Quote:
Originally Posted by Rutuu
Reality points to the fact Biden and his message just appeal to more people.
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Well, no, he is the former Vice President. Name recognition alone has him beating almost all the other candidates. And once they dropped out and endorsed him after Bernie won the first few primaries, and the majority of their supporters flocked to him, it was pretty much a done deal.
I do think it's clearly right that within the Democratic party, the Biden/Obama "wing" isn't so much a wing as it is the core of the party. Sanders's supporters make up a significant minority, but it's still a clear minority.
Being the best candidate to win the democratic primary, of course, doesn't mean you're the best candidate to win the general election. First of all, a relatively small, politically savvy subsection of the population votes in those primaries. The majority of the country isn't paying all that much attention in the early stages. Second, the people you're trying to get to vote for you are all democrats, and it helps to be a party insider in that regard. It's not unlike the leadership conventions up here - Erin O'Toole couldn't win the CPC leadership without making the kinds of noises that CPC party insiders like to hear about being a "true blue conservative". Now that he's got it, he'll pivot back towards the center. In fact, that process started the moment he got the job.
Azure does miss one thing, though, and that's that while Biden is clearly an establishment figure, he has a strong base of support among working class people, which, as a populist, is also one of Sanders' key strengths. He doesn't come across as fake or practiced, people tend to find him genuine. He also has a lot of appeal among black voters, particularly in the eastern part of the country, which is how he murdered Sanders in South Carolina, the first "big delegate" state and the last primary before Super Tuesday. So even if you believe that Sanders and Yang would have been good "general election" candidates (and I certainly see the rationale for that), you should be admitting that Biden is a pretty good one too, for many of the same reasons as Sanders in particular.