The Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina has produced one big winner: Joe Biden (*1942). With all votes counted, Obama’s former vice-president managed to win 48.4% of the vote and 33 of the 54 South Carolina delegates. This state with over 27% of African-Americans was a key test regarding the appeal of the presidential candidates for African-American voters. As expected, Joe Biden did well, better even than many expected. However, South Carolina could remain THE exception. In 30 years, in three presidential campaigns, South Carolina 2020 is the first primary win ever for Joe Biden.
He is tainted by his son’s Ukrainian affair. Hunter Biden got his extremly lucrative job with a shady Ukrainian gas company only because he was the son of the then vice-president of the United States. Joe Biden is most likely not corrupt, but his son got into a shady business thanks to his father’s political position. And the father stands by his son.
In the other states with primaries or caucuses so far, Biden’s results were extremely poor, despite some solid (but not stellar) debate performances. As for all candidates, Super Tuesday will be the big test.
In the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders ended up second with 19.9% of the vote and 11 delegates. Thanks to millions of campaign money spent in this state, the billionaire Tom Steyer finished a surprisingly strong third with 11.3% of the vote. But he could not win a single delegate. The same fate shared Pete Buttigieg with 8.2%, Elizabeth Warren with 7.1% and Amy Klobuchar with 3.1%.
March 3, 2020 aka Super Tuesday will most likely be the watershed for most candidates, both regarding the potential to win delegates as well as the capacity to attract additional campaign money. Only the multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg does not have to care about donations. On Super Tuesday, he will be on the ballot for the first time. According to the results, he will either be hailed as a strategic genius or an idiot. Anyway, the Democratic party will need his money to outspend Trump in this presidential race. Bloomberg is the only candidate with a solid executive experience, both as CEO of his eponymous financial services, data and media conglomerate as well as former NYC mayor.
So far, one gets the impression that the Democrats are destroying each other, with no clear leader emerging. Super Tuesday may be the watershed. Nevertheless, it looks as if only an external event such as the coronavirus COVID-19, spreading from China across the globe, could substantially slow down global growth, trigger a recession and a stock market crash, therefore severly damaging Donald Trump’s reelection chances.
Article added on March 1, 2020 at 10:00 German time. Last update at 15:38 German time.
Jules Witcover: Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption, 2019, 576 pages. Order the paperback written by political columnist and veteran Washington correspondent Jules Witcover (*1927) from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk. Order the Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.
