The Battle of South Carolina
Instant analysis from tonight's primary:
Biden well out-performed expectations - going in with a forecast 15 to 20% margin of victory, it was actually 30%, and close to an outright majority in an 8-way race. I wonder if some of this is due to coronavirus panic causing people to vote conservatively.
Sanders did not have a good night at all (performing 10 points lower than he did in 2016, albeit that was a 2-way race) but is still the front runner. Tuesday will be instructive. (If Sanders had come within 5 points of winning, or actually beat Biden, Biden's candidacy would most likely have ended immediately.)
Bloomberg is also just waiting for Tuesday. My gut tells me that he will underperform, to Biden's benefit. The next few days' coverage will be brutal for him.
Steyer out, as expected. He bet everything on an upset victory tonight to upend the table and lost.
Klobuchar is almost certainly waiting to win the Minnesota primary before calling it in.
Warren and Buttigieg, if they continue to have single-digit vote results and zero delegates, will find it impossible to stay in the race. Both would ideally like to come into a possibly brokered convention with a slate of delegates to begin with, but it does not look likely to happen at this rate.