Joe Biden Is Poised to Deliver the Biggest Surprise of 2020: A Short, Orderly Primary

The state of our union is unsettled, chaotic, impossible to pin down. The state of the Democratic primary, improbably, is not.

With a string of commanding victories on Tuesday — Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, probably any other “M” state that might have bothered with a primary this week — Joe Biden appears poised to complete one of the most striking turnarounds in recent campaign memory, finding himself in a dominant position only 10 days after the first state victory of his three presidential runs. His remarkable reversal has banished Senator Bernie Sanders to a familiar electoral perch: an insurgent progressive long shot straining to catch an establishment favorite. …

So thorough is Mr. Biden’s hold on the party now that any collapse would probably require a political U-turn as sharp as the one that precipitated his rise. CONT.

Matt Flegenheimer & Katie Glueck, New York Times