Could you stop talking about Bernie as if he is the enemy? It's absurd to talk about uniting the party in one breath and then making a plan to defeat the candidate that a huge number of voters prefer in the next.
There's every reason to think Warren is a spoiler for Bernie as much as Bloomberg is for Biden. Should they both drop out? Yes, and I expect they will soon.
This denigration of Bernie is completely unwarranted. He is not a threat to the left. He is certainly no more a threat to Democrats' chances in Congress than Hillary Clinton was, given that Democrats lost both houses of Congress and the presidency in 2016.
Mr. Friedman, if you want to unite the party, stop trying to Machiavelli the election and start thinking about what VP candidates each candidate, Bernie and Biden, could choose that would appeal to the other wing of the party, what policy positions each could put forth that would draw the other side's voters to them.
Because if you think progressives will be gung ho for Biden if he wins 51% or even 60% of the delegates, think again. Would you be gung ho for Bernie if he got that amount?
103
Bernie isn’t the enemy. But neither is Biden. Trump is the enemy. Don’t lose sight of that, anybody on either side.
56
@Matt S. If Bernie wins the nomination, I will vote for him. I wouldn't be gung ho, but I would vote for him. Could you say the same for Biden?
57
the coronavirus and its aftermath?
The coronavirus hasn't even moved the dial, yet, on the CDC's ILI (influenza-like-illness reporting system). The ILI should be flashing bright red if coronavirus was widespread in the US. It's premature to talk about its aftermath. Don't politicize an epidemic before we even have one. Don't start blaming Trump when its dubious any other president would be doing better. This is a sneaky disease that's contagious before people show symptoms ... if they have any at all. Trump's prompt restriction of travel from China have delayed the onset of the virus in the US in time for a therapy to be developed (by the same scientists who would have developed one for any president). The travel restricts may have delayed onset of the disease so that the weather may stop it ... and perhaps by the next flu/corona season we'll have a vaccine.
1
"My preference to lead this unity coalition would be Mike Bloomberg, because I think he has a campaign machine that is built to last and stand up to the pummeling from Trump, but he may not have enough grass-roots support in the party."
Amazing how fast Friedman is proven mistaken from publishing his column to being overtaken by reality...
8
Vote for the authentic uniter; the guy whose slogan is "Not me, Us."
13
Bloomberg's campaign, which we can now view in retrospect, was, unfortunately, pathetic.
He started too late, spent a lot of money, and lost.
This year, many, maybe most, Democrats are single-issue voters. That issue is "Anybody But Trump".
To many of us, Biden looks like the best choice given that single issue. He isn't far enough to the left to rally the right wing. He is inoffensive to most.
After S. Carolina, he looked like he could win.
At the same time, the smears on Bernie started percolating. Too far to the left. Disliked by colleagues. Uncompromising. Ineffective in the Senate and so forth.
After Super Tuesday, Biden got the endorsements of his former competition.
At this point, one wonders how Biden will approach Bernie and Bernie's supporters. It needs to be with respect. Few disagree with Bernie's ideas for an economically just society. Biden needs to clearly demonstrate appreciation of those goals.
15
Clearly Bloomberg is not the leader you'd like him to be, Mr. Friedman, though I hope he continues to put a lot of money into the Democratic race. At the moment, Biden is ahead , Bloomberg is out and Warren is likely to get out. Whether Gabbard formally leaves or not, her candidacy is not viable. It seems clear from voting so far that a center-left candidate is preferable. We don't need a political revolution right now as much as we need to get rid of Trump.
8
Do the people living paycheck to paycheck want the old establishment? How about the young with student debt and shaky job prospects?
9
If the corona virus starts to sputter out on its own, as it appears to be doing in China, then Trump will take full advantage, declaring that he, and he alone, defeated the virus. His base will vociferously cheer in agreement. The media will lose interest in the virus, given a day or two. And Dems / liberals will continue to lag behind in their voting involvement.
Super Tuesday's voting numbers showed an average of well below even a 50% turnout, and people thought that was great. It's shameful, compared to turnouts in democracies all over the globe. In the end, it all comes down to voting.
10
Even some of us who consider themselves liberals will not support Bernie Sanders because he is an ideologue who has no interest in uniting Democrats, let alone the country. To me, the first order of business is to unite the party because without this, we will lay the groundwork for a disastrous second Trump term.
Even beating Bernie "fair and square" may not do it. Yes, the DNC tilted the playing field to favor Hillary in 2016, but Bernie only half-heartedly supported her and, from what I read, 6-12% of his supporters voted for Trump. I think this shows that there is a significant portion of the Sanders following who are not Democrats but are just disruptors.
And Bernie's no-compromise stance encourages this. Even if Bernie wins the nomination and we unite behind him, he is not going to be able to implement Medicare for All. The majority of Democrats in the House and Senate just won't go for it. We know this now. And Republicans aren't going to vote for it either. So Bernie would give us a non-Trump who continues to divide the country and get nothing done.
If Democrats unite, we will beat Trump and undo the damage he has done. We do things to help all Americans, to promote progress, and to begin the difficult but necessary work of unifying the country. By "unifying" I don't mean that we'll all agree on everything, but that we will be Americans first who can debate issues, work together, and live with our differences. We must be one country, or we will become no country.
13
If by "Democrat" you're referring merely to a label, then yes Biden is a Democrat and Sanders is not. If however, by "democrat" you're referring to a set of principles and values, then Sanders is much more of a democrat than Biden, who is...well...more of a republican (again, in terms of principles and values) than his supporters think.
Politics in the US has shifted rightward in the past few decades. Where the political continuum in the distant past was "left-to-right", today the continuum is more "centre-to-extreme right". Sanders is trying to shift the continuum back. Biden wants to keep it where it is.
11
A modest proposal:
Sanders and Warren need to retire from the primary battle.
The Democrats must unanimously support Joe Biden and his choice for VP, who I think should be Amy Klobuchar.
Biden/Klobuchar will present the bread-and-butter: health care, tax reform back to more normal, mature foreign policy strategies.
Sanders and Warren should lead the Attack Trump With Facts consistently and vociferously - Warren in particular should be very good at this. Other volunteers should be encouraged - the message is how awful Trump has been, an easily documented message. We all know the Republicans will be doing the same. IMO, they have no facts to support.
12
Sorry, but when you recommend Bloomberg in one sentence and in the next, discuss that he’s donating to something your wife benefits from, I have to stop reading. To me, you lose credibility on this topic at that point.
147
@Mike Wong Odd -- Friedman gained credibility with me because he revealed the info instead of trying to hide it.
55
@Mike Wong
And that, right there, is one of the reasons Trump will be reelected. When people lack capacity for critical thought, making knee-jerk decisions based on very little thought at all, we get what we deserve.
31
@Mike Wong
How does one "personally benefit" from donations to a charity (unless the "charity" is the Trump foundation)?
35
This cycle has seen lots of unconventional moves by ppl and groups. Why stop now?
Within the week after Super Tuesday, I’d like to see both B boys (Bernie and Biden) tell us who would be their VP, and maybe even key cabinet members, maybe even for National Security and Intelligence. Call it The Team of Rivals strategy. Let some of those team members be named in both camps. Include worthy ppl who might even be moderate repub. If you want to unify the country, to build a true coalition, do this. (Let’s also not be naive: there are ppl who do not want to be unified in this country.)
IMHO, Warren had the most thought out policy positions, was the most articulate than the two B’s. But, clearly, it’s not enough to be policy-smart and solutions-minded to get the nomination, much less the presidency. (Joe: you gotta be more clear with your message.... no cutting yourself off, no tangled sentences, no tangents, no obfuscating, and stop raising your voice to repeat a weak argument. Bernie: you’ve got great fiery passion but it comes across ‘my way or the highway’ way too much of the time; show me you can build bridges.) I, for one, am truly sad that Dems have two white guys in their upper 70s for us to choose from (which makes we really want to know who the VP picks would be). Where are the ppl of color? Behind the scenes? Ok, pull back the curtain and let’s see who’s on your team. Team of Rivals I say. Team of Rivals. For the sake of unifying our county and democracy.
8
In the general election, I'd vote for a tree stump, if it were the Dem nominee, in order to dump Trump. I expect nearly all Dems, many independents, and even a few Republicans feel the same.
But, I'm not feeling confident about Biden. He's even more inarticulate than ever, says little of substance, seems significantly out of touch, is about as status quo as you can get, and he keeps harping on about working with Republicans, as if he's been under a rock for the last 15 years, including the 8 he served as VP. To be brutally honest, Biden doesn't have much more going for him than a tree stump.
Biden better pick a really strong, really diverse, and really inspiring team, starting with his VP pick (Stacey Abrams, please!), and including his cabinet picks, which he'll need to announce BEFORE the general election if he's going to have a serious chance of winning. Otherwise, I don't see how he does any better than Clinton, even factoring in Clinton's baggage and Trump's now record as president.
9
Let me get this straight, you are basing your argument to get rid of #45 b/c one, his handling of a virus that by simple math is dwarfed by the annual flu in both terms of numbers and fatalities. That one will get people to stand in line in November. If the other issue is a uniter, start w/the Congressional ‘leaders’ that poll significantly worse than #45, ie Pelosi, Schumer, McConnel
See what a difference a day makes. The voters have done what Tom Friedman thought the party elders needed to do. They have chosen Joe Biden to represent the Democratic party against interloper Bernie Sanders.
Good for you, voters. Way to tell Tom Friedman.
3
Maybe you should have waited until Super Tuesday was over.
3
Quarantine elitist democrats to decide the primary results?
Bloomberg to lead this unity coalition? Some columns shouldn’t be written in advance.
And, by the way, a candidate who sits out much of the process and then tries to buy into it on Super Tuesday through ads was never the right unity candidate, at least not for the Democratic Party.
8
"It’s just not who we want to be.”
To quote, again, Matt Taibi: "He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius."
https://delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2009/01/matt-taibbi-flathead-the-peculiar-genius-of-thomas-l-friedman.html
1
Just as I predicted yesterday. Bloomberg is out and he's talking about giving Joe a lot of money to help him. We know Trump is angry that Bernie might lose for the obvious reasons, so now Herr Trump will turn his big guns on Biden with all the dirt he can find including resurrecting the Ukraine debacle.
It is way past time, but Bloomberg's money could go toward Biden doing an all out blitz on social media to counter Trump's Twitter ability, et all, and Trump's and the Repub's much more sophisticated internet, digital, social media apparatus. Dems are light years behind the Repubs in that matter.
9
Well you might have had a crystal ball, all occurred just as you would wish, except it is Biden standing, not Bloomberg. I join you wishing it had been Bloomberg but the populace couldn't warm to him. The outliers who dropped out to support him, I wish you well for the future, every one of you deserves it. As for Michael Bloomberg, I really salute you for showing great dignity with your support, it couldn't have been easy. Now, let those of us who aren't hard left, lets unite and defeat whats his name in the White House!
6
Well it appears that, by one means or another, Friedman has gotten his wish and the 'moderates' have united around an individual so incompetent that the White House staff during the Obama presidency was constantly trying to correct his public gaffes or shut him up. This is worse than 2016. I didn't like Hillary and was afraid that she would get us into wars but she is competent and smart. I will probably vote Democratic but it's hard for me to imagine it if 'nothing will fundamentally change' Biden gets the nomination and it appears that the fix may be in. The 'leadership' of the Democratic party cannot be completely unaware that they are putting the interests of their supporting billionaires above the welfare of the public in engineering this 'unification'. It's amazing (and confirming of my view) that Friedman is confessiing in this piece that he himself is in hock to a billionaire and supporting him (too late) as the ideal 'uniter'. I continue to support and hope for a Sanders victory but I confess that it becomes clearer than ever that when he says that he is taking on the entire establishment it is not hyperbole. One thing that could help: Elizabeth Warren could drop out and endorse Sanders in a countermove like the maneuver that created this situation. I do respect Warren and regret that it appears necessary to make the suggestion but the progressive wing has to find ways fight back.
8
jwhalley, yes, Bernie Sanders is indeed taking on the whole Democratic establishment because he, himself, is not a Democrat. Never has been. Never will be. And nobody wants a person leading their party who is not even a member of it.
6
@jwhalley How about fighting back after the election is won? And accepting the fact that of those likely to actually vote this fall, "progressives" are a minority.
1
@John Smithson
Lots of 'nobodies' have been voting for Sanders.
1
Amen.
2
It is instructive to read through range of the comments here and see that the readers picks and the comments with most recommendations are almost all pro-bernie - yet the DNC, the NYT and mr. Friedman all assure us they know better. Putting their big fat thumbs on the scale once again. worked out so well last time around....
8
Not really that instructive. Bernie supporters have always been a particularly vocal minority.
4
You have lost all credibility in hawking Bloomberg in this column and others prior, with your blatant conflict of interest. Very disappointing in one of your standing.
8
I have to think that old prejudices have got Biden back in . The dems in the south are as prejudiced as the republicans. Women and jews are still not eligible for the presidency. Regardless of Bernies lefty beliefs , him and Bloomberg would have a hard time in a lot states in this country, as would a woman . Biden even reminded everyone in the debate when he referred to his “catholic school boy “ obedience. Nothing new here. One can only hope he picks a vital running mate .
5
Are you missing another that after that that in that title?
1
Serdar K, no.
Good luck!
2
Biden should make the following announcement. "If I win the nomination, I will invite everyone who ran for the Democratic nomination to be part of my administration." This will encourage those supporters of candidates who did not make it to remain engaged in the election because they know that their candidate's ideas will be heard in the new administration. It should also insure the largest voter turnout in history.
10
All the Democratic candidates should work together to bring unity to the Country and get rid of the mess that’s in the WH. As much as I like many of the ideas coming out of Bernie’s campaign, like Trump, he currently promotes divisiveness. We need unity. We need to reach out to everyone. We need to work together, to bring people together, and to help people realize that there is more that unites us than separates us. Irregardless of who wins the Dem nomination, that person should be the catalyst for this unity.
5
It’s deja vu all over again. Bernie’s supporters are wounded by the trouncing Joe delivered on Tuesday, claiming that the Democratic establishment is out to get him and them—again. It seems to me that, much like Bernie himself, many of his supporters are ideologues who are unwilling to compromise. And uncompromising, dogmatic leaders—and voters—offer little to a complex world and country. Bernie has some great arguments, others not so great, but his principal failure—and what America certainly does not need (more of) today—is his unwillingness to consider altering any of his political policies. Even Elizabeth Warren altered some of her positions as she tried to respond to Americans’ objections to certain portions of her platform. But not Bernie. And that’s a prescription for failure—again. Bernie’s supporters need to come to grips with the importance of supporting the Democratic candidate—even if that is not Bernie; if they don’t, we may end up with another four years of the worst president ever.
7
We can’t let Bernie supporters dictate terms to the rest of us. If they don’t want to play ball it’s on them. If Bernie gets the most votes, fair enough. I will support Bernie. If he doesn’t, he shouldn’t be the candidate, no matter how many Bernie Bros get their feelings hurt.
5
I’m a progressive and if I’m goi g to pull the lever for Biden then he needs to start talking about healthcare immediately. I need to hear him mention it everytime I see him on tv. What will he do to insure that quality, affordable healthcare is something every American can have. Also climate change. Start talking Biden, you going to have to earn my vote. No platitudes, I want to hear your plans.
5
Do you think that a vision is the same thing as realization? Moderate liberals do not quarrel over the goals but the means. Nothing pays for itself, that is nonsense that people use to convince people to do things without considering the facts. If Bernie’s visions had already become reality and were sustainable, they might resemble his descriptions or they may not. He does not know and neither does anyone else.
1
The Economist was making a case this week for Sanders’ lack of track record. I would argue that it doesn’t necessarily matter. What largely matters are ethics and the willingness to do good for the greatest. Bernie’s got that. Let’s give him a chance and see how he does.
8
Peter, looking at history, it seems that ethics and willingness to do good are pretty much orthogonal to the ability to get things done. A track record of accomplishment is the best evidence of an ability to accomplish.
Bernie Sanders is not going to win the nomination, I think. If he does, he is not going to win the presidency. If he does, he is going to be a lousy president -- one of the worst we have had. Those are my predictions.
1
I am commenting from the west coast of Canada. I am amazed that Bernie Sanders' policies related to health care, income equality, free public education, housing affordability and fair share of taxes for the wealthy are continually described as "revolutionary" by the media. Your neighbor to the north has implemented most of these policies decades ago, with no ill effect. Health care here costs roughly half what it does in the USA and our life expectancy is at least half a decade longer. College students here do no graduate with insurmountable debts. The vast majority of the western world and the G7 nations have exactly the policies Sanders is promoting. Why do the media and politicos believe these policies would bankrupt the USA, when the preponderance of evidence suggests exactly the opposite? Why can't voters see the facts around them?
I can see the logic of preferring Joe Biden because he may have an easier time beating Donald Trump, but your country will have to address the issues Sanders talks about some time. The longer you delay, the more divided, angry and unreliable your country will be.
17
Sunshine Coaster, it's not the problems Bernie Sanders identifies that is the problem. It's the solutions. Bernie Sanders wants to nationalize industries and largely give the country a socialist economy. That's not going to help. It's going to hurt.
We used to have these problems under control in the United States too. I'm 60 years old. When I was growing up medical care was affordable for everyone. I worked and paid my own way through college and law school, with no debt. My wife and I bought the house that we live in to this day.
Canada has its own problems (as my Canadian friend tells me). So do other countries. My wife is Japanese, and Japan is in many ways a mess.
We can do better, and I hope we will. But the best way to do better is to be practical and pragmatic, and know how to get things done. That is, unfortunately, the exact antithesis of Bernie Sanders.
3
I have heard variations on this post dozens of times from people purporting to be from various western democracies, and my response is always the same. “Yeah, that’s great for you, but this is America and things work differently here, for better or for worse.”
1
What a shame we have to celebrate mediocrity and abandon forward-thinking to unify. We’ll end up doing what we’ve been doing for decades: one step forward; one step back. Of course I’ll vote the way I must in the general election to remove Trump—but without passion. :(
14
I think that the progressiveness will flourish but first we have to get united! Don’t lose your passion! There are many young, idealistic and very intelligent people (like AOC, for example) with Sanders. They can more easily influence a united party, not a divided one. One thing we can be grateful for, and that we should never forget, is that we can successfully work together for economic justice, for access to good health care, for saving our environment, for anything that we the people value, if we are united.
4
United we survive , divided we lose.
Whoever wins, we should support!
9
If Bernie can’t even get a majority of Democratic votes, nor turn out more young voters than in previous elections, there is zero hope that he will win over independents and the many silent moderate Republicans who loathe Trump. A unity coalition of moderate and liberal Democrats led by Biden will trounce Trump.
12
So Super Tuesday is insignificant? It’s only the back room deals that matter? Take the electorate out of electoral politics and you have? I can’t believe I’m reading this in a grown up publication. You value $$ and machine over voter choice? I realize the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before, but what would jamming Bloomberg down dems throats accomplish? I personally prefer Biden, but this has to be decided by the voters, not in a back room deal, in order for any coalition to work. The Democratic Party should put its entire effort behind Biden now. Bernie is not a Democrat. Bernie’s not going to disappear because he had a couple of bad days after a lifetime’s work. It’s going to be tricky: supporting Biden without loosing Bernie supporters. But this needs to be done a lot more subtly than prying him out with an ugly back room deal.
3
Mr. Friedman, you may be a superior observer and commentator on matters like the Middle East but when it comes to politics, American politics, don't write.
It is not your thing. You lack the knowledge, experience, and understanding to be meddling with silly commentary like this. It's a misuse of valuable Op-ed real estate.
Even before we knew the results, this was silly. Now, it is downright foolish.
Sanders represents a different kind of danger from Trump but a grave one nonetheless. He won't make peace with the Democratic Party or, if he pretends to once the nomination is settled for Biden and it will be, it will be a cold peace.
Sanders more than anything else in his 40 years in politics has been at war with the Democratic Party. He's not about to stop now and no Democrat can be persuasive with him because, well because he isn't one.
5
My problem with voting for Sanders is that his views are still stuck in the far left of the 1960s, and he is unwilling to change or admit that he may have been wrong. For instance, his recent throw away line that the recent economic prosperity "all went to shareholders." Does he not realize that those "shareholders" are Democratic voters whose retirement security is invested in the stock market through their 401Ks and IRAs? The world that Sanders lives in, the world of the defined benefit pension plan supporting retirement, is long past. I also have a problem with a lifelong politician and avowed Socialist being a millionaire.
I have a similar problem with life-long politician and multi-millionaire Joe Biden. Plus, he keeps telling self-aggrandizing lies that are easily outed. Last time his candidacy was derailed by the law school scholarship lie. Although he can take heart that with Trump as the current standard, his Nelson Mandela arrest lie won't even ripple the water.
3
Mr. Friedman,
If you are going to argue for unity, which I think is persuasive, than suggesting a meeting that does not include Sanders flies in the face of that intent. Sanders supporters deserve respect for their tenacity and for their size. Embrace them; moderate policies and approach that takes in as best possible the far left, as you've described it. Find common ground.
10
If Biden is the nominee, I’ll do my part and put my head down and vote for him...with strong reservations. But I’m very nervous that other Sanders supporters won’t. After the debacle of 2016, and the campaigns of 2000 and 2004 the Democratic Party still hasn’t learned that the Big Money rules and pulls the strings and will always prevent the little guy from having any real power.
Maybe 2020 isn’t the year for progressive ideas. But it’s coming - in the very near future when people absolutely get sick and tired of being slaves and puppets to corporations and political players. When nothing changes for the good of the not so well-to-do who have to struggle so hard to stay afloat. And all centrist Democrats and apologists for Republican-lite ideas (like Friedman, who lives a very cushy life) better get ready. Because it’s going to happen.
