bernie, but I respect the right of each individual to vote their choice and I respect Bernie's supporters to vote their choice.
Please, just respect my ability to make an independent, informed choice and do not make assumptions that I can be 'corralled.'
Vote Blue no matter who and let's bring on the Big Blue Wave - 2020!
2
Strange idea that the Democrats establishment killed their talents for Biden. A party is so much more than one person. Biden is not Trump there is plenty of space for all the talent to contribute and build a better place.
1
@Interested9
My guess is that the Democratic party put pressure on Buttigieg and Klobuchar to drop out to give Biden a fighting chance. As a result, voters had fewer moderate candidates to chose from. In my opinion, both Buttigieg and Klobuchar were stronger candidates than Biden.
I certainly respect your choice, but you have to respect my choice not to "Vote Blue no matter who."
1
All of the 'witty' and sarcastic comments against Bernie's 'bros' is exactly the reason why the people who voted for Bernie won't vote for Biden. That is at least 40% of the democrats when it's all said and done. I have found only two or three journalist who at least try to seem objective; the other ones don't hide their contempt for Bernie and his followers. Same with the DNC in general, they should at least try to be a little more objective and less obvious. Sure, it might work to get Biden elected as the Democratic candidate but it will surely cause them the election. Maybe they already know and just rather have Trump rather than Sanders
9
The issue here is not whether to put Sanders in charge of our country and changing its direction in a way we badly need it, or have old uncle Joe just reversing the things Donnie the Liar has done, but to have somebody who can really stop the immoral and shameless president we have from destroying what it took us 250 years to build. Sanders, sadly, could not do it and that is why Joe needs to win, at all costs.
1
@Fabian - Look in the mirror and also read the whines and conspiracy theories of Bernie’s supporters and the put-downs of those who chose Biden instead of Bernie. After you do that, maybe ask yourself why so many people dislike so many of Bernie’s supporters. Maybe WE don’t like being treated as people controlled by the “corporate media” and brainwashed into voting for an “establishment” candidate, instead of fully-aware and informed adults who have excellent reasons for not voting for your hero. Btw, from just WHICH media do YOU get your info on Bernie? Other supporters’ tweets in adoration of Bernie? Do you have a secret source of uncontaminated media info the rest of us aren’t privy to?
Mike just dropped out and endorsed Biden. It is clear now that the DNC are not fighting to stop Trump, they are fighting to stop Sanders.
12
@John Maybe because only the centrist/establishment candidate can beat Trump. That's just the opinion of this Independent centrist.
6
@Jo
That's shortsighted at best, conspiratorial at worst. Most Biden supporters aren't voting for him because they agree with all his proposals; and the people endorsing him don't do so solely to stop Bernie; they think Biden has the best chance of beating Trump, just like you sincerely believe the opposite.
2
Great news for the health care industry (one sixth of the economy). All those profits (and many jobs!) are safer this morning from the radical, dangerous and untested reforms that the Extreme Left has in mind. Biden will save the system, along with its high deductibles, byzantine pricing and large unexpected bills. It's the American Way.
7
ACA brought down costs, insured millions more and health services have led every sector of growth in the last ten years.
4
ACA didn’t bring down my costs.
1
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." -- The Rolling Stones
6
Bloomberg bowed out.
If Warren does not do the same and endorse Sanders, with all the respect I have for her I will really reconsider my opinion of her as a person of principles.
Sanders path to victory is viable only if she proves she hold her positions as progressive dearer then her personal ambitions. If there was 1 percent of chance of her getting the nomination , i wouldn’t be writing this. But there is none whatsoever and if she continue then she is destroying the chances of the nomination going to progressive. She went to Clinton in 2016 and did sway the nomination. I hope for her sake that she doesn’t decimate her chances of another run in four years with
drowning the only left on the field progressive chances. As she did it once in retrospective as Clinton was a woman, a respectable reason even if some considered it opportunistic. But this time is a game over choice. Come on ms. Warren.. shows the famous principled stuff of which you seem and claim to be made of. Super pacs mistake, Indian mishap, healthcare swing, all that pales to nothing considering
what you chose now. Show them how it is done when a powerful woman loses with dignity and defends her own political kin.
7
Good luck winning the election with the progressive wing refusing to support Biden, as well we should. I’m excited to see Biden lose handily.
8
He will get crushed as would any of the Social Democrats. The party is way too far outside of anything that could be considered mainstream. The good news is, four more years of Mr. Trump and probably the House back in Republican hands.
2
@Timothy Hall Your progressive way of thinking got us Donald Trump.
As livid as I am about the democratic forces that rigged the outcome of this primary.
@Timothy Hall You care about politics, not policies that affect people.
1
A miracle, more like a mirage !
There is nno way these old men are going to be able to take Trump on, he has a record to stand on, these men will fight each other to a draw, then Clinton will steal it and the media will love her for it.
This was more a coup than that miracle shot Joe needed. The two candidates the previous day, Amy and Pete sold Bernie out, schocked me as I thought Pete was a Bern Bro at one time !
So let's call it what it is, Democratic cannibalism.
18
Sir, you could not be more wrong. There is a desperate scream in this country for a return to decency. Take your blunders off.
...but Bloomy invested wisely, $500MM to win Samoa. Mike can get it done!
3
Biden also got lucky. The Establishment Wing united behind him, but the two candidates from the Progressive Wing continued to split the vote. When you combine Bernie's votes and even just part of Warren's it's clear that the Democratic Party is more evenly split that Biden's win suggests. Biden truly won in states that will never go blue. Bernie and Warren won in most of the states that will matter. Biden's challenge now is to make sure his win is not a pyrrhic victory.
8
Bernie has only won in 2 blue states (California and Vermont, only one of which matters electorally). He also won in two purple states (New Hampshire and Colorado). So not sure what you mean when you say won in the blue states that matter for the future...
2
If you add Warren's wins to Bernie's, it would be a different story. Seems that the progressive agenda is strong, but Biden just benefited from the in fighting. While I was all for Warren, she could have done us a favor and stepped back to let the progressive agenda, one of ideas and goals, succeed. Now it is just Joe who is a sad commentary on what America has to offer. This is pathetic.
I doubt he can beat Trump, but Joe, in your pandering to put a black woman on the Supreme Court, I will always remember how you railroaded another to put a black man on the Supreme Court. You are not so decent.
10
Biden's resurgence, with the backing of the Democratic establishment, including the Democratic National Committee, is hardly a miracle.
What would be a miracle is the DNC allowing Bernie Sanders to be the nominee.
12
@samludu
Bernie is independent not a Democrat. Bernie has been in the senate for close to 30 years and he still talks about establishment. He and his followers disparage Democrats and yet they want their vote. In 2016, majority of Berni supporter either voted for Trump or did not vote at all.
4
@Shim
False. But keep spreading lies about 40% of Democratic voters. That strategy is bound to pay off in the general downballot races.
