Biden and Sanders Alone Are Left

There is still a long way to go, but the regrouping of the moderate vote has turned out in favor of the former vice president.

Super Tuesday has resolved the crisis of trust in Joe Biden’s candidacy, and has reduced the brawl for the Democratic presidential nomination to a race between him and Social Democrat Bernie Sanders, which could still go on for a long time. Everything suggests that, by the end of the vote count, the former vice president will have completed his overtaking maneuver. Biden, a favorite of the Democratic Party establishment, has successfully capitalized on the memory of the Obama administration, missed by various minorities – particularly African Americans – who are increasingly decisive on election days. Contenders who want to challenge Donald Trump still have a long way to go, but Biden’s victories in Texas and Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren’s home state, are too significant not to acknowledge that there has been a noteworthy shift in the atmosphere of the primary race.

Biden’s combination of experience, seniority and moderation have benefited him to the same degree as youth mobilization, the Hispanic community, and the openly progressive electorate have now proven insufficient to counter the Democratic Party staff, the major media outlets and financial gurus that favor Biden. Nothing is yet decided, but the former vice president’s pragmatism, his preference for gradual change and his personal ascendancy in the South have turned out to be crucial in seeking victory at the convention this summer.

It is perhaps far-fetched to claim, as some media outlets thrilled with Biden’s results have done, that the candidate’s success is unprecedented. However, there is no doubt that Sanders’ campaign strategists expected a more balanced result, not just a major triumph in California. But the withdrawals of moderates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar from the race have eradicated the fragmentation of the centrist vote and cleared the way for the person who prides himself as a pragmatic reformer. All that remains for Biden now is to pass the test Hillary Clinton failed to pass four years ago: attract voters from states that are far from the great circuits of power and from the most economically dynamic sectors, and who saw Trump, and can see Sanders, too, as somebody who has come to their rescue.

Michael Bloomberg’s debacle and his subsequent withdrawal from the race could be another factor that will help Biden to continue regrouping the centrist vote in undecided, swing states. However, it also is good news for the health of the democratic system that someone who seemed tempted to tackle Trump on his terms – exploiting the idea that a person who knows how to amass a great fortune is in a better position to create a better future and wrapping that idea in a populism that simplifies social issues as much as possible – has been shown that, for once, money is not everything, and that a huge publicity campaign guarantees nothing if it conveys that it is just marketing. Biden and Sanders’ success, which benefited from substantial but more limited resources, attests to this.