No, he wasn't. Ever. Clinton was, consistently, and at a similar point to where we are now with respect to 2020, Biden was (slightly, but pretty consistently across polls) in the number 2 spot. And both Biden and Sanders were somewhere around 50 points behind Clinton.
> and they kneecapped him.
The “they” that did (the Clinton-allied team that was in control of the DNC leadership in the years before and through the 2016 primaries, and had a fanatical commitment to assuring her nomination) isn't around any more, nor is a parallel group committed to any other candidate in a similar position.
Nor are many of the rules which facilitated they and their media allies efforts to do that, in no small part because of the substantial influence of Sanders allies in the DNC since the 2016 election; most notably, superdelegate voting privileges have been curtailed.
No, he wasn't. Ever. Clinton was, consistently, and at a similar point to where we are now with respect to 2020, Biden was (slightly, but pretty consistently across polls) in the number 2 spot. And both Biden and Sanders were somewhere around 50 points behind Clinton.
> and they kneecapped him.
The “they” that did (the Clinton-allied team that was in control of the DNC leadership in the years before and through the 2016 primaries, and had a fanatical commitment to assuring her nomination) isn't around any more, nor is a parallel group committed to any other candidate in a similar position.
Nor are many of the rules which facilitated they and their media allies efforts to do that, in no small part because of the substantial influence of Sanders allies in the DNC since the 2016 election; most notably, superdelegate voting privileges have been curtailed.