This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday; today’s Sunday, the first day of Lent; and Joe Biden’s campaign for the presidency has been resurrected (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/01/joe-biden-south-carolina-118379).
We’re not prophets (in the Hebrew Bible sense) or pollsters here at AP, but on Friday, we predicted that former Vice President Biden would win the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina by twelve points (https://www.apocryphalpress.com/2020/02/28/ap-s-predictions-for-tomorrow-in-south-carolina/).
Though we do not consider ourselves pundits here at AP, we are well aware that making predictions based on polling in political races has its limitations.
Biden’s overwhelming victory yesterday in the Palmetto State over a non-Democrat, Very Independent Bernie, from New England’s smallest state — with only one Member of the U S House of
Representaitves — was such a blowout that the media called it for Biden the minute the polls closed.
Here are the results:
Joe Biden, 48.4%
Bernie Sanders, 19.9%
Tom Steyer, 11.3%; and he withdrew from contention yesterday as the results came in strong for Biden
Pete Buttigieg, 8.2%
Elizabeth Warren, 7.1%
Amy Klobuchar (our candidate), 3.1%
Tulsi Gabbard, 1.3%
Others, 0.6%
(https://www.politico.com/newsletters/2020-election-results/2020/03/01/your-2020-south-carolina-democratic-primary-results-488352).
A mere two days from now, there is Super Tuesday, and now, the Independent Senator from Vermont holds a lead of a mere twelve delegates over Moderate Joe.
Amy Klobuchar is the Senior Senator from Minnesota, a state which Donald Trump almost won in 2016, when Hillary Clinton’s campaign largely forgot about Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Minnesota is part of Super Tuesday, and if Amy doesn’t win there over Bernie, she’ll have to consider suspending her campaign if Trump is to be granted retirement status on January 20 at his exclusive resort in South Florida.
Same for Elizabeth Warren, the Oklahoma-born Senior Senator from Massachusetts, which is also in Super Tuesday, and Bernie's popular in that Commonwealth (your solitary reporter was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, a few miles south of Vermont).
Colorado is also participating in Super Tuesday, and Bernie outscored Hillary Clinton in the Centennial State’s complicated caucus system in 2016.
Your solitary reporter chatted this morning with seasoned Colorado pollster Floyd Ciruli, who told him that Klobuchar can’t win in Colorado on Tuesday.
Associate solitary reporter Keith Coleman is a veteran Democratic operative who is a Prime Mover in the ABT Movement (Anybody But Trump), and he’s lived in Delaware, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Indiana, Hawaii, and American Samoa (where Tulsi Gabbard was born). That’s why Coleman is on a first-name basis with candidates Biden, Steyer, Warren, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Gabbard. He’s never met Vermont’s Junior Senator ‘cause Bernie’s not a Democrat.
So, as we said on Friday, Klobuchar would make a great running mate for whomever the Dems nominate in the ABT Movement.
So we asked ASR Coleman to talk with Steyer, Warren, Buttigieg, and Gabbard, as well as Colorado’s Senior Senator, Democrat Michael Bennet, who dropped out of the presidential race when the ballots came in from snowy, “Live Free or Die" New Hampshire.
To a person, they unanimously endorsed Klobuchar, because she’s running in the Moderate Lane (Bernie’s in the Immoderate Lane); she’s been elected three times to represent Minnesota in the Senate; and she has a great sense of humor.
Associate solitary reporter Molly Maguire, a big fan of Klobuchar, will be introducing Amy at her rally in Denver tomorrow.