6
Dream on. First, Elizabeth Warren is a true progressive and will support Sanders. Your column should be entitled Anyone but Sanders. You blithely dismiss the overwhelming barrage of anti-Sanders attacks backed by billionaire money and instead accuse Sanders of provoking disunity, because you are against his progressive policies ( None of them are actually socialist as in seizing the means of production). You should be aware that even if Biden takes the nomination and the Presidency (and I will vote for him) progressives will keep fighting for and winning Congressional seats. The battle for serious health care reform, just taxation and against climate crisis is not going away. The DNC, triumphant that back door dealings well oiled with mountains of money and promises of advancement of political careers has actually sabotaged popular democracy.
9
That’s how it should be. Whoever gets the most votes wins. If Bernie can’t get the votes, I hope progressive candidates around the country can win in progressive districts, just as you dream. The presidency isn’t everything. Building a presence in state legislatures and in Congress matters, and the more progressive influence at those levels, the better likelihood of a progressive president within the not too distant future.
2
Put it the other way round, Mr. Friedman. If Sanders wins the nomination, would the rest of the Democrats unite behind him in the name of beating Trump? I doubt it. I really can’t understand why so many people in the US are still stuck in the fifties looking for reds under the beds when what people want is a legitimate share of the future. That won’t happen with Biden who will, at best, give the same old same old. In 2020, socialism shouldn’t be a scary word anymore.
11
Actually, it's not that a lot of us south of the 49th Parallel are scared of a Democratic Socialist. A lot of us are well versed in what a Canadian or a Danish style of government could provide. What we are truly terrified about in this election, though, is the choice of a candidate who in certain areas of the country will drag down to defeat dozens of Members of the House while ensuring the Senate remains in Republcan hands. However great his ideas, however sophistocated his program, for these reasons Saunders will lose this election. None of us feels we can wait another four years for a new occupant of the White House. Biden is a comprommise candidate and an imperfect vessel but he will serve as he Hero of American Democracy if he can win the WH and (at the very least) not lose the House.
5
I admire Abraham Lincoln's words, but um... not everyone was on his side, to violent effect. To suggest that there was less neighborly hatred in America in 1865 than there is today sounds specious to me.
4
This is not a normal election. We do not have a normal POTUS. America's politics are in chaos. Not only are Dems internally polarized, we also have Dems v Republicans and Trumpists v Never-trumpers. No more Republican party. Congress is impotent. Co-equal arms of government no longer exist. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Americans are exhausted. We need healing. We need results, not revolution. Perhaps the latter will come in time. Yes, so much needs to be done to fix our systems and institutions and issues, but first we need rest and healing.
Bernie and Elizabeth want to go too fast. Make too many quick changes. I agree with every issue they cite as being in need of correction or reform, but I no longer have the energy to help in that fight right now. I need rest. I suspect many millions of us do, too.
Biden is a decent, good and empathetic man, absolute contrast to the vile parasite we have in the Oval. We need him now.
Let us rest and then, re-energized, we can work to bring to fruition all that needs to be done for our people and country.
So...
3
I am very, very sad today, that given a choice between the challenge of rebuilding the American dream and comfort, Americans have chosen comfort. How can anyone look at the candidates and fail to see that Elizabeth Warren has the best qualifications, the right abilities, the expansive and inclusion vision, to lead this country toward greatness? Instead, Super Tuesday makes it clear that far too many of us want what's easy, status quo ante.
Well, they say we get the government we deserve. How sad that America now deserves mediocrity.
7
@R. T. Keeney To many people, mediocrity compared with what we've had for the last 3 years + sounds like a big improvement!
3
Better to deserve mediocrity than to deserve Trump!
2
This is the fantasy of cannibals. In 2016 when klieg lights burst spotlight on DNC across country, DNC publicly sabotaged Sanders so Clinton would win nomination. And now this guy is saying Pelosi, etc., Obama, Clinton, and Joe Biden(?) should meet privately to develop a strategy to block Sanders from winning the nomination, because Sanders has to lose, but he has to lose fair and square, because a socialist populist will lose against a white nationalist populist, and ensure his re-election? Right. Well, we all know how well that turned out.
Other notable thing Is repeated reference to newly evolved militant Sanders supporters who are wreaking havoc on America, but whenever I’ve asked that that claim be substantiated with facts, the only response is silence. I genuinely would love to find out where this radical Faction exists, instead of seeing it repeatedly sprinkled throughout articles, for the sole reason of stoking fear into the centrist-left and blocking the public from voting for Sanders.
Sanders had most diverse supporters in 2016. I know because I saw it. We had all gathered in local Rockville pub to watch primary results. He won big. The crowd burst into cheers. But it was the crowd that was striking: broadest coalition of ethnic, social, economic, generational diversity I had ever witnessed—like the United Nations—and all shared a deep political commitment to country. The status quo was no longer acceptable. That’s how civilized people behave.
10
I stopped reading when Bloomberg was named as the "preference." I welcome Mr. Bloomberg's money going to elect Democrats (which he is not), but he should be nowhere near the White House.
7
I will say Tom's last idea--the eventual nominee announcing a list of cabinet picks spanning the full spectrum, center to left, of the party--is a good one. This latest one--a closed door meeting of the party big wigs scheming how best to thwart Sanders--is a dumb one. In begs for an almost exact repeat of 2016, particularly if the Russians got wind of it and leaked it.
5
"running through multiple chiefs of staff and secretaries of defense and directors of national intelligence, not to mention four secretaries of homeland security and five national security advisers, not to mention reckless attempts to slash the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,"
His GOP base of support is almost 90%!
One is put in mind of H.L. Mencken: -- “As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
The founding fathers worst nightmare - An ignorant electorate unleashed from the elites!
5
I have always been a Democrat, as were my parents before me, but that is over and done now. I had misunderstood that the *people* of this country, that their votes, made the choice. I was wrong. The so-called "Democratic" Party is working behind the scenes to uncut Bernie Sanders no matter what we want, no matter how we vote. What an awakening. This is despicable. They will get their man, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump will eat him alive.
9
You just lost me Friedman. Endorsing a misogynistic billionaire like Bloomberg. Uggh.
5
Democrats put country first, Republicans put party first. When 9-11 happened, Democrats came together to support W. Bush, even though most thought he had stolen the 2000 election. When the financial crash came, no Republicans would step up to help Obama rescue the country's economy. Republican Senators back Trump despite the fact that Trump is working with Russia and he tried to extort Ukraine into kneecapping Biden.
Oh, and on 9-12 the country was coming together to grieve and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove were figuring out how to use Bin Laden's attack to invade Iraq and give tax cuts to rich people. Shriver's Republicans who want to bring the country together are fictional.
4
If covid turns out "not that bad," this hysteria over it will embolden the right. It'll be added to their current denial of climate change issues.
1
It is a mystery to me why you think that a representative of corporate liberalism will bring the nation together. This is the door opened by the Dems that that Sanders walked through.
For one thing, holding a crowning meeting that excludes Sanders will only reinforce the paranoia felt by the Sanders' core. Trump will make sure that no one misses this "conspiracy." How many of this group can the Dem loose and still win the election?
I personally think Warren would be a better bridge-maker, but there were other worthy candidates. The real point is that if you are trying to avoid a divisive fight, then all the fighters need to in the room together in order to unify Dems. How can you possibly miss this?
None of this addresses the problem of the country's polarization though.
4
I would like to see Biden ask people like Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Warren, Booker, Inslee and many others who are already known quantities to join his campaign as the future Secretary of HHS, Veterans Affairs, Energy, etc. We don't have to lose our inclusion factors just because the candidate is an older white male. Let the whole party know that everyone will be represented. And offer Bernie a leading role in bank reform. We need his people truly motivated to vote for the democrat!
5
I like Friedman’s idea of a “Team of Rivals” cabinet, but please don’t t
remove Democratic senators from the Senate.
5
In December 2018 when Senators Sanders and Warren met privately, Senator Sanders had a chance to unify the left and back Senator Warren.
Then after Senator Sanders had his heart attack, he again had an opportunity to endorse Senator Warren and unite the left.
Unfortunately just as in 2016 when Senator Sanders dragged out the contest for the nomination, it looks like he'll do this again in 2020.
BTW I'm a survivor of gun violence, and I'd wish Senator Sanders would stop writing off his vote for protecting gun makers and gun dealers from liability as "a bad vote."
8
Bernie can do much to promote this unity by suspending his campaign sometime before the convention when it becomes obvious that he will not have a majority of the delegates and getting behind the Biden. It is clear that he will not be the choice in a brokered convention. Leaving early will be a clear message to all the "Bernie Bro's" that defeating Trump is the ultimate goal and that we need a united party to do that. He lost fairly under the rules in 2016 but the fight itself did not unite the party which resulted in Trususpending his campaign sometime before the convention when it becomes obvious that he will not have a majority of the delegates and getting behind the Biden. It is clear that he will not be the choice in a brokered convention. Leaving early will be a clear message to all the "Bernie Bro's" that defeating Trump is the ultimate goal and that we need a united party to do that. He lost fairly under the rules in 2016 but the fight itself fostered disunity which resulted in Trump winning. We can't let that happen again.
2
Well said Mr. Friedman. From your lips to God's ears, and all people of good will in this country.
2
BIG DREAMS. Mine is to see Trump leave the White House.
I'll settle for competent and positive.
Counting on Biden to unify us. It will be a plus to have Jill in the East Wing.
6
"My preference to lead this unity coalition would be Mike Bloomberg, because I think he has a campaign machine that is built to last and stand up to the pummeling from Trump, but he may not have enough grass-roots support in the party. If it’s not him, then the obvious choice would be Biden ... "
As an Independent, I agree, and now that Mr. Bloomberg has dropped out, its probably Biden. For the years of this campaign, I have felt that Mr. Biden is an old school, big smile politician who craves attention and says a lot of goofy stuff in that pursuit. Also, his repeated verbal slipups indicate a mind that is not at its sharpest, and so he may have difficulty with the inevitable vicious (if unsupported) attacks from Mr. Trump & Co. But I hope his lack of inspiration does not cause some voters, disgusted with Mr. Trump like myself, to simply not vote or vote third party (it can happen ... ). On the bright side, Mr. Trump more than matches him on the less than sharp mind front, and is way past him on the goofy (disgraceful in Mr. Trump's case) stuff.
2
I find it quite disingenuous to hear that liberal policies of open borders and sanctuary cities are somehow more effective in safeguarding American citizens against the corona virus than Trumps decision way back on January 31st to ban all non American people on flights from China from entering the country?
Dear Joe,
Please find a place in your team for Tom Friedman.
Thanks.
-A pragmatic Dem
3
Biden-Warren.
3
@JB Here's a counter offer: Biden-Klobuchar, with Warren as the next attorney general. Buttigieg as head of HHS. Yang for Energy Secretary. Bernie gets to do bank reform.
1
@John These fantasy cabinet games are fun, but please don’t take Democratic senators out of the Senate.
@mike—It depends on whether their state’s governors are Republican or Democratic. Democratic governors will presumably appoint other Democrats to replace them.
1
Perhaps it'll take another centrist Democrat to lose in a debacle to the worst conceivable president in history for the message to get across that centrism is not really centrism at all but complicity with the right wing at worst, and feckless attempts at compromise with it at best. Perhaps the younger, clearly more forward-thinking generation that has supported Sanders needs one more round of presidential elections, and centrist Democratic presidential failure, to tip the statistics decisively in favor of Sanders' just and fair proposals and to neutralize the effect of bugaboos like socialism and dislodge the presumption in favor of capitalism as though it were given and could not be otherwise. We'll see. At the end of the day, no one knows whether there are more "Republican Moderates" (and centrist Democrats, for that matter) who will not vote for Bernie under any circumstances than there are Bernie supporters who will not vote for any other Democratic nominee. Friedman says it's a roll of the dice, which it is. While he has decided to roll it in favor of the centrists, his choice is as much of a shot in the dark as the opposite approach. What clinches it for me is that Bernie is the only one with the personality and fortitude to confront Trump in the necessary blood-boiling theatrical way. I find it absurd that anyone believes that Biden could handle Trump better than Bernie on this count, particularly when Biden appears to suffering from inchoate Alzheimer's disease.
6
@Kansas Biden will stay out of the gutter. He will draw out the democrats who stayed home in November 2016. And please don't ever say that someone who drops a word here and there has Alzheimer's. It is very insulting.
2
@John That Biden may have Alzheimer's could be the truth, which naturally no one is talking about, whereas one finds mention everywhere of Bernie's heart attack and attempts to get as much anti-Bernie mileage out of it as possible. I disagree that it is insulting to mention a relevant possible fact about a candidate's physical health if there is apparent reason to believe that that fact could be real. Are you saying that Biden's health is not an issue?
1
The Democratic party has made it abundantly clear that they are as united against Bernie as they are against Donald Trump. That the only way Bernie will get the nomination is an absolute majority of primary delegates ... and if he falls one delegate short ... no dice. Is that fair and square? Maybe. But fair enough. There will be no political revolution. We want a moderate ... we are getting a moderate. We got a moderate in 2016 ... that didn't work out too well for us did it?
5
We got a moderate in 2016 because the only person running against her, Bernie Danders, got millions of fewer votes. If Bernie doesn’t have the votes in the primaries, he certainly won’t have the votes in the general. What ever happened to most votes wins?
If Trump loses, whether it be close or in a landslide, do you think he’s just going to transfer power peacefully? I predict the GOP screaming from the rooftops about election fraud and Trump just refuses to leave office with plenty of support. How many people successfully ignored lawful subpoenas so far during the Trump administration with no consequences?
3
@Mathias - Donald Trump who trivialized the traumatic brain injuries suffered by the military during the Iran retaliatory attack, thinks said military will prevent him from being removed. Let's see how that works out ... "Not now we have a headache"
2
"Because Bernie has to lose the nomination to a moderate Democrat, but he has to lose fair and square. The nomination can’t be stolen from him. He and his supporters are too important to a winning Democratic coalition in November. They need to be on the team."
The problem is that Bernie supporters are already saying that Super Tuesday was rigged. They refuse to accept the legitimacy of any other candidate, as if other voters don't exist or have any agency of their own. It's all a DNC conspiracy to them.
5
It is clear to me that the one person holding the office of the President cannot do it all. Trump has demonstrated that over and over and over, so painfully for our country. He’s the boss man and it is a sad state of affairs.
Who the VP will be is very important, as are all the government experts and employees. Can we quit talking about Sanders and Biden and more about the supporting cast and what we do want to accomplish like fixing the infrastructure. Please roll out the glorious plans. And also point out that the Republicans are not just anti-abortion but also opposed to birth control.
2
A vote for Sanders is a vote for Trump, the equivalent of staying home and not voting at all. Not only is he not electable, he's not even a Democrat yet he's running as one. As for party unity, good luck with that while you ponder the last four years of our democracy and the next four years. Somehow, we feel as if we can muddle through what promises to be an autocratic, dystopian dynasty. Fortunately, this country still has a pulse. Please don't take it for granted and lose it forever.
4
I am at a loss for how you construct a coalition when you invite only the people that you agree with? I don't agree with the far left of the Democratic party however you have to include everyone if you are going to get everyone to vote for the candidate that can beat Trump.
2
"Unity in the party and unity for the country." So, Friedman (and many others) wants a "forced" unity. Everyone has to wear the same size shoes; everyone has to sacrifice for unity.
Except that it's always the progressives who have to make the sacrifice - to join the moderates for the cause of "unity."
Studies on coalitions have shown that the majority in any coalition always gets its way.
There are two distinct parties under the Democratic tent - and never the twain shall meet. They are oil and water. The moderate branch of the party apparently assumes that progressives don't deserve representation.
Fine. I will vote for Biden as an anti-Trump vote - and then I am gone. Done with the Democratic Party. I will look for an alternative party like the Movement for a Peoples Party to represent my views. The Democrats just want my vote - not my opinion.
5
"Bernie Sanders is not a team player." Neither are moderates. They insist progressives conform to their ideas of how America should be and who their political candidate should be and when we disagree, we're attacked for it and accused of not "uniting with the party." How many moderates have we had already? What have they accomplished? So let's put another moderate in office and accomplish the same nothing we keep accomplishing. It sounds like the definition of insanity. Joe Biden is another guarantee that nothing will be accomplished, but it's what the voters want, and better than the alternative.
But I won't vote for Joe Biden. I voted for Sanders but even before I voted for him, I told my wife, "I like all of the candidates except Biden. He is a weak candidate. I'll vote for any Democrat except him." He'll grab the nomination and I decided I will only vote down ballot. I refuse to vote for a candidate I don't believe in. I will not take responsibility for Trump and his behavior just because I didn't vote. I live in Texas, I voted for Hillary and voted for Al Gore, who both lost because of the electoral college, and even if I hadn't, we are all adults and responsible for our own decisions. I will not be guilt tripped into voting for someone I don't believe in in a futile attempt to prevent someone else from gaining office and misbehaving.
6
And if thousands of other Sanders supporters do the same thing, we get a repeat of 2016. Is that what you want?
3
@ Kristin @Mary McC As far as the presidential race goes, it doesn't matter if all of Bernie's supporters in Texas and California, as well as a number of other states, stay home. The Electoral College votes which will determine the winner are, for practical purposes, already pre-determined in those states.
1
@ Carl It does matter. 2016 Sanders-to-Trump voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin cost the electoral votes giving Trump the presidency.
1
So what I don't get in this esteemed assumptions is how a GOP Senate would allow anything of Biden's to get done verses Sanders. The GOP has repeatedly demonstrated that whichever elected Democratic President is in office will be stonewalled. 8 years of data supports this observation.
Sorry Mr Friedman but your analysis is flawed as one of your base assumptions is false. Any analysis thereafter is also flawed accordingly.
5
>>My preference to lead this unity coalition would be Mike Bloomberg, because I think he has a campaign machine that is built to last and stand up to the pummeling from Trump, but he may not have enough grass-roots support in the party.
Ya think?
There is no chance, zero, zilch, nada, that the Democratic Party is going to run a moderate Republican at the head of its ticket. The voters aren't going to elect one and the super delegates (cursed be their name) aren't going to anoint one.
So let's just throw that theory in the dumpster.
3
Personally, I don't really care if anything "gets done" or not with Bernie. At least I believe the guy is honest and will at least try and that's more than can be said for most. The fact is you have a guy that may as well be a republican that's attempted to cut SS and Medicare benefits which support our elderly,vets and disabled. I won't vote Biden if he does win the nom because of his history and the chance he may do this. That and all the other weird off the wall stuff he says. He literally has 0 chance at beating Trump.
5
How do concerns for the people and the country become diatribes and onslaughts against individual candidates? Isn't that pure demonization and demagoguery? Let's have a candidate who does as little as possible to change the very conditions that brought us to this situation in the first place?
Sanders and Warren have ambitious ideas and plans about how to make things better, perhaps too ambitious, but anything less is stagnation. The rest of the candidates, in the name of moderation, plan to leave things as they were four years ago. Isn't that crazy?
The one thing that makes me more sympathetic to Biden is the support he has from black voters. There's too much white privilege in the Democratic party about who gets to address the problems of racism.
2
Why not a Biden-Sanders ticket? Other than two old white men (again) what’s the problem?You could certainly have a diverse cabinet as Mr. Friedman proposed a couple of weeks ago.
2
The reference to the Republican mantra "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" is the key to this column. Ronald Reagan did more damage with that one statement than any politician in my lifetime. As was said, the corona virus is symptomatic of what can happen when bad government rears its ugly head. We need a president who can put in place effective cabinet and intelligence people. Without our health and well being being focused on by the government nothing else matters. It's time to promote the general welfare. It's time to elect a president who cares , Joe Biden.
Here it is ,the day after and Biden should immediately get out in front of covid 9 with common sense infomercials as this is the most important thing facing us right now.
To predict the November election results you have to watch Wall Street. If the Coronavirus driven downturn bursts the twin bubbles on which the world economy is afloat, China Housing and US Stock Market, the Trump re-election bid is doomed.
So, Thomas, you're saying get Clinton and Obama and the rest of the crew together so they can come to an agreement on who should be the Democratic Candidate?
Do you know who is going to be pounding on that door?
Along with defeating Trump though, we must be united to defeat Mitch Mc Connell, his archfiend helper, and every GOP congressman who kowtows to Trump, which is all of them save for Mitt Romney. There's a pantheon of anti-constitution demons in there.
4
You lost me at "My preference is Bloomberg." Never-mind that stop and frisk makes him the exact wrong person to lead a party whose core is made up of black voters, he is also the epitome of everything the left hates. You can't get enough white suburban voters to make up losing those two groups in the general.
5
“we need leaders and ideas that unite us. A lot of Americans are starving to be part of something larger than ourselves, something that loves us and needs us, like building America together again, solving big problems together again, dreaming big dreams together again.”
"solving big problem"
this is exactly what the policies and concepts that are being offered by Sanders and Warren do.
What you want is nothing like what your comment says you want. You and your half-way which is noway is exactly what got us to having an idiot like Trump for president.
4
Biden for Pres
Stacy Abrams for Veep
3
Not a good title: “Forget Super Tuesday...” Subliminally.
Why shouldn't Bernie Sanders finally become a democrat and unite behind Biden now? Why do we need him blaming the democrats for not voting for him as a plot by millionaires, billionaires and the democratic party leadership?
Bernie Sanders can do something right now. He can be gracious and support Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket across the country. So can his disappointed supporters.
Send a message to Trump and Mitch. We're coming for your job.
7
@HL If Sanders were gracious, he would have encouraged his supporters to vote for Clinton in 2016. He and Sanders-turned-Trump voters are responsible for the current administration. Sadly, there is no reason to think he'd be more gracious this time around.
