That’s why they say five minutes in politics is a long time.

A week ago today, the former U.S. Vice President and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was considered politically finished. He was ‘Sleepy Joe’ according to President Donald Trump, and he really did look like that.

In the earlier primaries and polls, he looked bad. It was just a matter of time, many commentators declared, before he abandoned the race. They projected that the Democrats’ battle for the nomination would conclude with a duel between Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg. With Bloomberg winning.

The former mayor of New York was a successful mayor who, moreover, has a limitless supply of money. So, between the two of them, many of us believed that Bloomberg would be the candidate who could defeat President Trump.
But the voters had another idea.

South Carolina residents gave Biden a sweeping victory last Saturday night.

Literally.

The big difference was made by African American voters, with whom Biden has special ties because of his two terms as Barack Obama’s Vice President.

And Lazarus…was resurrected. Sleepy Joe woke up. After that, some of his competitors not only withdrew from the race, but they also declared their support for him.

Including Bloomberg, who said he supports him because he has the best chance to defeat Trump.

And that is the key. This is the only criterion that counts for the Democrats: who can expel Trump from White House – who can return the country to ‘normalcy,’ as they say.

Elizabeth Warren also withdrew, as expected, after finishing third in Massachusetts, the state she serves as a United States senator.

And so the picture became crystal clear – two of the 29 Democratic candidates who began in the race are left: Biden and Sanders.

Sanders’ candidacy should not be underestimated.

What he has achieved so far is no small thing. He has created a movement that has inspired millions of Americans – most of whom are young.

But his chances of defeating Trump are very slim.

It is difficult for a self-styled socialist to defeat Trump, who is already calling him a ‘communist’. And yesterday’s article on the front page of the New York Times highlighting the fact that when he was mayor of Burlington he “worked to find a sister city” in the Soviet Union in 1988 hands Trump even more ammunition.

Thus, the entire establishment of the Democratic Party is against him.

On the other hand, Biden will be a strong opponent of Trump. So strong that Trump was nearly removed from the White House because he had apparently foreseen that Biden would be his adversary in the presidential race and thus demanded damaging information from Ukraine to be used against Biden so that his rise would be blunted.

There is another dimension to Biden. The Greek dimension.

If ever there was a candidate for the U.S. presidency who knew and supported Greek issues as a senator and later as the Vice President, it is Joe Biden.

And I’m sure that will count in his favor… at the right time.