Joe Biden's comeback in the "super Tuesday" Democratic primaries comes as a blow to Bernie Sanders, but the real loser is Donald Trump.
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Of the two leading Democrats, Biden, Obama's deputy and a "safe pair of hands", stands a better chance of giving Trump a fight to the finish than Sanders.
Biden, in addition, has the advantage of being marginally younger than Sanders whose age is going to become more problematic as the selection process proceeds.
That said, whichever way the votes break the 2020 presidential election is going to be a race between two old white men given Trump is 73, Biden is 77 and Sanders is 78.
While Sanders's views are barely centre left by Australian, and certainly British and European standards, his stances on healthcare, tax reform and social and economic inequality in the world's richest nation are radical for the US.
The self-described "democratic socialist" is a fervent admirer of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and is committed to enabling an "economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy".
While that sounds fair enough, it is sufficient to spook the US investment community and has left the Democrat outlier open to claims he is an American Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking in 2015 Sanders said: "While the average person is working longer hours for lower wages, we have seen a huge increase in income and wealth inequality, which is now reaching obscene levels. This is a rigged economy which works for the rich and the powerful ... this country just does not belong to a handful of billionaires".
Those are the views which have allowed him, despite the fact he would celebrate his 80th birthday midway through his first term if elected, to mobilise the youth vote.
Most Americans, like electors the world over, vote with their wallets.
The biggest thing that has worked for Biden this time around is that most Americans, like electors the world over including in Australia, vote with their wallets.
Bill Shorten and the ALP discovered just how reluctant voters are to support social and economic reform if it involves increased costs and higher taxes in 2019.
As the former NSW premier, Jack Lang, said: "'In the race of life, always back self-interest - at least you know it's trying".
Self-interest is one of the big things Trump has got going for him in 2020. Contrary to what the pundits were saying four years ago, he has not made a complete mess of things and has, instead, presided over one of the strongest periods of economic growth the US has seen in decades.
The Dow Jones, at least until the advent of the coronavirus, has been hitting record highs, and even his trade war with China wasn't able to slow it down significantly.
Trump has also fared better with foreign affairs than Obama and Hillary Clinton who presided over deteriorating relations with North Korea and managed to get the US involved in yet another foreign war in Syria.
In the eyes of his supporters, Trump has delivered on two of his major promises: "making America great again" and bringing the troops back home.
The greatest blot on his presidency, the dirty tricks and secret deals that culminated in his impeachment have, perversely, strengthened his support base.
The harder the Democrats have worked to overturn the results of the 2016 poll, the tougher they made it for themselves to win this one.
If, as now seems likely, Biden does become the Democratic candidate, his biggest challenge will be to give Americans reasons to vote for his party, and not just to vote against Trump.
It remains to be seen if he will be able to do this successfully.