In 1968 I campaigned for Eugene McCarthy for President in the Democratic primaries in Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, and California, where the whole process fell apart with RFK's assassination. LBJ's vice president, Hubert Humphrey, got the Democratic nomination, and the Humphrey/Muskie ticket was narrowly defeated by Nixon/Agnew.
I was just 24 then, a rather self-righteous, indignant college student prone to look for political purity. There were many of us that year; some of us proudly wore our FMBNH (For McCarthy Before New Hampshire) pins and sat out the general election; I think I wrote in Dick Gregory for President, or maybe I just fantasized I did because I wanted "purity."
So we got Nixon instead, Agnew in the slammer, Watergate, the pardon, etc. etc. Hubert Humphrey died in 1978 of cancer. He wasn't perfect, but better than the Republican crooks who came into power back then. We just didn't know what crooks they would turn out to be.
This time around, the entire world knows what crooks we're dealing with. To my fellow Dems, please don't sit out this general election with a bad case of "purity pique." Too much is at stake, and it's not just a little burglary at the Watergate; it's our very democracy.
22
@RDS
Nothing quite like backhanded compliments to get out the vote for independents and 40% of Democratic voters.
You're too ideologically pure. Lighten up and vote for us!
Good luck with that strategy.
I’m a registered Democrat but will not vote Biden. The party has neglected a large constituency for too long and gotten behind a misogynist with dementia. Basically, the DNC hates young voters. So, based on that, the DNC can go to heck. Trump 2020.
Thank you Sir! Very well said, I hope the progressives hear you loud and clear. Take a leaf out of the books of the Republicans, they hold their noses and vote for whoever the party puts up and they get RESULTS! Please please to all the Dems! Don’t be self righteous, even if it’s a rabbit who wins the ticket, make sure you all turn out and vote!
Regards
Concerned Nigerian
Okay, Bernie voters. The electoral map for the remaining Democratic primaries clearly favors Biden. Now would be a very good time for you to take a minute and reflect on your continued support of someone who will not win the Democratic nomination.
Those of you who voted for Trump instead of Hillary in 2016 (and this was some ten percent) [https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds]
cost us the election. You handed Trump the win.
You believed Bernie "deserved" the nomination even though he got 4 million fewer votes than Mrs. Clinton. We are headed for a replay, and your candidate showed us last night, Bernie and his ideologues did not expand the base or bring out new voters.
So think long and hard about your vote in November. And think about how your vote will hurt the rest of us, as it did in 2016. Roe v Wade will be gone. Hispanic children will remain in our internment camps. And hate crimes will continue to skyrocket, as they have done these past three years.
People of color, women, religious minorities - these Americans have never been on you "conscience", so I'd suggest you start now.
I'm a woman of color in my 60's. And my life, and the lives of tens of millions of other Americans like me have been made immeasurably worse with Trump in office, than had Mrs. Clinton won, while yours certainly is not improved. Just remember who will be paying the price for your tantrum this time.
17
@Orion Clemens Dear ms. Clémence, i don’t have as much as « skin in the game » as you do, but seen US position as the first world power and the immense impact its policies has on everyone’s lives i will dare express my positions vs yours.
First, in 2016 Bernie Supporters went on voting in higher numbers for Clinton then Clinton’s supporters in 2008. Numbers are in the public domain.
Second, despite the official DNC bias for which they officially apologized to Sanders, After the roll call in 26 July Sanders put forward a motion to formally nominate Clinton, which passed by voice vote. He meanwhile endorsed her almost two weeks preceding that event.
After Sanders lost the primary to Clinton, Jill Stein of the Green Party offered to let Sanders run on the Green ticket, but he did not respond to her offer.
He made
Here is extract for New Yorker of the same period
« As Sanders finished his speech in Raleigh—“We have to do everything that we can to elect Secretary Clinton!”—Clinton and Pharrell were on their feet, cheering. “Wow!” Clinton said, when she took to the rostrum. “Whew! I gotta say, after hearing from these two extraordinary men, I feel all fired up and ready to go for the next five days!”
He did 39 rallies to support her, speaking very passionately on her behalf.
So do you see why I disagree with the common myth that Sanders supporters are the reason why Clinton lost? He never answered her demeaning attack and comments. Sanders supporters did their duty as well.
1
The Bernie Bubble might finally be collapsing. He has looked strong gleaning 20-40% of the vote because the rest of the field was so fragmented. His performances are consistently below those of 2016. He has not brought out the level of turnout he keeps proclaiming he will get, and he has not been able to make significant inroads with the African-American vote, older voters (who turn out more than younger ones), suburban women and moderates who are going to be crucial to the swing states. I think we may have seen peak Bernie. Joe can win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and probably Wisconsin, crucial to the electoral college. The best outcome of this primary season would be for Biden to win the delegate count prior to the convention, and avoid any messy convention fight or accusations of being “robbed” by the party.
5
I’m so disappointed. With Biden it’s going to be more of the same. Yes, Biden would be an improvement over Trump, but then we are back to an old school legacy candidate. Being VP under Obama is not a program. This country keeps looking back instead of looking forward. Beating Trump is far from enough. We need real change and someone with fresh ideas. If Biden is the Democratic candidate, I’m seriously considering not voting in November. I live in NY, so it won’t make a difference, but I’m tired of old establishment white guys calling the shots. They do not represent us.
13
Understand your position, but thoughts like “it won’t make a difference” are what got us Trump.”
So here's asking for a miracle - Biden & Bernie uniting on a ticket. Biden promising to incorporate some of Bernie's progressive ideas and push his envelope, Bernie acknowledging that Americans may not yet be ready for his revolution and promising to work for his issues from the inside. Because other than that, I don't see any way to get a truly united Democratic party which seems to look like four more years of Trump.
6
Agreed. But don’t discount the contributions of Mayor Pete, Amy, Yang, and Elizabeth. They may be out now but they brought energy and challenged the extremes. They show we aren’t all the same but we share some common goals. Don’t erase them because the two old white men emerged. Maybe the story of tonight is not that Biden found his way, it’s that voters showed (More even than the party could) that they want a calm, steady force to lead the country _ not return it to some imaginary past of peace _ but lead into an era or working together to go after the biggest challenges of our time.
2
What a difference a few days makes for sure sir. Especially after a billion dollars worth of free pumping the Biden tires from the NYT and MSM who don’t apparently use a dictionary confusing authoritarianism/dictator with social democracy.
Biden is an old hack, nice guy, but come on, centrist, don’t think so, how about Republican Capitalist? He’s not going to do anything other than try to make you feel good.
Your in deep trouble. That means we all are. The best we can hope for is the U S return to some kind of sanity. For the sake of us all. This kind of opinion piece reads as a desperate attempt to avoid something that could be very good for the citizen. But no. You have to feed the greed and the omnipotence of cruelty demanded by the capitalist system against your fellow citizens.
Shame.
4
No, he didn’t. Clyburn was in the wings long before and many followed his lead, as expected. Not to make Biden’s comeback any less great, but would it have been possible otherwise? Biden kept saying with certainty that he would win. How did he know? What will Clyburn get?
