- One of the candidate-favorite rules of thumb for Joe Biden is to keep more of the focus on his role during the Obama Administration years—not his back-in-the-day Congressional tenure. However, Barack Obama isn’t likely to endorse him right now. It’s too early for him to be putting his thumb on the primary scale. But that’s awkward for Biden, a guy who needs that public affirmation from the one who vetted him. Especially for a former vice president who typically refers to the former president by his first name.
- And now there’s Tom Steyer, 62, getting into the mix. The billionaire investor-activist with an impeachment message can outspend everyone. Steyer has been frustrated with the slow, Dem-controlled House approach to impeachment. He also targets climate change with his advocacy group, NextGen America—and time is on nobody’s side. We get his sense of immediacy and urgency. He’s also against the inordinate influence of big corporations in politics.
But the biggest political concern is what happens when Steyer inevitably doesn’t get the nomination—and resorts to an independent run. Ross Perot and the election of 1992 should still ironically resonate.
- It hardly helps that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has strongly suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was disrespectfully singling out “newly elected women of color.” Arguably, Pelosi’s ire has everything to do with rookies needing to read the minutes of previous meetings, doing freshman homework and channeling feisty activism into something other than a counterproductive media spotlight. That’s likely what Pelosi had in mind when she told the Democratic caucus’ progressives: “Some of you are here to make pâté, but we’re making sausage.” Yes, it’s time to break up the circular firing squad before 2020 gets any closer. It’s time to remember that the real heavy is Trump, who wants to exploit a Democratic-controlled House split while tossing in racist tropes that further cement common cause with white nationalists.
- Speaking of, Donald Trump has weighed in as only the occupant of the Oval Orifice can against the AOC “squad” by exhorting them to go back to the “broken and crime-infested places from which they came.” And, BTW, they “hate our country.” Among the pushback to such despicably dangerous, presidential trash talk is that of New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “Racial arsonist strikes again. Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth.” And, yes, the congressman, who also chairs the House Democratic caucus, pulled some rhetorical punches in his response to the racist-in-chief.