So this is what I feared after South Carolina: all the Nervous Nellies in the Democratic party have given Biden the boost he needs to make this race a contentious one until the convention. Even if Biden comes out of Super Tuesday with a delegate lead–still unknown at this writing as we wait for California results–Bernie and the fervent support that he generates is not going away. I fear this civil war within the Democratic Party will go to the bitter end, which is the worst possible scenario for getting rid of Trump. 

Until a few days ago, nobody, including me, thought that Joe Biden was viable, and for good reason. The wins he got tonight, imo, are a form of mass, wishy-washy "liberal" hysteria driven by some misguided hope that what America really needs now is a safe, politics-as-usual candidate to beat Trump. And, btw, the Burisma thing is not going away. 

I think the country is going to wake up in a week or so with buyers' remorse about Biden. He is just not up to it. Everybody knew that this but now seems to have forgotten it because he got one win in a conservative state. His win in S.C. doesn't change who Biden fundamentally is but everybody is behaving today as if it has. When the dust settles we'll be reminded who he is. 

Biden is a candidate that the Democratic political and media establishments will prop up as an empty figurehead of the Washington Consensus. Everybody can go back to sleep thinking the dragon has been slain, and the underlying problems for which Trump is a symptom will continue to get worse. 

So with Warren's candidacy all-but-dead, I'll be voting for Bernie in the March 10 primary in Washington State. But I could change my mind if before then Biden negotiates with Warren to be his running mate in the interests of putting together a ticket that unites both wings of the party. I could get behind a Biden/Warren unity ticket with the expectation that Biden's health and mental competency make him a one-term, placeholder president with Warren the heir apparent. It's important that the two wings unite, and that's the closest to a unity ticket we're going to get. 

But that's not likely to happen soon, if ever. Biden would likely choose Klobuchar before Warren. That would be the conventional way that conventional people like Biden and those around him think. Choose a woman from a midwest, purplish state. So Bernie's my guy until if/when Biden takes the nomination away from him, at which point I'll support Biden because anybody but Trump. 

Things might begin now to settle into something more familiar in a two-candidate race between Biden and Bernie, but I don't think we're done with surprises.