3
Ironically, Pete Buttegieg’s father, Joe, was an Antonio Gramsci scholar. Gramsci was a founder of the Italian Marxist party. Gramsci insightfully said of the crises produced by historical cycles: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born. In this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
This is our current condition: as the world changes at breakneck speed, the old paradigms – conservatism, moderation – are dying because they are no longer adequate to address the challenges created by the rapid change e.g. income inequality. Yet we cling in desperation and fear to the old ways, to the Joe Bidens, so that the new – bold progressive social change – cannot be born. And thus, we will continue to experience “morbid symptoms” because the old ways are insufficient to relieve them.
Even if you get rid of Trump, all the conditions that produced him will still be there, festering and destroying the social fabric. “Moderation made flesh,” and “a safe …harbor” will not put a dent in income inequality, healthcare needs, education, and climate change.
So voters think that a return to “civility” and incrementalism will make everyone feel better and solve our urgent problems? Dream on. It’s nothing more than a collective whistling past the graveyard.
12
More ironically, you think that nobody who voted Biden ever heard of Gramsci or his most-famous line, and that we all desperately need a lecture on problems that many of us have worked on longer than you’re been alive.
The single biggest flaw in Marxist theory is probably still the claim of privileged access to Truth.
I hope people realize that some of us are just as afraid of Joe Biden as people are afraid of Bernie Sanders. Watching last night’s primaries was like watching the election returns from 2016.
There are two reasons for this: 1) We are desperately afraid that a Biden presidency will bring no real change, that we’ll continue to bankrupt ourselves for health care, that wages will stay so low and so flat that we work two or even three jobs, that student debt will follow us to our graves and keep us from buying homes or having children, and that the climate will continue to deteriorate. As far as health care is concerned, it isn’t even just the money, it’s access to care and a “system” that is so complex that dealing with bills, coverage, deductibles, co-pays and co-“insurance” is literally a part-time job if anyone in the household has a serious chronic illness. I don’t think Joe Biden is a bad man, but he’s so far removed from the lives of everyday Americans that he simply doesn’t understand how angry and discouraged people are.
2) The second issue is trust and the DNC. The contract that the DNC signed with Hillary Clinton’s campaign shattered the trust of many long-time Democrats. The current Bernie pile on, the scaremongering and the blatant favoritism just adds to that.
We are afraid and feeling increasingly hopeless.
14
Perhaps if you stopped re-chanting the same inaccurate talking points, and the same fantasy about Conspiracy, it would help.
And I’m tired of this, “Be very afraid, they’re all the same,” nonsense. Because what I suspect you’re really doing is prepping your alibis for not voting.
Again.
Now that we have a Democratic nominee for all practical purposes, we need to work hard to make sure Trump, the most unpopular president in US history, loses in all 50 states. Democrats must get supermajorities in the Senate AND the Congress.
23
Maybe democrats are finally coming around to the idea that, after years of hyper-divisive far-right politics under Trump, America wants a centrist rather than a divisive far-left politician.
14
Yesterday's primary elections in so many states answered a lot of questions clouding the fractured Democratic Party.
Within the party it is whether we think we need political moderate-status quo-incremental change or radical change to get our country where it needs to go fast?
The answer was "moderate" for a lot of reasons, such as bringing in the Independent vote (42% of voters) and the Electoral College swing states since that is all that really counts in the end.
Since removing Trump from the presidency is the #1 concern for Democrats, another question was should that Democratic person be a fighter (like Bernie, Warren, Bloomberg, and of course, Trump)--fight fire with fire, as they say.
Or should that person be a contrast to Trump's strung-out histrionics and emotionality (like Biden and Buttigieg)?
But Buttigieg is out, although I always felt he was most like Obama, whom I really miss, especially in the heat of this coronavirus epidemic and in his deep respect for the Constitution.
But, if the Democratic candidate is Biden, as it may well be, I just realized while Trump is going to call him "Sleepy Joe," Biden may be able to turn Trump's outrageous appeal to voters' amygdala against him.
So many of us are exhausted from Trump's hyper-emotionality and irrationality. Biden is what Trump is not: experienced, respected, nice guy.
This may be the biggest change we need to vote for in 2020.
6
1. It is time for Obama to endorse Biden.
2. Bloomberg needs to drop out and endorse Biden.
3. Biden will then crush Sanders.
4. Biden will then crush Trump.
5. We get our country back, the insanity stops.
25
@vbering You'll get your country back in 2024 after Trump completes his second term.
Thank you!
I love the phrase, "The longest way round is the shortest way home," which I always remember from James Joyce's Ulysses. Is that what you are remembering with Edward Albee? I think Joyce may have taken it from something else, maybe the Bible? Someone will know. I wanted to say that I live in Massachusetts but I voted for Joe Biden, not Elizabeth Warren. No one I know here ever talked about voting for her. I tried to convey that to the NYT after you endorsed her. She is more popular nationally. People like and respect her but they don't love her the way they loved Ted Kennedy. Or the way they like Charlie Baker or the mayor of Boston. I don't know of anything she's done to help struggling cities like New Bedford. That being said, Biden is just such a nice man. It was incredibly cruel and soulless for Trump, Giuliani and Lindsey Graham to go after his last remaining son,, esp one who has had a drug problem. Most people probably understand that it is just very dirty, vicious politics. Run on the issues and your accomplishments!
8
@P.A. I get what you're saying. Starting up a government agency from scratch that protects consumers from financial predators doesn't really help the MA electorate at all, does it? But hey, Biden's a "nice guy!" One that can't keep his hands off women.
There are a lot of issues and problems and some are very difficult ones with complicated solutions. Bernie doesn't have all the answers and, worse, there is no chance any of them get through the Congress. He doesn't have enough support from the Dems. So why elect him ? A revolution ? LOL. Sure, the country wasn't ready for a black president and you want to try to sell a 'revolution' ? First you have to win the WH and then you can address the issues. Otherwise you're sitting on the sidelines carping and complaining which is so much easier now isn't it. While the world passes you by. Get up and vote for the person who can beat Trump.
5
When I saw the headline "Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle", I thought it was referring to the obvious and ridiculous cosmetic procedures that try to make Joe look decades younger.
4
Mike Bloomberg will help Joe dump Trump and he’ll help us ditch Mitch.
17
Bernie's "impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Biden’s Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery." Democrats, Bernie fans -- Aren't we super-duper sick-and-tired of this immature nonsense? Wasn't Trump's manipulated conspiratorial paranoia and sociopathic reality-bending enough for you? If you're not better than this, can you at least stifle it, as Archie Bunker would say?
7
"Joe Biden Just Performed a Miracle"
With respect, Joe Biden did not perform a miracle. It was first James Clyburn's endorsement, then a flood of other key endorsements that propelled Biden's sudden rise. I'm not a Biden fan, but I will vote for him. Anyone but Trump. AnyTHING but Trump. A bag of stale peanuts on the Oval Office desk would be a better leader than the phony president.
