Two columns. (For the full pieces, follow the links embedded in the headlines….)
Biden should quit his quest (Feb. 4). If former Vice President Joe Biden did as poorly in the Iowa caucuses as anecdotal evidence suggests, then he should exit the race.
Biden, at age 77, is too old, is too inept at organizing, has never proved to be a big vote earner, and is ethically and politically damaged goods for a fall campaign against President Trump. If Biden really wants his party to have an electable nominee, he will drop out now and invite into the race a new entrant representing old-style, Hubert Humphrey liberalism, as opposed to the left-progressivism most of the 2020 Democratic candidates espouse.
Biden had every advantage in Iowa. He began with the best and most positive name recognition. He had run before, so he should have had a head start (on everybody except Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders) on the nuts-and-bolts of a campaign, with at least the remnants of an organization in place. He is running when voters cite “electability” against Trump as a key concern, and polls (rightly or wrongly) showed him as the Democrats’ most electable choice. Finally, he had the state almost all to himself for the final two weeks, with the Senate impeachment trial keeping three of the other top contestants in the nation’s capital.
If he couldn’t make Iowa at least close, he evinces a politically hollow campaign….
Democrats are radical on racial issues (Feb. 7). Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer, and Bernie Sanders demonstrated during the New Hampshire Democratic primary debate why Democrats turn off so many white voters who otherwise are entirely of goodwill on matters of race. Each of them overtopped each other in calling for what amounts to endlessly applying race to public policy when most of the public feels otherwise.
Then, Sanders went further into hyperdrive. America, he said, is a “racist society from top to bottom.”…
