Bye Don

If things keep going on like this, our apprentice dictator in the White House is going to suddenly discover that the Covid 19 virus is indeed serious, so the November election will have to be cancelled.

Yeah.  That's maybe not so funny.

Reality has a way of changing fast these days, and today's is much different from the reality of just last month.  But at the moment, it does appear that chances are good that if the elections take place, they will result in a new President.

Joe Biden won four of the five primaries on Tuesday, including the major one of Michigan, which he won by a lot.  (Bernie won it in 2016.)  Last time I looked, Bernie had won only a single congressional district, by a couple of votes.  Update: Bernie did not win a single county in Michigan, Missouri or Mississippi.

Biden won the southern state of Mississippi, the Midwestern states of Michigan and Missouri, and the western state of Idaho.  Counting has stopped for the night in Washington state, but with just under 70% of the votes counted, it's almost dead even between Biden and Sanders, with a hefty percentage going to other candidates in this mail-in ballot state with lots of early voters.  Bernie is ahead at the moment in the tiny North Dakota caucus.

Exit polls show that the black voters any Democrat needs to have a chance are going with Biden by high percentages.  In Michigan he did well with women, suburbanites, older voters ("young people tweet, old people vote") and the key group that may have lost the state in 2016--white voters without a college education.  This group may be a key to winning back not only Michigan.

And again, voters in all states, including Washington, rate the importance of replacing Trump over ideological agreement by a large margin. On Super Tuesday the turnout was high, and by the results we saw that Democrats are very motivated to vote for Biden.

And so far, Biden is even saying all the right things.  Earlier in the week he called himself a bridge to a new generation of leaders, as former 2020 presidential candidates continue to endorse him.  In his victory speech he praised Bernie and his supporters for their passion, and reminded them of the common goal--"together we'll defeat Donald Trump."

Biden didn't have to say Obama's name when he proclaimed that the primary results put him "one step closer to restoring decency, dignity and honor to the White House."

He spoke of the Covid 19 crisis.  "At this moment, when there's so much fear in the country and there's so much fear across the world, we need American leadership.  We need presidential leadership that's honest, trusted, truthful and steady."

He didn't have to remind his audience who that isn't.  He sounds like someone who knows this could be his moment, and is ready for it.

Unfortunately it's only March, and to say the next months are uncertain is a ridiculously extreme understatement.  But at least there's hope.