But make no mistake, Biden is another white guy, and one who is past his prime. America needs someone younger, more mentally agile, more in tune with the present and coming changes. Amazingly, out of more than 330 MILLION people in America, we can't find someone more in tune with our needs? We have computers in our palms, but how much have we really evolved as a people?
5
Klobuchar for VP.
A hearty congratulations, not just to Joe Biden, but to the team of sane Democrats, to Buttigieg and Klobuchar and Beto, who came through and set the country's future above their own ambitions. Here's to the center.
18
The miracle wasn't Biden's. It was the powers that be in the Democratic Party and probably a few phone calls from Obama.
Biden's performance in the debates gives us a grim peak into the debates against Trump.
6
Let the bros have their moment. They're entitled, right? Just ask them!
2
One request. Please stop characterizing non-Bernie supporters as the Democratic establishment, parroting Bernie's campaign rhetoric. We are just voters who for a variety of reasons chose not to vote for Bernie. We were not told who to vote for by power brokers in the Democratic party (if those even exist anymore). We are tens of thousands of individuals who made up our own minds. Benie's campaign may write us off as party shills, but I would hope the NYT would show a little more respect.
23
Biden did not “perform” a miracle. Biden got a miracle from the electorate and from Buttigieg and Klobuchar getting out of the way.
7
@Susanonymous Biden got a miracle from the DNC and party leaders.
We have had a narcissist sociopath as our president for almost four years. What we need as a country right now is a responsible adult to be in charge of our national and foreign policy. Joe isn't perfect, but he is the best remedy for the national nightmare of Trump.
19
Another luke-warm vote for a luke-warm candidate. Apparently voters in the ST states felt that a safe nice guy had a better chance than an emotionally challenged stupid sociopath. They may be right. Bernie's time was four years ago. History happens. The world is spotted with the ruins of peoples who went extinct as peoples. I'm beginning to see how it happens.
4
Wednesday morning: Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive.
4
Mike Bloomberg has the money Trump pretends to have, the intelligence Trump wishes he had, and the character Trump has never felt the need to have. Now Mr Bloomberg, thank you for your gutsy campaign, thank you for being one of the grownups in the room, and I hope you stay in the race in a new role.
14
For all of Bernie's talk about his ability to turn out a multi-racial and multi-generational coalition, that narrative was plainly exploded last night. In fact, the data I've seen indicate that Joe was able to muster some of the Obama coalition, and I desperately hope that he is able to sustain it.
What was also made clear last night was that the Democratic establishment didn't deny Bernie's quest for the nomination. The voters spoke and they decided that revolution doesn't appeal to them following the chaos that we all are experiencing daily. Here's my suggestion to Bernie and his supporters: lose the grievance. It's exhausting and you can't beat the whiner who currently occupies the White House.
Lastly, I thought what was interesting about last night was that Bernie largely under performed across the board compared to 2016, so I wonder if 2016 wasn't so much the genesis of Bernie's revolution, as much as it was a protest against Hillary.
6
Enough with the theories that it is an establishment selecting Biden. No, it is the voters who are picking Biden.
23
I second that. We did not meet with the party establishment.
Bloomberg got a terrible return on that investment? It was fun money (something like 0.9% of his net worth) for him and I hope he follows through with his promise to spend as much in supporting the nominee going forward.
7
It is not clear if the race is over or not. Because of early voting Sanders may appear to still be a viable candidate when it really may all over. Sanders needs a comeback next Tuesday big time. If Sanders can't succeed in his goal of having the left wing populists take over the Democratic Party the task will lilely fall to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (assuming Trump and the Republicans do not manage to turn the US into a right wing authoritarian state in the next few years). She would likely become the leader for those left wingers who thoroughly detest center-left Democrats and want to get more action then they feel the center-left can provide in order to finally really address income inequality.
1
I asked my super-liberal neighbor who he was planning to vote for in our Primary next week. He said "Joe, because it's the only possible hope for a whitehouse replacement."
Joe needs to appeal to those of us further left with an actual healthcare plan that will not leave us in a constant state of fear, about losing everything to one health care episode.
6
@YReader Or else what, you'll vote for Trump? Do you think a President Biden will just let ACA die on the vine rather than push a legislative program of which ACA was only the first step? Please, stop scaring yourself into despair.
What happened to Bernie Sanders between 2016 an 2020? Donald Trump happened, plain and simple. The absolute necessity, not just for the Democratic Party regulars, but overwhelmingly for a very large number of regular folk voters, is to beat Trump in 2020.
Biden's next step is to follow Thomas Friedman's excellent advice on February 25 here in the NY Times, "Dems, You Can Defeat Trump in a Landslide". Want a radical move to unite the party right now? Name Elizabeth Warren as Biden's running mate. Her views on issues like medicare for all, a suddenly important issue as COVID-19 hits, align with Sanders. Name her VP now, and unite the party.
Then in 2024 and 2028 we can afford a bit more messiness, as the party's young like AOC, Pete Buttigieg, and the newly elected in 2018 come to the forefront.
7
Does Biden have any policy platforms to look forward to? Can anyone lay out a compelling case to vote for him?
Biden doesn't seem like a safe bet to beat Trump - he seems like the ideal candidate to lose the 2020 election. Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 against an insurgent Trump, who had fractured support from his own part.
Now, facing an incumbent president Trump with the full support of his party this time, I don't understand how Joe Biden has a chance.
I hope I'm wrong.
4
@Alec You ask: "Can anyone lay out a compelling case to vote for him?" Yeah, he's not Donald Trump
@Alec we are all hoping you are wrong alec
@CJ That was not a strong enough case for Hillary. What makes it a winning case for Biden?
I'm disappointed in the results and not at all excited about Biden. But he at least seems to be a functioning adult. At the end of the day, that's better than what we've got right now.
2
@AJ He is? that's up for debate actually.
2
Joe Biden should ask Elizabeth Warren to be his VP. I would certainly feel better about his chances of winning if he did and she accepted the offer.
4
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren is a brilliant, mentally capable, senator with no baggage who perfectly represents a compromise between the Sanders camp and the Biden camp.
She's the only candidate that could bring the party together.
Everyone would be a little disappointed and no one would feel enraged - the sign of a good negotiation.
This Biden/Sanders (corporate establishment v. populist) run is going to be just as much a disaster and just as divisive for the Democratic party as it was in 2016.
Sadly, we're committed to repeating the past, but without a woman. The opposite of progress.
4
So, can you feel the country knitting back together again? At least the Democrats? I'm sorry to see Bloomberg go because of the need for competency and resources he brought to the table and the prospects he would bring those to the election and the presidency. I hope Biden will include him in the next administration. Bloomberg did prove one thing to date: you can't buy the nomination...but the Presidency fight could still be strengthened by his participation and investment. Let's hope so. DEMS NEED TO WIN if only to defeat the virus we know Trump will include in the list of the many ways he has infected the country.
