The Democrats' Best Choices for President (NYT Editorial Board)

[lanlady]

American voters must choose between three sharply divergent visions of the future.

The incumbent president, Donald Trump, is clear about where he is guiding the Republican Party — white nativism at home and America First unilateralism abroad, brazen corruption, escalating culture wars, a judiciary stacked with ideologues and the veneration of a mythological past where the hierarchy in American society was defined and unchallenged.

On the Democratic side, an essential debate is underway between two visions that may define the future of the party and perhaps the nation. Some in the party view President Trump as an aberration and believe that a return to a more sensible America is possible. Then there are those who believe that President Trump was the product of political and economic systems so rotten that they must be replaced....

There are legitimate questions about whether our democratic system is fundamentally broken. Our elections are getting less free and fair, Congress and the courts are increasingly partisan, foreign nations are flooding society with misinformation, a deluge of money flows through our politics. And the economic mobility that made the American dream possible is vanishing.

Both the radical and the realist models warrant serious consideration. If there were ever a time to be open to new ideas, it is now. If there were ever a time to seek stability, now is it.

That’s why we’re endorsing the most effective advocates for each approach. They are Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/19/opinion/amy-klobuchar-elizabeth-warren-nytimes-endorsement.html

[Sherman A1]

1. I will have to agree to disagree

With the NYT editorial board on their choices.

[Hortensis]

2. This was a bit of a dance step, we don't elect TWO presidents,

Last edited Mon Jan 20, 2020, 08:13 AM - Edit history (2)

but that's okay. Most would agree that together Klobuchar and Warren exemplify some of the best of what our party offers and America needs.

Amy Klobuchar has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic center. Her vision goes beyond the incremental. Given the polarization in Washington and beyond, the best chance to enact many progressive plans could be under a Klobuchar administration.

The senator from Minnesota is the very definition of Midwestern charisma, grit and sticktoitiveness. Her lengthy tenure in the Senate and bipartisan credentials would make her a deal maker (a real one) and uniter for the wings of the party — and perhaps the nation.

She promises to put the country on the path — through huge investments in green infrastructure and legislation to lower emissions — to achieve 100 percent net-zero emissions no later than 2050. She pledges to cut childhood poverty in half in a decade by expanding the earned-income and child care tax credits. She also wants to expand food stamps and overhaul housing policy and has developed the field’s most detailed plan for treating addiction and mental illness. And this is all in addition to pushing for a robust public option in health care, free community college and a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour. ...

That’s a testament to the effectiveness of the case that Bernie Sanders and Senator Warren have made about what ails the country. We worry about ideological rigidity and overreach, and we’d certainly push back on specific policy proposals, like nationalizing health insurance or decriminalizing the border. But we are also struck by how much more effectively their messages have matched the moment. ... Good news, then, that Elizabeth Warren has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic left.

(Their statements about Warren are very lengthy and admiring, also doubtful and questioning, but admiration is the clear winner.)

Few men have given more of their time and experience to the conduct of the public’s business than Joe Biden. The former vice president commands the greatest fluency on foreign policy and is a figure of great warmth and empathy. He’s prone to verbal stumbles, yes, but social media has also made every gaffe a crisis when it clearly is not.

Mr. Biden maintains a lead in national polls, but that may be a measure of familiarity as much as voter intention. His central pitch to voters is that he can beat Donald Trump. His agenda tinkers at the edges of issues like health care and climate, and he emphasizes returning the country to where things were before the Trump era. But merely restoring the status quo will not get America where it needs to go as a society. What’s more, Mr. Biden is 77. It is time for him to pass the torch to a new generation of political leaders.

I agree with a great deal of that, but disagree with the total. They badly underestimate what VP Biden offers at this very perilous time in our history and how fortunate we are to have a candidate like him. Because it really could happen here.

In this time of troubles, created by increasingly fascistic forces who've decided liberal government of, by and for the people doesn't work for them, Biden has risen to become a true national leader with very broad appeal. He reassures and unites Americans behind the goals of restoring stability and protecting our liberal democracy and its magnificent principles. Biden is the only candidate with that stature and ability, and nothing can be accomplished without first saving our democracy by electing Democratic majorities.

I'd be happy with either Warren or Klobuchar in themselves, but I don't think that's going to happen. Btw, as I've been reminding in other posts, however the situation may have advanced, we know that in 2015 VP Biden wanted very dynamic, iconoclastic Elizabeth Warren for his VP workmate, reportedly ONLY Warren. And that says something extremely important about Biden that the Board's evaluation misses completely.

[Gothmog]

3. These NYT comments in Warren are brutal

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

4. NYT nails sanders

Link to tweet