Let the rigging commence? Biden campaign revives from the dead to take shock landslide South Carolina win

RT
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 14:26 UTC

Comment: Cue cackles of delight from Killary et al...

© Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz

Joe Biden

Joe Biden's campaign showed its first signs of life in South Carolina, with the former vice president taking the lead over other Democrats in the state's primary, including frontrunner Bernie Sanders.

Biden's efforts in the state paid off after he won nearly half of the votes on Saturday, adding 33 pledged delegates. Sanders came in a distant second with less than 20 percent of the vote, but still leads Biden by eight delegates overall after winning New Hampshire and Nevada and a strong performance in Iowa.

South Carolina was perceived by many observers as a make-or-break moment for the Biden campaign. Opinion polls projected he would win, but the victory needed to be convincing, otherwise he would be in a weakened position ahead of next week's Super Tuesday, where over 1,000 delegates are up for grabs.

The former vice president in the Barack Obama administration - who was endorsed by South Carolina Representative James Clyburn - was relying heavily on black voters to win big. However, exit poll data indicates that while he did well with older African-American voters, the black youth vote was split between him and Sanders on Saturday.

The Vermont senator conceded defeat at a campaign rally in Norfolk, Virginia, but was optimistic about his chances on Super Tuesday, brushing off Saturday's loss as a minor setback.

I'm very proud that in this campaign so far, we have won the popular vote in Iowa, we have won the New Hampshire primary, we have won the Nevada caucus, but you cannot win them all.

As Biden basks in his victory, he has received words of support from unlikely quarters. President Donald Trump tweeted that his victory shows that it's time for billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg to drop out of the race to not take votes away from Biden. The former New York mayor was not on the ballot in South Carolina, focusing instead on carpet-bombing Super Tuesday states with ads.

Comment: Have some pity for the folks in these states.

© Amkutzko/Wikipedia

Super Tuesday by states and territories, 2020 include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia

Biden's comeback after his worse-than-expected results in previous states boosts his chances for nomination. Sanders has been heavy criticized by mainstream Democrats like Hillary Clinton and the national media, but has nevertheless managed to gain momentum with voters. Other contenders in the race are strategizing to keep him from winning a majority of delegates and score an automatic nomination, while pitching themselves as consensus candidates at what some believe may end up being a brokered convention in Milwaukee.

Much like Biden, environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer put a lot of effort in the South Carolina primary. It brought him just over 11 percent of the vote and no pledged delegates, after which he announced his decision to drop out of the race.

Comment: Sanders conceded South Carolina to Biden relatively graciously, and looked forward to Super Tuesday,

"I'm very proud that in this campaign so far we have won the popular vote in Iowa, we have won the New Hampshire primary, we have won the Nevada caucus, but you cannot win them all."

"I believe very strongly that the people of this country on Super Tuesday and after are going to support our campaign. Because we are more than a campaign, we are a movement"

Tom Steyer is the first billionaire to bite the dust after finishing third. Not many were sad to see him go. The big question is, who will he throw his campaign machine behind?

Steyer dug deep into his own pockets, spending about $20 million of his own money in South Carolina alone in hopes of overcoming the 15-percent threshold that would have allowed him to win delegates in the fourth and final early voting contest before Super Tuesday.

However, it was not to be, as Steyer is now projected to win less than 12 percent of the vote in the primary, dominated by former Vice President Joe Biden.

"I can't see a path where I can win the presidency," Steyer said, announcing his decision to put an end to his campaign.

Trump of course, couldn't resist a chance to stir the pot, telling Mike Bloomberg to drop out, and not to make things any harder for the Democrats by siphoning votes away from Biden:

Shortly after the South Carolina primary exit polls pointed to a convincing victory for Biden in the fourth and final early voting contest ahead of Super Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to send a 'congratulatory' message, taking aim at fellow billionaire Bloomberg in the process.

So Biden gets a bump. Will it translate into momentum for the Super Tuesday races? Fourteen states will be voting. Polls are not promising as Sanders continues to be in the lead for in the all important delegate count. Yet he is considered the weakest candidate to go up against Trump. Will the Democrats vitriol towards Trump override the DNC's selection process?

© RealClearPolitics