In just two weeks, the Democratic race will transition overnight from the charming theaters of the early caucus and primary states into a full-scale national campaign, dominated by Gross Ratings Points and pre-roll ads and media appearances instead of handshakes and whimsy. Reporters accustomed to daily press gaggles will begin to see the candidates more on a Delta backseat television than in person. More than a dozen states and territories will vote on Super Tuesday, little more than two days after the polls close in South Carolina’s primary. That short window, every four years, shines a harsh light on whoever emerges from the first four states with a pulse. It reveals which campaigns are serious built-to-last enterprises, and punishes the ones that are flash-in-the-plan flukes, destined only for Wikipedia entries about the 2020 primary race.
