• So it appears the Democratic Party has decided to self-identify as unelectable.
• Elizabeth “I Have a Plan for That” Warren says her simple solution to every problem is to “put power back in the hands of the people.” But somehow all of her plans involve putting more power in the hands of people in Washington. I wonder if that has something to do with her “more selective appeal,” as Ian Faith might describe it.
• Latest poll out of California shows Bernie surging to a more than two-to-one lead over his next closest rival, who is still Joe Biden. Feel the Bern!
Keep in mind that California’s delegate rules say you have to win at least 15% of the vote to get any delegates. If the primary election comes out the way this poll has it, Bernie will win all of California’s delegates. He might well put away the nomination in California.
• Speaking of Bernie, last night I got a call on my cell phone from a Bernie volunteer in Nevada, offering whatever assistance I might need to vote in the caucus this weekend. Of course I am not a Nevada resident, but with same-day registration, is the Bernie campaign trying to motivate supporters from other states to show up and vote? Sure you’re supposed to have a valid Nevada ID of some kind, but with the reported chaos of the Nevada caucuses do you think this is going to be punctiliously enforced?
• George Will’s latest column makes the case for a Bloomberg candidacy, and it contains no shortage of his dislike of Trump. But about Bloomberg and the “stop and frisk” policy, Will does offer one sentence that is a keeper: “This policy probably was more lamented by white liberals living in buildings with doormen than by minorities living in danger.” Just so, and this is why Bloomberg seems to be taking black voters away from Biden according to several polls.
• Shots fired!
I’m sure Trump will be quaking in his boots.
• One more thing about Bloomberg: He isn’t merely trying to buy the Democratic nomination; he’s also starving the Democratic Party into submission. The Intercept notes that Bloomberg is hiring so many Democratic political staff people, with guaranteed salaries through November whether he gets the nomination or not:
Bloomberg’s spending is having a shockingly disruptive effect on Democratic politics throughout the country: He is hiring armies of staffers and canvassers in nearly every state in the country at eye-popping salaries, poaching talent from other campaigns and progressive organizations that are now struggling to fill jobs. In just three months, the Bloomberg campaign has hired thousands of people to staff more than 125 offices around the country. . .
Progressive groups, local campaigns, and presidential operations are either losing staff to the Bloomberg campaign, or are struggling to hire people because the former mayor has picked so many political operatives and canvassers up. . .
One unanswered questions is whether Bloomberg will release these staff people to “volunteer” for other campaigns if he fails to win the nomination, or holds them to their positions to work on a Bloomberg-directed independent expenditure effort on behalf of the eventual nominee or down-ballot candidates. (All of which will raise a lot of election law pitfalls for everyone concerned, but one thing at a time. . .)
Call them Bloomberg’s Mercenaries.
Idle exit question: I wonder if Bloomberg has invested in popcorn futures?
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