NOT SO MUCH A 'REMARKABLE COMEBACK', BUT A CORPORATE COUNTER REVOLUTION

72%  of 18-29 year olds voted for Sanders. Only 5 percent voted for Biden. 

The mainstream media have described it as a 'remarkable comeback' but Joe Biden has been the beneficiary of a well-resourced counter revolution fuelled by corporate money.

ITS NOT altogether surprising that the local New Zealand media have swallowed the American corporate media narrative that Democratic presidential hopeful Jim Biden is the proverbial comeback king. So on Morning Report today both Susie Ferguson and Corin Dann kept on referring to Biden's 'remarkable comeback'.

Such glowing and uncritical descriptions suggest that Feeble Joe (to be Trumpian for a moment) came back from the brink of political oblivion all by himself. It ignores the fact that Biden was considered to be the favourite from the off, until a number of underwhelming debate performances and a healthy sprinkling of gaffes, saw Battlin' Joe leaning heavily on the ropes, trying to get his breathe back.

What has happened since then is the establishment wing of the Democratic Party and its billionaire backers have quickly coalesced around Biden in a well organised attempt to suppress the threat to their interests posed to then by Bernie Sanders and his grassroots movement. That fact that Mike Bloomberg has now dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden means that he now has a unlimited supply of campaign funds as well.

This has not been so much a comeback by Biden but a well-resourced counter revolution designed to protect the interests of capital. Already private health stocks have surged as the threat of Sanders implementing universal healthcare has faded. Imagine that. Wall Street is celebrating that the chances of working people getting access to free healthcare is receding.

As Sarah Jones has commented in New Yorker  magazine: 'The obstacle in the way of a more progressive future for Americans isn't Sanders, but the coalition forming around Biden.'

The onus is now on Elizabeth Warren to retire from the race and throw her resources behind the Bernie Sanders campaign. She has no path to the presidential nomination and staying in a race will only divide the progressive vote and make life easier for Biden. At the time of writing, talks between the Sanders and Warren camps appear to be happening.

The New York Times, the same newspaper that praised Biden for supporting the invasion of Iraq, has commented: 'if you're a Democrat who doesn't want Bernie Sanders to be the party's nominee, your choice is now clear: you should vote for Joe Biden."

Economist Robert Reich has had something to say about that:

'But suppose you're a Democrat who doesn't want Donald Trump to have a second term? Suppose you're a Democrat who suspects that Trump got elected in the first place because he exploited a deep sense of betrayal felt by tens of millions of Americans whose wages haven't budged in 40 years and who know the system is rigged for the benefit of those at the top? Do you really vote for Joe Biden?'

The answer, of course, is that not enough people will vote for Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be delivered another four years in the White House. And that would be catastrophic, not only for the United States but also for the world.