Stephen Kruiser:
“…The prevailing wisdom of the past few months is that this hot mess of a Democratic primary would finally start to clear up a lot after Super Tuesday. With Bernie Sanders stealing almost all of the thunder for weeks as votes finally began to be cast, it looks like the higher-ups in the party decided to get some contingency plans rolling a bit early.
Hot on the heels of Mayor Pete exiting the race, Amy Klobuchar bailed as well, and immediately threw her endorsement to der Bidengaffer.
Both candidates saw the writing on the wall after Biden’s overwhelmingly decisive victory in South Carolina last Saturday. His thumping of Sanders proved that the battle for the soul of the Democratic party was well and truly on.
Rumors began spreading late yesterday that Biden would receive Beto O’Rourke’s endorsement at a rally in Texas. Just as he did in the primaries, Mayor Pete decided to steal Beto’s spotlight and throw his nod to Biden as well.
It no doubt took several hours for his handlers to explain to Biden who Beto O’Rourke was, but it all ended up being a big group hug kind of night.
The message is clear: establishment Democrats are still buying the “Biden electability” argument, despite his increasingly erratic and mistake-prone behavior on the campaign trail. That they’re willing to throw in with a candidate who can’t go an hour without making an incredibly stupid mistake rather than rally behind Bernie indicates that they think socialism is a losing issue.
At least it is if the candidate admits that he’s a socialist. Biden, of course, will be promoting the stealthier socialism that the Democratic party prefers in order to stay on brand.
At the rate Biden has been declining, the Democrats’ best hope may be to just have him stand in the background at campaign events, drooling on a bib and smiling that “Mommy that man scares me!” smile of his while his former rivals speak for him.
Getting help from the vanquished can bring some baggage along with it, however.
Bringing that unabashed gun-grabbing attitude back front and center could be the kind of thing that drives away the very heartland voters the Dems lost in 2016 and desperately need to win back this year.
Anyway, it’s obviously “Biden or Bust” for the Democratic old money, which could turn out even better for the Republicans. The Bernie Bros will not take the Biden nomination well. The party will hemorrhage younger voters who feel that the fix was in again to get an “electable” candidate nominated over Sanders…”
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