What Went Down At The First Biden vs. Sanders Debate

Sanders’s comments praising aspects of the Castro regime could be a real problem for him among Cuban Americans in Florida, for what it’s worth. He’s done very well among Latinos so far, particularly in states like California, but of course the Latino/Hispanic vote is not a monolith, and Biden is likely going to beat Sanders among Hispanic voters in Florida on Tuesday.

Biden gained this big lead in a part of the campaign that didn’t have a bunch of debates. He ran on electability, and a lot of people in the party endorsed and embraced him on that basis. Now that Sanders is on stage with Biden, Sanders is trying to create a debate around policy more than electability and argue that he got the policy decisions right in the past and therefore will in the future. That seems perfectly logical for Sanders — it’s a way for him to illustrate why he has running for president but not really hurt Biden. Biden is not afraid of the idea that he is to the right of Sanders.

The first question after the commercial break is about why Cuban Americans (who make up a lot of the population of Florida, which votes on Tuesday) should vote for Sanders given his comments praising aspects of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. For more on this topic, I recommend you visit FiveThirtyEight tomorrow morning!