1
Why can't the democratic party organize against Trump and other republicans as effectively as they have against Sanders.
5
I'm often not surprised when change is introduced into society. Yet, in all things, change is always occurring. During the Vietnam Conflict, change once again occurred. The forced draft of the youth was met with the protest for change. Fear of change was met with violence against protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, during a mass protest against the bombing of neutral Cambodia by the United States military forces. Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. As a result of these killed by American forces, draft cards were burned by the youth, signaling their displeasure of the status quo leaders of the day. This is the fear of change that political leaders and parties feared--America rising up to change the policies of the past.
Today, similarly, the youth of America are rising up for change as they will be the future of America. Once again, change scares the political leaders and parties which today represent the past, no the future. It is the same old strife I see, the past not willing to embrace our children which is the future.
3
I agree with Andy as well. Readers think Joe Biden is the safe choice. He is not. He doesn't have the support of young voters, who are critical to winning, and because he doesn't inspire, he won't attract the turnout we had during the midterms, and we have to have huge turnout to win back the WH. Trump doesn't play fair, he has incumbent advantage, a good economy (probably,) historically low unemployment, a rock solid base of groupies, Russian meddling, and the electoral college on his side. I hope I am wrong, but I believe this election will be a repeat of 2016.
3
The day after the election I truly hope Bernie and the other progressives announce a new independent progressive party and give his voters a home.
I would join in a heartbeat. The main reason fundamentalist Christian voters live under the Republican tent is because of the lesson Pat Robertson taught running as an independent.
Hugh
3
@Hugh Massengill If Bernie does, you can kiss having a Democrat or a Progressive in the White House ever again. The Republicans will win every time since the left will split the vote and the Republican candidate will win the Electoral College vote every single time.
3
How true, Friedman. How will Biden fare in a “debate” with Trump. Judge Judy calls him, using a relatively nice term, a street fighter. For him, all that matters is to solidify his base, put on a show, enjoy the limelight. No holds barred. I feel for Biden. He won’t escape unscathed.
2
There’s been a lot of comments about how “unfair” the process is to Bernie. How fair is it be an independent and miraculously become a Democrat at presidential time?
He didn’t support Clinton and neither did his base. They pouted, stayed home and gave us Trump. Bernie was a virtual tie in two of three of the first states with Buttigieg. Sanders only beat Buttigieg in NH (his neighboring state by 1.3%.
The ridiculous caucuses which come down to bake off, Pete Buttigieg won Iowa. And Nevada was definitely a win for Bernie.
I’d say Biden’s surge yesterday and Sanders assertion he’s the ONE is actually unfair to Biden. In the first real contest, Biden beat Sanders.
Democrats don’t want Sanders in the results so far. These are voters speaking. Maybe that will change and Bernie will clinch it next few weeks. If that happens, the people who are holding their noses will STILL vote for the Democratic Party. Will the Bernie supporters be more loyal to him and not the party? We’ll get Trump again, possible losing 2 more SCOTUS, women’s rights, and more authoritarianism.
10
Sanders supports are not Democrats. Sanders is not a Democrat. Rather than try to co-op the party, he should have run as an independent, in 2016 and 2020.The divisive scenario and outcome likely wouldn't be much different.
Too late. Democrats already put their hand on the scale when Buttigieg and Klobuchar dropped out before Super Tuesday but not Warren. That's it. The claim to fairness is already gone. We know who Democrats want to nominate. They've made that abundantly clear. You're going to lose again though.
A full one-third of the coalition will not rally around Biden. Some will vote for him reluctantly but you're witnessing a Clinton do-over with the added handicap of an incumbent President. Democrats are going to lose. I don't want that to be true but it is. I'm an independent.
6
To,Andy—Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out because they knew they couldn’t compete, not because of any hand on any scale. Look at their numbers.
6
A tangential comment:
“If the Democrats can rally behind a consensus center-left candidate, he or she will be in a strong position to beat Trump ...”
Thanks so very very much for using “he or she” rather than “they” (the latter quite confusing in many contexts that are currently being advocated for 3rd-person singular of unspecified gender — I really hope that doesn’t catch on).
4
Mr. Friedman writes that his fantasy is that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, et. al. lock themselves in a room and pick a candidate to represent the majority and run against Bernie.
Did that sound as repulsive to anyone else as it did to me? As a young person, I was hoping Bernie would win so he could undo some of the systemic damage that's been done to this country in the last 40 years. Now I'm hoping he wins so that all of the old, entitled fogies writing these inflammatory pieces will finally be quiet and let humanity continue its project of becoming.
People like this don't realize that the political divide is a consequence of the massive class divide that's getting worse and worse every day in this country. Between the rich and poor, the 1% and the 99%, the urban-dwellers and those who don't live in cities, those who work in the industries of the information age and those who are pining for a return to the age of industry.
Sanders is the only candidate openly addressing these realities, and I will vote for him over any of these lukewarm, day-old candidates no matter how many of these soft and bromidic appeals to "centrism" get published by this apologetically and shamelessly corporate newspaper.
11
To Alejandro—Sanders is not a Democrat. He has run as an independent and caucuses with the dems. because he had no other choice. We are not Democratic Socialists. Bernie had no other avenue available to run for the presidency. Maybe the Dems. regretting letting him in the tent. (I am a lifelong Democrat.).
1
And if Bernie doesn’t win the nomination will you stay home and give us 4 more years of Trump?
2
@mnzr You mean, act like Sanders voters in 2016?
just funny. Bloomberg has withdrawn. The fantasy needs an overhaul.
4
"Trump is an existential threat but if Bernie doesn't get the nomination I'm not voting."
I can understand the perplexity and anger. But this isn't the senior prom.
This is an election, and it's a messy process, and we don't always get whom we want.
My candidates are not going to make it to the nomination. (I've had a few favorites.) I'm still going to vote my heart on Tuesday, March 10th in Seattle.
But in the general election, my disappointment over my favorites not winning is easily replaced by the pragmatic view that voting for ANY Democrat is better than voting for Trump.
I'm a white guy. I am not directly harmed by Trump, except that my taxes went up and my retirement is threatened by his economic idiocies. But I'll survive.
I'm voting for my friends, who are the objects of his vile nature and corrupt actions. I'm voting strategically and rationally.
Saying "I won't vote because Bernie lost the nomination" would not only be a silly and childish thing to threaten, it is an enormously privileged and selfish thing to do.
Not getting all the sprinkles on the cupcake doesn't mean I'm going to throw all desserts in the trash.
There's always next time. But for now, I'm voting for who can get closer to my ideas, not the man who will trash every one of them as he further establishes an oligarchy of white males.
17
Ding. Ding. Ding. Thomas Friedman gets it. Great insight. Thanks for sharing a vision that I have but could never have expressed so eloquently.
1
Not one word about the climate emergency in this column or the dueling debts that both Biden and Trump have to the corporate interests that donate and demand policies that condemn the planet to death. But Friedman does offer much about the coronavirus, which to most will seem like a bad cold compared to the climate chaos we have only begun to endure.
3
The majority of states Joe won will fall to the GOP during the actual election, and that means the electoral college votes.
Joe won more Dem delegates. Bernie won more eventual electoral college votes. Hmmm.
5
Bernie supporters may like or dislike Bernie as a person and leader. However, Bernie supporters mostly share a common vision of values, solutions, and America. We are donating and campaigning for the Progressive Democratic Movement. All the other Democratic candidates seemed, out of the gate, to shift to those ideas, but now we see that the neo-liberals, establishment elite, corporatists, and many Moderates are back to the status quo that leaves millions of Americans feeling disaffected, losing financial security, without medical care, disenfranchised, and just keeping the globalization and oligarchic machine humming along. Same old, same old. Joe Biden like Hillary Clinton has no real intention to reach out to us. Biden is the my way or my way guy. It’s all a downward path to income inequality, wars, angst, and globalization. Trump is just a symptom of a degenerating society. He’s a grotesque representation of our collective soul, but any other Republican would have basically actualized similar policies. If the Progressive Movement is continually thwarted by both parties, then what? Republicans and Democrats become unified in their smoke and mirrors media cultural manipulation. Trump has been normalized. Fear is the shepherd’s crook and electric prod.
With enough resources and will any Democratic candidate can beat the Republican. The establishment elite and many neo-liberals who called themselves Democrats either voted for Nixon or abstained in 1972 to stop Progressivism.
5
Bernie Sanders is not a team player. Sanders still calls himself an independent even though he's running to be the Democrat's candidate for president. He should have joined the party a long time ago. If Sanders looses the nomination he probably will take all his marbles and go home. If he is elected president, nothing will probably be accomplished since he is a my way or no way type of guy. He's not a compromiser. The bottom line to Super Tuesday or Super Wednesday, is that the debates were a waste of time. Most of the candidates didn't talk policy, they just wanted to score points or rehash their same old stories. Sanders just kept repeating his mantra Medicare for all. Medicare for all maybe a good idea, but it will never get passed even by a totally controlled Democrat congress. Some candidates like Biden and Bloomberg were not good in the debate format, but they are accomplished people who can make good presidents. To win the presidency the Democrats need team players who will enthusiastically support the candidate. I don't think Sanders really was enthusiastic about Clinton, so why would he support Biden. I think the same about Warren. Funny how Biden shined through on Tuesday.
5
The closing of hundreds of polling places in the black neighborhoods in Texas to suppress the black vote by creating 5, 6, and 7 hour lines is not undemocratic, it is downright criminal. Texas has to get a Democratic state legislature to remedy this. Only Republicans cheat like this. You have never seen a democratic state legislature closing polling places to suppress the vote.
6
The plot is thick. You will hand it to Biden, we know. Unfairly.You are not going to have Bermie's votes in the general elections. The corrupt party, aided by the Media and Mr. Friedman is going to lose the WH, both houses of Congress. and State offices. But again, that is what the Corporate Masters want.
2
2016 Sanders supports who either stayed home or went with trump (see Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin switch-voters) are responsible for the election of the current president. If Sanders is the Dem candidate, we'll have him to thanks for the same outcome in 2020, down-ticket, as well.
1
Politically, I love everything that Bernie Sanders stands for although as a pragmatist, he will lose to Trump. And the defeat of Donald Trump is all that matters.
To the Democratic Party: unity TODAY!
13
Back room deals to stop Bernie? really. That is a sad and criminal use of the power the powerful have. How about instead an open room to discuss the Democratic Plattform to run on? once the platform is decided we can concentrate in what TEAM is going to carry it over. The Dems platform has to be: Medicare for all. Social Security is out of the table for negotiations regarding fiscal policy, reassert with authority and morals our leadership in the world. Rationalization of for profit education and medicine. Rein in the industrial and military complex and first and foremost: Protect The Environment. There is not planet B.
8
If the ship is sinking, it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are. Everybody wants a seat in the lifeboat.
2
So you are for Mike Bloomberg. I am for Mike Bloomberg's money, his organization, and his data - which are his singular strong points, and Biden does need all of those badly. This is going to take a village, and, right now at least, it looks like people are pulling together behind a candidate. That is the only goal right now. We have been knocked down so low these last three years that we do not have time to waste on futile attempts at pushing far left agendas through a possible GOP Senate. We need to heal, celebrate in the streets (!) and then get to work digging ourselves out from under this mountain of awful debris. When you have been hit by an F5, dreams of building the Taj Mahal will have to come later.
5
Tom is correct that the 63% must unify behind Joe right now.
Obama can be the difference maker. He needs to come out of retirement and campaign along side of his wing man.
Trump is a weakling who will never be able to stand up to Obama.
3
"Because Bernie has to lose the nomination to a moderate Democrat, but he has to lose fair and square."
So your idea of losing fair and square is:
".. that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door"
Why close the door? Would the discussion be viewed as embarrassingly anti- democratic, scheming, and plotting by the voting public?
As long as the DNC's fingerprints aren't on the theft of his nomination again, right?
8
There's only one thing that matters and that is for all to vote for whichever Democratic candidate is nominated. You are missing the point if you get hung up on how Bernie is treated or how the Democratic Party handles it's influence or ANYTHING ELSE that irritates you.
Whatever we have to deal with AFTER Trump is out of office will be nothing, compared to what we will have to deal with if he is re-elected. Come on people! Get a grip!
5
I don't understand how you can say Bernie needs to lose fair and square and then talk about a closed door conference to determine the single candidate. I say, let the voters speak. If a candidate determines it is time for her or him to step aside, then they should. Everyone has the right to endorse (I certainly carry my hopes on the bumper of my car!). but I do not regard a closed door discussion that determines our fate.
4
I just heard that Bloomberg pulled out of the race. That certainly affects what Friedman wrote in the essay.
1
Sorry, Mr. Friedman, your "team of rivals" obsession has run away with you. It's just another version of a smoke-filled room. Take a powder.
3
Certainly not my 1st choice, but go Joe go !
Please Mr.Steyer and Mr. Bloomberg keep the dump Trump money coming.
When The Democrats have the House, Senate and White House
Can we please get serious about public financing of all political campaigns.
It’s long past time that money interests of all stripes no longer dominate our democracy.
5
Good article, but overcome by events.
"Let all the poison that lurks in the mud hatch out,"
That's from the the book, "Claudius, The God", by Robert Graves. (Made into the popular TV series, "I, Claudius" on PBS in the 1970s.)
The idea is to let the current political structure descend into the chaos that it's corrupt nature makes inevitable.
Of course, during that descent, many people will be hurt and there is a risk of a catastrophe.
If either Trump or Sanders is elected next Fall, that's what could happen.
1
The Democratic Party needs
to do very comprehensive polling
to determine a strong Vice-Presidential
candidate who can support Biden. The other
contenders who dropped out do not
look strong enough. Personally, I
though Yang was terrific but he lacks
experience, not Warren, she is
polarizing; not Pete, too young & inexperienced;
not Amy, not exciting. It will be a tricky balancing
act. Young voters have to feel motivated to show up.
Look to history...why McCain lost, why Mondale lost,
why Humphrey lost...Be careful. Every step is critical.
Trump is a danger to our country. His insanity,
corruption and inability to rule effectively have
almost been normalized. We have to clear every
path, remove every obstacle to prevent his re-elections.
Biden can do it but he will need a great partner.
3
@Pete
We'll stay. But please consider this, incrementalism put us in the pickle we're in. The leaders we have supported for decades, both R and D, have said to all manner of Americans, we'll get there, be patient. The be patient trope worked until it was large swathes of ALL manner of people, including millions who had already generationally experienced the now-illusive American dream, who were being asked to be patient. People who once lived in thriving communities with good jobs whose everything was ruined by policies that allowed/enabled, the abandonment of our manufacturing base. Now, not only were we moving at a snails pace on all matters of civil liberty and justice and now environment, we were working at a snails pace on fixing a very unevenly applied access to MONEY, money once gained by way of millions of good jobs across a broad range of skills. And an overwhelmingly white population that has been decimated by wait-and-be-patient government saw in Trump (abhorrent as he is) a glimmer of hope that out of "breaking it all" might rise a mighty phoenix that would, indeed, make things right. That is the discontent incrementalism has brought us. Since the 90s, perhaps even earlier, the powerful have offshored unmeasurable economic power while the rest of us have been left with too small a portion of the pie to bring about the big things needed here at home, things needed and long overdue for ALL Americans.
We need a seismic shift in priorities. Biden is not seismic.
5
Peppered throughout Mr. Friedman's opinion is the fear that the best of what America represents, against a backdrop of crumbling democracies around the world, climate disruption and pandemics is the strong possibility of a second term for Trump.
Think Sanders is a victim and that the only way he would lose against Trump is because of some Democratic deep state?
Tuesday's voters think otherwise and we still live in a democracy, for now.
The price is wrong, Tom.
1
"He and his supporters are too important"
No. They are lazy b*ms who are ready to lose everything over clearly unattainable short term goals.
Stop calling them important and call them what they are. We are here because their inept parents didn't.
1
This is not journalism. Waste of time
1
Warren's campaign is built to last, too. If only people would stop trying to tear it down. On Super Tuesday I argued all day with friends who said they wouldn't vote for her because she "couldn't win" and only Joe or Bernie had a chance. How can you win if no one who wants to vote for you does? I'm truly tired of people leveraging the three letter acronym as the root of the mess we are now in. There is more to it. What's really happening seems to be the creation of a Coalition of the Scared under Biden, who has only the slightest hint of the Obama magic scent left on him. It also looks like a justification of the paranoia the Bernie clan has been tossing around for months. Not a happy solution, with the two Bs remaining - it seems - as the only choices we have. What if the effort to coalesce around a candidate deemed by some to be the one contender who can beat Trump turns out to be completely wrong? There is no reliable logic in a contest to beat someone who has done so much harm that no one should want to re-elect him, anyway. Israel's latest election seems to prove that point, too.
1
An political ideologue viewed as a savior to the extent that matches Christian fundamental evangelists will have difficulty viewing any loss as legitimate. Bernie's followers totally buy into the story that he is "owed" the nomination. If Sanders cannot muster the sincerity that would convince adolescent believers that swell his ranks, to place their nation above their need for revenge, 2016 will be our future. I seriously doubt he wants to.
3
IIRC in 2016 Bernie tried to convince Warren to run to carry the progressive mantle forward, probably because he knew his personality was not presidential timber. When she refuse, he decided his cause was important enough to run, probably not expecting to make the splash he did.
Fast forward to 2020...Bernie has been bitten by the celebrity bug, and now thinks he is more important that his issue(s) and following his defeat in ‘16 is the prelude to ‘20...that is he will cry foul when he loses following the rules that were specifically changed to accolade him, he will continue to divide the party.
I give Bernie kudos for moving the needle on certain issues, but major demerits for not team playing. Understand that politic is the art of the possible and that the good is not the enemy of the perfect is the first trait of leadership.
Now that statistically it is extremely unlikely that either Warren or Bernie can capture the nomination, it is time for them to become part of a larger team if they expect to be anything other than a thorn in the side of history.
2
Didn't we have a President in 2008 who was gung-ho and all in on working across the aisle to get things done? How did that work out? It's "play nicely" when a Democrat is the President and "our way or the highway" when a Republican is in office? You still don't get it. The two-party system is dead and it can't be revived. The system needs to change. Ranked choice voting. Congressional representation that requires some representation from a number of parties - there are at least two different Republican and Democratic factions, Greens, Libertarians, Evangelicals, etc. The Executive can't be a single person, it must be a committee of 5-7 with representation from each party. I'll vote blue all the way down the line come November, but I don't have any faith that Biden will wind up with any more effectiveness than Obama had. Joe believes that he can work with Republicans. Only tRump Republicans can work with other tRump Republicans. The only positive will be that I don't think that they can gin up the same amount of hate for Biden as they did for Hillary.
3
I think Bernie would be too divisive and could lose critical down ballot support. He has done a remarkable job of bringing in young people with promises of free stuff and revolution, which sounded a lot better when I was their age. I think our society is gradually evolving toward access to health care for all, and reasonably priced educated for all who want it, but a revolution that crashes us into these things is not the right way (I think about the tax implications, which I don’t think these young people are thinking about because they aren’t in those brackets yet).
I live in Florida.While Elizabeth Warren is my favorite, I will cast my vote for Joe Biden. I think the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was/is brilliant and visionary, and under appreciated.
Biden’s strength is in his rapidly coalescing support of his former rivals. Their support is critical in turning around his lackluster and poorly organized and poorly financed campaign. I have wondered if he was only in it because he promised his dying son Beau that he would. Biden needs to make it clear that these younger and more energetic supporters would be very involved in an administration. VP, Mayor Pete (Biden kept comparing him to Beau), or Amy helping deliver the Midwest, Elizabeth adding women, or Beto helping deliver Texas.
He also needs the sophistication of Bloomberg’s messaging capacity.
Biden needs his team of rivals. And to avoid any major pratfalls between now and November.
1
You're right that we need unity, and I have no problem sacrificing my preferences to vote blue no matter who. I would ask the Bernie supporters to do the same. Because the alternative is a horror none of us want.
I'm less sure any candidate will be able to unite people like me with some of the people I see at Trump rallies. I'm not even sure they should try. There's a point at which the evil is so great you have no option but to oppose it.
2
I have a suggestion for promoting unity. Stop demonizing Sanders, now. Stop telling your readers that he is the second coming of a cross between Stalin and Attila the Hun. You, yes, you! Are vectors of division. You treat Sanders supporters with a combination of dismissal, condescension, and derision. Would you find that unifying?
If you want respect, give it. If you need unity, don’t demonize any opponent. Frankly, that is the way Sanders himself behaves. Try to rise to his level of maturity instead of stooping to Trump’s.
6
Mr Friedman, Mike Bloomberg dropped out this morning and endorsed Joe Biden. What now?
1
Yank your column; Bloomberg is toast.
1
Where's Hunter?
Hey, less fantasies and more and better analysis, please.
Angry voters elect the worsts of leaders. Ask in Venezuela.
I'll bet Thomas Freidman wishes he had never written this column.
It's Wednesday, Biden had a great Super Tuesday and Bloomberg is out.
3
DEMOCRATS UNITE....it's the three BBB's baby....
Biden Prez to pull over the moderates and non angry non reality repubs that wish for less gong show
Bernie for VP as he clearly ignites the youth
Bloomberg to FUND the campaign and use his army to get #rumpf out of office.
UNITE to defeat.....not one or the other but TOGETHER we stand and TOGETHER we'll WIN
3
Raise your hand if your think Biden's nomination assures Trump of a second term.
2
Who knew the Democrats have low morals similar to those of trumpsters? Ole Joe's vote for the Iraq war, and his treatment of Anita Hill should play nicely with the blue dogs who will vote for him. Heck, his misogyny and war hawkish'ness will go over biggly with the homeless Republicans.
