Joe Biden's stunning surge

His Super Tuesday victories resurrected his candidacy — and shredded a series of common political assumptions in the process

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo/Chris Carlson, jakkapan21/iStock)

By the time all the Super Tuesday votes are counted across 14 states, former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will likely be neck-and-neck in the delegate count, or one might have slightly bested the other. But the biggest story of the night by far will have been Biden's stunning surge.

One month ago, Biden fell off a polling cliff, plummeting from the high 20s in national polls to the mid-teens. He finished fourth in Iowa and came in a distant fifth in New Hampshire. No modern candidate with results like that has gone on to win a presidential nomination. He seemed dead in the water. And after Sanders ran away with the Nevada caucuses, it seemed for a few days like the Democratic Party was preparing to nominate a democratic socialist with the self-financed campaign of billionaire Michael Bloomberg the only thing that could stop him.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.