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LAST UPDATE | 4 Mar 2020
JOE BIDEN HAS reclaimed front runner status in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination after notching up stunning Super Tuesday primary victories over Bernie Sanders and receiving the backing of Mike Bloomberg, who dropped out and endorsed the former vice president.
“I can’t thank you enough for your support,” the 77-year-old Biden tweeted after Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, announced earlier today that he was ending his unconventional campaign.
“This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics,” said Biden, who is making his third White House bid after failed runs in 1988 and 2008.
“It’s about defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, we’re gonna do it.”
Biden, whose campaign had been on life support after the first three nominating contests, won at least nine of the 14 states at stake on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the election calendar so far.
“They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing,” Biden told cheering supporters at a rally in Los Angeles.
Make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing.
Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist, won his home state of Vermont, Utah and looked to be headed for victory in California, the biggest prize of the night, as vote-counting continued today.
But Biden, powered by strong support among African-Americans and women, swept the seven southern states at play including Texas, where Sanders had been expected to attract strong Latino support.
‘Tsunami’
Bloomberg, also 78, said that while he was leaving the race, he remained committed to beating Trump in November.
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
“After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.”
Bloomberg skipped the first four nominating contests and spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on advertising to make a splash on Super Tuesday but he walked away with just a handful of delegates from the tiny US territory of American Samoa.
The other remaining major Democratic candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, was reported to be meeting with her advisors after failing to make an impact yesterday, even finishing third in her home state of Massachusetts.
Biden notched up victories in Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachusetts and even Minnesota – a state where Sanders had been expected to win handily.
With three-quarters of the vote counted, Biden had a narrow lead in Maine, where Sanders had been polling ahead.
“We expected a surge. We got a tsunami,” tweeted analyst David Axelrod, chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two successful presidential campaigns. “New race. Completely.”
A defiant Sanders celebrated his own wins by tearing into Trump, calling him “the most dangerous president in the history of this country”.
But he also attacked Biden for having voted for the invasion of Iraq and painted him as tarnished by billionaire contributors.
“We’re taking on the political establishment,” he said. “You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics.”
‘We are very much alive’
Biden saw the results as proof that his bid to bring American politics back to the centre, after four years of Trump’s right-wing populism, is on a roll.
“We are very much alive,” he told the crowd in Los Angeles.
A key takeaway from Biden’s long list of wins was his strong support among African Americans – a vital piece in any Democratic presidential candidate’s coalition.
He seemed to fare less well with the large Hispanic electorate, which in California reportedly went heavily for Sanders. But a victory in Texas, which also has a diverse population, suggests Biden has the capacity to build a broad coalition.
Trump tweeted his customary insults at the Democrats, deriding Warren for losing Massachusetts and Bloomberg for his failed campaign.
“I could have told him long ago that he didn’t have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost,” Trump said of Bloomberg.
“Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe’s campaign, hoping to save face. It won’t work!”
Many in the Democratic Party establishment have been desperate to stop Sanders, claiming he would be destroyed in an election where Trump would brand him a socialist bent on ending the American way of life.
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This is all so very true. However, what many may not realise, is that when a death happens closer to Christmas, the following year may actually be worse. During the first Christmas, one is still feeling numb so it is the following Christmas that the pain of loss is really felt.
@Joan Brennan: so true Joan, I lost my Mum November 2014 and my Gran who reared me November last year, I barely remember last Christmas, it was so soon after, this year I’ve felt like I can barely breathe and I just desperately want the season and the ads and the decorations gone, it’s been overwhelming on the outside looking in because it only serves as a reminder of who is not here anymore.
@Trish: I am so very sorry. Take a breath and keep breathing. This may sound daft but keep talking to your loved ones, I do this all the time and it helps a little.
@Joan Brennan: Very true Joan, I lost my dad after a very short illness on 17 November, and 24 years later lost my mum on 15 November 2014, both first Christmases were just a blur no interest in any celebrations. My youngest arrived a month early and was born on dad’s anniversary, I’m both happy and sad this time of year a bittersweet time for me. This is our first Christmas after moving back to my parents house, it actually feels good to be home.
