Joe Biden, a candidate in trouble
AFP. Washington – After suffering a beating in Iowa and acknowledging that he will likely lose the New Hampshire Democratic primary next Tuesday, former US Vice President Joe Biden is under heavy pressure to reverse his wobbly presidential campaign.
Biden has been a favorite in polls conducted nationwide for more than a year, but his enviable position is increasingly threatened, and his rivals, including a democratic socialist senator and a small-town mayor, smell blood.
Biden, a 77-year-old moderate, is overshadowed by mostly younger candidates, with clearer speeches and a good television presence.
Opinion polls conducted in New Hampshire show that Biden fell from first to third, behind veteran Senator Bernie Sanders, 78, and Pete Buttigieg, the former gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, 38.
“Not worrying would be stupid,” Will Johnson, a 23-year-old law student from northern Pittsburgh, who supports the former vice president, told AFP.
“Let’s look forward to a more concerted effort by his campaign to get people to support him,” he added and considered that Biden is “the best option” to defeat President Donald Trump in the November elections.
However, the vast majority of voters would favor Buttigieg and Sanders, the two candidates who won the most votes at the Iowa fiasco last week, at the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.
Biden on Thursday, five days before the election, met with his main advisors to assess the way forward.
But at the beginning of Friday’s televised debate among the seven qualified Democratic candidates, he made a surprising mistake.
“I got a hit in Iowa, and I will probably get another one here,” he said, perplexing Will Johnson and other followers.