It seems that all is well in Democratland, now that the socialist intruder has been driven off by the forces of the Sensible Center. We are now to understand that we have been saved from the prospect of Sanders becoming the nominee, which would have been a disaster, since he could never defeat Trump (although to be sure, there is no actual evidence that this is true.) Bernie, we are told, is a bad candidate, so that means Joe Biden...must be a good candidate?
Tthis is where I lose the thread of the pro-Biden argument. Since the start of his campaign through Super Tuesday, Joe Biden has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a terrible candidate. He has been incoherent and confused in both debates and on the stump and he drags along a questionable voting record on everything from the Iraq War to the anti-consumer, pro-credit card company bankruptcy law, to the handling of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings and the humiliation of Anita Hill.
Now, it may well be that by the time November rolls around, Trump will be so unpopular that he would lose to a bag of doorknobs, and Biden will be elected, in spite of the above-noted flaws. But, if that’s true, than surely almost anybody : Sanders, Bloomberg, Harris, Warren, Buttigeig, in short, anybody, would also defeat Trump, and just about anybody would be a better President than Uncle Joe, if his performance on the campaign trail is anything to go by.
I do not recall hearing anybody explain exactly what it is about Joe Biden that makes him such a formidable candidate, other than the oft-repeated and impossible to test mantra “he’s the only one who can beat Trump.” Do people like his immigration policy, his health care policy, his position on military spending, college loan debt or the filibuster? Is anyone supporting him for his policy positions? Does anybody even know what they are? Will Democratic voters be inspired by his record as an ally of noted progressives Jesse Helms and Robert Byrd in opposition to busing for school desegregation?,
The media, Wall Street, the Democratic wire-pullers and the powers that be clearly believe that they have had a narrow escape from a repetition of the 1972 Republican electoral landslide, when the “radical” George McGovern was the Democratic standard bearer, but it is all too likely that they have simply set the table for the same kind of “success” enjoyed in 1984 by Fritz Mondale, and the ultimate safe candidate in 2016.