Bernie Sanders' surge worries top Democrats

The socialist senator could beat Hillary Clinton in this week’s New Hampshire primary

Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign stop at the Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire. Polls show him on course to defeat Hillary Clinton in the upcoming New Hampshire primary (AP)

Anxiety among top Democrats that Hillary Clinton may yet be felled by Senator Bernie Sanders in the scramble for the party’s presidential nomination has unleashed a new round of speculation that it may yet not be too late for Vice-President Joe Biden to change his mind about running, and leap in.

Assumptions about Mr Sanders being too far to the left to prevail over Ms Clinton have started to look a little thin, with polls showing him on course to defeat her in the New Hampshire primary on 9 February. Mr Sanders is up by as much as 30 points in some polls – after fighting Ms Clinton to a near draw in the Iowa caucuses last week.

That is sowing panic among party elders as well as some donors who believe Mr Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, could be a disaster in the election in November. That concern has grown, with a new Quinnipiac University poll showing the two candidates almost statistically tied nationally. The poll found Ms Clinton leading the race with 44 per cent support, compared with 42 per cent for Mr Sanders – which is within the margin of error. A month ago, Mr Sanders was nearly 30 points behind.

Hillary Clinton drumming up support in New Hampshire on Friday (AP)

At a fractious debate in Nashua on late on 4 February Mr Sanders aggressively tackled Ms Clinton over her alleged close ties to Wall Street. She shot back, accusing him of an “artful smear” by implying that because she had accepted speaking fees from Goldman Sachs she was somehow beholden to it.

After flirting with running for the president for months, Mr Biden announced in October he did not plan to run, having shortly before seen his son die of cancer. On 5 February, however, a prominent party donor, Oklahoma businessman Bill Bartmann, wrote to other party backers suggesting that it might be time to prevail on the Vice-President. “I would urge all of you to join me in ‘keeping our powder dry’ until we see if for the good of the party and the country, we should resurrect the Draft Biden movement,” Mr Bartmann wrote. “We cannot afford to lose the White House.”

For many, a run by Mr Biden now would be unlikely. Asked about a possible volte-face by Mr Biden, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign declared it impractical because of ballot-filing deadlines. He insisted that while Mr Biden could still get on the ballots of multiple states, there are still too many he would be too late for to allow him to assemble the delegates necessary to win the nomination. “It’s mathematically impossible at this point,” he said.

After failing by a fraction of a percentage point to defeat Ms Clinton in Iowa, Mr Sanders has roared into the New Hampshire campaign as if he’d been the winner. Last night he was due to take time out from the campaign to appear on Saturday Night Live.

His aides reject the narrative still being rehearsed by the Clinton camp that even if he wins in New Hampshire, he will falter when the nomination circus moves to southern states later this month, where high numbers of black and Hispanic voters are thought to favour the former first lady. Mr Sanders received a potentially important boost on 6 February when he was endorsed by Benjamin Jealous, the former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Critically, Mr Jealous vowed to help Mr Sanders overcome his deficit wherever the black vote matters. “I intend to be very engaged and to help build the campaign in the South and, quite frankly, help to build it in the cities of the Midwest and throughout the country,” he said.