Op-Ed: Elizabeth Warren brushed off Bernie Sanders and taught a master class in handling sexism

As the Democratic debate in Iowa wrapped Tuesday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren confronted the extended hand of Sen. Bernie Sanders. He was plainly after one of those no hard feelings, good game handshakes. We’re cool, right? Warren (D-Mass.) wasn’t cool. It’s hard to have the presence of mind to refuse the near-mandatory displays of collegiality, but she did, folding her hands. Noli me tangere. Touch me not. CNN had cut the sound by this time, but in the pantomime she could seem to be speaking brusquely.

(snip) Sanders’ dispute with Warren had erupted the day before, with a news report of the 2018 meeting between them at which, according to CNN, Sanders told Warren a woman cannot win a presidential election. Warren confirmed the story. Sanders’ aides then called CNN’s (and Warren’s) account “a lie.”

A lie. Pretty strenuous protesting-too-much denial of something that could have been handily mitigated. If Sanders had more composure , he might have confirmed the report too — don’t we all think he said something close to what was reported? Then Sanders could have explained that he, like many feminists, fears America is too sexist to elect a Madame President. Done.

Instead his campaign distilled to a poisonous brew all the current male anxieties about gender with that one word: “Lie.” (On Twitter, pro-Sanders botnets drove the point home with a classy “Lying Liz” hashtag.) In Iowa, Sanders bloviated when the inevitable question about the report surfaced: “Anybody knows me knows that it’s incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States.” Inconceivable!

Then: “How could anybody in a million years not believe that a woman could become president of the United States?” In a million years!

(snip) Warren won. She also proved she’s a master strategist. She didn’t let Sanders get away with denying he’s sexist Tuesday night. Instead, she checkmated him into proving it.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-15/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-women-presidents-iowa-democratic-debate

Full Table

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3653

January 8 - 12, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,562 self-identified registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points. The survey includes 651 Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic with a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points

This debate is going to be something.

Taking a break, firefighters in South Australia pranked a Scottish Reporter about the 'Drop Bear', an imaginary 'deadly vicious' cousin of the Koala Bear and gave her one to hold.



It was the first time many had laughed in a week of horror.

Source: The American Magazine

In a move that has stunned many in Rome and is sure to give rise to serious questions far beyond the theme of the book, the emeritus pope Benedict XVI, who will be 93 in April, and Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, have coauthored a book defending celibacy for priests of the Latin Rite church and expressing their total opposition to the ordination of married men, which was one of the recommendations approved by last October’s Synod for the Pan-Amazonian region. They perceive this opening to the ordination of married men as a great danger to the church.

The authors present themselves “as bishops” in “filial obedience to Pope Francis” who “seek the truth” in “a spirit of love of the unity of the church,” far from “the ideologies that divide” and far from “political maneuvers or power games or ideological manipulations.”

They said it is not possible “to keep quiet” after “the strange synod of the media.”

“We cannot remain silent,” they said, quoting St. Augustine.

Read more: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/01/12/benedict-xvi-and-cardinal-sarah-coauthor-book-celibacy-opposing-ordination-married

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Ratzinger said he would remain "hidden from the world" when he retired in 2013.

While Bernie Sanders has always stood up for African Americans, Joe Biden has repeatedly let us down

In choosing between the two Democratic Party candidates atop the polls, African American voters have a consequential decision to make:

Will our community side with former Vice President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly betrayed black voters to side with Republican lawmakers and undermine our progress? Or will we stand with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a movement that has been fighting for racial and economic justice since the civil rights era?

(snip) As a recent NBC News headline said of Biden’s time in the Senate: “Biden didn’t just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their cause.” The NBC report quoted the NAACP’s legal director saying that one Biden-backed measure “heaves a brick through the window of school integration.”

(snip) Biden facilitated the public degradation of Anita Hill, an esteemed professor already victimized by a powerful man.

Biden also fought alongside right-wing Republicans to pass so-called “welfare reform” that reduced financial support for low-income families. Biden echoed former President Ronald Reagan’s dishonest “welfare queen” language and wrote a column conjuring an ugly stereotype of “welfare mothers driving luxury cars and leading lifestyles that mirror the rich and famous.”

https://www.thestate.com/opinion/article239206718.html

If this contest has proved anything, there is nothing more counter-productive than attacking Obama's VP on civil rights. This dog will not hunt.

