Snippet: > Joe Biden spent about $200,000 in California and came within about 7 percentage points of Bernie Sanders. More than anything else, that fact speaks to Biden's rise and Bernie's eventual fall. > Ten days ago, Biden was dead, toast, finished. He was almost broke, The pundits had written him off. Those same pundits were writing about how America was ready for a socialist president and only old fuddy-duddies were resisting the trend. > But a funny thing happened on the way to our "socialist paradise." The elites, the Democratic establishment, and especially Bernie Sanders and his supporters, didn't reckon with the good people of South Carolina, who said in a loud, clear voice they weren't ready for socialism. It helped that black leaders like Rep. James Clyburn threw their weight behind Biden in the final days of the campaign, driving the black vote into Biden's lap. > But what really happened in South Carolina -- and what happened in every state south of Mason-Dixon last night -- was a decisive statement by voters that they weren't ready to give up on the America we know just yet. Bernie Sanders's vision of an American Nirvana did not resonate with ordinary Americans -- even liberal Democrats -- who delivered a mighty blow against revolution and "transformation."