Donald Trump may make fun of Elizabeth Warren and dub her Pocahontas but he better watch it. She may be gunning for him in November.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, or as he prefers to be called, ‘Mike’, spent $400 million of his $60 billion fortune on ads, raising himself to third place among candidates as a can-do ‘Mighty Mike’. It bought him a place at the Democratic debate last Wednesday. But that $400 million, a colossal fortune for any of us, and in lottery terms what would count as one of the biggest wins ever, was blown away in a few minutes by Warren as she went after him on his racially-charged stop-and-frisk policy to fight crime in New York City. That his efforts worked was made irrelevant by his clearly limited ability to debate. Yet with $59.6 billion still in his kitty, probably growing at several billion a year, who can write him off in this age of TV ads?
Then there were his non-disclosure agreements with numerous women — though asked repeatedly he never gave a number. His lame defense that these were voluntary, seemed to assume the audience were dupes. Everyone knows the persons charging him with unwarranted advances received money as settlements and in exchange signed the agreements.
The Bloomberg charge thwarted, Bernie Sanders could be counted the real winner for leaving the debate unscathed. He leads nationally by double digits with Biden second.
A botoxed Biden with whitewashed teeth tried to put a spring in his step with purchased ‘youth’. He talked of present and past presidents of Mexico, and of other countries, he was acquainted with and how personal connections get things done — a mindset reminiscent of the Burisma job in Ukraine son Hunter was given when his father was Vice President with a major policy role in the Ukraine. As board member of Burisma, Hunter Biden was paid up to $50,000 per month. His function was to advise on corporate governance and legal issues yet never found it necessary to attend a board meeting or visit the company in Ukraine. The company’s owner has been recently charged with corruption in obtaining licenses and tax fraud over the period of Hunter Biden’s tenure at his firm.
It’s all in a day’s work. Personal connections, that’s how things get done. Imagine the labels Trump will attach to him should he win the nomination.
A normally chirpy Pete Buttigieg was skewered by Amy Klobuchar and appeared chastened. Not too well prepared, he ascribed an astronomical $25 trillion cost to Bernie Sanders’ health plan. Sanders responded the plan would save $400 billion and had the figures to prove it. Not a successful outing for Pete.
But then Senator Klobuchar appeared to lose her cool when pressed on a case during her job as prosecutor, before she became a senator. Visibly angry, she continued to press her claim as being highly electable but Sanders and Warren are elected senators too, and Sanders for much longer. Senator Klobuchar also has the highest turnover of staff (36 percent) of any senator, and a rumored reputation of being abusive towards them. Not the kind of quickly angered temperament one would choose to have in the White House, or for a person with a finger on the dreaded nuclear button.
Seems the best option we have is Sanders and Warren but political demographics preclude two liberals from the northeast on a ticket. Born in 1941, Sanders will be almost 80 when he takes office, an age when Warren would have left the White House were she to win and serve two terms. Bernie is eminently likeable and a staunch fighter but it seems like Hillary Clinton stole his best shot at the presidency.