The facts tell us Joe Biden is the best choice for Democrats in 2020. So why is he being attacked by his own?

Middle class voters in Midwestern states are not sitting around the dinner table discussing the voting rights of those in prison and picking out the electric car they'd drive after the Green New Deal gets fully implemented

Joe Biden was beloved by Democrats when he was vice-president. When he chose not to run in 2016 and Donald Trump won, many Democrats said Biden likely would have beaten the Republican candidate, prevailing in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — the three states that ultimately delivered Trump's electoral victory.

Now that Biden is in for 2020, the tables have suddenly turned. Before Biden even got into the race, he faced a backlash from progressive activists over what was called inappropriate touching. No one accused Biden of sexual harassment, but several women did claim Biden invaded their space in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. Biden also faced scrutiny for his vote on the 1994 crime bill, his views on busing and the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings.

Now some progressives have said to Biden, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Justice Democrats, a progressive organization that backed Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said in a statement that it wouldn't back Biden, at least in the primary, writing: “While we’re going to support the Democratic nominee, we can’t let a so-called ‘centrist’ like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of ‘No, we can’t.’”

The group's attacks against Biden sharpened within hours. One tweet from the group read: “The ‘simpler time in politics' that Joe Biden’s campaign apparently harkens back to was wrought with racism, sexism, and a class war that Joe Biden often capitulated to."

That's quite the change from 2016.

There's a contingent of Democratic voters cheering on the Biden attacks because they want one of their own to face off against Donald Trump. They want Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren, all of whom have endorsed one or more of the items on the progressive wish-list such as Medicare for All, free college tuition, reparations, school loan debt forgiveness, and the Green New Deal. The latest salvo from the 2020 Democratic nominees is the advocation for felons to have the ability to vote — while in prison.

It's easy to map out the Trump re-election strategy. Assuming the economy doesn't crash and burn in the next 18 months, Trump will highlight it as the main reason to send him back for another term. He's not going to engage in nuanced policy debates. It will be a torrent of bombast and insults the entire time.

Who better to deal with that than Biden? It's not hard to remember his debate win over Paul Ryan in 2012. Ryan probably won on points. But Biden's constant snickering and smiling kept Ryan off his game, and it obviously bothered him. Biden will have the ability to do the same with Trump during a debate, while at the same time get his message across to the audience and to voters.

When Democrats took control of the US House in 2018, they won with a mixture of moderate candidates in suburban districts. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) beat former Rep. Pete Sessions in the 32nd district in Texas. Allred hasn't pushed for any of the progressive ideas favored by the Bernie wing of the party. Allred got on board with Medicare For All early in 2018, but crucially he hasn't mentioned it since he won.

Middle class voters in Midwestern states who abandoned the Democrats for Trump in 2016 are not sitting around the dinner table discussing the voting rights of those in prison and picking out the electric car they'd drive after the Green New Deal gets fully implemented. The challenge for Democrats will be to convince those voters that Trump's way is not working. That won't be easy. GDP growth in the first quarter was 3.2 per cent — a surprising number, but one that bolsters Trump's argument that the economy will do better with him in charge. The unemployment rate is 4 per cent, the lowest it's been since the days of the dot-com boom.

To convince some voters that they're missing out on what may overall be good news is going to take a great deal of political skill. It's hard to imagine anyone making the argument more effectively than Joe Biden. Biden is from Pennsylvania and can connect with voters there and in Michigan and Wisconsin in a way that Hillary could not. And likely more effectively than Sanders, Harris or Warren.

People may ask, "What about Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg?" Both O'Rourke and Buttigieg have embraced progressive agendas and focused more on the "hope and change" style of campaigning that helped Barack Obama win in 2008. That will be a completely different challenge for Joe Biden. But as it stands now, the polling shows he will have to get past Sanders and Harris first.

Jay Caruso is deputy editor of the Washington Examiner