How Joe Biden won the second night of the Detroit debate (This Week)

[Drunken Irishman]

Sometimes the simplest take is the truest one.

And the simple truth is that Joe Biden won the second night of the Democratic debate in Detroit for one simple reason: He came into the event with a massive lead in the polls and he did nothing on Wednesday night to change that. If Biden can repeat this performance throughout the debates between now and the start of the primaries, he will be in a very strong position to win his party's nomination.

Those who spend their lives analyzing politics don't like this because it's not very interesting. Members of the Democratic Party's progressive wing don't like it because they desperately want to break from the style and substance that marked the Obama administration and that Biden promises every couple of minutes to revive. And I don't especially like it because it smells of lazy complacency that could leave the party vulnerable in an age of angry polarization and populism.

But the polls don't lie.

Biden has been leading from the moment he joined the race. The absurdly large field can distract us from that fact. No fewer than five of the candidates on stage the first night in Detroit attempted to stake out the same moderate ground as Biden, as did Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet on the second night. But those six candidates' combined polling averages are at 3.5 percent. Biden, by contrast, currently stands at 32 percent.

It's so broad that Biden's been able to build a lead that dwarfs Donald Trump's four years ago. At this point in 2015, Trump led the Republican field with 21 percent, while second and third places were held by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 14 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 12. The next five candidates fell between 5 and 7 percent.

Today's Democratic field is far more stratified. Combine support for second-place Bernie Sanders and third-place Elizabeth Warren into a single imagined progressive super-candidate and Biden would still be slightly ahead. And after that? California Sen. Kamala Harris is polling around 10 percent, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg stands at 5 percent, and then we're already under 3 percent, where the remaining candidates (well over a dozen of them) are languishing in irrelevancy.

https://theweek.com/articles/856253/how-joe-biden-won-second-night-detroit-debate

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R!

[ananda]

2. Biden is ahead of MF45 in key swing states!

Good !!!!!

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. K&R

[Thekaspervote]

4. Yippie skippy do da!!

[peggysue2]

5. Biden did what he had to do

He withstood the barrage of slings and arrows and left the debate stage without a wounding. He also passionately defended President Barack Obama. Which in my mind should be a no-brainer, particularly when we're facing the Trumpster and his weird hang-up on all things Obama. Trump has desperately tried to dismantle anything and everything associated with the former Administration. Providing Republicans with additional ammunition and jackhammers was not a smart move. I pray that that sort of thing stops.

But to the larger question: Yes, Joe Biden won by simply standing his ground.

[oasis]

6. Joe's the One.

[Cha]

7. Well, I like it because the writer

has this part wrong.. Joe Biden will build on any progress that was made(that trump hasn't deleted).. it will be going Forward.

And, it sure as hell isn't "lazy".. good god, man.

[Thekaspervote]

8. This!

[Cha]

9. Mahalo, Thekaspervote!