Everything is coming up Biden
Joe Biden has always been ahead in the polls in South Carolina, despite a recent media narrative that he was somehow “in trouble” in the state. But thanks to Biden’s strong debate performance and the endorsements that have come his way this week, the media has let go of that notion, and seems to be embracing the reality that Biden has momentum heading into South Carolina. The thing about momentum is that it tends to create even more momentum.
The media is now beginning to accurately report on the South Carolina polling averages, which show Joe Biden having a double digit lead. Most people are now aware that he’s likely to win the state. This is coming even as Bernie Sanders keeps saying increasingly bizarre things about Fidel Castro, while attacking the Democratic Party, and still refusing to properly rein in his most out of control supporters. It’s made a lot of people realize that if Sanders is the nominee, he’ll very likely find a way to lose to Trump. This week has also created the perception that Biden is the best hope of preventing the divisive Sanders from taking the nomination, and therefore Biden is the best hope of defeating Trump.
Perceptions can change, of course. But this week I keep seeing supporters of various other mainstream Democratic candidates (Pete, Amy, Steyer, and even to an extent Warren) saying that they’re considering voting for Joe Biden on Super Tuesday because they don’t want Sanders to be the nominee. This is a big deal. Sanders has only been getting thirty-something percent of the vote. The only reason he’s in first place is that the other sixty-something percent of primary voters, who don’t want a divisive megalomaniac for a nominee, have been splitting their votes among all the other candidates. The reality is that the majority of primary voters don’t want Sanders. The only question has been how that majority was ever going to find a way to unite behind one of the actual Democrats in the race.
So it’s a big deal that forces are aligning behind Joe Biden as we speak. If he does win South Carolina on Saturday, it’ll only serve to strengthen the perception that he’s the one who can defeat Sanders, and thus save us from Trump. It’s always tough to predict precisely how the numbers will play out in a primary race, particularly with this many people in the field. But Palmer Report did warn you up front that the race would likely hinge on South Carolina. It always does.
