Tiana Lowe offers a warning to Washington Examiner readers: Don’t underestimate Joe Biden.
Leading the pack by ten points, the former vice president faces fire from every angle. He’s a relic of the Obama era and one with working class and Rust Belt appeal. Naturally, the knives are out for Biden.
Fellow septuagenarian Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the socialist camp have already begun to frame Biden as an echo of an antiquated brand of politics. The rest of the Left are actively pushing for a shinier, more intersectional candidate. Biden’s a gaffe machine with two failed presidential bids in his past.
Despite all these supposed negatives, you’d be an idiot to write off the power of his base.
Looking just at the raw polling, Biden is in a league of his own. His Real Clear Politics average hasn’t dipped below 26%. Bernie hasn’t been able to come closer than 6.8 percentage points to him and has spent most of the race around ten points down.
And that was before Biden even announced.
Three out of four Democrats find Biden favorable, more than any other candidate in the race. Just 15% find him unfavorable, compared to 22% of Democrats who find Bernie unfavorable.
Even across the aisle, Biden is faring well. The majority of all Americans still find Biden favorable. By contrast, at this stage in her campaign, only around four in ten Americans found Hillary Clinton likable enough.
Biden’s base is not only solid, but also composed of vital demographics.