We need a 3rd party.
2
So no candidate is allowed to evolve? What about the fact that Biden came out for gay marriage ahead of Obama?
1
@Steve Mason
Democrats are devolving into Republicans and trying to force Republican-lite candidates on progressives.
Joe is an old man. He has an old man's views, and an old man's disregard for the needs of the young. He's no different from the other white Boomers who have a deathgrip on American institutions.
Just own it: Democrats stand for endless war. Democrats stand for sexism. Democrats stand for the old and ignore the young. Democrats stand for corporations and banks. Democrats are no different from traditional Republicans.
We need a 3rd party.
2
Oh look, yet another Times article that dumps condescending and inane status quo assumptions on my candidate. I am almost ready to stop subscribing and send my monthly dues to Jacobin or Slate instead. Every time I comment on being a Bernie fan my post goes missing. NYT, you're very, very disappointing on balanced opinion when it comes to progressives.
4
..'a locked door in the Capitol to let the kingmakers do their secret magic'..?? -Really.? That's Mr. Friedman's fantasy of how this process works?
--Mr. Friedman is truly living in a fantasy if he thinks that's the best way for Dems to beat Trump.
..However..if you want to alienate 40% of Democratic voters, the idealists, the youth vote, the grass roots vote... By all means follow Mr. Friedman's fantasy.
..-- But if Democrats want to win.. they better let this process play out.. and forget the tired fantasies of people like Mr. Friedman.
1
Vote Blue no matter who. Dump Trump. Unfortunately Democrats have a habit of hating their candidates. They didn't like Al Gore "Mr Environment" or John Kerry or Hillary or Mondale or Dukakis. Instead they let Reagan win who gave us Murdoch and Fox Propaganda, let George H. and George W Bush win and give us Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and destabilize the Middle East and now Trump. How has that sulking helped America? Just Vote Blue, don't be an idiot again. All the Democrats are better than Trump and they had better stick together.
7
So you think Warren would unite behind a Bloomberg or a Biden over Bernie??? Are you aware of the policies Warren has staked her career on—policies Bloomberg and Biden universally oppose? Why not fantasize that Putin will join NATO and that Corbin will support Brexit? And your first choice to unify is the guy who hasn’t won a single contest yet, or even come in second anywhere? Yeah, that’s real Democratic. What poppycock!
3
I was going to comment, but I've come to realize that Friedman's editorials are barely worth commenting on. It is telling that Sanders would not be invited to his little imaginary Wednesday morning meeting. Geez, Thomas is this really how you want democracy to work??????
2
Glancing at this column was a terrible way to start my day. Big mistake.
2
At this point our country is going down the tubes with this clown in office! Bottom line people is simply support and vote for whoever wins the nomination, and to all the crybabies GROW UP!!!
1
How about the Late night talk show hosts get off the backs of our candidates. Stephen Colbert is belittling the Democrat runners so much I had to stop watching him. He's handing Trump his ammunition and giving the Republicans a leg up. I know he's only in it for the laughs, but it's time to tone it down.
I don't understand how people are making the same mistake with choosing a flawed moderate to run against Trump, *again.* If Biden is the nomination, Trump wins, plain and simple. Young progressives won't turn out for Biden, because frankly they don't want to vote for him. He was against gay marriage, he belittled millennials, he doesn't have a good civil rights record, and he had family ties to corruption. Sound like someone we know from 2016? If Biden is the nomination, Trump's ideals won't be challenged either Think about Joe and Trump on a debate stage. Trump could say "Hunter Biden" for every response, and Joe wouldn't have a good comeback. We're going to have another 4 years of Trump, and it's going to be the Democrats' fault.
5
More words of wisdom, but let the rest of the primaries play out. Warren needs to bow out, too.
One on one. Mano a mano. The 100% support for the nominee.
Let's keep this simple or Trump will bury us again in his web of lies.
1
Delegate? Superdelegate? The wealthiest, the rulers of this country, will assign the task of maintaining and expanding their wealth to whomsoever they agree will best do so. As they always have. You and your vote are a still effective decoy employed to convince you of your demockracy. You don't stand a chance. Never did. You've been overwhelmed by an ever-increasingly expanding, sophisticated system of insidious and brutal means of oppression since the instant the wealthiest men of this nascent nation knowingly scribbled their lie "...all men are created equal". Our "Revolution" merely transferred power from the richest Englishmen to the richest Americans. Bernie is nothing more than a ventilator, a way to relocate the anger that would, sooner or later, otherwise culminate in a collective convulsion of upheaval against the powerful who've exploited and robbed them throughout our history. But that will never happen. How am I so certain? Because it never has. Not with any result that effectively disrupted the wealth of the wealthiest. Any change was cosmetic, temporary. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of four Ohio college students by the U.S. armed forces. Their young minds splattered on the campus. In broad daylight. With witnesses. Pay no heed. Surely there's something to binge watch. Something else to buy online or stuff in your complacent, distracted, stupefied, narcotic, demoralized, exhausted bodies. Overnight delivery. You never stood a chance.
3
Sorry, Tom, as even a high school freshman could recognize, it is already too late for Bernie to win "fair and square" as you put it. Have you looked at where the states that participate in Super Tuesday are located? With one or two exceptions, we have the Confederate States of America participating in the fiasco. Just one of several obstacles the right wing Democrats have instituted to assure their ongoing control of the party.
2
Dear Thomas L. Friedman,
Great column until I read "unite the country."
That is the old way and YES BIDEN has that quality but the republiCONS do not have the ability to be gather to a common cause for our country especially with DEMS. They only know that they are important and everyone else is not. I really wish this observation is false.
1
Far from the Ivory Towers (and Trump Towers) out here it looks like Biden is being promoted to lose gracefully to DJT 2020 as did Adlai Stevenson to Eisenhower 1952/56. The facade or charade of democracy must be maintained even as the oligarchs dig its grave. But perhaps Friedman from his aerie sees and knows better.
1
As far as the November election is concerned, the Democrats will win whomsoever they nominate. The Coronavirus epidemic, the resulting stock market crash and the housing market crash will kill all of Trump's re-election chances. The real problem is, what will happen after the elections. The new President, likely Biden, will inherit a Moribund economy with millions jobless. The Fed, which rescued us from the Dot-Com bubble by blowing the bigger housing bubble, rescued us again by blowing the biggest everything bubble. The Coronavirus has now burst the everything bubble. The bursting of the everything bubble means that there are no bigger bubbles left to rescue us because the last shreds of savings or wealth will be gone, poof, into thin air. Every bubble burst leads to destruction of wealth, the Fed can only rescue us by rekindling the animal spirits and getting the remaining wealth to get invested. When no wealth remains, the Fed becomes impotent as it became in the early 1930's. If 2008 is remembered as the Great Recession, the recession starting in 2020 will be remembered as the long recession, which will last decades as in Japan. A whole generation will learn to save and scrimp, instead of spending and investing.
It's unlikely that a unified country will be possible with the likes of evening cable news talking heads who impart tremendous anger and distrust of the "other" in their viewers.
4
If republicans want a someone to unify the country, then why is the president with all his divisiveness so popular with republicans?
2
Bernie people, you need to take your cue from the right wing.
The right wing beavered away for decades. They made it a long term project. They didn't get mad in a huff and stalk off, they just doubled down and worked harder. Now they are a force to be reckoned with. They control the Supreme Court, thanks in part to their creation of the Federalist Society. They control the Senate and the Executive Branch.
Look at the make up of the House and Senate. Take off your blinders. This country is NOT a left wing country, and your wishing it won't make it so.
So get to work. You might have success in as little as ten years.
But it ain't happening this year. Sorry. Vote for the moderate and get to work on your agenda. If you go home, you'll be in the same boat next time around.
2
I agree with Juan. I fail to understand this rabid dislike for progressive voters and their candidates. When did we become such a threat? You call for unity, then attack our beliefs, which are no different than those of the Democratic party overall. I'm mystified. Then we're attacked for not wanting to vote for the same old moderate candidates that either lose, or are unable to accomplish what they promise. I'm supposed to like Joe Biden because he's an old white comfortable walking shoe? That's a no from me.
5
Bernie gave us Trump in 2016. It's all on his shoulders. His whining and lack of grace in losing encouraged many of his supporters to sit out the election and we got Trump. Bernie is not a Democrat. Full stop. Why is he on the Democratic ballot? Why isn't he on the democratic socialist ballot? "After the way Bernie has been treated"? What does that mean? That a Democrat party is rightly less enthused with a guy that rejects the party for 30 years all of a sudden wants the party's support? The only reason he has legs in this election at all is he's promising things that can't be delivered in the real world. Wake up and smell the coffee - politics is the art of the possible. We already have one raving lunatic populist (right) - we do not need another even if he is left.
2
This is not the time to pick up your marbles and go home if your candidate does not win the nomination. My prefered candidate is long gone, but that takes nothing away from my desire to end this spectacle which is Trump.
Be it Bernie or Biden, it is essential that all of us who loathe the idea of another four years of Trump do all we can to to cleanse the White House of the corruption and greed which has pervaded its walls with the presence of Trump et al.
3
Again, it is ignored that there is one factor here. It isn't the Trump Train Folks in the South. It isn't the Blue Liberals on the Coasts, and in blue dots around the nation.....it all comes down to a small amount of undecideds in swing states. Who will they support ? Liz is the best candidate. Bernie's ideas would help the most normal folks but they can't see that thorough the propaganda. Joe, whose record repels the actual left, is, sadly, most electable to the low information swing voter. The Republic will NOT survive four more years of GOP destruction, and for Bernie Bros to sit this out would be to give GOP and Putin exactly what they are working so hard for
3
Selecting the tepid Biden was a safe choice. Texas likes his pro-fracking stance. Southern states, with large African-American populations, "think" they "know" Biden, merely because he was Obama's VP.
Did they think of how he harassed Anita Hill in her hearings against Clarence Thomas. Or how Biden voted for crime bills, or supported states' legislation, that resulted in more African-Americans going to jail? Possibly not. Obama carries a glow.
A strong coalition must be formed behind the Democratic nominee. If it is Biden, who does not doubt his ability to keep his words straight in debating Trump? He forgets where he is mid-sentence, or, gets defensive and very shouty. He is no Obama.
The vigorous and clear-thinking Sanders already has an army behind him, people who want a green new deal, which, like it or not, will, of necessity, be the way of the future. He's not a Communist or a Socialist, a label Trump will use against any Democratic nominee.
Americans who fear the label "Social Democrat" (think, the governments of Canada and the EU), or lobbyists hoping for "business as usual", will support Biden, and America will wake up to 4 more years of Trump.
2
Funny. If Friedman would have thought that Tuesday's outcome was even remotely possible, he would not have written this article. Super Tuesday, not the day after, has proven to be the day that matters.
1
Suggestion to Biden OR Bernie: Team of rivals speech, soon.
"Building America Together Again" - now that's a good slogan.
From the left wing "The Guardian" Dec 2019:
'“Biden was one of the most powerful people who could have said no, who could have changed this. Instead he used his leadership role to limit the ability of other Democrats who had concerns and who wanted the bill softened,” said Melissa Jacoby, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill specialising in bankruptcy.
Other leading Democrats and consumer advocates did say no. In the Senate debate on the 2005 bill, Ted Kennedy was scathing about its implications.
“This legislation breaks the bond that unites America, it sacrifices Americans to the rampant greed of the credit card industry,” he said. Kennedy warned that even before the new provision kicked in young people were dropping out of college “because of the costs of student loans – they can’t pay them”.'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/02/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-2005-act-2020
The article states that Biden received $500,000 from banks.
Sen Obama (and Sanders) voted against the bill and Prof. Warren was vociferously against the bill.
JFK (and his brother Ted) would roll in their graves to hear that the Dems are supporting Biden.
Why would the Dems support such a candidate?
In the name of transparency, why doesn't Friedman bring up these facts?
Do we really want someone like Biden who took his 30 pieces of silver from the banks to harm the American people to be our next President?
6
Suggest you not write a column again where you comment on news events that you know will be outdated. Your idea of Bloomberg as uniter, or even viable candidate, highlights either a profound misread of today's U.S. electorate or a disqualifying inability to overcome your close ties with his associates through your styled community service. You need to do some serious studying, thinking, reading, etc. Then maybe you can write something about current politics that has a shot at relevancy.
Gee Tom, why stop there.
If it is unity you are after; why not invite Mitt Romney to your unity summit as well.
After all, he was anything but a fire breathing, far right governor. The ACA would not even exist if not for Mitt and I am sure he has grown tired and weary of the death threats.
Whereas the real heroes from last night are not even invited to your little soiree; Pete Buttegieg and Amy Klobochar.
Dropping out when they did certain did impact the results, did they not Tom?
This also lead to Bloomberg dropping out.
Seriously Tom, are they not the kind of politicians the party really needs? The kind that are unselfish and have clearly put the country before the party and their own individual ambitions?
Wouldn't it be nice if the Democratic establishment actually got behind THAT kind of politician, as opposed to Biden?
Well, enjoy the Burisma hearings Tom.
4
Mr. Friedman,
Your fantasy has nothing to do with unity. Your fantasy is about locking out Bernie and his progressive ideas and maintaining status quo. We already went down that road in 2016. Look where that vision got us.
Do people need to be reminded about the plagiarism that ended Biden’s first run for president and Anita Hill?
And, respectfully Mr. Friedman, considering your conflict of interest and Mr. Bloomberg, you should keep your fantasies to yourself. That is, unless you’re aching for 4 more years of Trump.
4
Reading this minutes after hearing that Bloomberg has dropped out of the race does give me a bit of satisfaction regarding Friedman's history with oligarchs.
To the Bernie bots down below in these comments; Bernie could win the election against t rump but he will never have any coattails. Voters might think that since he is pretty radical it would be safer to keep a republican Senate that would restrain his more energetic ideas (and supporters).
Biden will be seen as the safer bet to lead a unified government with Democratic majorities in both houses.
With the benefit of current news (Bloomberg dropping out and offering his war chest), Mr. Friedman's pipe dream is becoming a reality. The speed at which moderates dropped out of the race and how now 50 prominent politicians have endorsed Biden. I too think Biden alone is a weak candidate. Heck, he's lost two times at this! Biden is likely to take the primaries as the remaining states are more conservative than many that voted Tuesday. But this idea of a coalition candidate is brilliant and I am optimistic enough to believe that the Dems know that's the ONLY way to beat Trump.
1
A united party, especially one that attracts disaffected Republicans, will dilute the progressive agenda. The urgency about inequality, social justice, and climate will be shoved down again. The moderates have no agenda except opposition to Trump, and this is unlikely to energize the party. On the other hand, maybe Trump supporters won't feel so threatened and even feel a little pressure not to show up to vote.
Maybe Bloomberg's assessment is correct: that the country wants evolutionary, not revolutionary, change.
1
The voters supporting Bernie don’t remember World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile crisis. I understand we need to be more fair to everyone because, just like the industrial revolution 100 years ago, the internet revolution is displacing many hard working, honest people. Communism/socialism wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t now. Candidly, if it wasn’t for the strength of the USA, every social country that exists today would be part of Russia or China. We win because we are better. We are better because we are a meritocracy. Kinder capitalism, absolutely. Free money for everyone, no thanks.
1
What a bunch of Malarkey. Yeah, let's sweep under the rug how the establishment Dem candidate did against Trump last time. And how poorly *this* establishment Dem candidate has done in debates so far - MUCH worse than the last one ... who lost! Who drummed Bloomberg out?
Not Joe. Elizabeth! Trump will make mince meat out of him in debates. Will that disaffect Dem voters? Probably not (as primaries have shown so far). But it's definitely not going to win over any of those Trump voters who used to be Obama voters. That's the only path to defeat Trump. It's a good bet they would have voted for Bernie for the same reasons they voted for Trump ... if they'd been able to.
Bernie is where the Democratic electorate is heading. Not Joe. Let's get there sooner rather than later, please. The House and Senate will follow, if not this election, then one soon after.
3
I think the best bet is a Biden/Warren ticket.
3
Mike Bloomberg is the Democrats' Dick Nixon. Fortunately he's doing so badly that there's no plausible way the scenario Thomas describes could come out with him as the "coalition" candidate, but really . . . If you're still for Bloomberg tomorrow, than just up against the wall and spread 'em!
1
USA to Putin: Aren't you tired?
3
“Pay attention to what just happened in Israel, with Bibi Netanyahu’s surprise last-minute right-wing surge. Israeli politics is to American politics what off Broadway is to Broadway. Trends start there in miniature and then often come here. Be careful.”
That’s right, being more like Israel is how we got Trump.
That Israel just gave indicted for corruption, racist Bibi Netanyahu the most votes is a surprise only to Friedman.
Per Friedman, since Israel is our off Broadway, we will give our impeached, racist President the most votes in November.
2
Democrats turn the clock back to 1950's America once again has twotwo conservative parties
5
All sorts of ogres have come out of their proverbial closets with the Trump Presidency. White nationals, Jew haters, religious extremists, science deniers, bigots and racists of all sorts that most Americans didn't know existed anymore.
Surprise!
Now is the time to end this and send them back to the oblivion they so richly deserve.
Mr. Sanders is a "maybe" he'll beat Trump.
He is too far left. A Sanders Presidency would be troubled.
Joe Biden is solid to beat Trump. He will be a popular and accomplished leader.
2
@William Mason
Get back to us on that after November 3rd.
1
@nora m Gladly.
(Disclosure: Bloomberg Philanthropies has donated to Planet Word, the museum my wife is building in Washington, to promote reading and literacy.)
Why don’t you start the article with this? I wouldn’t of wasted my time. And from what I read this is a good example of why you don’t pre-write an article about an election. You look like a 2016 poll!
3
Why would NYT allow someone to write an opinion piece when the conflict of interest goes beyond ideology or affiliation to an organization?
4
This is now the second Friedman piece in which he has pitched the obvious not-gonna-happen Bloomberg candidacy. Friedman's wife takes money from Bloomberg - this is just not ok as journalism even w some little "disclosure" blurb in the arcticle.
4
Has friedman ever called anything correct? Bloomie is toast dude ..
1
I’d vote for a turnip over Trump.
Just get him out of there.
The rest is noise.
8
An example of Trump Delusional Syndrome at its best...
The author’s idea of a “fair” way to prevent Bernie Sanders winning the nomination without offending his supporters: “Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door and tell them that no one gets out until...”
Dear sir, do you understand what you wrote?
4
@Francis
Capitalism has finished off democracy.
Your preference is Mike Bloomberg?!
Why do you keep placing your hope on a 78 year old Billionaire who was a Republican a short while back? Democrats (like me) don't like him. There is little or no chance for him to get support from the Democratic base. His history with people of color is terrible, so his support from Latino and Blacks will be bad. Please get off your Lily white tower once in a while and spend some time with real people of color, who are not Indian!
1
Why you put democratic socialist in quotes is beyond me.
Amen!!!
Is this guy on repeat?
So, Mr. Friedman, it is Wednesday, and you are wrong once again.
2
Good grief New Yorkers, get over yourselves! The Democratic electorate has spoken. No thank you, we don't want a contest between two rich, arrogant, New York businessmen.
3
So many false narratives by (not all) some Bernie supporters.
Just because Bernie didn't sweep Super Tuesday does NOT mean "the fix is in." Disappointment should not equal more bitterness, anger, and chaos. Don't we have enough of that with Trump? "Moderates" have the right to coalesce and campaign. Voters will decide.
Bernie will NOT get my primary vote for a few reasons. This doesn't mean I'm an "establishment" Democrat or someone who doesn't desire change or unenlightened or a stupid boomer or any of that nonsense.
Brooklyn Bernie will get my vote against Trump in November if it comes to that, but in the meantime, just stop all the nastiness.
4
@berman
I do hope you noticed that the so-called nastiness is a two-way street. It is the legacy of Hillary who never reached out to Sanders supporters in 2016 and who continues to spread her unique brand of bile and bitterness. She never asked her supporters to stop their nasty treatment of Sanders supporters. When he helped her, she offered no thanks. She just said it wasn’t enough. Gracious? Hardly.
She is the face of the DNC: Entitled, tone-deaf, divisive, and self-important. Like Trump, she doesn’t have a generous, gracious bone in her body.
The voters who went from Obama to Trump were not Sanders supporters; they were people who would not vote for her. The DNC completely discounted how widespread antipathy to her was. It was reality.
1
More disclosure from Friedman: my wife is from a billionaire family. Of course, I support billionaire Bloomberg buying the election.
3
What Democrat president in the past 20 years got anything positive done? Clinton deregulated Wall St ..-- how did that play out in the recession and disemboweled the FED, which continues its horrific super low interest-- can't rattle Wall St. policies. Obama __ I don't even know exactly what happened with various banks closings and bailouts of others -- any way managed Romneycare not Universal Single Payer, did not close Guantanamo - 13 million per prisoner per annum, continued all the stupid Bush wars, did not bring back the luxury tax which Bill Clinton had gotten rid of.... and put in new laws to protect banksters… as I found out moving my IRA (or trying to).
Frankly, Trump is truly awful.. but so is Biden and the Media again is anti-Bernie... and no one including myself knows what a socialist is... Must have horns and a tail.. American stupidity and arraogance are not to be underestimated. Warren is an educated wonderful candidate , granted she doesn't have one, and to not win in her home state -- shame of MA and shame on the media for saying only Joe Biden can be elected. No, he can't. I will not vote for another Republican lite... and PS whoever is elected will have a heck of a time getting anything positive done until the right wing press stops the socialist nonsense and starts exposing predatory capitalism for what it is. Rob Peter; pay Paul. How much more plastic garbage do we need to produce, with packaging? Water from Fiji? Help.
