For months, the Democratic primary has been dictated by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. That primary is over now
For months, the Democratic presidential primary has been dictated by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. That primary is now over.
Sanders committed no such error. Yet he was weakened by contrast — his forgettable debate performance versus the proficiency of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a fellow leftist previously untested in a presidential campaign. She is slowly rising in the polls, just as Sanders — a rival for the progressive vote — is seeing his numbers tick downward.
“There’d been this whole not-so-subtle electability argument,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant who advised Cynthia Nixon in her primary campaign against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year. “That one-two punch [from Warren and Harris] showed not only that women can hold their own, but they can smoke ‘em.”
Biden’s debate blundering appears to have pierced any remaining notions that the former vice president was on a glide path to the nomination. Advisers to at least six other presidential campaigns told POLITICO that Harris’ successful ambush of Biden, in particular, suggested an opening for other candidates, as well.
Steve Westly, a former California state controller who supports Biden, said that “if you’re Joe Biden, you’re in first place … everybody’s going to take shots at you.” A former Obama bundler said that while he expected Biden to initially lose only three to four percentage points in public opinion polls, the effect could quickly compound.
On Sunday, Sen. Cory Booker kept up the criticism of Biden on issues of race, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Democratic nominee must be able to “talk openly and honestly” about the subject.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201906/2672/1155968404_6052766689001_6052764002001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404"
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