Imagine you are a reporter - or a News Director

Your job involves following the Democratic Primary race and generating news stories about it. Well, news is all about reporting significant events and changes, primarily. So, do you report Joe Biden's consistent, first-place lead in the polls, or do you look for things moving among the poll standings of the other candidates?

It's simple. That Joe Biden is maintaining a fairly constant first-place lead with about 30% in national polls and has a 10 percentage point advantage over his closest competitor isn't news. It's been that way pretty much throughout the campaign. You need to use words like "surge" and "collapse" and "falling behind" in your stories.

Consistency is boring. It's the battle down below in the rest of the candidate pack that has drama. Biden's ahead. Big deal! Nobody will get excited about that. But, if Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren swap places in the polls, then one is "surging" and the other is "falling behind." Then there's Bloomberg, who is catching up in poll numbers to Pete Buttigieg. You can play that up as news.

No need to mention poor Joe Biden, who is sitting up there with a double digit lead over anyone else. Readers can't get excited about that. Instead, go to the Iowa caucus polls and show a tight race there for the leaders. Never mind that Iowa sends only a tiny delegation to the Democratic Convention. You can sell the news that the race in Iowa is tight.

And that's why Joe Biden isn't making the news as much as the rest of the pack. He's leading. He's way ahead. He'll probably be the nominee, but once you say that, everything else becomes irrelevant. So, you don't point that out. Your job is to sell the news.