Elizabeth Warren has withdrawn from the race for the Democratic nomination.  This leaves Bernie Sanders as the last candidate running in the progressive lane. In a just completed press conference Warren said, “I am not going to endorse anyone today”.  It is not yet known whether she will later endorse either of the two remaining candidates or whether she may just tell her supporters that they are best equipped to determine who they should support going forward.

Regardless what she decides to endorsement wise, I don’t think that we should automatically jump to the conclusion that because she and Sanders are both very progressive, all of her supporters will automatically migrate to Bernie.  Exit polls in the already completed primaries  indicate that while many of Warren’s most loyal supporters are very progressive, she also has her share of moderate supporters as well.

Since I last wrote about the Democratic primaries, Joe Biden had the very successful Super Tuesday, which I predicted in my last article on this blog, Super Tuesday Primary Alert.  Yesterday that was followed by Mike Bloomberg withdrawing from the race, endorsing Biden, and vowing to make his impressive campaign field apparatus and data analysis center resources available to the Super Tuesday winner.

With Bloomberg, Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar all dropping out and endorsing Biden, Joe is the last moderate still in the race if your don’t count Tulsi Gabbard (and nobody does).  He appears to be destined to lead in total delegates won to date after all of the Super Tuesday delegates are eventually awarded. The New Times is estimating that after all is said and done, the likely delegate count to date will be:  Biden 670, Sanders 589, Bloomberg 104, Warren 97, Buttigieg 26. Klobuchar 7, and Gabbard 1.

So now it will be Biden and Sanders going head to head.  With the field cleared of everyone but these two, the chances of a very contentious and potentially very divisive brokered convention has been reduced because it is now more likely that either Biden or Sanders will win enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.  However, since Bernie continues characterize his campaign as “Us against the Democratic establishment”, many of his supporters will not be at all happy if he eventually loses to Biden.  They are likely to feel that they have been cheated yet again. If Bernie wins, moderates will not be happy with a socialist at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Regardless of who wins the nomination, the winner will have a difficult time trying to reunite the party.  With this in mind I think Biden should offer the Vice Presidency Elizabeth Warren for several reasons.  First of all during the campaign Warren has shown that she is fully capable of assuming the highest office in this land if something were to happen to Joe.  Perhaps just as importantly, it would demonstrate that Biden cares about the progressives in the party and wants to be a president who represents everyone. It certainly would help to unite the party if he is the one to face Trump in November.  I also think that is important to have a woman on the Democratic ticket. Warren would also be a capable negotiator for the administration in Congress.

In addition, if Biden were to announce her VP selection early, I believe that it would make it more likely that he would win the Democratic nomination. Progressives would know that Elizabeth would bring another prospective to the table as the Biden administration goes about dealing with important policy issues.  Biden would be the type of President to take all views into consideration before making important decisions.  As a side note, I wouldn’t want to be Pence if he has to face Warrant in the Vice Presidential debates.

Most of all, for Biden and the American people, it would make it more likely that he could defeat Trump in November.  The country has been moving in a more progressive direction for a while now. Therefore Vice President Warren would greatly increase her chances of succeeding Joe at a time when the country is more likely to be amenable to her more progressive ideas.  Sounds like a win-win-win for everyone.

That’s my humble opinion, what’s yours?  (Register as a user of this blog to register a comment.)

Cajun     3/5/2020