How coronavirus brought rare unity to the Democrats – and a real chance of defeating Trump

News analysis: What is dramatic, is how little drama there has been

It says something about the anxious psychology of the Democratic Party that the endorsement of the person you used to work for is considered such a big deal. Especially given all the other candidates have dropped out of the race.

“Barack — this endorsement means the world to Jill and me,” Joe Biden tweeted shortly after Barack Obama posted a video backing his former vice president for the job he once held.

“We’re going to build on the progress we made together, and there’s no one I’d rather have standing by my side.”

Biden’s words are no doubt genuine and heartfelt. While the 77-year-old often said he agreed with his boss’s decision not to back any of the two-dozen or candidates who sought the party’s nomination, one often sensed his frustration that he had not done so.

During the debates with other candidates, he repeatedly referred to his deeds in the “Obama-Biden administration”, seemingly hoping that to simply mention Obama’s name would magically win over undecided voters.

As it turns out, Obama’s backing of Biden – “Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever made and he became a close friend. And I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now” – is simply the icing on the cake.

More significant, perhaps, was the official endorsement from Bernie Sanders the day before. Having dropped out of the race a week earlier, the 78-year-old also formally anointed the centrist Biden and said they would work together.

“We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president,” said the Vermont senator. “ I will do all that I can to make that happen.”

What is so dramatic about all of this, is how little drama there is.

Just a few weeks ago, there was talk of a contested Democratic convention, of drafting in New York’s Andrew Cuomo to take on Trump after he impressed the public with his daily Covid-19 briefings.

Four years ago, Sanders did not endorse Hillary Clinton until late into the summer and the rancour between permeated on until her defeat and beyond, fuelled in part by revelations published by WikiLeaks that elements of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were trying to undermine Sanders’s campaign.

As Jonathan Martin pointed out in the New York Times, in 2016, as in 2008 when Obama was engaged in an equally bitter battle against Clinton, the Democratic primary involved all 50 states, ate up lots of money and left wounds that were hard to heal.

After fretting and worrying for months about finding a candidate with sufficient “electability” to defeat Trump, Democrats now find themselves in the rare position of having effectively chosen their nominee by the second week of April.

There were no doubt harsh words spoken as the various candidates sought their moment in front of the cameras, but nothing that cannot be smoothed over. Biden and Sanders are said to be friends, and the former VP appears genuine in his determination to adopt a number of proposals that might help him reach progressives.

A large chunk of credit for this belongs to the dogged Biden, a onetime front runner who hung on as his first showings – in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada – were dismal. Many suspected he would drop out. Yet after a landslide win in South Carolina, he dug in and clung on.

Yet more influential that either the endorsement of Obama and Sanders, has been the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

While Trump has filled his daily virus briefings with lots of self-praise and untruths, the kind of thing he serves at his campaign rallies, the Democratic primary was placed in aspic by the virus.

Neither Sanders or Biden could campaign other than by livestream. The party’s convention was postponed and the nation’s energies were taken up by committing the virus.

Just as the coronavirus has pushed some sort of national unity as people are forced people to pause and consider what is truly important to them, so too it has brought together the Democratic Party, never more desirous of defeating Trump.

A party in which Biden genuinely has the backing of Bernie Sanders and his supporters ought to have a far better chance at winning back the White House. That is the task, now at hand.