<body><div><figure><img src="http://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2kRYNH_0KsJ0rec00" alt="http://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2kRYNH_0KsJ0rec00" width="1755" height="1170" ></figure>If you asked Democratic voters right after the 2018 midterms which Democrats they expected to see in the presidential race, most of them likely would have included on their list former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). As of this writing, neither is in the race. The reasons tell us a lot about the state of the Democrats.Biden understandably would be pondering the risks and rewards of another presidential run. He wrestled with the same decision in 2016, ultimately deciding not to run in the months after his son Beau’s tragic death from brain cancer. With Hillary Clinton’s defeat, he surely isn’t the only Democrat who regret he chose to sit out 2016.Missing one window of opportunity doesn’t necessarily mean he should leap at the next one. The pro’s and con’s don’t point to an obvious answer, and the notoriously indecisive Biden seems to be taking his time.On the downside, he’s bombed on his own as a presidential candidate and has ideological differences with the base (e.g., on the 1994 crime bill he championed). Unlike the diverse party and the rest of the field, he is a white male in his 70s . He has a touchy-feely style that’s now seen as inappropriate.On the plus side, he’ be the instant front-runner and have plenty of money and high-powered staff at his disposal. He has the blue-collar appeal Democrats need to recapture the Upper Midwest and more policy experience than his potential competitors.With such an extremely diverse field (ideologically and otherwise), the question for Biden remains: Does he have to run for Democrats to reclaim the White House? It’s not like there are no moderates or no white men with Rust Belt appeal or no experienced pols already in the race or about to jump in. Put it this way: Does the Democratic field need Biden if it has Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) plus, possibly, a couple governors?Indicative of some concern that Biden might eclipse a promising field, now you see reports such as this from McClatchy:<blockquote>McClatchy interviewed 31 Democratic strategists — pollsters, opposition research experts, media consultants, ex-party officials, and communications specialists — from across the country about a potential Biden campaign. Nine agreed to speak on the record; all others quoted anonymously do not plan to be affiliated with any candidate running in the presidential primary.Strikingly, these conversations yielded a similar view: The Democratic political community is more broadly and deeply pessimistic about Biden’s potential candidacy than is commonly known.</blockquote>He still may run. (What politician can resist early presidential polling with him in the lead?)Then there is Sanders, who one would have imagined would have jumped in to the race by now. He’s been delayed by a not so small problem: Widespread complaints from women on his 2016 campaign of harassment and mistreatment.He’s been apologizing for a while, but it is far from clear whether the Democratic Party of 2020 is ready to forgive and forget, especially with President Trump the likely opponent. Sanders might lose some of the implicit advantage that any Democrat (or frankly, another Republican) has over Trump, whose overt racism, know-nothingism, bullying and misogyny has turned off most nonwhite and women voters. Sanders might have a tough time blasting Trump when his own campaign didn’t adequately protect women.Sanders also suffers from some of the same maladies as Biden; he’s old chronologically, a well-worn political face (i.e., not exactly an “outsider”), male and white. Why does the party need Bernie and his baggage with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and plenty of fresher progressive faces available? Nevertheless, he still may run.The question for Biden and Sanders is not whether it is too late to prepare for a race, gather staff, build a network and raise money. Given their name ID and track record, they can do all of those things faster and more successfully than most of the candidates already in the field. Rather, with a crowded field now populated with candidates who have some advantages they don’t have, and without some of their disadvantages, the real question is: Why bother?</div></body>

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If you asked Democratic voters right after the 2018 midterms which Democrats they expected to see in the presidential race, most of them likely would have included on their list former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). As of this writing, neither is in the race. The reasons tell us a lot about the state of the Democrats.

What about Biden and Bernie?