4
Bloomberg spent $500 million, which is the equivalent of the average american spending about $1000, based on his net worth vs the average net worth. Sometimes things don't work out, but he's in his 70s - why not indulge? He could spend $500 mill every presidential election for the rest of his life and not really make a dent in the lifestyles of his great grandchildren.
4
Perhaps the majority of Americans who voted in yesterday’s Democratic primaries set policy differences amongst the candidates aside, and decided that the solution to the current yelling, angry, finger-pointing president wasn’t the yelling, angry, finger-pointing candidate and opted for the candidate who better projects calm, empathy, and decency.
15
@JFB Calm, empathy, and decency didn't mean anything in the 2016 election. I don't see any reason to think that they will mean anything in 2020, either.
2
Bloomberg's ads may not have gotten him many votes but they made great attacks on Trump so I'd say he still spent his money wisely.
9
The speeches given by Biden and Sanders last night could not have provided a more stark contrast between their personas and their approach to politics.
Biden hit at Sanders, but overall his speech was uplifting and hopeful, about unifying the country. Sanders' speech was all about conflict and fighting and rage at the evil "billionaaahs," with his audience booing on cue.
Achieving political aims requires combat. But leadership requires a happy warrior, a general with a sunny and optimistic disposition which keeps the troops' heads up when things are tough. Biden has that in spades. Bernie is a dyspeptic, dour and angry, and on the rare occasion he actually smiles he looks like he has a toothache.
9
The Democratic Party's leadership is so old they think it's 1972 again. They'll practically say that. The party learned the exact wrong lesson from that election.
McGovern was a progressive and got trounced, so Democrats decided they could never win if they ran on the courage of their own convictions. What happened? They lost over and over for decades, each time telling themselves it was because they were too progressive, and in the process they became liberal Republicans. This country's progressives have been and continue to be locked out of power. That's as much due to the Democrats' feckless cowardice as it is to the Republicans' autocracy.
Biden won because people are scared. They're afraid that if they vote for someone they believe in, they'll lose. So they pick someone who looks and acts just like every other president and pretend they're doing the smart thing.
9
@Andrew Roberts they are doing the right thing....the only sensible thing
No matter who the candidate it will be an unpleasant and dirty campaign. This may be the last free election in this country. I don’t think the base quite understands what they’ve unleashed here; but then T did say he loves uneducated people. No wonder
4
Trump is happy now. He got the guy that he can easily beat in November. Biden makes too many gaffes and will fumble his way to defeat, likely turning the House Republican also. This might be an opening for a viable third party candidate who can win enough Electoral College votes to throw the election into the lame duck House. Then watch Trump defy the Constitution. Time to consider individual states joining Canada and leaving the red state dregs to sift through the damage.
3
Policy doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that President Dump is in our rearview mirror come November. Don't care if its Biden, Bernie or Mickey Mouse. Hope the Bernie bros feel the same way, though i have my doubts. Hope I'm wrong. We will need every vote.
4
@Citizen The Democrats pretty much handed the election to Trump in November.
Biden is a lackluster candidate. Trump is the incumbent during a good economy. Trump is going to win. In throwing your weight behind Biden, you just lost.
I'm one of those "Bernie Bros". I don't see why I would ever support your nominee when you call me a "Bernie Bro". You shouldn't disrespect people like that and expect to get their vote.
Honestly, I don't feel the same way. I'm more invested in the fight over the future of the Democratic party than I am in beating Trump. Like I said, you shouldn't call people like me "Bernie Bros". But I'm not why you will lose. Like I said above, the economy is said to be doing good and your nominee is lame anyways.
2
Just imagine how little work the pundits would have had for weeks and months had the Democratic Party foregone the ridiculous caucus in Iowa and the unrepresentative primary in New Hampshire. I sincerely hope that, going forward, the system will change so that the REAL candidate who represents to overwhelming number of votes of the Democratic Party can be defined early and clarity can be seen through the muck of these endless debates. There can be no doubt IN HONEST MINDS that Biden is the man to stand for the Democrats. Warren is a hopeless egotist and Sanders isn't a Democrat at all (and should not be allowed to call himself one under any circumstances). It was Biden who brought out record numbers of voters last night and while I absolutely had my doubts and might have called him "sleepy" in private, I am more than joyous that he's rejuvenated his campaign and I DO think that he will be able to send the gangster-president packing in November and thank heaven for that!
1
I still don't see how he is the candidate to beat Trump. He repeatedly sticks his foot in his mouth and his son's troubles are easy targets to use to attack him. (Yeah, him sitting on Burisma's board was legal, but the optics were and still are terrible.) His policies that are stuck in the 1990s and we need someone who can address the problems of this century. Catering to the banks and big business will not help income inequality. It's so depressing that we went ffrom a diverse roster of candidates to one that's basically "which decrepit, screaming old man would you like to vote for?"
6
A couple of weeks ago, I "knew" Sanders was going to win the nomination. But then Sanders' old Castro comments surfaced, and then he doubled down defending them. That could have been his "shoot a man in the middle of Park Avenue" moment. But it wasn't.
Then the coronavirus hit and the stock market crashed. This works against both Sanders AND Trump: Bernie is the cool uncle who gets into political arguments at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Trump is the obnoxious uncle who gets drunk and makes racist remarks. But Uncle Joe is the steady, reassuring one who tucks you into bed.
Research shows that people become conservative and risk averse in times of uncertainty and upheaval. When the stock market is soaring but ordinary folks are suffering, Bernie's revolution sounds appealing. But right now, it's time for Biden, the political equivalent of comfort food.
4
Actually what happened is that the useless young voters were too busy playing with their cell phones to bother and turn out and vote for Bernie. His hitting up the older voters to pay off the youngster's college loans is not happening.
5
Because the status quo Democrats have again rejected the progressives and the future, those progressives are now with the anti-establishment Trumpsters. Biden and his moderates will be crushed.
6
The People have spoken. Democrats have said that they prefer a peaceful march toward oligarchy to fighting for power.
The country is just tired and beaten.
The frog in the water on the stove has spoken and he is too tired to jump out of the pot. He doesn't mind being cooked as long as the heat is low enough so that he will reach an unconscious state before death. The rich and the powerful will give the rest of us as little as they can and take as much as they can to maintain power and economic dominance. America is no longer the America of F.D.R. It is now and for the foreseeable future the America of Reagan.
6
People who think Biden will be undone by his gaffes are mistaken. Gaffes under immense pressure are just a human foible that everyone occasionally makes. There's no comparison between Biden's gaffes and Donald Trump daily egregious lies.
Trump makes those lies in full knowledge that they are lies. He doesn't have the decency to apologize to those he offends who often face death threats because of his cruel vindictiveness. He has no decency or genuine compassion for others.
