Why Joe Biden just won
The thing about presidential primary debates is that they’re generally only watched by people who are politically inclined enough to care about who ends up being the nominee. These same people are aware that the 2020 Democratic primary race is effectively over, and that Joe Biden is going to be the nominee. So other than the people who simply love watching this kind of thing, and the people who can’t find anything else to watch during the coronavirus lockdown, not many people were even watching tonight’s debate.
This meant that most of the American people would end up judging tonight’s debate not by watching it, but by scanning tomorrow morning’s headlines. If the headlines ended up saying something like “Joe Biden struggles against Bernie Sanders,” then that would be a clear win for Sanders (and frankly for Donald Trump). But instead, Biden just made sure that the bulk of the headlines will all be about one thing.
Joe Biden has been strongly hinting for the past week, and subtly hinting for the past year, that his running mate would be a woman. During the debate tonight, he went ahead and confirmed it. But he just ensured that the media coverage of the debate will largely center around this bombshell. Biden also repeated his commitment to putting the first black woman on the Supreme Court, meaning he’ll get headlines for that too.
Biden also just set off a whole lot of speculation about which woman he’ll pick. This helps his cause, because it helps shift the public’s focus toward the general election. Sanders had an opportunity to also commit to a woman running mate, but he seemed caught off guard, and he merely said it’ll be likely. This means most headlines will simply say that Biden has committed to a woman running mate, with only secondary mention of Sanders. In other words, Biden won the debate.
