Gotta be the oldest combined presidential endorsement in American history. One hundred fifty-five years!
It took until mid-July 2016 for Bernie to finally endorse Hillary Clinton. He was nearly three months to the day earlier than that in endorsing his opponent this year, thanks to three factors:
1. Warmer personal feelings between Biden and Sanders. They’ve been friends for years.
2. A much stronger wave of voter support for Biden over the past six weeks than Clinton ever enjoyed. Joementum was undeniable and overwhelming, not regional.
3. Coronavirus made a long primary infeasible, and potentially dangerous to Sanders and Biden personally.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1249770619769675777
Not only was Bernie much earlier to endorse this year than he was in 2016, he was also much earlier than Hillary was to endorse Obama in 2008, another cycle with a drawn-out primary. It’s rare in modern times for a Democratic nominee to have the field united behind him by April. The last one to do it was John Kerry, who … did not benefit from it in November. Sanders’s support can’t come soon enough for Biden, though, since the effort to reconcile with disgruntled Berniebros will take time. Here’s what Bernie’s campaign press secretary tweeted yesterday, as an inkling of the scope of the problem:
Issues Bernie (generously) never raised about Biden:
✅Credible sexual assault allegations
✅A pattern of unwanted touching
✅Burisma
✅Lying abt civil rights recordIssues which are relevant to Biden’s electability argument — (his only real appeal):
See ✅s above. https://t.co/IFQZPMShtk
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 12, 2020
Just six weeks ago it seemed like the fateful question for the general election campaign would be whether Democratic normie voters could make peace with the thought of Bernie Sanders as their nominee or whether the center of the party would fracture between an accommodationist “anyone but Trump” wing and a rejectionist “never socialism” wing. Now the fateful question is whether progressives can make peace with Biden or split into “anyone but Trump” and “never centrism” camps, with one of those camps far more likely than the other to have influence over a Biden administration. I think that’s a key reason why Bernie decided to join the accommodationist wing, especially since he’s unlikely to run again in 2024. All that’s left for him and his movement near-term is influencing the Democratic leadership. They won’t be the leadership themselves. The choice this fall is thus between (a) Trump, (b) Joe Biden owing them nothing, and (c) Joe Biden owing them a favor. The choice is obvious.
Team Trump moved quickly this afternoon to tar Biden with socialism by association:
“This is further proof that even though Bernie Sanders won’t be on the ballot in November, his issues will be. Biden had to adopt most of Bernie’s agenda to be successful in the Democrat primaries. One thing that is missing is enthusiasm, however, as almost no one is excited about a Biden candidacy. And while Biden is the Democrat establishment’s candidate, President Trump remains the disruptor candidate who has brought change to Washington. President Trump’s supporters will run through a brick wall to vote for him. Nobody is running through a brick wall for Joe Biden.”
– Brad Parscale, Trump 2020 campaign manager
The Times has a piece out today looking ahead to the fall and gently reminding its readers that a six-point Biden lead nationally does not translate into a six-point Biden lead in the states that count.
Despite his supposed blue-collar appeal, Biden’s actually doing slightly worse than Hillary at the moment among whites without a college degree. On the other hand, he leads Trump nationally by nine among voters 65 or older, a group that normally favors Republicans. That may explain his advantage in Arizona right now, says Nate Cohn. In fact, maybe that’s a better way to look at the data above: With the Democrat ahead in AZ and within two points in Texas(!!), I don’t know that the story is how meager Biden’s advantage is in states like Wisconsin. It’s how meager Trump’s advantage is in what are supposed to be red strongholds. The coronavirus response may have hurt him more badly than we realize, too. Don’t look now but Rasmussen, normally a very Trump-friendly poll, has had him at 43 percent approval each of the last two days. The last time he hit 43 in a Ras poll was October, in the thick of the Ukraine business.
Exit question: Who had Bernie endorsing Biden before Warren did in the pool?
