Deep cracks emerge in Biden's firewall

Politico

CHARLESTON, S.C. — His message is uninspiring. His ground game is flawed. After Iowa and New Hampshire, they’re no longer convinced he can beat Donald Trump.

Interviews with two dozen South Carolina lawmakers, consultants and voters here suggests there are deep cracks in Joe Biden’s firewall state, where his campaign expects to turn his misfortunes around with a robust victory that highlights his broad-based support — particularly among African Americans.

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During a get-out-the-vote effort Wednesday in a North Charleston neighborhood just blocks away from Biden’s offices, members of the media rivaled the number of volunteers present. Some prominent black state leaders expected to be firmly in Biden’s camp have migrated to other campaigns, namely those of Tom Steyer and Bernie Sanders.

Dahli Myers, vice chair of the Richland County Council and a former Biden supporter, said she switched allegiances to Sanders after warning several Biden staffers that their grassroots approach was outdated. His get-out-the-vote strategy, she said, was too tailored to older voters and his message of electability too broad to be convincing.

"Before any of these elections took place — the Iowa caucus, or [the] New Hampshire primary, my sense was, there was a structural impediment to people going out and being 'rah rah' and voting for Joe Biden," Myers said. "If the whole of your argument for my vote is, 'I'm electable', and there is nothing that you presented as, you know, the case study for why we should elect you, though you are electable, what is the point? Give me a reason to elect you. And I don't think that that campaign's doing a good job of that."