The road to the Democratic nomination goes through Joe Biden

He's the clear front-runner, and every other candidate has to deal with that fact

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Sergio Flores/Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images, Scott Eisen/Getty Images, FoxysGraphic/iStock)

For months, Democrats have been conducting a kind of fantasy race for the presidency. Candidates have hired staff, launched websites and posted fundraising videos, sat for media profiles, issued policy proposals, and of course visited fairs in Iowa and diners in New Hampshire, all on the premise that the field was wide open, with plenty of talent to choose from, and why shouldn't each of them be one of the choices?

Now, the fantasy phase is over, and the real campaign begins. Vice President Joe Biden has finally entered the race, and in entering it he has defined its true shape and purpose. He is the 800-pound gorilla, and every other campaign must now figure out how to out-wrestle him.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.