Is Joe Biden the 2020 Political Phoenix

All Arizonans should know the story of the Phoenix: a bird that died on a funeral pyre but rose reanimated from its ashes to vibrantly fly again.

Is Joe Biden the 2020 Political Phoenix?

Just one week ago, he was declared virtually politically dead by many pundits after faring poorly in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

Some thought Bernie Sanders would provide the final nail in his Presidential aspirational coffin with an upset victory in South Carolina.

Others saw Michael Bloomberg as the only viable Pragmatic Progressive alternative to Mr. Sanders going into Super Tuesday.

Then two events happened to improve Mr. Biden’s political fortunes.

The first was a strong debate performance by Biden in South Carolina. Less than stellar showings by both Sanders and Bloomberg at the same event also helped the former Vice President.

The second was the endorsement of Jim Clyburn, the dean of South Carolina politics, the day after the debate.

These two events gave the financially and organizationally strapped Biden campaign the momentum it needed to achieve a landslide victory in South Carolina.

After that victory, the 2020 Political Phoenix started to rise.

First, the Biden campaign, who languished behind virtually all the other campaigns in cash on hand, saw the fundraising valves turn on and started to raise millions of dollars.

Endorsements from people sitting on the sidelines like former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Senator (and 2016 Vice Presidential Nominee) Tim Kaine, former Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, and the widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts helped build ground-up support in those three states.

Then, Amy Klobauchur and Pete Buttigieg, seeing no path to the nomination for themselves, decided to suspend their campaigns just before Super Tuesday. They, along with former Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke then appeared with Biden at two rallies in Texas to show their support for the former Vice President.

Tonight, on Super Tuesday, the 2020 Political Phoenix seems to have risen to catch and possibly surpass Senator Sanders on the race to earn the 1991 delegates to claim the Democratic Presidential Nomination.

So far, Mr. Biden, who had minimal to no ground presence in some of these states, has won Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts (where Senator Warren has finished in third,) Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Senator Sanders has won his native Vermont (with only about 51 percent of the vote,) Colorado (on the strength of early mail-in ballot voting,) and Utah (how.)

California and Maine are too close to call.

It is too early to foresee what will happen in the contest for the remaining two-thirds of the Democratic delegates.

A lot can happen.

But for tonight, Joe Biden, the Presidential Candidate left for dead, is the 2020 Political Phoenix.

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