The following is the opinion and analysis of the Arizona Daily Star Editorial Board:
And then there were two.
The most diverse presidential primary field in history has winnowed to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders: two white men in their 70s with long political careers each convinced he’s the only person who can take on — and take down — President Trump in November.
The choice between Sanders and Biden requires a choice between a personality or a coalition, between an any-day-now “revolution” built on unrealistic ideological promises or a steadying builder who reaches out and brings people in.
The Arizona Daily Star’s Editorial Board endorses former vice president Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president. On policy, experience, temperament and leadership, Biden is the best choice in every category.
And, to the voters who say their only requirement in a candidate is that they can defeat Trump, Biden is the best choice for that, too.
Biden’s political and life experience shapes his policy views, but most valuable is his inclination and ability to connect with people who don’t share his viewpoints or beliefs. He finds common ground, as evidenced in his wide appeal with primary voters across demographic and geographic lines on Super Tuesday.
Sanders carried California, but his promised wave of young voters didn’t materialize — a significant weakness for a candidate whose policy positions and history alienate not only other Democrats but independents and Republicans disenchanted with Trump.
Biden has wide and broad appeal, which would help him in the general election against Trump, and is a factor in many voters’ minds when choosing the Democratic candidate — but ignoring Biden’s experience and how that shapes his policy positions sells him short.
While Sanders fashions himself an iconoclast, Biden is a compassionate realist — perhaps the result of his decades of public service infused with the family tragedies he has endured, such as the deaths of two of his children and his first wife.
Sanders appeals to voters’ idealism, but Biden appeals to our pragmatism. Forced to adjust after significant political and personal losses, Biden has demonstrated the ability to regroup and find a way forward in new terrain — characteristics essential in a climate vastly different than even four years ago.
Biden doesn’t have the soaring oratory or history-making appeal of Barack Obama, and, let’s be honest, the television debate stage isn’t his natural habitat. He sometimes says unwise things in public, and he’s not a slick campaigner.
In the sound-bite version of the election, those qualities carry out-sized importance. Voters should not give them significant weight. Biden surrounds himself with smart people, a sign of a strong and confident leader who values finding answers and solutions over ideological purity or personal loyalty.
Sanders and his supporters argue that his promise of free college, “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal aren’t too bold or unrealistic — and they chastise Democrats who question them or disagree, a tactic that doesn’t portend any ability to accomplish those missions should Sanders make it to the White House.
On policy issues, Biden’s plan to expand and build on the Affordable Care Act’s successes while offering Americans a public Medicare-esque insurance option makes more sense than blowing up the health care system — as flawed as it is — and trying to start over, as Sanders proposes.
Biden touts his experience with leaders foreign and domestic, and he is correct that experience and credibility matters, especially when repairing damaged diplomatic and trade relationships.
His expertise is evident in his approach to immigration, which includes ending Trump’s ineffective and abusive practice of taking immigrant children away from their families at the border; expanding and fixing the asylum process; creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, restarting the DACA program; and investing in humanitarian assistance and helping improve safety and economic opportunity in Central American countries as a way to slow immigration from those nations.
The nation needs a candidate who can act with knowledge, open-mindedness and understanding at home and abroad.
Democrats need a candidate who is a clear alternative in policy and comportment to Trump, a candidate whose appeal reaches beyond the party boundaries. Joe Biden is that candidate and the Star Editorial Board endorses him in the Arizona presidential preference election on March 17.