3
The argument that the Democratic Party coordinate a back room deal to stop Sanders is an embarrassment to this paper.
4
@philip
Well, it should be but it just normal operations. Notice while the moderate Republicans - last seen walking their equally scarce dodos and unicorns - need special attention there is zero concern expressed for the voters at the low end of the socioeconomic scale.
Social justice? What’s that?
What a sales job for Bloomberg. Money?
1
I've heard of media spin but this spin doctor is wobbling.
5
Bloomberg is done.
Hey, Dems - grow a brain this time around and put Sanders and Biden on your ticket and unify your party. Then, you don't have to worry about your own party members sitting home. The two old men can have a pushup contest on Ellen's show for who is first or second on the ticket.
Had you run Hillary/Sanders last time, things would have gone differently. Instead, you tried to bully half of your party and no one likes to be treated like that.
If Sleepy Joe can work with Mitch, then he can work with Bernie.
But you have been telling a good chunk of your party to sit down and just vote for your guy/gal and it will work no better than last time.
2
Make America Sane Again. Make America Smart Again. Make America Care Again. Donald Trump has almost destroyed this country and it is beyond my comprehension why any thinking, caring American would vote for this horrible excuse for a Man.
2
Back room deal, seriously! and thank you for including Warren in your dream senario, dream on, it will never happen. Everytime I read your commentaries, I realized how badly we need someone like Bernie. The liberal bourgeois class, which you and your coleagues in NYT proudly represent, brought us Trump and will bring him back again. By the way, sorry about your billionare friend!
4
"(Pay attention to what just happened in Israel, with Bibi Netanyahu’s surprise last-minute right-wing surge. Israeli politics is to American politics what off Broadway is to Broadway. Trends start there in miniature and then often come here. Be careful.)"
How quaint, how totally irrelevant (but Mr. Friedman had to get in an anti-Netanyahu dig regardless of the topic of the column) and how totally foolish and incorrect.
Mr. Friedman, Israel follows the US. It may take a generation to catch up, but trends are set in the US. Even the newspaper I subscribe to, Ha-Aretz translates NYT articles for its readers. Does the NYT translate from Ha-Aretz or Yediot?
This is the alpeh bet of the cultural and political relationship. It's time you got that.
2
It's over. Biden's the guy. He'll take out trump as well. Thank god.
1
Would somebody dump all polls for good, please?
Great article!
Biden is a nebish. If Sanders doesnt win I will vote Trump.
Biden cant defend this country; he will fall asleep first.
2
Happy to see the centrists have as many cowards as the tea party.
3
It's Super Wed. It may be time to retire this editorial--we know the outcome.
Not very democratic to be supporting Bloomberg and the country agrees. Next time you write a super Wednesday column, you might wait to see what super Tuesday has wrought. Usually a fan. Not your best moment.
1
Now that Biden is looking increasingly likely I hope Bloomberg opts to throw his financial weight and organisation behind him. That would make for a very convincing argument! I also hope Joe realises that he needs an African American running mate. I'm sure he does, but reallly anything else would be a slap in the face of the community who has brought his campaign back to life, and of course it would be a great tribute to Barack Obama. I like Kamala Harris for VP myself.
The thing that you and other opinion writers don't seem to understand, Tom, is that Biden, if he is the candidate, needs to satisfy some of the Left wing's demands or there will be no unity. Unity only works if all sides get some things they want.
3
Not one mention of the urgency to deal with climate change.
2
A Bernie Sanders nomination would guarantee another twelve years of Trump...
You can already see how nervous Trump is today....tweeting out that Sander's is being duped in some way ( who is listening?) The primary was held ,voters spoke.
Sander's is popular ...BUT...please THINK about this:
If he gets the nomination, the other state and government positions and potential flips will be affected. If Sanders gets in, and the Congress is still divided, or worse, all GOP, then it'll be four years of haranging on the Do Nothing Dems, and the GOP will strengthen even more.
Bernie may lose, but picture a Don Jr/Ivanka ticket in 2024 if he does. That is scarier than four more years of Trump.
I am not "scared" of another four years of Trump, I am sick to death of him and the grovelling GOP now. We need someone, ANYONE, who can not only win the Presidency, but also the State positions and Congress.
Bernie will NOT get the support of older voters who recall what Communism was, and who has said he wants to be a Socialist. YES he yammers on about "corporate Socialism" but...there is no crime in being wealthy. There is no crime in being rich. There is no crime in striving harder to get farther, and, to KEEP a lot of your winnings...you earned it.
BUT.. A LOT of decent very wealthy people DO give a TON to charity, and agree to higher tax on thier wealth.
Does Donald Trump paid tax or give ANY of HIS money to charity? The answer would be NO.
1
@Ignatz
The sky is falling!
Wow! Nice try , Mr. Friedman. You probably should've waited for Super Tuesday. There's not going to be any locked room this year. It was very nice of Bloomberg to give your wife a donation. You have to understand though that he has so much that he won't miss this money. For many Americans the commercial barrage and the waiting until late were arrogant. Most of us know people like this and we don't appreciate them, we tolerate them because they have money and no one can make them show up until they feel like showing up, but when they do they bring the doughnuts. The mystery remains why Bloomberg didn't hire someone with panache to be president for him. Does he also cut his own grass? There are mosquitos out there and an average landscaping service would do a much better job. How pathetic was Bloomberg up there in the debate stage with his entitled mannerisms? Nice try, Mr. Friedman. Go Yankees!
Selecting the oh-so-tepid Biden was a seemingly safe choice. Texas likes his pro-fracking stance. Former confederate states, with large African-American populations, "think" they "know" Biden, merely because he was Obama's VP.
Did they think of how he harassed Anita Hill in her hearings against Clarence Thomas. Or how Biden voted for crime bills, or supported states' legislation, that resulted in more African-Americans going to jail? Possibly not. Obama carries a glow.
A strong coalition must be formed behind the Democratic nominee. If it is Biden, who does not doubt his ability to keep his words straight in debating Trump? He tends to forget where he is mid-sentence, or, get defensive and very shouty.
He wants to preserve "Obama World", not think ahead.
The vigorous and clear-thinking Sanders already has an army behind him, people who want a green new deal, which, like it or not, will, of necessity, be the way of the future. He's not a Communist or a Socialist, a label Trump will use against any Democratic nominee.
Insulated and unknowledgeable Americans, or lobbyists hoping for "business as usual", will support Biden, and wake up to 4 more years of Trump.
3
@Lilou
What is the centrist plan for health care once the Supreme Court rules against it? It hangs by a thread.
Forget about who is president, the Senate has to go democratic, this fact has been proven again and again since twelve years for sure.
1
I'd like to know how Biden is going to corral the younger voters after it is made abundantly clear that he was directly responsible for the Bankruptcy law that made it impossible for students to discharge their college debt. This is the man who is directly responsible for the enslavement of a generation of college students to the crooked banksters that now run this country [and help finance him]! How is Biden going to build a coalition after tRump and his team put that out front and center. I know if I had $40,000 in college debt and couldn't find a job for much more than minimum wage, I certainly wouldn't vote for him
4
So your fantasy is that "Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door and tell them that no one gets out until they agree on a single candidate..."
And because that fantasy doesn't include inviting Bernie into that room, it amounts to exactly the sort of conspiracy that would permanently alienate every progressive democrat.
Unfortunately, there is little to stop that group from fulfilling your fantasy (assuming they haven't already done exactly that). The Democratic Party is theirs to destroy.
3
"my fantasy is that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door" Isn't this exactly what the Bernie people mean when they say "Democratic establishment"? And isn't it just what they need to justify not voting at all?
4
Friedman proposed two methods for democrats to take on Trump:
1) Politicize the coronavirus outbreak.
2) Unify the country.
The first is simply a grotesque plummet to new political lows, an absolute nadir of integrity and decency.
The second looks good on paper, but everybody knows is fantasy. Listen to Biden's and Bernie's rhetoric - there is no room for "national unity" in their message or platform.
The reality is, if you removed the 24 hour news cycle that shovels discontent into people's minds, most people would say things are pretty good right now. Not perfect, perhaps, but pretty good. Maybe even good enough. But "the news" is out there for the sole purpose of sowing seeds of discontent.
The so-called "breaking news" does more harm to our country than Putin could ever dream...
3
China really needs to be forced to shut down its wildlife markets. Enough is enough.
1
@Vanyali
They have.
America Together Again! Sounds like a presidential slogan to me, ATA caps across the "United" States. Thanks, Mr. Friedman.
This.
"A lot of Americans are starving to be part of something larger than ourselves, something that loves us and needs us, like building America together again, solving big problems together again, dreaming big dreams together again.”
Sure Biden is old classic, as old fashioned Coke soda pop. But folks did not like New Coke either. Sanders’ is doomed with his socialist label. The fact that Trump gloated that he would slay Sanders was troubling. Putin tipping scales for Sanders is also an issue for me.
Sad Warren didn’t go far. She was a smart whip.
Bloomberg? Seriously? I guess you should have waited to write your piece until after Super Tuesday results were in. Bloomberg should be using all the money he’s wasting on his campaign and pour it into voter registration efforts across the country to guarantee that democrats turn out in full force. His ego, hubris, and pomposity have no place on the ticket and he was not the AMAZING mayor that everyone likes to pretend he was. Biden is the only one at this point who has the ability to bring together a coalition that can beat Trump. That’s not my opinion alone. I mean, he won Texas!
Bloomberg, seriously? Pardon me, Mr. Friedman, I admire your thinking generally, but Mike Bloomberg could not in the wildest scenario bring Bernie supporters into the fold. He is anathema to all they believe.
1
Why wasn't Bernie Sanders invited to this hypothetical meeting?
5
So Tom, are you saying Super Tuesday is like The Lion King vs Cats?
It's obvious the DNC fix is in place to nominate Biden. Foremost, they fear the socialism fight. Moreover, Biden will make sure the DOJ's skeletons from their illegal 2016 campaign activities will remain buried far out of sight. Prediction - Michelle Obama will be his running mate.
But the downsides are so obvious. Biden's cognition is clearly declining, his age is too advanced. He doesn't just make minor slip-ups - he literally doesn't know what decade he's in. He's run for POTUS several times before and lost badly, not even earning 2% of delegates in either 1984, 1988, or 2008. This is the guy Democrats want??
He's good for the establishment though. He checks most of the right boxes. Trump however will be debating this time as an experienced incumbent. He will roll over Biden and win in a landslide. Democrats deserve the smack down that is most assuredly coming.
3
I am just disgusted by trump and the mess we’re in now.
Isn’t the Israeli election a precise example of a centrist candidate with a unifying platform losing?
1
The Obama magic needs to come in now turbocharging the campaign with Michelle Obama as VP to join in a dream team. Barack will campaign, Bloomberg will back, Sanders will agree.
1
It is Trump’s biggest vulnerability. Because there is actually one lie even Donald Trump can’t utter: “I tried to unify the country.”
Oh , you’re so wrong on that. No lie is beneath him. He can stand on the WH lawn and claim he made the sun rise that morning, if he thinks that’s what he needs to say at the moment.
Just watch him claim he’s the new “unifier” in his next campaign event.
1
Despite age, why not Biden/Warren with only one term for Biden?
2
"Return to normalcy"...
Yay! Harding was right! I *knew* his time would come!
2
Nobody outside of New York City wants Bloomberg.
Neither do any people of color IN New York City. The have been stopped and frisked enough.
Biden isn't viable if he cannot take California in the Primary. Every late win for Biden has been contrived as Hate On Bernie Vote. Biden isn't the Comeback Kid.....He is the Never Sanders Kid
1
Bloomberg! Why do/did you keep mentioning him? He was never projected to win any states. He hasn't and he won't.
1
Mr Friedman,
How on earth does having a traditional closed-room, cigar-fuelled meeting count as “fair and square?”
If you had only said that they should invite Bernie as well, shut the door, and no one gets out without a unified, and unifying, candidate and message.
But you didn’t.
1
Where to the poor, the working class, the middle class fit in this scheme? The BIG thing we need to do is confront corruption in government where lobbyists outnumber elected officials and "helpfully" write the bills for them while said officials are spending 3-4 hours a day dialing-for-dollars. This is beyond ordinary corruption; it is rot. The rot started with the election of Reagan. The Democrats joined in as Reagan-lite. It is the situation that gave us Trump. The middle class and working class have no agency when money is the only thing that matters.
We are a dying democracy. Don't kid yourself about that. Our people have lost control of any voice. A fascist sits in the Oval Office and every single republican is to blame, but Democrats are complicit. They are weak, timid, and drink from the same well.
The boldest leadership will amount to re-arranging the deck chairs while the waters rise, and we pretend that things are back to normal. Normal was sitting at the top of the slippery slide, not living in a robust democracy. Unity around rot is still rot.
2
Mr. Friedman, you really need to relax and give Trump a little credit. He's the only one to stand up to China. Bloomberg is in China's pocket and you know it. Trump is a disrupter who is changing tired old norms that needed to be changed. And he is doing this in the face of withering Democratic and media attacks. If you really want to pull the country together, why don't you tell both sides about Trump.
1
Uncompromising...perfect adjective for Sanders...
Even if Biden takes the nomination...he will not coalesce....his fervor for his ideology will not allow that
Please just a semi normal presidency...an uncompromising ideologue is not in that recipe...
Personal,ideologies must be tempered with an acceptance that reality will win out.
1
"First, if your party doesn’t have an awesome presidential candidate — and the Democrats don’t in this election — then your party better have an awesome coalition."
Goodbye, Mr. Friedman; I look forward to my Times subscription expiring in a few weeks.
Hope you get the message about "mansplaining" one of these decades.
2
But Bloomberg did so poorly in his first debate
Friedman is optimistic.
A loser cannot lead.
We Dems, if realistic,
one key advice should heed.
We have to win with unity.
Leave social change alone.
Let’s rally with impunity
to push Trump from his throne.
Take small steps all appreciate.
Propose a clear agenda.
Declare a war on lies and hate.
Be kind to any gender.
Immigration and health care.
Be gradual and be smart.
Treat other countries fair and square.
Have check lists when you start.
Perhaps Biden and Bloomberg.
The imperfect team of two.
One can schmooze and one can twerk.
That’s politics for you.
I don’t care how odd that looks.
Those two will get things done.
Enough of lackeys, hacks and crooks.
Let’s win and have some fun!
This is insane. Friedman offers no evidence, none, that Sanders, let alone his supporters, would ever accept such a backroom deal. We did in 2016 and the rest is history, we won't be fooled again. Moreover, he offers no reason at all why we should.
This is a recipe for civil war and the destruction of the Democratic Party. But then, only the civil war freed the slaves...
2
How do you unite almost 40% of the country that with a big boost from right-wing talk radio, Fox News, internet sites and Facebook pages . . . utterly disdains Democrats in general, liberals in particular, is xenophobic and homophobic and misogynistic not to mention racist and Christian-centric?
When did a moderate Democrat hold a cabinet position in a GOP administration?
This is the payback for four plus decades of a serious rightward drift by the Republicans since Ronnie Raygun? Tor trickle down and ever larger budget deficits, the only Western democracy without universal health coverage, Gore in 2000, Iran-Contra, the Iraq War, the 2008 recession caused by loosening of regulations for banks, a denied SCOTUS seat, McConnell's continued obstructionism to bring up any bills not to his liking? The sudden cozying up to Putin, the voter suppression, the joke that's the Electoral College?
Is this the best you've got? Why not promise Mitch that the next SCOTUS appointee can be chosen by him too?
1
Who is the lucky person who gets to tell Warren that it is all over?
There's always Harvard.
1
Fasten your seatbelts, Boomers, and brace for four more years of Trump—that is, if anything resembling this cynical and bizarre “fantasy” comes to pass. Andy Borowitz couldn’t write this stuff.
1
Biden's policy program is well to the left of Obama's, Bill Clinton's, Walter Mondale's, or Jimmy Carter's.
He is proposing to:
Raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour.
Have paid family and sick leave.
Study Reparations for descendants of slaves
Eliminate private prisons
Abolish the death penalty
Two years free college
Increase teacher pay
Tax carbon emissions
Improve transportation infrastructure through taxes on the wealthy and corporations
His plans are ambitious for a liberal in 2012, say. So, to call him a corporate sell out is to call pretty much everyone in America forever a corporate sell out.
1
@David
His policy proposals will evaporate as soon as he is in office, just like Obama’s his did. Promise them anything to get elected and do what the donors want afterwards.
Biden is not just a weak candidate. He is a weak man. He always does what the financial industry wants. Check his record. His votes set the stage for the 2008 Great Recession. Biden: go along to get along.
1
"I want to be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens." Yeah, a closed-door meeting with the Democratic Party elders. That's a great way to run a country.
1
So we’re going for Clinton 2016 redux with Biden. Great. Better hope we at least hold the House.
2
Thomas Friedman:
You are the best! Thank you for your macro and micro, always astute commentary.
Michele McCarthy, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Democrats deserve to lose, and they will lose. Big. Why? Because ultimately they don’t believe in anything different than the Republicans. They just don’t like to admit it, that their number one aim in life is the same as most Republicans—get as much as you can while the getting is good. Trump and his ilk just give the unvarnished, crude version of it; in a way, the Republicans are more honest. The truth sticks in the craw of these “moderate” Democrats; sure, they make noise about social justice, but they won’t do anything about it—nothing that will hurt their 401ks. Thomas Friedman gets paid the bucks for soothing their conscience—that’s all.
1
Thanks for acknowledging that Bloomberg is the donor behind your wife's museum.
DEMS have the TEAM. Don't lose everything just because your girl or guy is not at the top of the ticket. Pull together and do what's gotta be done. Do it for the country.
@Marc
We have been told that and done that since 1980. The day comes when people are no longer willing to wait.
Biden-Warren is the winning ticket. And a darn good combination.
Thank god for a return to sanity. Bye bye Bernie.
To appreciate what a load of garbage this is, one must remember the outsized wealth enjoyed by Mr Friedman as he asserts that a fellow elite Mike Bloomberg should lead the way to unity.
Of course, the only unity he truly promotes is a United Oligarchy. And whether it’s Bloomberg or Trump or even ( the corporate sponsored) Biden, American voters are well on their way to voting against their own interests because they believe the columnists and news commentators who are just multimillionaires working for billionaires.
3
Too bad Biden is literally unfit for the job - never the brightest guy in the room, he is now clearly confused and senile. There’s no way he should even be running, and the desperate Democratic leaders should’ve convinced him to get out of the way long ago, Sorry, he’s a risk I’m not taking, no matter what!
2
Tom, your Team of Rivals column was terrific, setting up a cabinet for the Democratic president. Your choice of Mike Bloomberg leaves anything approaching a team behind.
The problem with unity above all else is that minority rights are traditionally trashed and sacrificed with the aim of appeasing the nation's bigots. For the disunity stems first and foremost from bigots sulking and then seething from their inability to freely practice their bigotry. Reconstruction after the Civil War came to an end, and blacks suffered in near-slave status until 1964, when President Rutherford B. Hayes gave into the Southern segregationists in an attempt to "unify" the country postbellum.
3
Sanders is Ralph Nader without the charm. The ticket needs to be BIDEN / WARREN. Give Bloomberg Treasury Secretary.
And make Buddegieg ambassador to Russia!
2
"(Disclosure: Bloomberg Philanthropies has donated to Planet Word, the museum my wife is building in Washington, to promote reading and literacy.)"
Had Sanders or any other candidates donated to your wife's museum, you would have backed that candidate, wouldn't you? It's all about the money. Hah. I mean, who in their right mind would choose Bloomberg?
The Dems shouldn't force Sanders out of the race unfairly, but it is ok to oust two out of Bloomberg, Biden and Warren from the race? Seriously? What an awful, awful idea that would've been - one of Mr. Friedman's worst ever. Luckily, Mr. Friedman need not worry about having party "elders" forcing their choice upon the masses because we voters made the choice on Super Tuesday - Biden.
Bernie is "uncompromising" in his platform -- in the ideas he brings before voters, aiming for excitement rather than timidity. You can disagree whether that's a good campaign strategy, although it hasn't worked so badly for him up to now.
But he's not an idiot! Once elected, of course he'll be realistic about what legislation he can get passed in 2021, how much further he can go in 2022, after the country doesn't collapse in 2021, and so on.
My hope is that he'd choose Warren for VP. She'd be great at assessing how far the Senate can be pulled on each issue, and at crafting bills that would actually pass, but would pull the country toward Bernie's goals.
1
You want Bernie to win “fair and square” but then you have the Democratic establishment pulling everyone into a locked room to decide who the moderate candidate is going to be? Don’t make me laugh
1
“A leader who can reunite the country?”
That ship sailed a long time ago. The best I’m hoping for is someone who can put a lid on the simmering pot before it boils over.
2
From another Times article: “John Kerry, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton,” said Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a veteran progressive strategist. “All safe choices.” What's interesting about this is that all 3 were denied the Presidency by corrupt influences. What is also interesting is that at least 2 of the 3 would have made great Presidents.
“Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door and tell them that no one gets out until they agree on a single candidate to represent what is clearly a majority of the Democratic Party”
Ah, yes. The smoke filled room method of candidate selection returns.
2
Couldn’t agree with you more!
WE need to rid ourselves of Citizen United, and then allow free time on PBS and only that. Political Money has corrupted both our politics and media.
2
Still underestimating DJT. He will absolutely say he is unifying the country. His shamelessness may outweigh his disregard for the truth. Be good at lying- then you’re good at everything
Mr. Friedman, help the front runner bring on the Team of Rivals to finish out the campaign. Let's go huge!!
Those NYT writers who now tell us that Bernie Sanders was "not electable" and had no chance of winning are the same who told us in 2016 before the last presidential election that Hillary Clinton had a 92% chance of winning.
