Faced with an uphill battle against 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden, 78-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hammered his chief rival on Social Security. Running behind in Michigan [125 delegates] and Florida [219 delegates], Bernie hasn’t found the right handle to make up lost ground. Whatever Biden said or voted for about Social Security doesn’t change the fact that most voters think he’s liberal enough on the subject, not something that will get Bernie traction with time running out on delegate-rich states in March. “We expect that it will be a powerful issue in the states ahead,” said Sanders’ senior advisrr Dave Sirota. Wasting time on the Social Security issue guarantees that Bernie will lose in Michigan Tuesday March 10 and Florida March 17. Biden is most vulnerable on foreign policy, backing the Iraq, Libyan and Syria Wars causing utter chaos in the Middle East and North Africa.
If Bernie’s campaign wants traction, he needs to talk about Biden’s most egregious foreign policy mistakes. While voting Oct, 2, 2002 for the former President George W. Bush’s Iraq War Resolution was bad enough, Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton backed toppling Oct. 22, 2011 Libya’s strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Biden’s policy sent Libya into anarchy, flooded by Al Qaeda and Islamic State terror groups, leading to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Benghazi, Libya consulate, killing 52-year-old Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Before that, Obama, Biden and Hillary backed the Saudi proxy war in Syria to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Spending billions arming Syrian rebels since March 15, 2011, Biden’s foreign policy killed over 500,000 civilians, displacing 2 million Syrians in the worst refugee disaster since WW II.
Both Biden and Hillary backed a no-fly zone in Syria that would have pitted the U.S. against the Russian Federation, something that could have led to World War III. Obama resisted Biden and Hillary’s advice, luckily avoided the no-fly zone advocated by Hillary and Biden in 2016. Instead of focusing only on Social Security, Bernie can make up lost ground on Biden’s foreign policy. If voters know that Biden’s Syria policy caused the waves of terrorism in Europe and the U.K., eventually leading to the June 23, 2016 Brexit vote, driving Britain out the European Union [EU] Jan. 31, 2020, voters would have second thoughts. Whether Bernie admits it or not, he’s far more aligned with 73-year-old President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, opposing the Iraq War and every other U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. Bernie’s anti-war policies appeal to a broad swath of voters.
Biden’s foreign policy failures follow him around like a barking dog, reminding voters that his bad decisions cost untold numbers of U.S. lives and costly Mideast wars. “One of the reasons Bernie Sanders is the strongest general election nominee is because Trump cannot impugn Bernie’s record consistently fighting to protect and expand Social Security,” Sirota said, ignoring Biden’s foreign policy mistakes. Biden’s track record on Social Security isn’t that much different from other mainstream Democrats, even though some of his public remarks or votes raise doubts. When it comes to foreign policy, Biden is most vulnerable, joining Obama in spending billions from Jan. 20, 2009 to Jan. 20, 2017, eight years of Mideast chaos. Watching Syrians flood Turkey and the Europe has had real consequences with the U.K. rejecting the EU. Biden’s policy cost the EU $2.75 trillion, the U.K.’s GDP.
Bernie’s glaring weakness running for president is his command of foreign policy, something Biden exploits because of his years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Yet if you look at his policies while Vice President, there’s much to criticize. When you consider the amount of tax dollars wasted on the Saudi-backed Syria War, the consequences are still alarming, with more death-and-destructing in Syria. Unlike his former boss Obama who refused to set up no-fly zones in Syria, Biden often talks tough against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden knows that when Putin joined the fight Sept. 30, 2015 to save al-Assad, the Saudi-U.S.-Turkey proxy war was over. Yet Biden and Hillary were willing to risk war with Russian Federation setting up a dangerous no-fly zone in Syria. Bernie probably doesn’t feel comfortable talking about foreign policy and U.S. national security.
Going after Biden on Social Security won’t change too many votes for Bernie, since Biden, like himself, is considered a liberal Democrat. Bernie’s running out of time to find a handle campaigning against Biden. If he Bernie doesn’t hammer Joe for his mistakes in Iraq, Libya and Syria, he won’t make up the votes needed to change things before Michigan and Florida. Voters want to know that a commander-in-chief knows what he’s doing to advance U.S. interests and defend national security. When you consider that Obama-Biden’s foreign policy drove the U.K out of the EU and caused the worst humanitarian disaster since WW II in Syria, you’d think Bernie would pay attention. If Bernie wants to get more votes before Michigan and Florida, going after Biden’s disastrous foreign policies would be a good start. Talking about Social Security won’t change many votes.
