BIDEN MAY BE ONLY HOPE TO STOP BERN
Dems must band together or else watch Sanders march to the nomination
Democrats avoided another complete caucus debacle in Nevada but face a stark crossroads: band together behind a moderate or watch Bernie Sanders march to the nomination.
Gulp, Joe Biden, step forward.
“You know, the press is ready to declare people dead quickly but we’re alive and we’re coming back and we’re gonna win,” Biden said Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The former vice president stayed alive — barely — in Nevada with a second-place showing, and needs to pull off a miracle win in South Carolina next weekend to get back in the race, then beat Sanders in some of the March 3 Super Tuesday contests.
That seems a lot to expect from the often bumbling Biden.
But Nevada once again showed that the current field, especially Elizabeth Warren, can’t compete against Sanders for liberal voters, and that’s given the Vermont senator a clear lane to the Democratic nomination.
Sanders even did well among moderate voters on his way to a rout in Nevada, according to entrance polls. That could bode well for contests coming up on March 3 in states like Texas and California.
“Don’t tell anybody, I don’t want to get them nervous,” Sanders said at a victory rally in Texas. “We are gonna win the Democratic primary in Texas.”
Warren, despite her viral debate moment last week, once again fell miserably short in the Nevada caucuses, losing by more than a 3-1 margin to Sanders.
She appeared headed to her second straight fourthplace showing and her prospects don’t appear any better in the next contest in South Carolina.
In Nevada, Warren got just 6% of voters who called themselves moderates — less than even Tom Steyer, according to entrance polls.
That dismal number, combined with Warren’s continued inability to siphon progressives away from Sanders, should be fatal to her candidacy.
So, if not Biden, then can Mike Bloomberg stop Sanders?
Judging by his disastrous debate performance last week, that prospect seems like an uphill climb, even if he continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money.
The wounded Bloomberg didn’t compete in Nevada and isn’t on the ballot in South Carolina, either. His strategy of skipping the first four states is dubious at best and counts on the field being muddled heading into Super Tuesday.
And right now, the race isn’t that muddled — it’s Sanders who’s running away with it. The Vermont socialist got an incredible twothirds of voters under age 30 in Nevada, demonstrating his power among young liberals.
It’s just no contest right now.
Amy Klobuchar? Forget it — she lacks the money or support to make a big impact.
Then there’s the most intriguing choice for a moderate alternative to Sanders, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But it’s hard to see right now where he can win any Super Tuesday states.
The only way Buttigieg can win is if the rest of the moderates flame out quickly, leaving him as the only centrist choice.
The turnout in Nevada — only about 5% of registered voters — once again calls into question the Democratic Party’s decision to allow early states to hold caucuses.
They’re complicated, hard to get to and hard to compile the results — all things that caused the system to crash in Iowa.
Why not force early states to hold primaries and avoid potential problems?
That would make too much sense for Democrats.