There are many theories being advanced for why former Vice Pres. Joe Biden — who is old, white, and male (the unholy trinity) — is leading the next highest-polling Democrat (who is also old, white, and male) by as big a margin as 24%.
One holds that Biden is running as the lone centrist in a field of kooks. As an example, Biden was recently pounced on by his fellow Democratic hopefuls by merely mentioning a climate change policy that will appeal to both environmentalists and the blue-collar voters who elected Donald Trump.
Another factor that is being bandied about is experience. Unlike the others, Biden has been around the block several times and may, in the view of the Democratic leadership, be the only candidate with the “chops” to take on an incumbent.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Whether Biden remains on top of the heap or not, it seems clear at this point that many of the early top-tier contenders are not long for the race. Elizabeth Warren, who shot herself in the foot with her handling of Indiangate, which ended in February with an apology for calling herself “Native American,” is hanging in with 8.3%, according to the RealClear Politics average. Kamala Harris, rocked by her overnight flip-flops on key proposals, is in fourth place with 7.7%. Even latecomer Amy Klobuchar is managing to stay above the 1% mark, although narrowly.
Which brings us to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is barely clinging to life at 0.8%. Gillibrand, who has attempted to out-left any proposal put forth by another candidate, has advocated giving social security to illegal aliens and most recently presented a plan for wealth redistribution authored by former Soviet propagandists.
Gillibrand has intimated that she won’t go gentle into that good night. In April, she claimed that her low first-quarter fundraising totals were attributable in part to backlash over her decision in 2017 to call for the resignation of Sen. Al Franken.
And now that the light is growing dim, she is blaming her failing poll numbers on bias against women. When asked by CNN why voters weren’t responding to her, she replied:
I think it’s just gender bias. I think people are generally biased against women. I think also biased against young women. There’s just bias and it’s real and it exists, but you have to overcome it.
It is unclear whether Gillibrand, who is 52, was referring to herself when she specified young women, but one thing that is clear is that starting fairly soon we won’t have Kirtsen to kick around any more.
