Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: A huge South Carolina poll: Biden at 46% [View all]thesquanderer
(11,982 posts)People run for plenty of reasons. Some want to position themselves for a future run. Or a cabinet position. Some have an agenda they want to bring attention to... and that's something probably of importance to Sanders... I believe it was the only reason he announced his candidacy in 2016, I don't think he initially expected his challenge to Clinton to even get as far as it did.
But regardless of any of that, at this moment, Sanders is almost universally running second, often the only candidate besides Biden who looks like he could hit the 15% threshold to get any delegates at all. A lot can happen between now and the convention. As of now, even with SC poll results like these, if Biden falls out of favor for any reason at all, Sanders is best positioned to be the nominee. In a field of 20+ at the start of a year-long race that hasn't even hit the first primary or even first debate yet, the idea of the person in the strong #2 spot dropping out is far fetched.
If no one else starts amassing some number of delegates by Super Tuesday, it could quickly come down to a Biden vs. Sanders race.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden