Make no bones about it: South Carolina loves Biden — Joe Biden, that is.
Politics
In a do-or-die “win or go home” victory on Saturday night, former Vice-President Joe Biden staged a stunning defeat of his Democratic challengers and copped his first win of the primary season.
Proving that South Carolina loves Biden, the predominately African-American electorate in the state handed ‘Uncle Joe’ a much-needed win with 48.4% of the vote. His closest competitor was Bernie Sanders, who came in a distant 2nd place with 19.9% of the vote. The biggest losers of the night were Pete Buttigieg (8.2%), Elizabeth Warren (7.1%), and Amy Klobuchar (3.1%). Although billionaire Tom Steyer came in 3rd place, his poor showing after pouring millions of his own money into South Carolina forced him to drop out of the race.
In his victory remarks, Biden took a swipe at Bernie Sanders by saying Democrats wanted results rather than revolution, improvements to the Affordable Care Act rather than a disruptive transformation of the health care system, and a candidate who would “take on the NRA and gun manufacturers and not protect them.”
“If Democrats want a nominee who’s a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a proud Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat, join us,” he said, adding, “We have the option of winning big or losing big. That’s the choice.”
Biden’s big win was the result of a number of factors. Both Iowa and New Hampshire are small and predominately white states, which (the Biden camp argued) did not fully represent the ethnic makeup of the Democratic Party. Biden also scored big by securing the all-important endorsement of South Carolina’s favorite son, Rep. James Clyburn. Finally, Biden’s service as former President Obama’s ‘right-hand man’ paid off in dividends among the state’s black voters.
“He was Obama’s vice president and he stuck by him,” said Columbia, SC resident Luther Johnson, who voted for Biden because of his connection to the former president.
Interestingly, South Carolina loves Biden so much that they handed him 33 delegates in his big win. That means Biden is now only 8 delegates behind Bernie Sanders going into the delegate-rich Super Tuesday contest, when residents of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Democrats Abroad, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia will head to the polls.
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BUTTIGIEG STEPS ASIDE
After failing to come in 1st place in New Hampshire and Nevada and after a less than stellar performance in South Carolina, South Bend, Indiana’s former openly gay mayor Pete Buttigieg called it a campaign late Sunday and dropped out of the race for president.
“A year ago, we launched our campaign for the American presidency,” Buttigieg said to a packed room of supporters in South Bend. “We began this unlikely journey with a staff of four in a cramped office right here in South Bend. Hardly anyone knew my name and even fewer could pronounce it,” he added to laughter from the crowd and chants of “2024!”
“I will no longer seek to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January.”
By quitting the race ahead of the huge Super Tuesday contest, Buttigieg believes his absence might help another candidate (such as Joe Biden) stop the momentum of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who many Democrats fear could never beat Donald Trump in November.
Yes indeed. What a difference a Real primary and key endorsement makes. Jim Clyburn, “the highest-ranking Black-American serving in Congress and influential political Tower in South Carolina literally put Biden on his shoulders and propelled him to Victory. Time will tell just how much it’ll actually help Biden tomorrow (Super Tues.) and going forward. But he crushed in every demographic. It was a blowout.
Btw- once again the polls proved to be as Useless as ever and Bernie’s so-called “revolution” has yet to materialize. He ISN’T expanding the electorate and he ISN’T attracting a sizable number of young Black voters. Also, it’s still not clear just how sizable his support is among Latino voters. California, Texas and Colorado should give us a better picture.
In the meantime, Bernie, his surrogates and the pundit-idiots really should just Shut Up about something (a “revolution”) that has NOT yet become a reality.