Joe Biden’s Prez bid in trouble
After Iowa, Joe concedes he’ll lose in NH
Manchester, Feb. 9: After suffering a drubbing in Iowa and bizarrely conceding he will likely lose New Hampshire’s Democratic primary next Tuesday, Joe Biden is under immense pressure to turn his floundering US presidential campaign around.
The popular former US vice president has been the national frontrunner for more than a year, but his enviable position is increasingly under threat, and rivals - including a socialist-leaning senator and a small-city mayor smell blood in the water.
The 77-year-old moderate is being eclipsed on the campaign trail by mostly younger candidates with sharper stump speeches, more hustle, and telegenic debate performances.
An average of polling in New Hampshire, which votes Tuesday in the firstin-the-nation primary (following Iowa’s troubled caucuses this past week), shows Biden plunging from first place to third, behind Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
“To not be concerned I think would be foolish,” acknowledged Bidenbacker Will Johnson, a 23year-old law student from northern Pittsburgh, said in one of several conversations voters had with
AFP about the candidate. “Hopefully a more concerted effort is made by the campaign to really push out the vote and get people to support Biden,”
he said, adding Biden was “the best shot we have” at defeating President Donald Trump in November.
The big crowds, however, are going to Buttigieg, 38, and Sanders, 78, the two candidates who won the most votes in Iowa and are leading in New Hampshire.
Biden took a day off the trail Thursday, five days before the primary, to huddle with top advisors about the path forward.
But instead of coming out swinging at the start of the next day’s debate, Biden committed a glaring unforced error.
“I took a hit in Iowa, and I’ll probably take one here,” Biden said onstage, startling Johnson and other supporters who are looking for him to grab the reins, not admit defeat.
Biden, who passed a 2016 presidential run after his son Beau’s death, has seen his path to this year’s nomination transform into a rocky road.