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Joe BidenCongratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
 

Drunken Irishman

(34,857 posts)
13. It's a fair point but Biden needed to step up.
Fri Apr 10, 2020, 12:54 PM
Apr 2020

It was not a foregone conclusion that Biden would romp his way to a win in South Carolina - not after the first three contests. Biden needed to stop his decline and he wasn't going to do that by keeping the status quo.

1) Biden needed a very strong debate performance prior to the SC primary and he got it. Biden had been, up to that point, fairly shaky in these debates and I'm not sure he could have afforded another shaky performance. Not with people starting to openly doubt, fairly or not, his overall viability. He needed to prove to skeptical voters that he actually had life as a candidate.

2) Warren really boosted Biden by going after Bloomberg. Bloomberg - and so did Biden. Biden really needed to showcase to voters that he was the best alternative to Bloomberg. He did. But again, had he struggled to do so in that debate, I think he still wins SC but not by the amount he did and who knows how Super Tuesday turns out.

3) Clyburn. That endorsement was huge. I think it's a big reason Biden won as decisively as he did. I still think he would have won SC regardless but if he wins it by ten points instead, I suspect those doubts about Biden's viability remain and that may have kept Pete and Amy in the race...or they maybe even throw their support to Bloomberg instead.

4) The CNN townhall. Biden had a very raw, emotional moment there and it helped boost him. I feel it was similar to Hillary's NH moment where she teared up over how hard things were. It was a real moment from a candidate who appeared to be done. And while she eventually lost the nomination, had that moment not propelled her to that NH win, Obama likely becomes the presumptive nominee after Super Tuesday, there's no contentious primary, no real crazy division and because of that, it's possible Obama doesn't ask Hillary to be in his cabinet and she remains a senator. But because she got so thoroughly trounced in that run, she decides against running in 2016 and it's a race between Biden and Bernie but four years earlier.

Ultimately, Biden had to prove he could win and win big. But to do that, he needed to step up. What he was doing, especially in the debates, was not working. Biden needed to be more aggressive, showing the party faithful he had the fight necessary to take on Trump, and he did.

So, I do fault Biden's strategy in some ways. I think he played things a bit too safe in the debates and it hurt his positioning. I also feel he let himself get embroiled in silly gaffes that will hurt him in a general. Biden needs to be more disciplined and really needs to play like he's behind because that's when Biden is at his best.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
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