Therein resides Biden's strength. There's no question in voter's mind who is the most decent man, the most compassionate man, the man who is most like themselves. Biden is that man. His gaffes can be laughable, but after the laughter, there is the forgiveness because Biden HAS heart for others and he reveals it. He's the real thing. Donald Trump is the supreme fake...like his Trump Foundation, like his 'University', like his non-existent business acumen.
Voters, in November, will be looking for the decent man to replace the preening narcissistic liar who has inflicted real damage to the ideal of civil discourse and competent governance for ALL the people. They will turn to Biden enthusiastically to restore those ideals where they belong once again. Trump's presidential days are numbered.
5
Frank--
Love your stuff, but no need to call Joe and Bernie "old men". Are they older men? Yes. But your choice of words disparages the energy and idealism of these two remarkable fellows. Will you or I have that kind of spunk when we're "older"? You might hope so...
4
I just wish that the Bernie Bros will stop saying that the DNC has done it again - robbed Sanders of victory.
Liberal Democrats aren't stupid. We read, we attend their talks, we check out Youtube.
I am a Yang Ganger, because I hear and see the sense of what Andrew Yang has to say and how we can solve the problems of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
I'm not a Bernie Bro because I don't believe in his solutions, be it the Federal Jobs Guarantee, the Wealth Tax or medicare for all without private health insurance options for those who want to top up.
So give me a break, I voted after taking into account what each person had to say.
4
Mike’s out because he doesn’t need to run anymore. The American oligarchs are well-represented in Joe.
3
Biden didn't do squat- obviously there was an intervention to coalesce around him.
And just curious.... How is Biden any different than Hillary? To me, it looks like we headed to a repeat of 2016. Then afterwards, Dems will say "Gosh, we just don't understand what happened!". I, for one, am defecting from the Democratic party. Because of the cronyism and caring more for Wall Street than regular people. Look at actions, not words. "Sad", as Trump would say.
7
@Jennifer B. I'm really worried that this reaction is going to be a lot more widespread than the Democratic Party realizes. I can't think of a single compelling reason to vote for Joe Biden, apart from the fact that he isn't Donald Trump. That point will only get him so far.
It's like we didn't learn any lessons from 2016 at all. Clinton at least had one compelling reason to vote for her - a female president. Biden doesn't have that appeal. Honestly, I'm struggling to see what appeal he does have.
3
@Alec Absolutely more widespread than DNC realizes or commenters here can comprehend. I voted for Hillary with some enthusiasm but won't vote for Joe nor will my husband. The Democratic Party is banking on dread and fear of four more of Trump equalling a win for their preferred candidate (sacrificing nothing themselves) and not only are they wrong they are as culpable as the Republicans in keeping Donald Trump in power.
3
Actually it wasn't Joe Biden who performed a miracle. It was a relatively small number of African American voters in South Carolina who rebooted the national discussion.
If you like the outcome on Super Tuesday, thank and reward those who made it happen.
9
The article states “Many anxious Democratic voters have been itching to unite behind a candidate so that everyone can then turn their attention and focus their energies on getting rid of Trump, and they needed just a few prompts to do that. They got those prompts over the past 96 hours” well, sir, you are spot-on about that! We need Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg to do the right thing and drop out now. My voting-age young daughter and I watched the results last night feeling great stress. Every time another state was announced in Joe Biden’s favor, we both quietly said “thank God.” We simply cannot have Bernie Sanders as the “democratic” candidate. A great deal of gratitude goes to Mayor Pete and Amy Klobucher for making the right decision in stepping aside for the sake of normalcy. Joe Biden will certainly give them important positions if he is given the opportunity to do so. Decency … Experience … Bringing our country back to being respected around the world …. That is what we will get with Joe Biden and the chance to remove the despicable creature(s) that now spend time in the White House.
3
This was not Biden performing a miracle. This was Democrats exhibiting a disheartening and short-sighted lack of courage.
3
The media was a little hasty to crown Sanders as the champion based on such a small, pre-Super-Tuesday sample size.
3
I hope Biden or his close advisors read Tom Friedman's recent opinion in NYT. NOW is the time for him to select and announce his choice of running mate and some of the former contenders for nomination who have agreed to serve on his cabinet. It will be as Friedman predicts: a shellacking of Trump of HISTORIC proportions. Trump would win only the states in the unreconstructed deep South, not something to be very proud of. Biden in 2020!
6
Mr. Biden won because We The People are exhausted by the present 24/7 diseased reality show of incompetence, hubris and incivility. Yes, we want change, but first we have to excise (?exorcise) the cancer and heal the wounds.
Results like this give me faith that American democracy is once again rising like a glorious phoenix from the Trumpian abyss.
4
@Cambio Destructor personally, I would have preferred it if 2020 would give us the chance to excise ACTUAL cancer and heal ACTUAL wounds.
So, best case scenario, Trump is out, and we still can't afford to go to a doctor. Hooray?
We can't forget how hard Trump worked to neutralize a Biden candidacy. He worked at it for the last year and a half. Till the last two debates, every time Joe took the stage he had that hanging around his neck. What the Super Tuesday vote suggest to me is that the Democratic electorate just said the heck with Trump wants. We won't be bullied anymore. The devious, underhanded, corrupt and repulsive manner in which the Republicans and these latter-day Trump-pests ply their political tactics need to be stared-down and brushed aside. It obvious Biden has the ability take Trump down and the Democratic electorate will make sure that happens. It's about taking our country back.
7
Biden won in states where he did not spend a dime and did not even show up to campaign. How can sander's "organization" and "ground game" explain that? Voters choose Biden. Period. Full Stop. He won because Democrats like HIM better than they like Bernie. That is not a conspiracy! Real Voters, Real People choose Joe and they should at least respect that instead of treating that choice as some kind of SiFi Remote Corporate Mind Control. I hope Sander's supports will help Joe clean out the putrid, souless, foul wretch that now dwells in the White House.
5
"In his stead was an exuberant, articulate champion."
Exuberant maybe, but articulate? Puh-lease...
1
Bernie still thinks that a bunch of kids in L. L. Bean down jackets comprises a "Movement." The trouble is that those down jackets rarely show up when you need votes.
4
James Clyburn performed the miracle. Followed close on by Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
It goes in the file marked Better the Devil You Know.
6
Let's have a two-hour Sanders-Biden debate and give voters who wanted a "safe" candidate a good look at what they just purchased. Next up: buyer's remorse.
6
@brixton77 - I couldn’t stand to hear and see Bernie Says-Alot-Does-Nothing for two hours.
@A Dot Not going to happen anyway. The DNC has to protect the ball now. They have a candidate with clearly impaired cognition and a very complicated past (NAFTA, Iraq, Student Loan bankruptcy protection, etc). He's lost without a teleprompter.
For the DNC, there is zero upside to agreeing to a bunch of debates in which Sanders, still very sharp, gets to grill Biden on any of this record. I expect a VERY limited debate schedule.
It appears that Biden will get a massive landslide win in Florida. That should be decisive.
2
Biden’s victory is only surprising if the observer has ignored black people for the last year and a half. Not everything is about “policy.”
