Biden Advisers Say He’s ‘Anything But Doomed’ Ahead of Iowa Vote
Biden Advisers Say He’s ‘Anything But Doomed’ Ahead of Iowa Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Top advisers to Joe Biden sought to temper expectations for his performance in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, projecting a close result and insisting that any outcome won’t doom the former vice president’s campaign.
“Joe Biden is anything but doomed,” former Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a longtime Biden friend who has endorsed his former colleague, said Sunday at a Bloomberg News reporter roundtable in Des Moines.
Biden’s team has long played down the importance of Iowa to its strategy, arguing that contests later in February in Nevada and South Carolina, followed quickly by Super Tuesday on March 3, are critical to demonstrate that a candidate is capable of defeating President Donald Trump.
“We have been taking incoming since before Vice President Biden got into this race, since before April 25, people have been writing our campaign’s obituary. Tuesday morning will be no different,” Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders said at the roundtable.
It’s in the states after Iowa that Biden’s advisers say he’ll be able to show his true electoral strength because of their higher concentrations of non-white voters and because their Democratic primary electorates are more moderate than Iowa’s.
‘Not the End’
“I think it’s important to know that we view Iowa as the beginning, not the end” of the nominating process, Sanders, the Biden adviser, said. “I think it will be a gross mistake on the part of reporters, voters or anyone else to view whatever happens on Monday – we think it’s going to be close – but view whatever happens as the end and not give credence and space for New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.”
Senator Bernie Sanders leads Biden by 3.6 percentage points in the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa caucus polls, but one key data point that typically helps set expectations in the final 48 hours before Iowans go to their caucuses is missing: The Des Moines Register/CNN poll’s Saturday night release was canceled because of problems with its questioning, leaving journalists, analysts and voters grasping for data to anticipate Monday’s results.
“I certainly will concede that the poll, the Register poll, could add or detract energy from a campaign,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has endorsed Biden. “It’s important for the expectations-setting. But I sort of think Democrats don’t just go to someone because they’re ahead.”
A central tenet of Biden’s Democratic primary argument is that he’s the candidate perceived as most electable, a contention opponents have argued would be diminished by a poor showing in Iowa. But Miller insisted that a disappointing finish for Biden in his state doesn’t change the overall picture for Biden.
“When we say he’s electable in the general election, we’re not saying he’s going to win every state in the caucus and primary system. That only happens with an incumbent president running for re-election,” Miller said. “I think that’s a false standard that he should win every state.”
(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Des Moines, Iowa at jepstein32@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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