‘Not Viable’: Biden and the Iowa Caucuses His disastrous defeat is the big story in Iowa. by Robert Stacy McCain
February 4, 2020, 10:19 AM The way Democrats run their Iowa caucuses is difficult to explain briefly, but the result Monday was clear. Within an hour of the beginning of the complicated process, the totals of the first-round voting began to be reported via social media, and from precinct after precinct came the same phrase: “Biden — not viable.â€
Former Vice President Joe Biden has based his campaign on the argument that he’s the most “electable†Democratic candidate, but the voters of Iowa shot a torpedo through the hull of that argument. Due to a technical glitch that delayed the state Democratic Party’s counting process, we still don’t have official results. But by 10:30 p.m. Eastern time Monday, it became apparent to caucus-watchers that Biden was headed for a fourth-place finish in the Hawkeye State, behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Buttigieg’s strong second-place showing is a big story — the young mayor out-performed expectations — but Biden’s humiliating defeat is much bigger.
Remember that the reason House Democrats impeached President Trump was their claim that his July phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amounted to soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election. But if Biden has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination — if he is “not viable,†as so many Iowa precincts reported Monday — then what harm was done by exposing the alleged Ukrainian corruption involving Biden’s son Hunter? Of course, the Senate will vote Wednesday to acquit Trump of these charges, but it now seems that the whole premise of the Ukraine “scandal†narrative might be moot. Trump doesn’t need “foreign interference†to beat Biden if Democrat voters in future primaries reject Biden as decisively as Iowa voters did.
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https://spectator.org/not-viable/
