With conflict between the U.S. and Iran escalating, Biden's support of the Iraq war is a liability.

[Gothmog]

86. Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq war and still won the primary. Can Joe Biden?

This silly attack did not work against Clinton. Why does sanders think that it will work now? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/08/hillary-clinton-voted-iraq-war-still-won-primary-can-joe-biden/

In months of debates, interviews and campaign appearances in the 2016 primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was unable to take down Hillary Clinton by attacking her vote for the Iraq War. Clinton was clearly the more hawkish of the two contenders, defending President Barack Obama’s handling of the war against the Islamic State and calling for a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan. Despite the Democratic Party’s staunch opposition to the war, Clinton won the nomination. She acknowledged the vote was a mistake, but also truthfully recounted that she understood President George W. Bush to be using the resolution to get the United Nations to buy into a joint resolution.

In 2020, Sanders is now making the same argument against former vice president Joe Biden, namely that his Iraq War vote is disqualifying. As Clinton did, Biden may point to his overall record on foreign policy under Obama (e.g., opposing the surge in Afghanistan or using sanctions and diplomacy to get the Iran nuclear deal). He also may attack Sanders as vulnerable — that is to say “unelectable” — because President Trump will easily tag him as weak on national security.....

In any case, Sanders’s critique might get him only so far, even with progressive voters. Biden plainly is skeptical of Trump’s rush to war now and fought in the Obama administration to stop further troop commitments. At worst (from the perspective of the average Democratic primary voter), one could say he was too trusting of Bush, became a war critic (although not immediately), showed his commitment to thoughtful internationalism under Obama and now seems fully capable of taking down Trump on his foreign policy blunders.

Voters are remarkably willing to judge candidates on what they are saying now as long as the candidate appears trustworthy and confident. Many candidates, to the frustration of opponents and/or media critics, have gotten away with changes in position or with past missteps. Voters tend to look at candidates in the present, assess their sincerity and demeanor, and then decide if they can trust them to do the right thing when the candidate is the decision-maker.