Yesterday’s Super Tuesday election was a big event for Joe Biden, but progressives should not be too disappointed.
The reason: Elizabeth Warren has earned 50 delegates so far. If you add this to Bernie’s 382 delegates, we come up with 432 delegates compared to Biden’s current post-Super Tuesday tally of 453. (Delegate tally based on NPR numbers as of March 4, 2020, 7:30 am).
This gap of 21 delegates is small, and it still does not include California, where the vote is still being tallied as this is written.
If there is a progressive ticket of Warren and Sanders, the progressive message is still very much alive and that is still threatening to the establishment Democrats like Biden.
The big question is what is Elizabeth Warren going to do? We saw how Biden benefitted from the endorsements of Mayor Pete, Amy Klobuchar, and even Beto O’Rourke after they dropped out. 
Bernie can benefit if Warren does the same. This would be a big push for the progressive ticket and create more momentum moving into the next stage of state delegate elections.
But looking ahead, Bernie has a big problem in Florida, a key state with 219 delegates in play. (This delegate count includes 29 unpledged PLEO delegates. These are the 14 members of the Democratic National Committee; 13 members of Congress, of which all are U.S. Representatives; and former DNC chairs Kenneth M. Curtis and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Schultz is the venal, disgraced former-DNC chair who was bounced for working to derail the Sanders’ campaign in 2016.)
Bernie’s Florida problems started when he alienated the Cubans and the Jewish vote by his minor and focused praise of Castro’s literacy programs and his jabs at Israel’s premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. Both were unnecessary criticisms that detracted from his momentum in an important state.
Since politics is about building coalitions, Bernie’s move to antagonize these key voting groups in Florida will carry a price. And if polling is any indicator, it looks like he will suffer for it in the upcoming primary.
Bernie’s Big Advantage with Older Voters
Still, when working with older voters, Bernie has an advantage in his voting record of protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare via Medicare-for-All, and Medicaid. Biden has voted to reduce these benefits that go primary to older Americans.
Bernie also has a solid and demonstrable voting record against Biden on the following:
- Biden supported to support the war in Iraq.
- Biden voted for the bank and investment firm bailout of 2008 that cost trillions of dollars.
- Biden voted for bad trade deals, such as NAFTA, that cost millions of jobs
- Biden voted to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
- Biden voted for a bankruptcy bill that was advanced by the credit card companies
This makes a distinct difference between the progress views of Sanders and Warren versus the corporate-oriented policies advanced by Biden.
The key is to get younger voters to vote. Their apathy was disappointing in some of the poll results and analyses so far, since this demographic has the most to lose under a Biden nomination, and it will be much worse if Trump gets elected again.
Still, this is a great voyage into the great unknown of human emotions, human rationale, and human habits. Trump’s tribalism is hard to explain to those outside his tribe.
Worse, Trump’s election is a dismal marker in the venal, materialistic world of Manhattan society, which proved to be fertile ground for Trump to survive, prosper and hone his slick get-rich-quick propaganda. But if that is the corrupt, perverted America Trump voters want, they deserve the government they voted for.