Nina also went on to repeat David Sirota's most recent lie of attack. "Biden has repeatedly worked with Republicans to try to slash Social Security". Rated by Politifact: False. Nothing good will come from this for the Sanders campaign.

Elizabeth Warren Opens a New Front in Disability Policy

As they craft their disability rights plans, the 2020 candidates are consulting the people they would affect. “This is how policy should be made,” one advocate said.

(snip) For months, Democratic presidential candidates have built on one another in this arena, culminating last week with a plan from Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts whose scope shocked many advocates.

That plan and the way Ms. Warren developed it, with a working group of about a dozen people with disabilities, reflect a sea change. More presidential candidates than ever before are acknowledging how many issues, from criminal justice to student debt, affect people with disabilities, who make up a quarter of the country’s adult population. And more people with disabilities are shaping the policies that could affect them.

“Candidates are actually listening to disabled people,” said Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, who was part of Ms. Warren’s working group and has advised several other candidates on their plans. “This is how policy should be made. It matters who’s at the table.”

Ms. Warren is not the only candidate to take a new approach. Several activists praised Julián Castro, the former housing secretary who ended his campaign and endorsed Ms. Warren this month, for his attention to disability policy. Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., has an extensive plan.

And Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota released a proposal on Friday — developed with disability rights groups, her campaign said — that would, among other things, expand home- and community-based services, make technologies like speech-generating devices more accessible, increase Social Security disability payments and strengthen anti-discrimination laws.

But the disability community has responded more enthusiastically to Ms. Warren’s plan than to any other so far. “It is the most comprehensive thing I have seen in my 20 years of looking at these things,” said Jason Dorwart, a theater professor at Oberlin College who is quadriplegic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-disability-plan.html

I'd Love to Run Against 'The Communist'

'I'd also love to run against the communist'

'I never thought we'd see the day in our country, when a communist – because that's really, you think about it – when a communist is the leading Democrat!'

'We're going to have a communist against an entrepreneur. I like the entrepreneur. Don't you think?

Tampa Bay Rally, February 23, 2016



EDIT: Cold War stuff. Of course, when trump actually had a chance to fight against 'The Communists' in Vietnam, he cut and ran.

doing the hard yards in Iowa, and all the across across the country,

When I see a good poll, like January's Des Moines Register with Elizabeth's numbers moving up, you are the first in my thoughts.

Thank you and well done.

The Des MoniesRegister led with Bernie Sanders leads the Iowa Poll for the first time, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/08/30/iowa-caucus-how-democratic-republican-caucuses-work-differences-presidential-preferences-primary/2164118001/

Not so CNN.


Iowa poll shows a tight four-way race in final weeks before the Democratic caucuses

(CNN)Iowa's likely caucusgoers are closely divided between four top candidates just weeks out from the Democratic caucuses, a new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll shows.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/politics/iowa-poll-democrats-2020/index.html

Although they noted the numbers, CNN managed to get through their entire piece without reporting that Sanders was in the lead: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is on the rise".

Compare that with November.

Pete Buttigieg surges to first place in Iowa, new poll shows

There is a new Democratic front-runner in Iowa, and his name is Pete Buttigieg.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/politics/iowa-poll-cnn-pete-buttigieg/index.html

CNN managed to dig up some nice things to say about Pete. Losing 9 points, more than a third his supporters, ain't nice but

Even with those shifts, Buttigieg remains well-positioned in the poll. Sixty percent say they are supporting or considering his candidacy, and he remains among the best liked candidates in the field -- 68% have a favorable view, second only to Warren's 70% favorability rating.

And some bad news for Warren

For Biden and Warren, support is roughly even vs. November (Biden holds at 15%, Warren stands at 17% support vs. 16%). For Warren, though, the share who say she is their second choice or who are considering her has declined. Overall, 59% say they are either supporting or considering Warren, down from a high of 71% in September and 66% in November.

Good news for Sanders, is prefaced by a reference to his "core supporters"

Sanders' support has increased 5 points amid a boost from core supporters since a November CNN/Des Moines Register poll. Among liberals, support for Sanders is up 8 points, and he's climbed 9 points among those under age 35.

You might not guess that Sanders' support had risen across the board. Indeed, looking at the featured graphic, you might think Bernie had got some bad news.



Biden looks hopeful though. No reason for concern about flirting with 15%.