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Biden Faces Tough Sledding in His First Democratic Debate

Rob Garver

   WASHINGTON - In a sea of more than 20 candidates for the Democratic
   presidential nomination, former vice president Joe Biden entered the
   second of two nights of early Democratic primary debates Thursday with
   a big bulls-eye on his back.

   The front-runner before he even announced his candidacy, Biden was
   expected to ignore attacks from fellow Democrats as much as possible
   and to focus instead on challenging U.S. President Trump, trying to
   create the impression that the real race isn't the primary at all, but
   an eventual Biden v. Trump showdown.

   And from the get-go, that really did seem like Biden's strategy. But as
   the former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once observed,
   "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

   Biden was repeatedly challenged on his record by his opponents and by
   moderators from television networks NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, which
   jointly hosted the event. His answers were often angry and defensive,
   even to attacks that he must certainly have known were coming.

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