Biden could use another debate with Sanders to remind people he still has all his marbles

This week, the non-Fox News media review of Joe Biden’s latest surfacing was primarily focused on who his vice presidential nominee might be; Elizabeth Warren, with the help of a willing media, seems to be actively campaigning for the job—ironic, since she claims to be just a fraction right of Bernie Sanders, which the anti-Sanders media doesn’t seem to believe is a reason not to go “all-in” to force the issue on Biden. And believe me, the anti-Sanders movement is out in full force trying to get him to drop-out of the primary race. 

Jennifer Rubin—who hasn’t qualified as the Washington Post’s “conservative” voice for years (fool you)—is complaining again that Sanders is “selfish” for staying in the race. On The View the other day, Whoopi Goldberg chastised Sanders for not just dropping out, and whining that in 2016 "you didn’t come out when Hillary Clinton was clearly the person folks were going for.” This is of course is an indication of the gendered double standards some people apply; Sanders did come out hard for Clinton in the final months of the presidential campaign, but some people only saw that he contested the nomination to the very end. They refuse to acknowledge that Sanders won 23 states, 43 percent of the total vote, and 46 percent of the pledged (non-super) delegates in 2016; Clinton was clearly not the person voters were “going for,” and that was demonstrated in her election loss to another “unelectable” candidate. And Clinton also spent most of her time during the run-up to the presidential election in 2008 pouting in her hideaway—not campaigning for Barack Obama—and more recently Amy Klobuchar was the one who raised her hand stating she would not support a progressive candidate if nominated—meaning Sanders, but probably not in reference to Warren.

For now, Sanders is insisting, as he told Goldberg, that people still have a right to vote in this country, and if that means having an opportunity to vote for someone other than Biden in the primaries, then that is their right to have. What gives the right of anyone to deny voters a choice, when we are still seeing some disturbing habits that Biden can’t seem to shake? JT Young in The Hill pointed out that Sanders has even more reason to stay in the race this time,  keeping the views of the Democratic Party’s left-wing in play, and he still holds 40 percent of the pledged delegates; that is not an “insignificant” number. Young points out that Sanders is clearly the stronger candidate than Biden, which makes his continuing presence in the primaries “dangerous.” Because of this, 

Sanders also owes the Democrat establishment much less than he did in 2016. If anything, the debt between Sanders and the Party establishment runs the other way. It is Sanders’s left that has provided energy and success to the Party, not the other way around. Sanders championed and channeled the left that won the Party the House in 2018; the establishment did not — they only benefited. 

Furthermore, Sanders continuing presence is holding Biden’s feet to the fire in support of left-of-center priorities, in fact all of the primary candidates were forced to move “left” because of Sanders’ strength with a large part of the Democratic electorate, and if Biden is the nominee, he needs to remember that.

What voters don’t need is to be reminded why Biden is the weaker candidate. We know that Donald Trump sometimes has trouble with facts, names and even one-syllable words or coherent sentences, but his arrogant bluster is such that his supporters don’t care as long as his “priorities” are “right.” The problem with Biden is that he looks like he has to do some hard thinking just to get things wrong. This week Biden referred to “Luhan” rather than Wuhan, confused his acronyms, confused dates, and didn’t even remember how many grandchildren he has. These kind of things may seem minor, but let’s remember what cable news network is “shaping” the way a large majority of cable news viewers define Biden.

Biden insists no more primary debates are necessary, he’s got it all wrapped-up, and the Democratic establishment is eager to get Sanders out of the way as quickly as possible. But with a candidate as weak as Biden, it isn’t “wrapped-up” yet. After two weeks of gaffe-filled appearances, Biden needs another opportunity to remind people why they should vote for him, and that means at least one more debate with Sanders, to get his stories straight and to remind Sanders supporters that there is a reason to support a more left-leaning Biden, if it comes to that.