While all eyes are focused on Russian interference in US elections (or, in the case of reality deniers, on imagined Ukrainian interference), a force planning to intervene in our domestic affairs is marshaling on our southern border.
I refer, of course, to former Mexican President Vicente Fox.
“The great mismatch that’s happening right now is Biden looks like he could beat Trump on paper but not in person,” said Mr. Jentleson, the Warren-supporting strategist, “and Warren looks like she could beat Trump in person but not on paper.”
NYT, Elizabeth Warren Seeks a Second Act After Slip From the Top
Via the NYT’s Criticize Israel? For Democratic Voters, It’s Now Fair Game comes news of a study showing that Jews donating to a Democratic Presidential candidate gave most often to … Pete Buttigieg?
According to an analysis by The Forward, a Jewish publication, roughly 5.5 percent of all donors to Democratic presidential candidates in the first half of this year were Jewish, and they accounted for 7 percent of all funds given. (The Forward used several methods, including a research tool called the Distinctive Jewish Names list, to identify donors who were most likely Jewish in campaign finance reports.)
The Forward found that the Democratic presidential candidate receiving the most donations from Jewish backers this cycle has been Mr. Buttigieg, even as he has issued sharp critiques of Mr. Netanyahu.
“You can be committed to the U.S.-Israel alliance without being supportive of any individual choice by a right-wing government over there,” Mr. Buttigieg said at the J Street conference on Monday.
Mr. Sanders, who would become the country’s first Jewish president if elected, railed against giving “carte blanche to the Israeli government, or for that matter to any government at all.”
I find this surprising. And not because of his position on Israel, which doesn’t sound all that different from Sen. Warren’s or even Sen. Sanders’s, it’s just he seems, for all his undeniable linguistic virtuosity, to be willing to oppose progressive ideas …and relatively unprepared for the national and international aspects of the job compared to all the candidates who have held federal office.
I love this clip of Elizabeth Warren telling the story of how she met Barack Obama.
The New York Times reports that Iowa (and presumably other) Democrats are worrying that even though they ‘love’ her, Warren is not as ‘electable’ as, say, Biden. I suspect there is a gender tax that female presidential candidates must pay of a few percent, so this is not a crazy thing to worry about. But Warren is a lot more ‘likeable’ and natural than Hilary Clinton, who had suffered the misfortune of living in a goldfish bowl for decades and had become too cautious in public. Warren (like, incidentally, Booker) comes off as genuine in a way that I think will sell.
Master Florida psephologist Steve Schale does a deep dive as to why the road to winning Florida is the I-4 corridor (that’s the Orlando to Tampa link in the middle of the state). The rest of us, it seems, are fairly predictable. Another nugget: some of the swing vote in the I-4 area are transplantees from the mid-West. (Does that make it Biden country?)
News that (long-ago) former Senator Mike Gravel is joining the scrum that is the Democratic Presidential primary made me think not just of the GOP’s Harold Stassen, but also provides an occasion for me to re-run what just might be the all-time zaniest Presidential campaign video, from the Gravel campaign a dozen or so years ago:
Bonus fact: This time, Gravel’s, er, unorthodox campaign is run by an orthodox Jewish teenager.
Jotwell Blenderlaw
