The case for Joe Biden to enter the race
Published 11:37 pm Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Hillary has been crashing in polls over the past few months, with her “unfavorable” rankings climbing to 56 percent. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders’ approval ratings have grown dramatically.
This doesn’t necessarily mean Bernie will be the Democratic nominee for a couple of reasons.
NBC, Morning Consult and Ipsos polls have Hillary leading Sanders into the primary 50 to 40 percent, 46 to 39 percent and 55 to 43 percent, respectively.
This indicates that the candidate with more baggage than a Chinese Samsonite factory is still likely heading to the convention, which drinking age millennials will give little more than a furtive glance at their favorite craft brewpub video screens.
The Pew Research Center estimates 51 percent of millennials are Democrats, and while demographers define millennials as being born between 1978 and 2000, it seems fairly accurate that you’re looking at three out of ten Americans of voting age being millennials, of which approximately 21-22 percent voted in the last two elections.
They like Sanders.
Benefitting Hillary is the Democratic National Committee, run by Hillary supporter Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. They’ve already loaded Clinton with “Superdelegates” chosen to support “the Party” regardless of the winner of Democratic primaries, as demonstrated in New Hampshire.
This puts Hillary in the stronger position no matter how well Sanders does in the primaries, which will certainly disillusion millennials, as well as older Democrats, who see the rat swimming in the soup.
Already distrusted by most Americans and experiencing public pushback from young women offended by the claim that young women are required to vote for Hillary “because she’s a woman,” the Democratic Party has a real problem.
There is no voter enthusiasm for Hillary and it looks very much like the Democratic Party has little enthusiasm for Bernie. After all, the idea for “Superdelegates” was created after another far-left candidate won the Democratic nomination and got crushed by the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, who beat George McGovern in every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Meanwhile, polls over last few months have Vice President Joe Biden coming in around 47 to 51 percent favorability.
In Biden, Democrats see an authentic human being, unlike Hillary and much like Sanders without the scruffy, wild-haired, absent-minded professor demeanor.
They admire his foreign policy positions.
Joe agitates the base, scorching Republicans as evil overlords who want to “take you’re a— out” and “put you back in chains.”
With the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Democrats are looking to create excitement with their base by marketing the nomination process as a battle between good and evil. If the Republicans deny President Obama’s nominee, they will be portrayed as Darth Sidious.
If Obama can nominate an African-American woman with a Hispanic surname who desires eliminating the Second Amendment, it’s a huge publicity win as Democrats and their media allies will enjoy portraying the Republicans opposing her as misogynist racists.
Biden also knows the game of “Borking” Supreme Court nominees. He and the late Senator Ted Kennedy invented it.
Remember Kennedy’s historic nationally televised attack on Robert Bork:
“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.”
Iconic liberal Supreme Court Justice Warren Berger was shocked. He called Bork the most qualified nominee he had seen in his lifetime.
Every word was a lie, but that doesn’t matter in political bloodsport. Biden and Kennedy won the fight and changed America.
Biden knows how to run this kind of campaign. He can energize the base and win the support of the DNC. No one would be better at anticipating Republican pushback and turning it into effective messaging.
Biden could win the nomination. He could bring out the Democratic vote. He’s not eccentric and his family’s foundation hasn’t been subpoenaed by the FBI.
This is Joe’s time.
Rick Jensen is Delaware’s award-winning conservative talk show host on WDEL.