4
I guess it doesn’t matter what the people want.
Good grief, is democracy dead?
4
Everyone has their own evil scheme on how to defeat Sanders and why their ideas are the best ones to defeat drumpf.
Sheesh. Nobody trusts the voters anymore. Maybe that's why the voters are SO FED UP!
2
It’s 10:20 pm in Pasadena, CA and you have proven yourself to be, once again, a genius. Tonight has been a great boost for the Dems, but, more importantly, a boost for democracy.
2
Mr. Friedman has locked himself in a room of the past. NO CHANGE. What does that look like? Well, first the Democrats would prefer Trump over Sanders! Second the Super Delegates will keep their cherish positions. And third Biden is slowly loosing it. I'm not a doctor but he is constantly fumbling with his words to the point of "maybe there is a medical problem?" And you want this man to go up against Trump in a debate?
I've said it over and over again in my comments to these articles, this country needs BIG CHANGE, without it you might as well kiss the future of your children goodbye. Anybody who doesn't see that has their head in the ground!
Biden voted for Iraq
Biden help put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court (over Anita HiIl's testimony)
Biden was not arrested in South Africa
Biden should not be President of USA that should be Bernie Sanders.
If Sanders does one thing "the green new deal" he will have saved our children's future.
If Sanders continues to use tax payer $ for our children's education we will have an EDUCATED SOCIETY. (we already pay for grades 1 through 12 what's 2/4 more years?)
If Sander's stops the insane amount of $ for our military more than the top 5 countries in the world. That money can go for the health of our country and the world.
It's so obvious to us who have seen the damage of Vietnam War, Civil Rights and now witnessing Climate Change.
Shame on the DNC.
5
Do we not remember Obama? The ACA? Chemical Weapons from Syria? The Respected world leader? The Husband, the Dad? The Pres who snuck out for a smoke from time-to-time, shot hoops and bodysurfed Sandies? The guy who made mistakes, but not for wanting to or making every informed effort do the right thing. Now that it's Super Wednesday, can we please get back to work - without feeling compelled to completely reinvent the wheel?
What planet do you live on? Many and perhaps most Sanders supporters are not going to come out and vote for a moderate Democrat. They'll vote Green or stay home. The core of Sanders' support, whites under 30, never votes in large numbers anyway. What the Democrats need is the 5 million Obama voters who stayed home in 2016 to come out and vote.
The comparison to Israel is way overblown. Trends in Israel are not precursors of what happens in America. There's been a right wing government pushing for an ethno-state in Israel for decades. What was happening in Israel that predicted the outcomes of the 2008 and 2012 elections in the US?
3
pushing 80, addle-brained, no money. biden in a literal nutshell. trump is going to chew biden up and spit him out, with his GOP impunity and high school base. this country has lost all its integrity. i'm actually thinking of leaving for parts unknown, perhaps scandinavia where righteousness and decency still reigns. remind me to pack my coats.
2
“Moderate Republicans”—a term so antiquated it’s almost funny.
4
Friedman just lost my respect. Backroom deals to defeat the people’s favorite? This is what got Trump elected in the first place. Shameful thinking.
4
Wrong on almost everything.
2
How about a slogan: "Make America united again."
friedman is fixated on bloomberg, but americans don't like boring.
doesn't matter how smart, well informed or accomplished he/she might be, the 'folks' can't be nodding off when the nominee speaks.
being sliced and diced by warren wasn't helpful either.
1
You have lost me Friedman. A DNC brokered fight is not fair and it is not seen as fair in the American mind. What a joke. Trump will decimate Biden by pushing Hunter through in the Senate and all his little Trumpies will get in line. I will vote Blue but just like in 2016, I will hold my nose while doing it. I am willing to go out and knock on doors but I am FAR less energized about it. Biden has not done his homework with Latinos, a recipe for disaster.
A great slogan for Democrats is 'repair the damage - make America great again'
Is there no end to the cynical, counter-democratic machinations of party leaders and some establishment journalists/pundits? Already, the Times announced recently, most superdelegates would "rather risk damaging the party than give Sanders the nomination." You fantasize backroom deals deciding the "moderate" Democrat against Sanders. Just yesterday Bloomberg, announced with similar disdain for all things democratic, that he intends to win not at primaries (where he sees no chance of winning the nomination) but at a brokered convention. Such arrogance. You people are so comfortable trivializing the relatively minor sphere of influence that everyday people have in this representative democracy-- namely, their vote. Backroom deals, superdelegates, elites calling all the shots-- you wonder why people are so excited by populists who rage against elites?? And I say this as someone whose first pick right now is not Sanders, though I'd vote for Sanders or Biden which looks like the legitimate choice.
Bloomberg is a disgrace now as he was when he overstayed his welcome as mayor of NY, changing election terms laws to have his way-- Prince Bloomberg. Now he shamelessly announces his reliance on superdelegates whom he seems to think he owns (in the debates, he misspoke saying he "bought" the many "moderates" who won in 2018). The people support Biden and Sanders. If Bloomberg were decent he'd get out of Biden's way. But he, and this article, are not.
5
1. Mike Bloomberg is a Republican. I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for a Republican, not even one masquerading as a Democrat. He is an embarrassment to the party, which ought to be ashamed of itself for allowing a Reagan Republican to openly attempt to buy the nomination outright, and what the kids call a crypto-fascist. No. No no no no no.
2. The "Bernie won't get anything done" argument is fatuous and misleading. No Dem will accomplish anything, no matter who they are, with this congress and supreme court.
3. None of these candidates can beat the Trump gang, who will cheat and steal the election as in 2016, armed with the knowledge that nothing and no one will stop them this time, either. The "who can beat Trump" nonsense ignores this fact, and is either delusional or disingenuous. I lean towards disingenuous.
4. If they cheat Bernie at the convention, Milwaukee will burn.
5. Biden and the rest of those nobodies do not inspire, and all the meetings with Nancy Pelosi in the world won't change that. Sanders is literally the only one of those people with a shred of charisma, the only one with unshakeable ethics, the only one with a soul.
No wonder you centrists are all terrified: a Sanders presidency would lay bare your cowardice and ethical and moral bankruptcy. Boatloads of hacks, lobbyists, and their apologists in the press would be forced to get one of those great new jobs that have been created by our industrial overlords. See you on the third shift!
5
In 2016 we picked an old out of touch centrist to go against a populist because the democratic establishment is to stupid to understand that people want actual change. Let's do it again shall we? Bound to work out better this time, right?
Hey guys, have you ever read a history book? When does populism take over? When average workers are struggling to subsist. That's why Trump is popular (duh..) That's why Bernie is popular. Also duh. Thats why Hillary lost to Trump, and hey check it out, that's why Biden will lose to Trump too. We already did this. The Democratic Party sickens me with its refusal to see reality. There has been no substantive change to its platform or approach since 2016, and yet people will be surprised when the same thing happens again. Bernie is popular because he admits there is something wrong in our system that is allowing American workers to be unable to support their families. Trump is popular for the same reason. Let's address the real issue, instead of hiding behind a watered down centrist who even on his best day sounds like he is approaching mental deterioration.
Biden will get the nomination because people like the sentient piece of stale wonder bread that wrote this article refuse to move aside and let the people speak from themselves. Hope you enjoy your next 4 years of Trump.
And btw, I will vote for Biden when he gets the nom. And he'll lose.
5
––“How could it be,” Shriver asked, “that the country that produced an Abraham Lincoln, who, in the middle of a civil war, could utter the words of his second inaugural” — “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds” — “is now a place where the more politically engaged you are today the more you hate your
neighbor?”––
Sure, many of us would like to see the Peaceable Kingdom. But remember that the country that produced Abraham Lincoln and his unifying oratory produced a response at the time in the form of John Wilkes Booth, and there are plenty of Booth's ideological descendants in all parts of the country now, armed and dangerous and Republican.
3
Sanders - Nader 2020
Feel Burned!
Don't repeat the failure of 2000!
3
Funny you mention Israel, since Benny Gantz is a conservative centrist, almost exactly a Joe Biden figure. And he lost.
If a senior NYT columnist needs "(Disclosure: Bloomberg Philanthropies has donated to Planet Word, the museum my wife is building in Washington, to promote reading and literacy.)", they shouldn't be writing:
" My preference to lead this unity coalition would be Mike Bloomberg".
Not done even with "full" disclosure which would add when and how much.
1
Sanders is a narcissist. He will never cede. He’d rather see the Democratic Party go down in flames than give in to a moderate who can beat Trump. Witness the fainthearted, nose-pinching, “support-with-a-wink” Sanders gave Hillary in 2016, and what that did to help Trump back then. Sanders is 78 years old now, and he’s like an angry old scarred-up lion. He will make “Super Wednesday” ugly, and things will get a lot uglier as he lashes out at the party that DARED to ask him to show everybody his math, explain what his pipedream programs would actually cost, and where the money to pay for them would come from.
6
Please stop writing about Bloomberg being the best nominee. It’s clearly because of your ties to him as I see in every disclosure you give in every article you write about his candidacy.
3
Add the US to Israel, Britain, Australia.
With Biden winning Trump’s re-election is now guaranteed.
I hope the US can survive until the new generation takes over.
1
What you say in here is rendered ridiculous by your suggesting that Bloomberg is the best consensus candidate to lead Democrats.
Did you pay attention to Bloomberg being booed at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, or having white and black people turn their backs on him in church before the march?
I could go on about buying elections, being tone deaf and racist, as well as being an incompetent campaigner.
3
So, what happens when Old Joe fails to beat Donald Trump? Think about it. You'll be stuck in the same (old) corrupt democratic party with a feeble old man and his corrupt handlers running things just like they always have. However, this time around you'll only have yourself to blame.
3
Tom, this shows you what happens when you write an article ahead of results. How embarrassing for Mayor Bloomberg! Zero delegates from the United States and a handful from American Samoa.All it shows is that money cannot buy in election and our country. I love your world affairs columns, but please stick to those especially from the Middle East. Your opinions on presidential elections have been consistently out of touch.
2
Crony/casino capitalist versus democratic socialist.
It should be a no-brainer. If only Americans had brains.
2
Tom Friedman, if my candidate Sanders loses in some sort of backroom deal or DNC machinations and Biden is the nominee, I'll still vote for him knowing that the Democratic Party as we have known it the last 50 years, a center right GOP lite party is dead.
It would be a good thing even if we have to experience the extreme corruption, idiocy, racism and nativism of Trump for another four years. He might actually become a billionaire!
Because that is what the navel gazing, sclerotic and brain dead establishment Democrats would have unleashed.
1
Bernie should go third party on the uncompromising Democratic Party machine. They haven’t listened or cared about the people Bernie represents that’s why we are where we are.
I refuse the vote for a dotard 7 time failure who can’t put two coherent sentences together. Cmon man!
Worse than Hilary! The ‘Democratic Party’ needs to get real. You aren’t winning this without progressives and Sleepy Joe is not remotely progressive.
2
If you supported Bernie in 2016 but didn’t vote for Hillary, you ‘voted’ for Trump - and were a spoiled brat. If you support Bernie in 2020 and don’t vote for whoever the eventual Democratic candidate if it is not Bernie, you will have again ‘voted’ for Trump - and are still a spoiled brat.
4
It’s Super Wednesday and the world described -- and more miserably implied -- by Thomas Friedman doesn’t inspire me at all, even less for unity of an “awesome coalition.” At the core of this tone-deaf fluff piece, with its decision-makers behind locked doors and board members yearning to do “big stuff,” is an insult to democracy that barely registers with Friedman: If we can just convince Sanders’ supporters that the nomination process wasn’t rigged (like last time), Friedman argues, then we can recruit them for “the team.” What team, you ask? Friedman’s fantasy football team headed by Mike Bloomberg and his “campaign machine.” The only problem with this, Friedman frets, is that Bloomberg with his half-a-billion-dollar ad buy may not have enough “grass-roots support.” No, I’m not making this up. There is nothing but astroturf in Friedman’s field of vision. He, like most of his peers in corporate media, can’t get enough of false equivalency. Happy with cheap, journalistic symmetry – “Sanders’s left-wing populism for the nomination and Trump’s right-wing populism for the White House,” he neatly phrases it – there are no burning issues of ground-level import in Friedman’s Super Wednesday world, only calculations of moneyball management of the status quo, right or left. Either way, nothing changes on Super Wednesday. The dirty game is played the same way, whether brazen on the right or disguised on the neo-left, while in between the reality of life in America remains invisible.
3
Your judgment of Mr Biden as a an insufficiently superior or "awesome" candidate disgusts me.
I recall elections back to 1960 and, in 2016, NYTimes and it's cohorts predicted the sad and ridiculous failure of Trump to win. Repeatedly the Times front page issued notices that Mrs Clinton would win-easily- and finally, convinced the paper was probably right, Trump and family shut down their operations a few weeks before the election and prepared for ignominious return to NYC.
As a result, anytime I read a NYTimes factotum , like yourself, making a play to heroically kick a "long field goal" by telling us all how to view reality ; I turn the page and wonder what better things I might do with my subscription dollars.
You and the paper need a divorce or vacation-- the Op-Ed writers should be in their own section, so serious readers can put it on the front doorstep, or use it to sop-up coffee spills .
1
I dont agree with Friedman all that often anymore but this column has more common sense in it than folks may realize. and on Wed, that meeting does need to occur and for starters Warren has to drop out (she'll be Treasury Sec later, a move that should scare the diseased Wall St greedmongers to death)
let me suggest an ad Bloomberg and his VP Biden should run; its a split screen with Reagan on one side and the orange virus the other saying polar opposite things about;
1 Russia
2 law enforcement/FBI
3 truth/honesty/fairness/decency
4 respect for women
5 taxes and bankruptcy
6 the decency of most middle class people
if thats not a meat clever that'll cut straight down the middle of OH, PA, MI, WI and most of middle and even deep south I dont know what would cut deeper to show the difference between an honest conservative and a sociopath.
“It (going to) takes a village?” Whoa...Nelly: Been there done that...
Don’t go to a knife fight with a wet noodle. That’s what Sanders has going for him: smart, a tough New Yorker, and completely out in the ozone on the political front: “The Art of the Possible.” (Impossible)
That’s why I like Bloomberg. He has all of Sanders’ aggressive, urban, confrontational demeanor - Trump could use some of that medicine - but I don’t think the Democrats can swallow him. (I won’t bore you with the details why.)
Now, Biden: chicken noodle, not even matzoh ball soup...
2
Trump’s Biggest Helper: a massively dysfunctional Democratic Party
1
You lost me at Bloomberg.
2
Not so fast Mr. Sanders ...There is Biden still around and loading up lots of multicolored and multiracial Democratic supporters..
Bernie bros are as dangerous as trump supporters, attack prone .
I was for Joe Biden now or Michael Bloomberg.
Us Democrats need to keep majority in the House and Senate, with Sanders who is not even a Democrat we will lose both.
Please all vote sensibily !
1
Biggest Threat To Trump Re-Election: a major Corona Virus pandemic in this country with a seriously depressed stock market and economy
1
There goes Tommy again spouting quasi-omniscient political wisdom and assuming quasi-omnipotent political power. How dare he imagine he measures up to the ankles, nay the soles of the feet of, the longest-serving Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu! Fully aware of the flaws of Netanyahu, as I am equally aware of the sins of the great King David, I would never presume an equality with him in calling him "Bibi." Someone needs to chastise Tommy for his outrageous overreaching.
Bloomberg just made this column irrelevant by dropping out of the race.
If you pushed the Iraq War, you are lower than a dog. How does that existential fact play into all of this I wonder?
AND... this op-ed piece is now moot, based on Biden's performance yesterday.
“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”
--- Otto von Bismarck
I was beginning to doubt it, but woke up this morning thinking old Otto may have been right.
1
"(Disclosure: Bloomberg Philanthropies has donated to Planet Word, the museum my wife is building in Washington, to promote reading and literacy.)"
Is this disclosure sufficient? Do you not think Mr. Friedman that there is at least a hint of impropriety in this? Bloomberg (Philanthropies) donates to a project of your wife and you write an op-ed (op-eds) supporting Mr. Bloomberg.
In some countries, even with the disclosure, your op-ed in such a case would get you fired.
1
Bloomberg?! *Extremely* disappointing from you, Mr. Friedman. You literally just sank in my esteem.
1
Biden will be the nominee. Congrats. Like Trump, he can read a teleprompter.
Unlike Trump, he has a soul and Trump is shameless.
Trump will win 2020.
You might want to consider ACTUALLY waiting out the results before sending in your article to your editor prognosticating the post-Super Tuesday future of the Democratic Party. It’s now Wednesday and your predictions, observations, and recommendations now all appear wrong and at minimum in need of a significant re-write.
Oh, thanks, Tomm. You've been gone for a long while. Now you are back to promoting the same old losers. They have no fire in their bellies. They just want to win, because they just want to win. They protect their money and their financial positions - except for Bloomberg who promotes his ego. You don't note that they have all been made rich, Bloomberg excepted, by the establishment politics.
Same old same old, lose again.
so weary over TF’s inner musings and geopolitical (pseudo)science. Tom, in any objective anterograde, or any testable a posteriori context, you’re wrong. Wrong, in fact, with staggering consistency, with shocking margins of error, and with inexplicable immunity to accountability for your “wrongness”. Please transition to food and wine, or perhaps travel or fashion. You’ve got your wish of HRC in 2016, and Netanyahu on loop, so how about you sit the rest of this one out and give the US a chance to recover from the consequences of both.
this article aged well
This is a breathtakingly cavalier dismissal of Bernie Sanders and the other non-Biden candidates for President. What exactly is a “strong candidate”? I’m not a Bernie-or-bust type and I will dutifully vote Democrat no matter what in November, but I do not get the NYT’s nihilistic insistence on Biden. It’s Wednesday morning and Bernie has 340 delegates to Biden’s 404. Not too shabby.
2
I love how Tom Friedman is channeling his inner Risk player. Biden all the way, and the sooner the better.
I had $250,000 in student loans. I toiled for a decade and paid off ALL of it. I learned a deep lesson about interest rates and payments. I learned that working a full time job means health insurance.
Many people don’t know what interest rates mean. And they’re not going to learn if they get bailed out. They just buy more using debt and get in over their heads again.
If Biden is anointed as the DNC's preferred candidate, like it did with Clinton in 2016, the Democratic party will die a deserved death. Then, maybe, a new political party could arise. It's happened in the past.
Today is Wednesday 03/04/2020. I ridiculed Tom Friedman about this article yesterday before the results of last night's Super Tuesday. I was right and Friedman was horribly wrong. People have been fired for less egregious mistakes. But Mrs. Friedman got her contribution.
1
Friedman clearly has his finger on the pulse of American Samoa. The rest of the U.S., not so much.
2
"You do not want a brokered convention with superdelegates tipping the scales against Sanders. In this age of Twitter, that would be a prescription for a wild, angry, fractured convention."
But your "fantasy is that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton invite Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren into the Capitol, lock the door and tell them that no one gets out until they agree on a single candidate to represent what is clearly a majority of the Democratic Party — the moderate center-left — so that that person can run head-to-head against Bernie the rest of the way?" OMG, are you SO tone deaf that you can't see that this would be many times WORSE for making Sanders' backers angry?!?
Oh. My. God.
2
"Disclosure: Bloomberg Philanthropies has donated to Planet Word, the museum my wife is building in Washington, to promote reading and literacy."
NOTABLY, both Friedman and his NYT's colleague op-ed writer Michelle Goldberg in their columns openly supported the nomination of the candidates that their spouses are receiving money from. Goldberg for Warren and now Bloomberg for Friedman. This is a disturbing pattern.
Friedman's disclosure should be the first line of the op ed and not buried in the middle.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/sunday/elizabeth-warren-2020.html)
3
CORRECTIONS:
1. "...against what will be a vicious, united and well-funded Trump/G.O.P. campaign"
You mean: Trump/GOP/Russian campaign.
2. "...the G.O.P. laugh line — “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”
You mean, the Reagan quote; Reagan, who surely started us down this sickening slide into disrespect for gov't employees... or any union employees, for that matter; I give you the destruction of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), for example, which marked the beginning of the end for unions in this country as a force for social progress, and the concomitant fall in wages and benefits for blue collar workers in the 40 years since that heinous event occurred.
3."...Because there is actually one lie even Donald Trump can’t utter: “I tried to unify the country.” "
Why couldn't he utter it? Because it's a lie? Puh-leeze!
He's told 16,241 lies as of Jan. 2020... Now, there IS ONE LIE even Donald Trump simply couldn't utter: "I'm secretly in love with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg".
That's one I have no expectations of ever hearing, most especially if it's actually true.
Otherwise, a great article, since I agree with everything else in it.
1
Okay, I’m a googolologist! I’m not totally up on Socialism, so I did some googling and did not realize that Marx and Lenin were also Socialist! Before they were Communist! HS please all you young people, do your homework! And I will vote for anyone but a Socialist!
excellent.
Everyone, please please stop talking. Just vote BLUE. Thx :)
3
Bernie's platform is identical to ideas promoted and introduced by the following:
George Washington
Teddy Roosevelt
FDR
Truman
JFK
LBJ
Carter
What wrong with you columnists that don't know history?
People, Mr. Friedman is correct. Enough of the stupid politics. It's time for everyone who knows how to think -- and who understands science and history -- to come together. Message to Trump and Pence: Shut up, and grow up! Message to Congress and the Supreme Court: Grow up and SPEAK OUT! Message to Govt. career folks: ignore all of these people and do what needs to be done.
(BTW Trump will soon fold once his resort staff starts spreading the coronavirus!)
