OPINION - Editorial

Joe Biden rising

He’s leading in all the polls

W e wrote that headline because we wanted to see it in print. And atop the electronic version of any news article. Not because a starboard-leaning editorial column is necessarily enamored of Joe Biden. But because (1) he sorta deserves it, and (2) his campaign is consistently overlooked by the media. Which must be a strange feeling for somebody consistently leading the pack.

Here are some of the headlines we saw this past week, focusing on the horse race in the Democratic presidential field:

Warren shows signs of broadening her base--The Hill

Size matters? Media praise Elizabeth Warren, and her crowds--Fox News

NBC/WSJ poll: Enthusiasm for Elizabeth Warren surges--Axios

How electable is Elizabeth Warren anyway?--New York Magazine

Does Elizabeth Warren have room to grow?--CBS News

That seemed to be last week's media stampede: Elizabeth Warren rising. It comes on the heels of former stampedes: Kamala Harris rising. Pete Buttigieg rising. And before that, Beto O'Rourke rising. Next week, who knows? It might be Julian Castro rising. Well, maybe not Julian Castro but you get the point.

Poll after poll, from reliable pollsters, show Joe Biden leading among all would-be nominees. But headline after headline focuses on Elizabeth Warren.

In the last Fox News poll, Joe Biden stood at 29 percent. Elizabeth Warren was in second place, but trailed by nearly half as much, at 16 percent.

Joe Biden led her by 5 points in the latest Economist poll, and he was up 14 in a SurveyUSA poll. In a Florida Atlantic University survey, he was up by 10 points over his Democratic rivals in the Sunshine State, and got nearly a third of all the Democratic votes in the latest NBC poll.

Speaking of the NBC poll--and Elizabeth Warren's enthusiasm "surging" as the headline writers put it--Joe Biden leads her 31 percent to 25 percent, and both are up since that network's last poll, 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively. How did the headline writers come up with Sen. Warren surging?

Perhaps some of us see other news: Joe Biden is consistently getting a third, or nearly a third, of the Democratic primary vote. And in a crowded field of 20-plus candidates, a third will do the trick. Easily. Lest we forget, Donald Trump won Arkansas' GOP primary in 2016 with 32.8 percent of the vote.

Some of us also think that it's good news for not just Democrats, but for the country, that Joe Biden is ahead at this point. He's one of the last moderates standing among Democratic candidates. And certainly the only moderate who has a realistic chance at the nomination.

Joe Biden, for better or worse, is no wild-eyed leftist. He called out his competitors at the last debate, saying their Medicare-for-all plans have hidden costs they haven't talked about. (Elizabeth Warren still won't say her plan would raise taxes. Not even in a friendly chat with Stephen Colbert.)

Joe Biden is a free-trade and free-market kind of guy. He was Barack Obama's vice president, and wants to build on some of his former boss' work, not tear it all up and start over again on the extremes. Which probably fits with the wishes of most Americans.

Speaking of polls, Gallup published one last year that showed 35 percent of Americans described themselves as conservative. Another 35 percent said they were moderate. And only 26 percent called themselves liberal. That wouldn't seem to favor the campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker or Elizabeth Warren.

And, not to belabor the point, but Joe Biden is currently ahead. In some polls, far ahead.

But you'd never know that by reading some of the headlines from last week.

Enthusiasm for Elizabeth Warren surges? How about this instead:

Enthusiasm for Joe Biden remains steady.

Editorial on 09/21/2019

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