One place Joe Biden is not this weekend: Iowa, where 19 other members of the Democrats’ field is campaigning at a series of “big” (for Iowa Democrats) events. Bloomberg:

As campaigning accelerates leading up to the first debates later this month, 19 of the 23 Democrats actively running to challenge President Donald Trump will be in the state, the biggest assembly of 2020 candidates to date.

The marquee event is the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame dinner on Sunday, where they’ll be making five-minute pitches to influential local party officials. Missing from the group is Joe Biden, the current front-runner who is waiting until Tuesday to campaign in Iowa.

The dinner will let each candidate showcase the support and infrastructure they’ve built in Iowa, where caucuses in February launch the months-long, 50-state series of contests leading to the party’s nomination. Since the beginning of the year, hopefuls have collectively visited Iowa about 200 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“All these folks want to have the chance of trying to create favorable optics,” said Dennis Goldford, professor of political science at Drake University. “How can they best use the enthusiasm of their supporters to propel them to be the focus of attention?”

Haris Alec of Breitbart notices Joe’s absence:

Notably absent from Iowa, however, is the Democrat frontrunner. Biden is not scheduled to visit the state until Tuesday. Although little information has been provided for that visit, it will only be Biden’s second since launching his presidential campaign.

But last weekend, he skipped the California state Democratic convention. Most likely because he did not want to face the sort of boos that greeted moderate candidates John Hickenlooper and John Delaney from the rabid leftists that dominate California’s Democrat politics.

Biden is looking fearful of losing his lead – and he ought to be.

Hiding from voters and rivals to avoid losing support is no way to win.