Build America Together Again
1
Imagine thinking that the Democrats would coalesce around Bloomberg. As is usually the case, Friedman is laughably wrong. Insane that he still gets prime real estate on the nation's top paper.
Biden/Warren might be the best ticket
Warren's got ideas, Biden can make it happen and keep the peace
Bernie's got to get out, tho I love him he's just a madman
Bloomie's got to get out, great at business, terrible at debate
1
i'll vote for biden, that's all i'll do..iof bernie is the nominee i'll stop my life and donate/wrtite letters/ do anything i can to help him and change our corrupt system. (
FYI Biden won't even legalize pot...he wants more m military he is the same old...
So, Thomas L. Friedman -- the guy who has been understandably derided by a GREAT many of his "fellow" journalist (I used quotes, because I doubt they see him as a peer), the guy who urged Americans to "keep rootin' for Putin (seriously, he wrote that in an article) -- is someone to whom readers of the NYTimes are supposed to pay attention?
It is to laugh.
Right direction, but this analysis misses a key concern of Bernie supporters that would lead to lack of support. Lack of commitment to addressing the atrophied income of lower wage workers and the ridiculous imbalance of the federal tax burden would harm the support for another Republican lite candidate. Money coming in a an everyday concern.
I am very afraid that with Joe Biden as nominee, we will lose. People are overestimating the power of blue no matter who. We still have Russia's meddling, the electoral college, the incumbent advantge, maybe the benefit of a pretty steady economy, and Trump's rock solid support base to contend with. Trump will make mincemeat out of him. He doesn't inspire people, isn't interesting or eloquent, and doesn't have the support of younger voters. The DNC and others should have endorsed Klobuchar or Buttigieg. Let a youngster take the reins for once.
The voters decided these candidates’ fates. They had multiple chances under DNC rules to make their cases. Why is voter choice so hard to accept?
I agree that we need a strong coalition to beat Trump. Just think of the wily, dishonest efforts of the Trump campaign to win re-election, always on the top of mind in any policy decision.
The Democrats would be naive to avoid this strategy and they are probably doing this as we speak.
Let's stop being purists and plan our route to the White House, the Senate and House.
3
No President can succeed, without the backing of the House and Senate, unless they rule through executive order. We need to retain the House and take back the Senate, no matter who wins the nomination. Sanders supporters will cry foul no matter if he wins or loses the nomination, “establishment democrats tried to steal the nomination”. How is that unifying, and not dividing? Warren is my choice, Biden is safe, Sanders is not.
5
Today is the day after, Super Wednesday. If Biden needs this much help - Clyburn, Buttigieg, Klobuchar & Bloomberg dropping out, and still waiting for Obama to offer his grace - the Biden isn't the candidate so many think he is. Biden is simply an alternative to Trump, but he offers nothing more.
The Dem establishment has spoken again, like they did in 2016. They altered the rules to let Bloomberg in, then saw to it that Pete and Amy dropped out, all to fend off Bernie Sanders. Biden may beat Trump only because so many of us are horrified by Trump, not because so many want Biden.
Bernie's supporters are the future and they will count, if not now, then in the next elections. Bernie's supporters aren't going anywhere and the Dem establishment would be advised to figure out how to work with them, because the Dem establishment has only a few more years' left themselves.
Go Bernie, but VOTE Blue no matter what!
3
There are some really excellent opinions expressed here so I won't repeat them I do believe that the Republican machine will defend Bernie to the core because that is the candidate they want against Trump. They know he cannot win because so many of us are oppose to his ideas. His candidacy would enable Trump to keep Congress Republican, if people think his behavior is bad since the impeachment just wait, Democracy flawed though it has become will be fading in four more years of Trump.
1
Unity has to be the top priority. Whoever gets the most delegates should get the nomination and pick whoever gets the next most as VP.
We’d be looking at a Biden-Sanders ticket or a Sanders-Biden ticket that could in fact bring the party together and devastate Trump.
That would be democracy at work; It would be like a ‘coalition’ government where people from more than one political leaning govern together despite their differences.
1
My belief is there is enough of everything on this planet to give everyone a healthy, safe and positive life. Enough land, water, education, industrial capacity, research know-how and human infrastructure. I believe that to be true. But the ability to twitch one's nose and make it all happen would require a sea change stronger than any current climate malfunction.
To establish Medicare for all and forgiveness of student loan debt are awesome dreams but impossible realities. The logic and strategies required for transitions like these would take decades. The requirements of actual day to day living that exist for all people - of being sick, requiring care, accessing care and treatment and recuperating (or not) could not be placed on hold while the government, research facilities, insurance companies, medical supply and pharmaceutical compnies and the banks scheme their way into this future. Even if I've heard dollar amounts, I have seen nothing about the strategy or day to day, logical reality that would occur when everyone got up in the morning to go about their day.
This is why I feel Senator Sander's platform is disingenuous at best. He might even be able to get himself elected but his ideas while magnificent are non-starters in the real world.
The final thought though is I will vote for him if he's the candidate, no mistaking that.
2
Tom I more often than not love your columns but this one feels so far off the mark. This election has to BE fair, not be manipulated to try and LOOK fair.
While the DNC and the press have been much better to Bernie in 2020 than in 2016, this kind of plotting, biased manipulation is exactly why his black and white certainty and integrity is so appealing to so many.
If we are just going to pretend to be a democracy then let's all close our subscriptions, go to the beach, forget politics and let the world burn and the suffering suffer.
Tom how about writing another column calling for honest, thoughtful, fair elections and really trust the American people to decide what is best for us. (and btw I'm NOT a Bernie supporter but I am a supporter of a system that is not gerrymandered, where voting roles are not purged, where enormous amounts of $ are not needed, and where candidates are rigorously but fairly vetted).
Let's wake up before we really do lose this to Donald Trump, to apathy and to the enormous issues we are facing.
3
I do agree with much of what Mr. Friedman has written here. My concern is that while the Democrats should nominate someone who will run on a "unite and govern" platform, I fear that a large portion of our population would rather see the pendulum swing as far to the left as it has swung to the right under Trump. Perhaps the moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans have simply been silenced by the screeching of the extremists on either side of the spectrum. I hope that both these moderate/reasonable/pragmatic groups exist in large enough numbers to make a difference.
1
Yes, now we know Biden Vs. Bernie. But what we do not know is if the great energy and younger generations so committed to Bernie will hang around if Bernie is defeated.
I like Bernie's bold ideas but not his lack of pragmatism, his inflexibility. I'd vote for him if I saw hints of that. I like Biden pragmatism and realist, but not the lack of energy and bold ideas.
I'm likely now a Biden voter because I doubt Bernie will show sensible flexibility. I'm hoping Biden comes out with an initially more challenging step for Medicare for all, maybe start with age 50 plus and 30 below and strengthen Obama Care. Then free tuition at community colleges and a radical reduction of students loan rates and something towards repayment for those young people now burden. Maybe a 1% tax on financial transactions (Take from Bloomberg his good idea). Let's see how bold Biden can be and how politically smart he is.
1
The column is good evidence of an isolated political commentator who seems to have little contact with or sense of the feelings of the vast majority of voters. Moreover, the idea that making a backroom deal to undermine Bernie is the way to lure his voters to the Democratic ticket, rather than letting the primary system pick the winner, is singularly myopic.
6
The transition from adolescence to maturity arises out of the inability of conflict to achieve the fruits of cooperation. As for the individual, so also for the collective. We can make the choice now to move forward to mature cooperation, or suffer more harming competition until circumstances demand we evolve for our very survival.
1
Bernie inspires me. Biden just tires me. I fear a repeat of 2016 if it comes down to Biden. He stumbles too much with his words. You can argue that Trump does also - but we've been conditioned to accept that now.
I don't want to hold my nose again (and then lose again) with Biden.
But I will. I will.
4
I just worry about all those Sanders supporters who believe (rightly or wrongly) that he was mistreated. I know I did not mistreat him. I just don't agree. And I support the move to coalesce around a different vision.
I'll be honest, I would vote for Sanders over Trump, Biden over Trump. I would just prefer Mayor Pete, or Kamala Harris, or Elizabeth Warren. But I am NOT going to take my blocks and walk away. That way lies four more years of Trump and disaster.
3
I hate to say it, but I agree with Trump on Biden's fundamental strength as a candidate. Joe Biden is a piss poor candidate. His befuddled, out of touch, stream of consciousness rants during debates show that he frequently doesn't seem in touch with reality. He didn't win those states on the basis of his strength. He won because most Blacks in the south think that he's an extension of Obama. I will vote blue, no matter who, but I am not enthusiastic about Joe Biden. Biden or Sanders mean another four years of Trump.
4
What's clear is that the Democratic establishment would rather lose to Trump than win with Bernie; hence, he had to be demonized as a borderline communist apologist for Stalin and Castro, etc. I love Bernie, but I think it's pathetic that the best the Democratic party can offer voters in opposition to the worst, most dangerous president in our history is the 3 Bs - Bernie, Biden and Bloomberg, ancient white men. What Mr Friedman is forgetting is that Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The anger and tribalism he's exploited has been festering for a long time and Joe Biden is not the antidote. Bernie could be, but propaganda from both the GOP and the Dem establishment have convinced voters he's simply the Left's version of Trump.
3
No backroom deals. Let the voters decide at the ballot box. Whoever gets more delegates should be the nominee, and I'll pull the lever for that person.
2
@Tom Thumb
Top 1% of US not nearly such fools as to entrust their fates and fortunes to the rabble.
Voters will be permitted to choose one of two options determined by the oligarchy to be non-threatening to status quo.
Thus to Biden, "Nothing essential will change."
1
I don't have the sense from widespread reporting and polling, that there are many GOP voters who are disappointed with Trump. Instead, it appears he is doing what they hoped for and more. They are driven by emotions, especially hatreds and grievances, that are amplified by many online voices.
2
Is it just me, or have the moderate Democratic presidents (Clinton and Obama) not moved the needle much to the left while each Republican president has moved things farther and farther right? When we compare ourselves to northern European countries we appear ridiculous. The Democratic party isn't nominating people who can get things done once elected or who don't have a clear plan (come on...Biden and his platitudes). Personally, I think Trump will wipe the floor with Biden in a debate. Biden's only hope is that people will be tired of Trump. However, people vote for winners and Trump will look like a winner next to Biden in a debate AND Trump has a long list of well rehearsed anti-Obama material that he will pull out and use against Biden. Biden is not good on his feet in a debate and will look like a stunned old man in comparison. My choice is Warren (who has plans and pulls in experts) but if the author has his way, I won't even have the opportunity to vote for her.
2
Israeli politics is the off broadway to the US Broadway. What a perfect admission of who runs the US and is responsible for its economic, institutional, academic and moral decline. looting the treasury, feeding American families OxyContin, gauging generic drug pricing (Israeli-Teva Pharma) gauging ER costs with outsourced Drs/ nurses, EMS, and other medical personnel by KKR and Blackstone, what could have gone wrong? And now, the nerve to think that Bloomberg should be locked up in a room with legitimate politicians and candidates to “negotiate” our future by virtue of this man trying to buy the election?.
Never was there a more prescient headline.
Trump's supporters don't want a unifier. They want to stick their competitors faces in the ground and stomp on them. Republicans have shown they are willing to lie, cheat, steal, change the rules and do all they can to stop citizens they don't like from voting.
3
Sir, I beg your pardon, you may be in error.
''It is Trump’s biggest vulnerability. Because there is actually one lie even Donald Trump can’t utter: “I tried to unify the country.”''
There is no lie donald trump cannot utter.
1
Mr. Friedman, for your fantasized back-room private meeting, you forgot the signs from the old cartoon treehouse, with 'No Girls Allowed' changed to 'No Socialists Allowed,' or perhaps 'No Idealists Allowed,' or 'No Young Voters Allowed.'
6
Another biased commentary in favor of Biden. Does anybody really believe anything you say? I vote Republican but I truly want to see a fair election process. Your proposal literally reeks of a conspiracy against Bernie.
3
Love your column again Mr. Friedman......Unity, Unity, Unity!!!! Name of the game if Dems want to win. And I sure want them to win.........................
Really good discussion. I think I've got this. Even though it is sickening--in terms of not letting the people decide, we need to think of this as war. Friedman suggests a back room deal, then says it is "open" because he is disclosing it. Nice try. Collusion is collusion whether it is transparent or cloaked. The article was begging for an eye-wink emoji.
In war you do horrible things. And if getting the sleepy old boss in there is the way, so be it. Sad but this is war.
The thing that some opinion writers don't seem to understand, Tom, is that Biden, if he is the candidate, needs to satisfy some of the Left Wing's demands or there will be no unity. Unity only works if ALL sides get some things they want.
My emphasis is on a Biden candidacy because if Bernie were to win the nomination, he and his supporters have made it very clear that they will not compromise on anything, so we can forget unity from Bernie.
2
According to Joe tomorrow is Super Duper Thursday !
Him or Bernie, wow !
2
If you’re going to show the urgency in beating Trump and ignore the problematic morality of picking a safe “moderate” candidate like Biden and even Bloomberg, you’re missing what this election is about. I would be dumbfounded if we knowingly elected someone responsible for the racist policies of the 1994 crime bill and NY’s Stop and Frisk. Progressives and young voters are more sensitive to these types of issues because we haven’t accepted this track history as “business as usual”. These are policies that have permanently damaged the lives of countless young people. They are not something you can easily forgive, “sorry’s” are not enough. Action matters and their actions have done consequential harm to so many.
Even if Bernie Sanders is elected and cannot pass most of his “socialist” policies, at least he has legs to stand on. I’m surprised that as a NYT writer you weigh “pragmatism” over moralism, even as polls show Bernie Sanders would do so much better than Biden in the general. Biden may attract suburban white women and other groups toward the middle, like older minorities, but Bernie Sanders will attract young people. Who’s to say who actually wins head to head with Trump? Vote out of your heart, and if your heart says Biden or Bloomberg I ache for the legs you stand on. Sad!
3
The Bloomberg machine will support Biden.
The average American is always looking for that man on a horse to save them from the misery and inequality that he/she suffers on a daily basis. As if unity and being a “centrist “ will put food on the table or give them a humane health care system.
Stop waiting for that man in the horse America !
Wake up!!
Still waiting for a strong push by a candidate besides Sanders for solutions to the conditions that demoralized American voters and got Trump elected.
If the Democrats DON'T take care of these problems, we will get another Trump in 4 more years, but the next guy will KNOW how to force an autocracy.
1
Also, this constant criticism of progressives will cost Democrats the election. Young voters tend to be liberal and have been inundated with negative press about Sanders, whom many of them support. I'm not a fan of Biden (although I liked Klobuchar and Buttigieg) but I don't attack moderates for being moderates. Every day I'm reading that progressives are wrong for being progressive. I guarantee as long as we keep hearing and reading this, young people won't vote at all and Trump will win. Biden's support is low with young people. If people keep telling them they shouldn't want what they want or believe what they believe, they will stay home.
4
I can't say I share Friedman's fantasy but if Sanders does go down it had better be seen as fair and square. If word got out of this secret meeting--and it would--that probably wouldn't happen. The party establishment doing everything in its power to stop a candidate with enormous grass roots support in favor of one who is seen as "sensible" and "moderate", who voted for the Iraq war (which Tom Friedman also boosted), would be what a saying falsely attributed to Albert Einstein calls the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results.
1
Bernie will never be elected Pres. Americans do not want a revolution which his policies would necessitate. The goal is to defeat Trump! It will be very, very difficult for America to recover from another 4 yrs of DT. That is if it is the goal. Idealism is fine but pragmatism is a winner usually. Bernie is not a pragmatist!
1
Hmmm. Tom predicts it will be Mike, confirming what I have suspected all along, i.e. the talking heads know no more than the rest of us.
1
This must have been written before super Tuesday. Mr. Bloomberg is done. Furthermore, the Democrats have been consolidating around Joe Biden since South Carolina. The other moderates have dropped out, and Elizabeth Warren, is staying in. She is largely pulling votes from Bernie rather than Biden, so this all serves to help Joe Biden. I am afraid the fix is in.
3
If Biden carries a plurality of delegates into the convention, though not a majority, then Sanders' supporters will have no claim to say that the nomination is 'stolen' from Bernie. Sanders will have entered the convention behind, simply because not enough Democrats voted for him in the primaries. Voters will have spoken, and no supporter of Sanders would dare contest that. Biden's goal is thus not only to take the lead now in delegates, which he has, but to hold that lead into the summer and take it to the convention floor.
1
Would Biden taking Warren as a running mate help heal the angry rift between the Sanders left and moderates? Maybe, a little.
And a little might be the difference in Nov.
4
Biden is best because he understands that "I know you," his most significant phrase, will be believed not only by Democrats but also by pro-Trumpers and undecided voters, and he can and does project this. His model is FDR.
He can easily win the Democratic nomination with the noble help of Bloomberg's money in a SuperPac and his behind-the-scenes ideas about guns and climate change. His campaign will be energized with Warren's immediate endorsement so her pro-Biden campaign efforts attract leftist voters from Sanders.
Then on to winning the election, which Biden can do in a landslide provided his "I know you" appeals to everyone, not just moderates, and not just registered Democrats. He will need to deal with Sanders to bring in the leftists and alternative visionaries
He will still need the Bloomberg SuperPac money but he will get donations from the people too. He can show voters from every demographic group that being Anti-Trump is not evil. It is the people's freely chosen political path to a better future.
You lost me at “the party doesn’t have an awesome candidate “. We do have one, her name is Elizabeth Warren. She could bring about the change we so urgently need and go about it in a way that brings people together (ok, some billionaires will be turned off, but they only have one vote each).
4
A quick reminder, in 2016 there were Sanders supporters in many states that couldn't bear the thought of holding their noses and voting for Clinton so they just didn't vote for president - they left that part of the ballot blank. I have many friends who did that and I would advise against doing that again. We don't need another 4 years of Trump.
4
I'm 45. I voted for Sanders. I'll support whoever the Democratic candidate is--with one caveat attached--if the super delegates get involved and unfairly promote Biden to the nomination, I'm done with the whole process for good.
Therein lies the obvious problem--the Bernie supporters simply won't accept a nominee like that. Why would they? I won't and I'm not even fall into the category of what you would call 'young' or even 'passionate.' I'm a casual voter; I've never even bothered to post here before. That should tell you something. I'll bet there are many more like me out there. What I am though is someone who is concerned with truth and fairness. So...
Note to all of the establishment democrats..be careful with this. There is a very large sect of us (that maybe you aren't even aware of) watching the process closely, and if it isn't fair, you'll have much more of a problem on your hands than the protests and non-votes of a bunch of "whiny millenials." Our frustration with the process will lead to 4 more years of Trump and one of your all time backfires. Take it to the bank.
Have a coronavirus-free day.
5
Tom and is just completely out of touch. Even among Democrats who voted for Biden, an overwhelming majority support Medicare for all, free state college tuition, increasing taxes on Tom and his billionaire cohorts and other Sanders policies. But the corporate media continues to define these as left wing policies instead of the middle of the road that they are. Tom and his buddies fail to see that it was the "moderate" policies of Obama/Biden that led directly to Trump. I will vote for whoever wins the Democratic nomination, but if it is a man who thinks that 150 million Americans have died in gun violence and confuses his wife and his sister and has trouble getting out a single coherent sentence while maintaining that everything is fine and we just need to tinker around the edges, I will be holding my nose while I vote.
7
Tom is not out of touch, he just lives in a different bubble from you. I live in Tom’s bubble so he makes perfect sense. The question is which bubble is bigger. We will see. That’s politics and how our system works.
"Let all the poison that lurks in the mud hatch out,"
That's from the the book, "Claudius, The God", by Robert Graves. (Made into the popular TV series, "I, Claudius" on PBS in the 1970s.)
The idea is to let the current political structure descend into the chaos that it's corrupt nature makes inevitable.
Of course, during that descent, many people will be hurt and there is a risk of a catastrophe.
If either Trump or Sanders is elected next Fall, that's what could happen.
1
The Coronavirus is going to show us that no matter who sits in the White House, what is important is to have a strong established public health system serving the population. What is will make obvious is the absolute need for a Medicare for all system that all affected by the virus can depend on. Who's going to pay for medical bills and medications of the uninsured? Idem for paid sick leave in this country (most European countries have it). People are not going to stay home if they are sick or mildly sick and need the wages. Other workers will be affected.
3
Office holders have no authority which we don’t give them. They do not run this country, it’s not their responsibility. It’s fun to watch contests and sporting events but that is not running this country nor anticipating it’s future. Even in office Bernie will face the same problems with his programs as does with the criticism of them now. He must convince us that these programs are right for us not right according to his thinking about them.
The leaders of the Democrat Party who openly seek to stop Sanders are targeting a candidate with who a huge number of Democrats and liberals agree and like. Those leaders should be discussing the issues with them not trying to keep their candidate from winning. They are just not respecting our liberal democracy. Bernie’s supporters should be considering the practicality of his proposals, not just voting for their man, as they are doing.
Remember that what makes Trump so bad is that he just wants to be the boss and give orders without concern for the consequences.
2
So the next step is to mitigate damage? This is a pretty clear acknowledgment that you believe Sanders is damaging.
Hard to predict how his supporters respond to this treatment a second time around. It's not their first rodeo.
Add to this the Trump economy. As much as people would like to believe this is only about beating Trump, it isn't.
4
@AACNY
The booming Trump economy is a fallacy, and is there only by the careful stewardship of Mr. Obama over eight long years of rebuilding, after the near-fatal damage done by the previous Republican administration. People see through that, my friend.
Moreover, yes, this isn't only about beating Trump. It's about beating him and his cowardly Congressional Republican enablers.
