Vice President Joe Biden greets U.S. Ambassadors in attendance at the 2016 Chief of Missions Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 14, 2016. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]
Even Dog Catchers Endorsed Joe
Rep. Jim Clyburn’s endorsement of Mr. Biden before the South Carolina vote will remain the signal event of the 2020 Democratic primary. What followed was an all-at-once burst of endorsements for Mr. Biden from every corner of the Democratic Party. Not just the usual Washington figures, but governors, small-town mayors, statehouse representatives, dogcatchers.
Reality Intrudes
Joe Biden is no Barack Obama. Mr. Biden is best seen as the moderate winner of “Democratic Survivor.” If Mr. Biden’s candidacy had collapsed, as it did in 1987 and 2008, Democratic primary voters would have defaulted to last moderate standing, as Mike Bloomberg reasonably assumed.
Will the Craziest Man Win
Now the party is stuck with a 77-year-old guy who is bizarrely prone to picking fights with factory workers. It’s hardly promising when the candidate running on a return to civility and normalcy looks increasingly like a different version of Trumpian road rage.
The coronavirus has put an old phrase on everyone’s lips: We are in uncharted waters. And so it is with this presidential election, which could come down to voters having to choose between the two nominees’ mental conditions.
