WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2020) Support from the Democratic establishment and the withdrawal of moderate rivals propelled former US Vice President Joe Biden to win more delegates and states in the Super Tuesday presidential Primary races, analysts told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, Biden won ten states - Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Maine - far more than he was expected to. And he showed a nationwide popularity and strength that far exceeded Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders only won four states - California, Colorado, Utah and his own Vermont.
Heading into Super Tuesday, Sanders had a 6-delegate lead over Biden after coming out on top in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada while Biden performed strongly in South Carolina. However, last night, according to AP and Democratic National Committee estimates, Biden picked up at least 512 delegates to Sanders' 441. Overall, the former vice president now leads the Vermont senator by a delegate count of 566 to 501. A candidate needs to secure 1,991 delegates to win the party nomination ahead of the July convention.
The previously fragmented field of moderates running against Sanders was transformed when Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out and publicly endorsed Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday.
Moreover, on Wednesday, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also pulled out and endorsed Biden, which means the former vice president may pick up even more moderate votes throughout the rest of the campaign.
Their combined percentages of the Super Tuesday voting states when added to the victorious Biden far outweighed the combined support for Sanders and for liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Eurasia Center Vice President Earl Rasmussen said these moves by the Democratic moderate wing boosted Biden.
"The exiting of the campaign of other moderates Senator Klobuchar and Mayor Buttigieg further consolidated moderate votes to provide a surge of support for the former vice president," Rasmussen told Sputnik.
The moderates also appeared to gain due to the distortion and demonization of socialism prevalent in media and conventional wisdom.
Political analyst and historian Dan Lazare told Sputnik the fearsome backlash against Sanders as a left wing radical was in fact based on a total misconception.
"The funny thing is that Sanders is not even very far to the left by international standards. Britons joke that [United Kingdom Prime Minister] Boris Johnson is more radical since he has promised to step up funding for the National Health Service (NHS)," Lazare said.
The NHS in structural terms is more socialist than the universal insurance scheme that Sanders has in mind for Medicare for All in the United States, Lazare added.
"Any sort of national health care system, however conservative, is more than America's broken-down political system can handle," he said.
The Super Tuesday primary results had dealt a mortal blow to hopes for a significant progressive reform wave in the United States, Lazare stated.
"The Democratic renewal promised by Sanders was never more than a pipe dream, but now even that has gone up in smoke," he said.
University of Houston Professor of African-American History Gerald Horne agreed, saying that the panic in the US elite over socialism spurred Biden's surge.
Even if Sanders somehow manages to edge ahead of Biden in primary and caucus victories and the number of delegates pledged to him before the Democratic convention opens in Milwaukee in July, the powerful super-delegates in the party are already arraigned against him.
The New York Times reported on February 27 that an overwhelming majority of the 93 super-delegates they interviewed told the newspaper's reporters they were determined to oppose Sanders for the presidential nomination.
"Bernie will likely be smeared by the media, data will be leaked from unknown sources, and some may bring into question his character and health; and of course, he will become a Russian Agent or Putin Stooge. Meanwhile, care will be taken to protect Sleepy Joe," Rasmussen said.
Lazare agreed that the Democratic National Committee and the old party establishment were determined to block Sanders at all costs.
"The bottom line is that the Democratic establishment deep sixed a fighter who could mobilize voters against Trump in favor of a corrupt, brain-dead cretin... But that's why Democratic bosses want [Trump] instead of a Bernie candidacy," he said.
However, after Super Tuesday behind-the-scenes interventions to block Sanders will likely not be necessary as Biden consistently won fair and square from Texas to Maine and from Massachusetts to Alabama.
Nearly all opinion polls show Biden beating Trump in a head-to-head matchup, however, many analysts expressed confidence Trump could decisively defeat Biden in the November general election.
"The Orange One [Trump] will eat him [Biden] for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Lazare said.
Horne too observed that trump led a far more united and better organized movement than Biden.
"The Trump base is not crumbling and his campaign [is] better organized than Biden's," Horne told Sputnik.
Rasmussen also said the Democrats, focused on Ukraine-gate and Russia probe, have failed to recognize that Biden would likely lose to Trump.
Lazare warned that, once re-elected, Trump will continue to destroy the United States.
"The country will be unrecognizable after four more years of DJT [Donald J. Trump]. With impeachment a dead letter, he'll be free to wreak revenge on his enemies in the press and in Hollywood, crush civil liberties, trash the environment, and toss out favors right and left to Wall Street," Lazare said.
Wealth disparities would increase, the social atmosphere would grow ever more punitive, while the climate crisis would intensify, Lazare concluded.
