Why Biden has a distinct advantage moving forward in the Democratic contest

[RandySF]

One of the key ways in which a Democratic presidential nominating contest differs from a Republican one is that the Democrats, true to form, have a much more egalitarian way of distributing delegates. In Republican contests, many primaries are winner-take-all (win the state, get all the delegates) or winner-take-most (hopefully self-explanatory). In the Democratic contest, any candidate who gets at least 15 percent statewide or in any congressional district gets a cut of the delegates at stake.

In the abstract, it’s a feature that rewards candidates who stick around and continue to campaign. In practice, though, it very quickly means that a candidate with a lead can hold it. That’s one of the reasons that former vice president Joe Biden now has a significant advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic race.

Before we dig into this too much, we need to offer two caveats. The first is that, as of writing, it’s been less than a week since Biden’s campaign seemed to be on life support. Things changed swiftly once Biden won South Carolina on Saturday, and things presumably could change just as quickly in some other direction. This is admittedly a cop-out; what such a dramatic change in a different direction might look like is hard to imagine. But it’s 2020, and everything in the universe is in flux, and that flux might yield some earthquake before sunrise tomorrow. Who knows!

The second caveat is that Biden might not actually have a lead at the moment. The vote from Tuesday is not entirely final, and the delegates who were at stake in the more than 180 contests that day (every state and every congressional district in those states) haven’t been finalized. That’s the case especially with California, for which there are scores of delegates to be determined in a state that Sanders won. Sanders’s lead could fade or grow, both of which would affect the delegate math.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/05/why-biden-has-distinct-advantage-moving-forward-democratic-contest/

[msongs]

1. biden's campaign is inclusive, the other guy's is exclusive....

biden welcomes establishment dems and non-establishment dems too
biden welcomes people with all sorts of health care solutions, the other guy..umm not
biden welcomes all working class people
biden welcomes all middle class people
biden welcomes people of all income levels...the other guy not
biden believes people in mississippi are important

[Laelth]

2. I think that Biden has ALREADY WON the Democratic contest.

The Washington Post is just having a sad. There’s no horse race any more to talk about.



-Laelth

[beachbumbob]

3. highly unlikely any significant outcome in delegate count for sanders to take a lead is possible

matter of fact I see Biden has gain some delegates on Sanders in California at the moment 93% reporting and Joe has 116 to sanders 167

[msongs]

4. one suspects 93% reporting does not equal 93% counted nt

[beachbumbob]

5. that is correct, they are still counting nearly 3 million

I believe.