By choice or by necessity, Joe Biden does not display a very busy public program. Tuesday, February 18, four days before the ninth debate of the candidates for the Democratic primaries in Nevada, the former favorite of the ballot, the man who reigned over the race with all his stature as a former vice-president, chose to hold a meeting in a modest Asian restaurant in Las Vegas, a few kilometers from the casinos.
The place can only hold a hundred people, but it has the advantage of being right next to the Chinatown Plaza Mall where an advance polling station is located. Nevada, the third state in the succession of primaries, has innovated. To increase voter turnout, particularly among hotel workers, the Democrats decided to give voters the opportunity to vote early. On ballots, voters rank candidates by preference, without having to attend the meeting itself – the caucus. On Saturday, official polling day, the party hopes to avoid the Iowa fiasco, due to a broken technology. Google has been called to the rescue. Votes are recorded on iPad and on paper.
Arriving an hour late – but he makes up for forty-five minutes of selfies – Mr. Biden embarks on an unbroken monologue, bouncing from one personal anecdote to another. How his wife Jill spurned him for a long time – " Five times ! ", he is indignant. How he found out thanks to "Barack" his distant Irish family in County Mayo. The former vice president is jovial. He sometimes comes up against memories or acronyms, in particular "AAPI", which rightly designates the community in front of which he finds himself, Asian and originally from the Pacific Islands. But assistance is there and his message is clear: it is too early to bury Joe Biden.
After two severe losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former vice president hopes to bounce back in Nevada. A matter of survival. Less than a month after the first vote, it is remembering the good memories of the commentators. In the debates, his competitors do not even attack him anymore. On Wednesday, he looked amazed that we forgot to ask him: "But it was I who pushed through the ban on assault rifles!" (…) It was I who passed the decisive vote for Obamacare! "
Latinos courted on all sides
In Las Vegas, he can count on the party machine. Over a hundred local elected officials supported him, as did Congressman Steven Horsford, his state’s first black elected official, five Hispanic members of Congress (and singer Cher, who performs at Park MGM). "Trump knows that Biden is the most dangerous competitor. He even risked impeachment to find information about him ", said representative Dina Titus, in front of the audience at the Chinese restaurant.
