Wednesday March 4, 2020; 9:04 AM EST
- Last night was a big deal in American politics. You know the news. Biden scored big, at the expense of Sanders. Beyond that everything else is subject to opinion and polling. #
- Toward the end of the evening I wrote: "I honestly don't think people want Biden, I think they really don't want Sanders." #
- Raines Cohen asked: "If that were the case, why not Warren?" #
Before I answer, a couple of things about Raines. I've known him for a very long time, since I met him in Mitch Kapor's office in Cambridge in 1979. His father was Mitch's lawyer. I think Raines was all of 13 years old then. I was 25. Second, he's a friend, and I trust him. #- So I gave him an honest answer, what I really think is true. With Warren fans I find you have to tiptoe around their certainty that anyone who says anything negative about her is a misogynist, or "a person who dislikes, despises or is strongly prejudiced against women." #
- I think Warren and Sanders are similar, but not on policy, on the way they approach the electorate, and I think to the extent they are rejected, it's for this reason.#
- I saw a meanness in Warren that I didn’t like. A good president tries to draw everyone in, make everyone feel welcome. Neither her or Sanders has that impulse, like Trump.#
- Look at how people talk about her on the net — if you don’t support her you’re a misogynist. If you don’t support Sanders, you’re The Establishment. That excuses both of them from trying to understand who they aren’t reaching. #
- If I’m their enemy, their scapegoat, I’m not voting for them. #
- I think they’re both smart enough to know this especially Warren. That makes them dangerous. The president of the United States must be a consensus builder. Not someone who could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single supporter. Warren created a wedge, based on gender, intentional or not. Men bad, women good. With predictable results, imho. It's a turnoff because we need to come together, and smart voters know this. #
- People who do "turnout math" miss this point. It isn't just getting people to the polls to vote for you, it's getting the country to see itself as one thing, not warring factions. These Democrats, Sanders and Warren, are doing what Trump did. Dividing. Wedging.#
- Their policies aren't new, they're standard Democratic policies. Any Democrat would pursue those goals if we demand they do. The power is ours, as long as we stick together. Democrats who try to drive us apart are no better than Republicans who do that.#
- PS: Ezra Klein said the same thing in a different way. #