Biden has very deep ties with the African American community. Sanders doesn’t. That’s not a judgement on Sanders. It’s just a fact. And that fact was reflected by the vote yesterday.
I sincerely hope Sanders supporters can avoid repeating the same mistake of 2016. Look, if Sanders isn’t the nominee, don’t let your hurt feelings stop you from voting for Biden. Please.
Getting rid of Trump is priority number one. And if you consider yourself a progressive, an ally of oppressed people, then you will be able to swallow your pride, and vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is, even if it’s not Sanders. Do NOT repeat the same mistakes you made back in 2016.
7
@Austin Ouellette
When your biggest problem with Trump is allegedly about policy, yes the general election (and the primary) is about policy.
Instead of back-handed insults at Sanders supporters, it should behoove the Biden camp to act more graciously. Aping support when you don't really mean it shouldn't be hard. As you said, Biden does it all the time with the African American community.
@Austin Ouellette Couldn't it be argued that one way to repeat the mistakes of 2016 would be to nominate an equally establishment candidate with even less appeal? I didn't love Hillary, but I could at least be excited about the prospect of a female president.
Joe Biden is about as exciting as stale white bread.
Here are some takeaways: Voters are less influenced by policy than by personality. Warren ( "I have a plan for that") was drubbed in her own state. Unfortunately, Trump's victory in 2016 also supports this thesis. Second, money can't buy you love. Bloomberg's millions couldn't overcome his disastrous performance in the debates and his monochromatic personality. Third, Americans by and large are politically middle of the road. All in all, we have a pretty good life (OK not so much for some) and the cry of revolution is just not appealing for most us, especially if you have some gray hair. Fourth, male presidential candidates have an inherent advantage over females. This isn't to say we won't someday have a female president but it will be someone who not only hits all the qualification buttons but is able to connect with voters on an emotional level in a way that is unique to the distaff side.
Now let's go and beat Trump.
4
Hope the Millennials stand up and not sit out this time. It’s way too important.
4
@Corky They're barely turning out for Sanders - which of course saddens me.
But if they aren't showing up in great enough numbers to vote for the candidate they like, what makes you think they're going to show up for the candidate they don't?
3
I think we all need to recognize that the Honorable Representative James Clyburn is a world hero! Because of his strong endorsement, the miracle started in South Carolina, and grew on Monday with the endorsements of Joe Biden by Senator Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Senator Harry Reid, and Beto O-Rourke, not to mention the multitude of other solid Democrats (not socialists). Now the Democrats still running need to focus on who has the best chance to beat the terrible occupant in the White House. It is clearly not a revolutionary favored by the Russians, as they correctly figured that he would be the easiest for that present WH occupant to beat.
3
In a replay of this newspaper's campaign against Bernie Sanders--even when it violates the most basic tenets of honest journalism--we see little news and much editorializing in what is supposed to be reportage. Biden's victories in yesterday's voting may mean a number of things but there was no "roaring" in evidence; it was more like a collective sigh of relief from the anti-Bernie forces that Biden got a majority of the delegates up for grabs. A look at the map on the front page of the paper, moreover, reveals that Biden's victories--with the exception of Wisconsin, which has aligned its politics with those of Alabama and Mississippi of late--come from the states of the old confederacy. It would be interesting, since the Times has described Biden as a "healer," for the paper to spell out the nature of the wound Biden is dedicated to healing, particularly since most of the wounds the country continues to suffer from originate with the Democratic Party's own deeds over the last few decades.
3
A miracle?
After 2 candidates drop out on the day before, then endorse him?
6
Biden did not perform a miracle, and he is not back from the dead. He just failed to follow the narrative that the popular media spins on daily basis. The bias towards recency, and prevalence of 'the sky is falling' reporting was busily writing Joe off when, in actuality, the race had not really even begun.
You call it a miracle. I call it Trump's re-election.
7
Just an observation:
Health Insurance stocks up today.
7
That's right; Joe Biden is the 'Come-Back Kid', and one of our finest fighting Irish. Born in New Haven, my Irish-American father in 1969 invited the rural people of Co. Limerick to follow him up the countryside lane, farmers, merchants and doctors, shouting 'No More Apartheid!', and we joined him, all at one.
Joe Biden has what the French call a 'gentillesse', a kindness in his eyes, and he might not always fight best for himself, but far better for others and the greater cause.
Thank you, Sir, for giving some Americans a green sweep of hope and a sense of renewal, something to cherish with love and belief, i.e., our Country from poor to to rich, our States, led by decent Americans and their core values.
Descendants of Richard Bennet, one of the first governors of Maryland, our eyes are smiling, and please give our warm thoughts to your spouse, Dr. Jill Biden, for this moment in March, when America rises high as an eagle in the sky.
1
I've been waiting for this moment since I first heard Biden speak in the East Wing of the Capitol building in the early 1980s. He had just recovered from the terrible tragedy of the deaths of his
wife and baby daughter in a car accident--I believe he was at the wheel.
At any rate, he had me at "Hello" and I have been following him closely ever since. Indeed, it is his time, and his day. And I'd bet my bottom dollar he picks Amy Klobuchar as his running mate--Jean Evans Hardy, Alpine, Texas
2
"And Sanders’s impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Biden’s Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery."
I'm sure African American church goers in South Carolina will be thrilled to know they are now "the establishment," according to the Bernie Bros.
3
TOLD YOU SO. What most People want, in one Word: Decency.
Congratulations, Uncle Joe. You the Man.
4
Oh come on the partys diversity was on full display, and they chose Biden. Just because Biden is white doesn't mean he isnt representative of a diverse coalition.
2
Biden did not perform a miracle. The “liberal” press spent months denigrating Sanders in his behalf, and the corporate donors pushed their people to endorse him. He won because of successful fear-mongering and an anachronistic attempt at red-baiting.
6
The Establishment is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be unnatural...
1
Seems to me the sudden love for Joe Biden is very much a fear of Bernie Sanders
1
I’ve got some sobering news that might put a damper on Times and Friedman’s gushing. The democrats are about to enter one of the longest, messiest, protracted fights their history, all this before even mentioning Trump.
Biden who needs subtitles to be understood, and can’t tell his own sister from his wife, sounds completely senile, perhaps more so than Trump. Biden has no hope of ever uniting anything lest of all the Democratic Party. Take his awful behavior in town halls for instance where his inflexible world view, irritability, and disregard for voters on the campaign trail came out in ugly relief.
And worst of all he represents nothing, no idea, no plan, no convictions. I’ve never met a single person who has said “I’m really excited about Biden” ( ok maybe only a few people Hi-fiving in the Times Oped section.)
Lest we forget his dark past supporting the Iraqi war, Mitch McConnell, and larger institutions of sexism, racism, and inequality that created a Trump in the first place. Biden hasn’t drawn the scrutiny or ire that Sanders has probably because nobody took a candidate that barks words seriously. However I expect that this will change as we take a closer look at Biden, the ideal candidate for the defeat of the Democratic Party.
