He's a moderate. Despite it being seen as a dirty word in online circles I think most people consider themselves moderates too. He's proposing a public option to build on Obamacare, he was in charge of the 'green jobs' initiative during the Obama Administration stimulus package and as president he proposes to build on that with $1.7 trillion spending over ten years on clean energy jobs, research, a tax on greenhouse gases emission, rejoining the Paris Climate agreement and a target of zero net emissions by 2050. On immigration he has acknowledged the deportations that took place when he was VP but also cites how the administration fought to protect DACA kids, made it easier to get access to citizenship, and provided aid to neighbouring nations to help them govern. His plan is again to build on that by ensuring immigrants at the border get access to legal representation including translators, no family separation, access to healthcare because it's beneficial for everyone for them to be treated for illness, fairer screening procedures but when asked if he will stop all deportations he says no because for criminals such as murderers, after serving their sentence they ought to be sent back. On education he is proposing free community college and a policy to ease student loan debt with different conditions too long to explain briefly. On worker rights he has always had a strong rapport with unions hence why a lot have endorsed him. On gun control he vows to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban that was part of his well discussed 94 crime bill and universal background checks. On wealth he raises taxes on the rich, takes away tax cuts for them, tightens the tax code so loopholes on capital gain tax for example are cut out but he also makes the case of being pro-business. On foreign policy he is an internationalist. When he talks about working across the aisle, polls show most people want more bipartisanship. I don't think it's possible at all but people want it.
Those are just some points I tried to briefly summise. And the fundamental point is they're just rank and file democratic points except moulded in a manner to adapt to the situation now. And because it's been adapted for the situation now he can say 'it's more liberal than when I was VP" or "it's more liberal than Hillary who was more liberal than when I was VP".
In my opinion if there was someone better at debating than Biden running on his platform they could be running away with it. Or if Pete didn't have such a lack of rapport with black voters.
And that brings me on to Biden's support with older black voters. Being Obama's VP exponentially helps but he also had rapport with them as mentioned above because since the 70s', while he may not have been right on every issue, he was always there. He went to talk to them and listen to them. That's Pete's problem, not necessarily the policies or lack of as Mayor, but the fact his presence with black voters and black officials was barely visible. Biden on the other hand has tons of endorsements and even the ones who didn't but went to Harris for example (who had more black officials endorsing her than him), they didn't throw him under for that segregationist comment six months ago because they knew him for so long.
