The Democratic National Convention is underway this week. Or at least a digital facsimile of a convention is underway. The Dems were supposed to meet last month in Milwaukee and we were set to be there live. The COVID outbreak caused them to move the start date to this past Monday. We were still planning to be there. The persistence of the COVID outbreak caused the Dems to move the convention online. We’re not there because there’s no there there.
Nevertheless, Joe Biden was officially nominated by his party last night.
If you roll back in the archives on this site to our posts from February it will help you remember that Joe Biden was well on his way to a third failed attempt at the Democratic nomination for president. Re-read our post from February 26 and you will be reminded that Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Primary while Joe Biden snuck out of town before the polls closed and wound up coming in a distant fifth.
Democratic Party leaders were openly fearful that avowed socialist Bernie Sanders would win the nomination and then go on to lead the party to Electoral College disaster in November. A frantic search was on for a more moderate candidate who could carry independent voters in key swing states that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016.
A key endorsement a week later from South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn set in motion the biggest turnaround in presidential politics memory. Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, came out full force for Biden. Biden won South Carolina during the March 3 “Super Tuesday” primary, which gave him the delegates he needed to revive his campaign. The rest is history.
Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee for president.
But did the Democratic grandees get their wish? Is Joe Biden the centrist Democrat they wanted back in February?
It depends on who you ask.
According to former Ohio governor John Kasich, a Republican, Biden is that moderate. Kasich spoke at the virtual Democratic convention Monday night and said this:
I’m sure there are Republicans and independents who couldn’t imagine crossing over and supporting a Democrat. They fear Joe may turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don’t believe that. Because I know the measure of the man. He’s reasonable. Faithful. Respectful.”
But Bernie Sanders sees things a bit differently. He sees in Biden a nominee that, if elected, can help advance the agenda that gave Bernie a strong second place showing in the primaries. He spoke at the virtual Democratic convention too.
Together we have moved this country in a bold, new direction. Our campaign ended several months ago. But our movement continues, and it’s getting stronger every day. Many of the ideas we fought for that just a few years ago were considered radical are now mainstream.”
So, which is it? Is it Biden the centrist moderate? Or is it Biden of the ascendant left in the Democratic Party?
We have 75 days ahead of us in which we’re going to find out.