Did the Democrats’ Takeover of the Senate Embolden Biden?

Joe Biden didn’t just campaign as a moderate. He signaled again and again that he would be an affable placeholder president who’d clean up the messes created by his opponent, mend some fences with allies and get the pandemic under control.  

“Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” Biden said not long after essentially locking up the Democratic nomination on Super Tuesday.

Referring to some of the younger candidates he beat in the primary, he said, “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”

The point of such gestures was to reassure the Democratic base that there was a reason to back him, not least because he’d pick someone more progressive as his running mate.