This is my first Christmas without my mam she died on New Years Eve. I was her full time carer. I’m finding this week very difficult crying for no reason and getting angry. So I’m dreading New Years even more and she loved Christmas
@Linda Hegarty: Yes you are going to find it difficult and you will miss her and also you are going to miss caring for someone. Sometimes it helps caring a little bit for someone else or even fostering a dog? The best person you can take care of now is yourself. Best wishes.
@Linda Hegarty: I am so sorry Linda because I know how the loss of your mam feels, I too lost my mam at Christmas time two years ago. It is perfectly understandable how you are feeling, you are grieving and memories keep flooding back of the times you shared and this is painful, you obviously loved and cared for your mam very dearly, grief is an individual journey, there are times when you cope better and times when it is all too much, be kind to yourself and remember the love between a mother and daughter is forever, hold on to the love, not the loss, kind regards.
Great article. Its so wrong to have this forced happiness shoved in our face every year! Its like im a outsider looking in, the world gone crazy for the week of xmas.
I much prefer easter, less commercial.
Wheres the scrouge party ? Whos coming?
My mam and dad died at Christmas ,My mam 26 December 1999 and when I was thinking of how hard the next Christmas without my mam was going to be my dad died 8 December 2000 so it was very hard for my family. I missed the two of them alot
They set a place at the table? They buy her a present? A friend of mine died with cf many years in the early 90s so I have a small insight into how such a loss can effect a family. A tethered bird can’t fly. Let go and remember the good times.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: everyones grief is personal,everyone grieves in their own way. I dont think you can have an insight into their loss of their child, unless you gave gone through the same experience.
@breda claffey: plenty people greiving without a death happening. My sympathy is with people alone, unloved and unimportant to anyone. Plenty homes will feature a lone man or woman, no Christmas card, no visitors , no decorations forgotten by everyone.
@Misanthrope:
There are indeed those who do not fit into the usual family pattern. They are the ones who seldom, if ever, are considered at this time of year.
In my own case, I am now an old man, and my partner of 43 years passed away at the end of September 2015. In the two following Christmases I travelled trying to avoid the devastating loneliness and the painfully bitter remembrance of happier times. This Christmas I decided I should no longer try to avoid the unavoidable, so I have stayed at home. It has not been easy. The sense of the finality gnaws at the emotions. But I call to mind that there are many whose situations are worse than mine and my heart goes out to them, and this puts my grief into a more balanced context
I know from previous bereavements in time’ ‘scar tissue’ will build over the current open would of loss, but the sense of loss always remains. The pain of grief will slowly metamorphose into memories. But travelling the road to that point is not easy. And for the present, even though I look for comfort wherever I can find it, the loneliness and sense of being bereft dominate what remains of my life. Peace and comfort to all who are bereaved.
All I can say to anyone grieving for a loved one at any time is try to remember the good times you shared with them, and remember how happy they were when they made you smile.
I cared for my late mum on my own for about fifteen years ago… Lost her on July 15th, 2014… First Christmas was just an endurance test “Get through it” was my motto!… I have found the intervening Christmas seasons much worse!… January 1st is REALLY bad for me at about 8pm… That was when Mum left the house by ambulance and never returned alive!… Thinking of, and praying for everyone who is grieving…. May your loved ones rest in peace….
@Carolyn Akintola: Carolyn I understand exactly how you are feeling. My mam had a stroke in my arms at 8pm on Stephens night my last memory of her at home last year and died at 7.30am on New Years Eve.
@Linda Hegarty: So sorry to hear about your mum… Yes, it’s awful, isn’t it???… My mum had Kidney Failure and Parkinson’s… Went into hospital on Jan 1st, and died six and a half months later… Wishing you peace, Linda…. Happy Christmas…..
x
@sean o’dhubhghaill: you have absolutely no insight into how the death of a child affects a family from the outside looking in. If setting a place etc comforts them a little, why not? It isn’t a matter of not letting go , it’s recognising that that person will always be a part of you. Personally I like to buy my late son a “gift” every time I go away – it feels like including him
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