Did Sen. Amy Klobuchar have internal polling that showed her losing her home state of Minnesota to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the March 3 Super Tuesday Democratic presidential primary?
Or did she exact a promise of a VP slot from Joe Biden in return for bowing out and endorsing him?
Or both?
Whatever ... she has joined Buttigieg and Tom Steyer, who broke the spendthrift record by blowing $160 million for exactly zero delegates—that is until we see how Michael Bloomberg’s $500 million and climbing does—on the sidelines.
At first, this seemed the election terminable and interminable, and now, they’re dropping like suspects in an Agatha Christie novel. ... And then there were five—Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
Biden and Bloomberg could be termed “Bernie alternatives.” Warren is more like “Bernie lite.”
For some time now, Warren (also known as variations of “Pocahontas”) has been known to be plotting a “compromise” victory at what she hopes will be a brokered convention in Milwaukee in July.
If not one of Sanders, Biden, or Bloomberg wins a majority of delegates or gets pushed over the line by the so-called superdelegates, Warren steps in as a compromise candidate.
What she has on offer is the possibility—remote in my judgment—that she can appease both the left and moderate wings of the Democratic Party. She has long insisted she is a “capitalist,” while espousing almost uniformly socialist programs, a neat trick if you can do it.
She also has a problem with minority voters, illustrated by a conversation she had with an African American woman who wanted school choice for her child and wondered if the wealthy professor Warren sent her son to private school. Liz denied it, insisting her boy only went to public school.
Warren, a creature of the teachers’ union, lied. Her boy went to a private school.
African Americans who want a better education for their children likely noted it. (It’s interesting how certain “left” causes seem to be almost exclusively the province of rich white people.)
Nevertheless, Warren has enough money to stay in the race until the convention and find out if she can maneuver a Milwaukee Compromise in her favor.
She has one big hurdle first, however—to win the primary in her home state of Massachusetts on March 3. If she fails at that or she only wins a squeaker against Bernie, it’s over.
In reality, it’s almost certainly over anyway. It’s clear this is now boiling down to a Biden–Sanders race for the Democratic nomination.
The drama will come in these two sides trying to reconcile to battle Trump in the general. To say the least, it won’t be easy. Sanders and his supporters already feel they have been unfairly denied once.
Would Joe offer the VP to Bernie as a peace offering? Unlikely. That would make two late septuagenarians, both of whom have had health issues. (The optics of going everywhere with a team of cardiologists aren’t good.) And Bernie probably wouldn’t take it anyway. The Bernie Bros wouldn’t approve.
Joe and Liz—seems like a sitcom, doesn’t it? (The Bickersons: She’s always trying to boss him around and he’s always forgetting what she said.) Only a sitcom that will never be ... but never say never in politics.
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