The Empire Strikes Back: Behind The Surge of "Dementia Joe"

Leave it to the DNC to find someone even less mentally competent than Donald Trump to run for president, but mission accomplished!

In spite of increasingly obvious cognitive disintegration Joe Biden made a strong showing on "Super Tuesday," ending all talk of a Bernie Sanders majority on the first ballot at this year's Democratic Party convention in Milwaukee. Of course, this was an orchestrated result and we shouldn't miss the political significance of voter consolidation behind Biden.

The DNC is stronger than the RNC was at a corresponding point in 2016, and it acted sooner than the RNC did - and very effectively. Non-stop fawning media coverage of the revival of the Biden campaign has reigned since "Lunchbox Joe" won South Carolina (turnout soared to 20% - ed.) Buttigieg and Klobuchar withdrew on orders from the DNC (and today Bloomberg dropped out) to consolidate behind Biden. Warren stayed in to siphon off some of the "progressive" vote from Sanders, though she has no path to the nomination. Key last minute endorsements helped Biden win in Texas, Minnesota, etc. 

Sanders' lack of a killer instinct ("Joe is a friend of mine") prevented him from launching strong attacks on Biden, a great help to Joe. When Trump faced similar ganging-up tactics in 2016, he threatened to throw the election to HRC.  Sanders isn't that nasty, but he better learn to be. Biden can't complete a coherent sentence, quite apart from his horrendous politics - pro-Iraq war, pro-outsourcing, pro-cuts in Social Security - and sustained hard-hitting attacks on him need to be launched yesterday. 

The delegate count is probably about equal after all is said and done, but senile Joe won big psychologically. 

Next up: Obama will publicly endorse Biden to keep the momentum going.