Bernie and Biden will face off in a one on one debate on Sunday, March 15 in Phoenix (with CNN and Univision hosting-- Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Jorge Ramos moderating). Before then, though, we have a big day this Tuesday when Michigan, Washington state, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho hold their primaries, also the day of North Dakota's primary and the last day of Democrats Abroad primary. Michigan is the big prize-- 125 delegates. Before Super Tuesday, Bernie was leading Biden 25-16% with Bloomberg and Elizabeth both at 13%, Mayo Pete at 11% and Klobuchar at 8%. The latest polling indicates that Biden has leap-frogged to the top slot and leads Bernie by almost 7 points.Washington was also a Bernie state-- pre-Super Tuesday leading Biden by 11 points-- 21-10%. Now? The latest poll shows a tie. The latest poll of Missouri Democrats (post-Super Tuesday) shows Biden slightly ahead.There are no polls available for Mississippi, Idaho or North Dakota.Bernie is counting on union workers in Michigan-- who understand the destructive nature of the trade agreements Biden has always backed-- as a boost that will help him regain his footing. Rust Belt autoworkers know-- and Bernie is reminding them of Biden's role in all these disastrous agreements. Writing for Politico yesterday, Megan Cassella reported that Bernie cancelled a rally in Mississippi so he could spend more time in Michigan.
In campaign speeches, press conferences and television ads, Sanders has stepped up his attacks on Biden this week over his past support for trade pacts like NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China-- both of which, he argues, “have cost this country millions of good paying jobs and in fact have resulted in a race to the bottom.”...“They were devastated-- they were devastated by trade agreements like NAFTA” in Michigan, Sanders said this week as he sought to reset his campaign after Super Tuesday. “Joe is going to have to explain to the people and the union workers in the Midwest why he supported disastrous trade agreements.”...[T]he trade battle is a legacy fight for Sanders, who has spent decades not only opposing trade deals himself but often leading the charge against them. He has voted against every major deal Congress has passed in a generation, although he sat out a 2011 vote on a deal with South Korea.Some of those battles put him directly at odds with Biden. In 2016, as Biden helped lead the Obama administration’s attempt to gather support for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, Sanders helped collect more than 66,000 signatures on a petition to stop it. Congress never moved on the deal, and President Donald Trump ultimately had the final word, withdrawing the U.S. from the pact on his first week in office.This year, Sanders was one of just 10 senators to vote against the Trump administration's deal to replace NAFTA, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. After months of closed-door negotiations between House Democrats and the Trump administration, the pact garnered broad support from a majority of labor unions, most congressional Democrats and even fellow progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Biden backed it as well, saying it was not ideal but that he supported the improvements the labor and progressive movements fought to make....For Sanders, the question now is whether his fresh line of attack will work.In 2016, Sanders’ pitch resonated in Michigan and among workers in the state’s hollowed-out manufacturing sector. But since then, Trump has worked to fashion himself as the champion of the working class and American manufacturing by ripping up what he and Sanders both call disastrous trade deals. Trump has also enacted a series of sweeping tariffs on imports that have devastated farmers and hurt some manufacturers whose equipment and materials are growing more expensive.The effect has been “tremendously clarifying,” said Doug Irwin, a Dartmouth University economist who has written extensively on the politics and economics of trade. After decades of debate on the merits of multinational agreements, a U.S. president has shifted the country toward a more protectionist agenda and seen what the effects would be, he said.“What we see is that just as trade creates winners and losers, protectionism creates winners and losers,” Irwin said. “And there are a lot of losers out there.”A Biden spokesperson sounded a similar tune. "These states have spent years enduring the economic pain that Trump's trade war has forced on them-- and the last thing they have an appetite for is more of that kind of approach," spokesperson Andrew Bates told Politico....Biden’s record overall on trade is generally mixed. He voted against a handful of trade deals in his last few years in the Senate, including pacts with Peru, Oman and Chile. But those have garnered far less attention than his votes in favor of NAFTA-- which has long served as a punching bag for critics who blame it for the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico-- and for permanent normal trade relations with China.
