After driving more than 500 miles around Iowa over three days this past weekend and listening to almost 20 candidates, the two strongest impressions I received were just how fragile Joe Biden’s front-runner status is, and how Elizabeth Warren’s ascendancy continues to be underestimated.
Granted, you didn’t need to drive around Iowa to get the first impression, but it still came through. Democratic voters’ level of affection for the affable Biden and the goodwill he earned from being President Obama’s wingman for eight years are not to be dismissed, nor is the experience and knowledge he gathered over 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president. Biden just exudes decency at a time when many believe that commodity is in short supply.
But all of those strengths and five dollars will get him a cup of coffee at Starbucks. What made—and has kept him—the front-runner for the Democratic nomination is the perception that he’s electable in November 2020. CONT.
Charlie Cook