The Great White Male Hope
By 
The self-nominated Only Hope of the Democratic Party and his allies speak:
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president and has told allies he is skeptical the other Democrats eyeing the White House can defeat President Trump, an assessment that foreshadows a clash between the veteran Washington insider and the more liberal and fresh-faced contenders for the party’s 2020 nomination.
Many Democratic voters, and nearly all major Democratic donors, are keenly interested in Mr. Biden’s plans because of their consuming focus on finding a candidate who can beat a president they believe represents a threat to American democracy. But there is also a rising demand in the party for a more progressive standard-bearer who reflects the increasingly diverse Democratic coalition.
Mr. Biden would instantly be the early front-runner if he ran, but he would have to bridge divides in a primary that would test whether Democrats are willing to embrace a moderate white man in his 70s if they view him as the best bet to oust Mr. Trump.
“He has the best chance of beating Trump, hands down,” said Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, Mr. Biden’s longtime friend and former colleague. “On a scale of one to 10, that’s probably about a 12 for us.”
[…]
Most of all, Mr. Biden’s allies contend, he would be the Democrat most likely to reclaim the battleground state voters who abandoned the party in 2016.
“If you look at Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the labor folks who voted for Trump, they love him,” former Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware said of Mr. Biden. “He has a connection with these people.”
To state the obvious:
There’s a class of Democrats who saw the party sweep the gov/Senate races in MI/PA/WI and now think “no one but Biden can possibly beat Trump in these states.” https://t.co/jNIbpxVWKx
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 6, 2019
I would also add that assertions that Biden would have swept the Rust Belt are the kind of just-so story that cannot be meaningfully evaluated and hence is useless. It gets worse:
Mr. Biden would portray himself as a progressive, embracing priorities like free public college tuition and expanding health care, advisers say. But he would also make the case that his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president make him the best qualified to repair the damage they believe Mr. Trump has done at home and abroad.
“This is a guy who actually gets along with Mitch McConnell and a number of other Republicans,” said Mr. Carper, invoking the Senate majority leader with whom Mr. Biden worked closely to negotiate a handful of agreements in the Obama years.
LOL, yup if Biden was in the White House Joe and Mitch would be just like LBJ and Everett Dirksen in 1965. Just like when Biden was Vice Pres…I’ll come in again. If Biden runs my advice for Democratic primary voters would be to support his most viable opponent.
I should say the article by Matin and Burns is good and is a lot more skeptical about these self-serving claims than the industry norm.