Daniel DePetris

Is Joe Biden the Democrat’s Jeb Bush?

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Joe Biden was the man to beat in the race to win the Democratic nomination. Name recognition, likability, electability, or his eight years of service as Barack Obama’s lieutenant, meant that Biden’s poll numbers were sky-high and the former vice president was the indisputable frontrunner. A poll last month put Biden on 38 per cent – 19 percentage points higher than his nearest competitor. “Middle Class Joe”, it seemed, had the nomination in the bag. But then the Democratic debates took place. And Biden’s desperate slump began.

Since the June 27 Democratic hustings in Florida, Biden has been losing support. After the debate, Biden’s numbers dropped by 10 percentage points, according to a CNN survey published yesterday. Senator Kamala Harris’s numbers, in contrast, shot up like a rocket from eight per cent to 17 per cent. 

Biden’s performance was nothing short of dismal in the eyes of most Democrats who watched it. When Harris thrusted the rhetorical knife in Biden’s gut during her passionate denunciation of the former VP’s opposition to mandatory busing in the 1970s, he looked like a deer in the headlights. Harris, describing her experience as an African American child who faced discrimination, pulled the heart strings with a deeply personal story. Biden, a man more than 20 years her senior and from a different political era, stumbled for a response and chose to emphasise his nearly 50-year record as a public servant.  

But it didn’t work. The general consensus after the exchange was that the long-time politician was skewered by a representative of a Democratic party shifting beneath his feet.  

In the days since, other candidates have tried to jump on the Kamala bandwagon. Her successful attack against one of the most well-known Democrats in the country convinced others that Biden was not invincible, but vulnerable.

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Written by
Daniel DePetris

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune and a foreign affairs writer for Newsweek.

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