6
“We hold these truths...” Joe said. “We’ve never lived up to (these words), but until now we’ve never run away from them.”
2
From what I am reading many people voted for a doctor to heal the nation, rather than the candidates like Warren or Sanders who would carry on the legacy of FDR, programs directed for the restoration of the middleclass.
5
Joe must hold forth and command the stage moving forward. He’s suddenly in the position of closing the deal, and the sooner the better Dems settle on a nominee.
1
When you see the vast majority of those over 65 choose a candidate they seem to have no genuine affinity for, for a candidate the vast majority of the young would do anything for, you are making a case that a passionless moderate base is more powerful than an energized and committed progressive one.
As much as we talk about class warfare as the defining fight of this election, it seems more likely we are involved in a fight between generations. They have taken our passion and engagement for granted and essentially responded with a condescending finger wag that they know better. When so many of the problems that disproportionately plague our generation happened on their watch, why should we listen?
Trump's win has been a catalyst that may have been the best thing to happen to the progressive movement in decades. If I have to hold my nose and vote for a candidate, don't assume it will be for the democrat.
4
Despite all the talk about the black vote, the exit polls in states Joe Biden won made it clear: this was an absolute generational beatdown. People 45-70+ overwhelmingly voted for Biden. Black, white, whatever. It didn't matter. And the younger voters that Bernie needed so badly were nowhere to be found.
4
I’m finding myself tallying up the delegate points for Biden vs. Sanders as if my life depends on this. I so want Biden to be our president, and I soooooo don’t want Sanders. If it were, say, Biden against any Democrat (but Tulsi), I wouldn’t care so much, because either would be good. Not so with Bernie.
3
There are no such thing as a 'miracle' in our divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states where the American people wield and hold the ultimate sovereign power over their elected and selected hired help.
Joe Biden is a politician.
Joe Biden isn't a priest.
Politics is the natural human antithesis of human supernatural theology.
Until this past Saturday in South Carolina Joe Biden was a career politician and two-time Presidential campaign loser who had never won a Democratic Party primary.
Until yesterday Joe Biden had never made it to Super Tuesday as a Presidential candidate.
Joe Biden wasn't the smiling,smirking, hacking, interfering and meddling 2020 Democratic Party primary choice of Vladimir Putin and his henchman Benjamin Netanyahu to lose to their mutual pawn pet puppet Donald Trump.
1
Clyburn, the Afro American communities, Pete Amy and Beto really accelerated Biden into Tuesday. Fantastic to see the Dems rallying with Biden in support. The uniting part and the sympathetic part of me. But..
Biden seems so fragile to me. One thing..truth is stranger than fiction..
3
Healthcare for the 60 million Americans that dont have it or cant afford to use the garbage insurance they have got crushed last night.
6
OMG, we’re headed into another Chicago 1968 Dem Convention, without the war protesters! Look what that gave us. Nixon.
2
Sage advice here to Biden team: DONT STEP ON YOUR OWN CAPE. Write it on your hands.
1
A Biden/Abrams ticket. What do you think?
Biden doesn’t need Abrams’, and she had high negative numbers and a Pete issue with voters of color
Amy, Pete , and Tom quitting gave this to Biden. The DNC is going to make the same mistake they made n 16.
5
I can hear all the lefties crying in their cereal this morning. Without Bernie, no free stuff: healthcare, college tuition, childcare, no taxes, etc. A great night for sane Democrats.
5
@MB , a great night for sane democrats...true, but especially for those of us who know the most important goal is to band together to beat the evil trump and his band of sycophants. If Joe hangs tough he can do it. Bernie was too left for most of us AND he had zero coattails.
@MB a bad night for anyone who doesn't want to see four more years of Trump.
Hillary Clinton couldn't beat him. . . but Joe Biden can? Really?
As of this moment, Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg share the Tulsi Gabbard award for tilting at windmills.
Great, now the US will be able to choose between two people who can’t put a sentence together without saying something stupid.
5
Great, now if he can just figure out which one is his sister and his wife we will be just fine. Trump will destroy Biden, he is NOT Obama. Biden's main wins are in the heart of Trump country.....False hope.
5
What happened to the Golden Girl, Warren, who is the choice of the Democrat elite? Why is someone with fresh ideas losing to “same old” Biden?
3
Joe Biden is ROCKY.
Just wait till Fox News and the GOP machine kicks on.... running tape on the Anita Hill debacle, Hunter Biden and his shady dealings / drug addiction / love triangle and being unemployed paying $12K a month to live in the elitist enclave of Bel Aire, California.... and of course, "sleepy Joe" is going to turn into "creepy Joe" as they run the pics and videos of him being awful about personal space and touching women in unwanted ways in public... some of these critiques do have merit.... also, the NY Times and Warren should feel deep shame.
5
Mostly lies , those , believed by the mostly Trump supporters . I have an open 100.00 bet that trump NEVER debates whoever the Dems nominate
I voted for Sanders, am in my 6th decade, and am neither angry nor in a froth over conspiracy theories real or imagined. But I’m sad.
As we know, Sanders voters heavily skew young. And with apologies for throwing young voters under the bus, they can be overly dramatic or animated. Their absolutism can be aggravating - so plenty of the criticism is deserved. (Take heart, young people, old people are getting it next - read on).
So to the sagacious older voters here who know “electability” when they see it, I earnestly ask - and would value feedback to - the following two questions:
1) Market-friendly, neoliberal incrementalism has ruled the democratic center since Reagan. That’s forty years. Forty. So how is our quality of life, fairness, sense of empathy, and health of the planet looking to you?
2) If we - the old people - have been the driver for every democratic admin since 1980 (we have), what do we think about imbuing the younger vote with a bit more weight than that which we allocate to ourselves? If we are guessing wrong here - and there’s a bit of a precedent -who will be on this planet the longest to experience the force of that decision? (Hint: it won’t be you) If somebody is going to screw this up - shouldn’t it be your children and grand children - who will be learning, growing, and experiencing life on this earth long after we are dead?
We had our chances. I think it's a shame we can’t give them theirs.
8
Hmm, now I have to buy a big fat, black permanent marker and scrawl "Biden" onto the face of my Mayor Pete yard signs.
. . . actually, that could look pretty good.
Biden/Buttigieg
Has a ring to it.
-C
2
Picking Pete as VP would crush Biden’s Black support
*sigh* Another old white dude. And yet -- Biden may have the ONE quality in abundance that Trump and his corrupt and inept administration completely lack -- decency. So while his age and his "Joe" factor (foot in mouth) bother me, while the perpetually troubled Hunter bothers me, I do not question if Joe has the decency it takes to make the petty little man in the White House look like an unwelcome interloper.
3
Black people don’t seem as worried about his whiteness as white people are
Sheep marching into the slaughterhouse because they’re used to the farmer. We have a slim chance to avoid an apocalyptic future for our world. Biden leads us to our death.
3