1
This paragraph says it all. And it will be repeated on the Wednesday after the election in November:
Which is why I believe the hunger for a leader who can reunite the country is a stronger issue than experts realize. A Democratic candidate who can speak to that, inspire it and model it with his or her cabinet plans — by bringing together a broad range of moderate and progressive Democrats and moderate Republicans — will win.
1
@Ziggy
Sounds great but I would offer an alternative, albeit likely very unpopular take on this:
This primary is about democratic voters taking their party back from the Left.
"Unity" sounds nice, but this is actually more about "sanity."
4
@AACNY
That is an excellent point. And I hope sanity prevails in November, too.
1
As we learned in 2016 "Not Trump" is not a sufficient platform. Biden offers absolutely nothing more than that. Nothing.
You mention a "moderate center-left candidate." Has our political climate skewed so far to the right that Biden is now to the left of it?
5
I'm really disappointed at how tone-deaf and oblivious the 'establishment' branch of the Democratic party has become.
Regardless of one's views on Bernie, etc., how can Freidman (and the rest of the old folks who are clinging to power within the party) not see that a backroom deal that pushes a concerted effort to favor one candidate over another in the primary is EXACTLY the tactic that absolutely killed the young/minority voter energy and enthusiasm in the previous presidential election?
Bernie's appeal is integrity and a willingness to address long-standing problems in politics, INCLUDING some that are endemic to the Democratic party.
To ignore that concern, while simultaneously quelling the 'unrest' using classic Machine Politics-style methods (ie, colluding behind the scenes to protect the interests of large donors and the establishment leaders) is so brazen and ham-fisted and obviously doomed to failure as to be funny, if the consequences weren't so serious.
I'm very disappointed by the unwillingness of the establishment to cede power and control to the next generation. From Pelosi's unwillingness to step down, to 2016 DNC efforts to select one candidate over another, to the very clear collusion among moderate candidates and their allies in the media, I'm afraid that they ultimately seem ready to burn the whole thing down rather than make way for the next generation.
8
It’s true in biology and in politics: the rodents eat their young.
1
Bernie’s voters didn’t come out. Stop blaming everyone and everything else.
I'm sick and tired of Bernie people complaining about their treatment. Who is not giving Bernie a fair shake? He's an independent running on the democratic ticket. Good for him but no one is preventing him from doing anything. The truth is that most democrats don't want him to be the nominee. As for change, Bernie Sanders can't bring change. He would need the Congress behind him to make any kind of change and right now, Congress is running away from Bernie. If Bernie would bend and try to bring some moderates with him, maybe he would have a chance. Otherwise, forget it. As for losing the support of the Bernie Bros, I'm not worried about that. We'll pick up some many more moderate republicans, women, and minorities.
9
People who love democracy want the most good for the most people. The Democrats only want power. What unites most of the world is the need for progressive change. Joe Biden already showed from 2008-2016 he is not the man to make the progressive changes Americans want.
6
Unless the Democrats decide in a coalition to take on Wall Street,
it isn't going to happen. Sanders supporters want real change.
Biden will fix the economic inequality with a bandaid. Obama couldn't fix it ( I voted for him twice ). Unless the Democrats get back to being a champion for the working men and women of this
country there will be no coalition, because the Democratic party is
just basically Republican light.
5
It is an unfolding tragedy, driven by the electability conundrum.
As the pro-Bernie (and sympathetic-to-Bernie, and just fearful-of-Biden's-fragility) comments below argue very believably, we are trying for something that's never been done: electing a President based on purely negative considerations. I'm all for it, but it will be difficult.
Yes, we need a coalition, but is our moderate really electable?
Biden may have just the lack of charisma to lead a team of rivals from behind - i.e., let all the others make highly visible campaign commercials and speeches, about policy and the need to take the country back - while Uncle Joe just talks about unity, fight, and good sense. Bloomberg, alas, should be the money behind this, and part of the chorus, but not the standard bearer. Surely the choices for vice president (Abrams, Booker, Pete, Harris, Klobuchar, or Warren) and high-profile cabinet will never matter more. But do they ever matter in a campaign? Does the electorate ever pay attention to them? Who was Tim Kaine?
Barack Obama has an outsized role to play here. The whole resistance chorus of celebrities and politicians, campaigning in swing states and giving commercials. But has this all-hands-on-deck approach ever worked?
I share Friedman's fear of a tragic Trump victory. Coalition #2020
2
I have problems with the thoughts you have expressed here, Mr. Friedman, some of them anyway. First, Democrats, when they win, always do it with a broad coalition. Joe Biden checks most of the boxes for having an appeal to most, if not all, of the important groups that comprise the Democratic party. African-Americans, blue-collar union workers, and academics, to name just a few, will have no trouble getting enthusiastically behind Mr. Biden. Second, those who are farther to the left, basically the Sanders/Warren crowd, will come around, especially if the race from this point onward is done fairly. By that I mean that in 2016, HRC was assured of the nomination simply because the super-delegates voted nearly as one bloc to deny Mr. Sanders the nomination which, one could argue, was contrary to the mood of the country at the time. It will forever be an unanswerable question as to whether Mr. Sanders would have defeated Trump in 2016, but four years later, it's clear to me that Sen. Sanders time has passed. Third, I think that Ms. Warren should stay in the race for the time being, as that would draw more votes away from Mr. Sanders, since both of them comprise the left-wing of the party, an important but decided minority of Democratic voters. But I would encourage Mr. Bloomberg to drop out asap, in order to let the rest of the party to coalesce around Mr. Biden. (Continued in my next comment)
2
@TRA
Don't forget Biden's support among the people losing their mind, like him.
1
Unity? Why not write an oped on all the well documented major items american want in unison: healthcare, a living wage, freedom form fear of climate catastrophe, nuclear war, return to trusted democratic institutions, etc. The list is long and important for the sustainability of the good life we have known. Many items of unity are proposed by Sanders, not extreme, a simple return to the new deal of Roosevelt.The propaganda machine picks topics on which we disagree, but we agree on the basics. We are not disunited.
4
Tom writes: "Yes, the Democratic candidate should run on improving Obamacare, promoting common-sense gun-control laws and funding more affordable housing and education."
My god, why did he not mention Climate Change? If we don't work to solve that, little else will matter in ten years.
4
When I look from a European perspective, it seems to me that the Republican party has moved to the far right, the democratic party has become the old more dignified Republican party, and because of that the left side is wide open with Bernie Sanders social democratic (not socialist) ideas and its movement.
Ganging up on Sanders by the democratic party establishment was a bad move that will lead to more divisions. Sanders is the only one with solid ideas especially on healthcare that make any sense for a European and make particularly sense to the younger American cohorts that after all will the future of the country. He needs to be included in a more dignified way and not being beaten 'fair and square.'
5
What we saw last night was Democrats acting like true Republicans, not Trumpists. Get in line, march in step and maintain focus on the goal. They were inspired in this perhaps by Pete, Amy and Beto. Managing Democrats must sometimes look like herding cats, but even most Democrats know this won't work this time.
6
@John Duffy
Re: "...this won't work this time."
I won't work for me.
I am going to vote for the agenda/issues Bernie supports.
If that means voting for Bernie, I will vote for Bernie.
1
Typical of Democrats. Half of us want stability, normalcy, the other half want significant change. Neither frontrunner is in the middle of that, we had Klobuchar, more moderate but wanted Medicare For all, but let's fact it, this country won't elect a woman until women are completely fed up. We had a chance to run someone who was in her 50's. In her 50's! but this country hits the repeat button due to 1,000 false versions of electability.
This is the world we created. It is the one we deserve.
2
Great article. Have you thought about sending it to Joe Biden's team? We need a win in November. Desperately. What we do in the next month will be crucial. Sanders and Biden cannot beat up on each other to bring themselves and their ideology up.
More important than a national sense of unity is the return to Constitutional normalcy.
Trump has not merely led by divisiveness, he has defied all norms of governance transforming our (flawed) Demcracy into an autocratic kleptocracy. Biden is a tried and true institutionalist ... he will attempt to reach across he aisle maybe with some moderate success; he will do his best to enact the Democratic agenda, with some hard fought wins and losses; his appeal as an Everyman will help heal the wounds inflicted by Trump, but it will not be quick or easy.
But a Biden Presidency will do no less than save our Democracy from the existential threat that is Trumpism.
2
I agree about the meeting and locking the door, and maybe, that well organized machine Bloomberg has will just be transferred to the winner of the discussion. I think he has promised to back and support the candidate chosen to go against 45 and his criminals.
I don't think Bloomberg will pick up his toys and go away. He only got involved because he feared what would happen if 45 got four more years.
2
Maybe Joe Biden should hire Mayor Pete as his speech writer. Immediately! Joe's speech last night was almost as if he had never won before....way too much yelling, and lacking any kind of measured reassuring plan of how he was going to move forward.
4
@Richard B
I agree! I even *like* what he says and find him tedious to listen to sometimes. A friend tried to make a drinking game: every time he says "Folks!" take a sip of beer. He chose to completely scrap that when his 16oz bottle was drained in under 3 min. I do NOT recommend trying this.
@Peanut
It is probably obvious that I am a huge Pete supporter. Based on Joe's comments in Dallas on Monday, Joe is a huge fan too. I usually cringe when I hear Joe speak. When Trump comes on TV, I immediately mute him.
Dear Mr. Friedman
It's not the democratic candidate and it's not Trump and it certainly has nothing to do with tuesday, wednesday or any other day of the week. There are lots of brilliant people at work in the USA but they have no influence on the political process. The country is on the skids and it's only going to go in one direction unless ALL the people living in america wise up subito!
1
The Progressive "righteous indignation" aimed at yesterday's results are only eclipsed by the bombastic narrative they've insulated themselves in that Progressives own the moral high ground and everyone else is either a corporate stooge or a corrupt billionaire.
Yet here we are, still standing, as a nation, and frankly one step closer to the reconciliation we need - that only Joe Biden can provide. If yesterday taught us anything, it's that America does not love progressive socialism and does not love Bernie Sanders nearly as much as his supporters would have us believe.
2
Thanks for the tip but we got this.
Wow, bringing up Lincoln's second inaugural here really seems clueless. A selective reading at least. Does it not say that the horrors of the Civil War are God's punishment for the sin of slavery and that Lincoln plans to continue the war as long as it take to end slavery? Only then will the wounds be healed. Lincoln was a man of integrity and guts, unlike those who think that moderate is somewhere between fascism and the center right.
3
NYT Op-Ed is overflowing with anti-Bernie pieces that keep saying that Bernie can’t beat Trump and Biden is the way - did no one learn from 2016? Hillary was the centrist star and was sorely defeated by Trump, why won’t that happen to Biden as well? He’s Hillary Clinton but older and more frail.
7
bloomberg hurt biden's chances in california by fragmenting the moderate vote. but bloomberg has no chance. he should quit.
@juan Sanders is NOT a Democrat.
1
You had me, until Bloomberg. I’ll take his money, but his personality—— it’s like watching paint dry. No one would come to the polls.
1
This is the first column of yours I've read since you passionately endorsed the Iraq war. It's also likely to be the last for a while. Here's my read of the column: Thomas Friedman, a rich guy, is talking to other rich guys, one of whom is a nice rich guy because he runs the Special Olympics. All the rich guys agree that America needs to be unified under a candidate who is happy to let them keep being rich guys. And because they are rich guys, they don't get that America isn't unified because rich guys keep taking a bigger and bigger slice of the pie, and people who are not rich guys will vote for just about anybody who tells them that they might get a decent raise.
8
Fellow Californians, so sorry you lean towards Sanders.
It is just my opinion of course, but I think that if he is the nominee, #45 will destroy him and go on to do the same to the country!
Biden means righting the ship of state. Bloomberg could do it as well.
Wake up before it is too late!
Biden first went to Congress in 1973. In 1975 the Watergate Babies (Google that) democrats swept in with him. The policies adopted were informed by neoliberals and have culminated in the unequal, unfair, and unmitigated mess we have today Biden says nothing will change
6
Because there is actually one lie even Donald Trump can’t utter: “I tried to unify the country.”
This is a surprisingly naive statement coming from the pen of a man as insightful as Tom Friedman. The fact of the matter is that there is no lie Trump can't tell if he perceives that it might help him. I can almost guarantee you that at some time during the campaign, he will claim to be a unifier. And his base will believe him.
4
"Which is why I believe the hunger for a leader who can reunite the country is a stronger issue than experts realize." What a remarkable insight by Tom Friedman, written in yesterday's column, before Biden's surprise arrived last night. Is that what gave Joe a victory. I think so too.
1
I will not have my hand forced by corporate media and billionaires to vote for Biden or Bloomberg. I won’t vote for either of them. We all compromised in 2016 to vote for Tom Perez’s safe candidate and look where we are now... And now the DNC powers that be just handed 2020 to Trump by stealing the nomination YET AGAIN from the people’s choice, sanders and Warren. Congratulations on your corporatocracy and dictatorship, Democratic Party and company. You’ve just put the final nail in the coffin.
4
Seems like Biden is the one , not Bloomberg. He should drop out for the good of the party and pledge to devote himself to whoever wins the contest, and also to funding efforts to elect Democrats in the House and Senate. His bid for the presidency is over or should be. I prefer Warren and let's see how it plays out. Because Biden is a very shaky candidate. He is inarticulate, misspeaks in ways that are concerning about his mental abilities. Perhaps Warren will emerge in future debates as the better candidate.
1
I am writing this and Super Tuesday is over and it is Wednesday Morning. I agree 100% the party must be united to have broad support from left to center to beat Trump in November. Results yesterday should make it clear to Bernie Bro’s the nomination is NOT being stolen. Big question you failed to highlight was whether Bernie’s support will be good losers and strongly support Biden or will they stay home which is Donald’s path to a second term. The cult of personality and misguided demand for political purity is not the road to beat Trump. Another random thought watching the media talking heads last night and this morning Russian interference pales in comparison to their arrogance and self importance and manipulation of facts. The hubris of “projecting“ winners before a single vote is counted is simply out of control wrong. Did that influence Texas and California?
2
This mid article Bloomberg endorsement is a joke and completely takes away any validity of this article. Joe Biden is probably the obvious choice now, but he has no excitement about him while Bernie or Warren (or Buttigieg) have that spark. Just look at the rallies and numbers of donations.
4
It's very clear. Biden will win California and all the Democratic states no matter what. Sanders will lose Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina to Trump. Biden could win Texas and maybe even Georgia.
If you listen to Biden's speech in LA last night you will hear many of the themes in this piece: Unify the country, bring along those left behind, and the need to defeat Trump but not to become like him.
Please, please, please, write campaign speeches for whoever is nominated by the Democratic party. I have to walls of my office suite plastered with your quotes. I struggle mightily in an environment where hate and division rule.
It's ridiculous the rest of us literally don't get a voice in who is nominated for this party. We just have to sit back and wait until candidates run out of money because they didn't do well in bumfcc south Carolina.
5
Am I the only one who thinks that Biden is too frail—with evidence of dementia?
I see it whenever he appears on television.
I don’t see it in Bernie, but at 80, with a cardiac stent, he may not last long in office.
Both men need to pick a good Vice President.
7
I say this will full respect for my elders, but 80 is too old to be President. Biden is a lousy candidate in others ways, but the age and health factors can’t be ignored.
What does current capitalism, communism or socialism in a historical context have to do with their present constructs. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
Those talking points are as absurd as when our current government Officials & chroniclers proclaim: “This or That is what The Founders’ or our most ancient governors Constitutionally intended.” Hey, let’s re-enact slavery as an institution again.
It’s past time to restructure governmental policies & laws. This is not about simply removing corrupt leaders with decent ones. It’s about improving living conditions substantially quickly and for future generations—A New Deal for everyone or We The People. Finding Compromise is harder for the powerful than it is for those compromised. But the facts do testify to the proofs of inequities. Biden and his ilk are the landlord caretakers not societal leaders. And their decency has nothing to do with that, rather it’s their lack of imagination & drive to change the status quo!
3
How on earth do you consider Warren a moderate candidate?
2
Shriver argued, “we need leaders and ideas that unite us. A lot of Americans are starving to be part of something larger than ourselves, something that loves us and needs us, like building America together again, solving big problems together again, dreaming big dreams together again.”
MAGA?
Shriver said "We need leaders and ideas that unite us." The leader with ideas is Michael Bloomberg. He is accumulating a respectable number of delegates for a first-time-on-the-ballot candidate. Yet he is already being encouraged on this Super Wednesday to drop out. The Democratic Party, and CNN and MSNBC and their media pundits, will rue the day that they refused to give Bloomberg the attention he deserves. And praised Biden in such a sycophantic way.
Your fantasy isn't about unity. Its about excluding Bernie and progressive ideas and maintaining the status quo.
5
If the left can be muffled by a Biden win this will bode well for November.
One hears increasingly the cry 'the nominee has to be someone who can heal the country'. It appears the hunt is on for a Healer in Chief, and Miracle Worker. Perhaps Jesus Christ himself? How does anyone 'heal the country' unless he/she is ready to look fairly and squarely at the existing social malaise caused by rising homelessness, unaffordable health care, lack of decent living wages, poor quality of public education, high suicide rates ... the list seems endless even in a nation that is the richest of the rich.
3
So it looks like Biden.
Well, Trump and company can't viably call him a 'socialist' if he beat a socialist for the nomination. They'll try but it doesn't seem to hold much water if Biden is ultimately the nominee
Warren drops out by Thursday night
Bad marriages come to an end when the two sides finally get tired of fighting. You can only put up for so long with burning cheeks, a bitter taste in your mouth, and a sour stomach. It doesn't feel good when you go to bed at night and when you get up in the morning. Since Trump took office, the country has been on edge. Even his closest lieutenants live in fear of his daily venom. Who - even among Republicans - can really want four more years of this? Biden represents what Warren G. Harding accurately said the country wanted after World War I - "a return to normalcy."
1
Bernie is not my favored candidate, but your statement that Trump will win by a landslide if Bernie is the candidate sells the American voters who detest Trump short. Trump only wins when decent people stay home! And, if Trump wins, it will not be a landslide. You a take that to the bank!
Bottom line: VOTE!
2
Mr. Friedman believes that the best person to lead us to the promised land is...Mike Bloomberg? Is that the same Mike Bloomberg who just spent a gazillion dollars to win the primary in American Samoa? I'm glad he's helping fund Mrs. Friedman's literacy museum but tonite's results establish that all the money in the world can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I agree that Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee would entail four more years of The Madness of King Donald. Thank heavens for Joe Biden.
3
"... Tim Shriver, the longtime head of Special Olympics... remarked to me: 'I interact with enough Republicans and Democrats through Special Olympics to know how starved they both are for the country to be pulled back together, so we can do big stuff together again.'"
Too bad none of those Republicans Mr. Shriver cites are in Congress.
Super Wednesday should be the day that Kamala, Yang, Booker, Warren, Biden, Klobauchar, Pete, Bloomberg and Biden, Obama etc start to press Bernie with how are you going to do this Medicare for all? What is your specific 4 year plan the day you begin your Presidency? Warren is right; he would complain every day but accomplish very little, certainly not a revolution.
1
Sanders and Warren are the one's with big ideas the rest same old same old.
3
While I have never been completely enamored by any of the Democratic hopefuls I did find pockets of ideas in some that I could support
My perspective that no matter who, it is my driving force is to remove Trump and his political, ethical and personal dysfunctions from office and to create at least marginally an atmosphere of, for want of a better term reconciliation
Point in fact the promises made by any who rise to the top are meaningless without the ability to ratchet down the ugliness and promote conversation and compromise. Get Over, under around or through McConnell for one
While Medicare for all may be attractive the possibility of having that come to fruition with the power and money that are possessed by third party payers(big insurance) big pharma, even the American Medical Assoc and others who are financially invested in keeping ay least big parts of what we suffer with now are small and would take a huge amount of time and effort to change while we continue with a system that has
big problems but in my estimation not totally unfixable or at least able to be improved
The choices of intelligent, dedicated , dare I say honest people to cabinet and other offices is in my mind an overwhelming important key element. And also to have a president who will listen,even to disagreement and act driven by information and not by being emotional and share that part of the that decision making process would go a long way
Now the theme emerging is unite, compromise, get along, So, who are all these Republicans that want to compromise to get things done, hold hands and work together? Mitch McConnell? Roger Stone? Devin Nunes? Kevin McCarthy? Sean Hannity? Rush Limbaugh?
In recent decades, Republican politicians have grabbed, slashed and burned when they had power, and obstructed when they didn't. But come on Democrats. Mr. Friedman wants us all to turn the other cheek. So that nothing really changes.
2
We do have an awesome candidate. It's time to get over the idea that a great candidate is one who tweets really well, delivers bombastic zingers, and looks great in a suit on TV. What we actually need is a White House that can competently tackle a pandemic and associated market collapse, not to mention the many other huge problems this country currently faces that are being unaddressed or handled incompetently. Biden can do that, Trump cannot, and whether anyone else in this race could is doubtful. That makes Biden an awesome candidate.
1
After the way Bernie has been treated, in 2016 and 2020, you will be lucky if many of us ever vote democratic again, let alone in 2020. Maybe try, just try, to give him a fair shake as a candidate instead of openly plotting how to stop him and treating him like he is some demagogue? Policy difference are fine, but the way the democrats have conducted the last two primaries is offensive to anyone who thinks this is an actual democracy.
We looked the other way in 2016 and dutifully voted or the corrupt candidate you insisted would beat Trump. You didn't win, you didn't learn your lesson, continue to take our vote for granted, and now offer up a candidate you can't even pretend has any merits other than not being Trump or Bernie. I've voted democratic my whole life but unfortunately I think I cast my final democratic ballot for Bernie today. You guys are equally as dangerous as Trump, if not more so because you actually pretend you are different. You have no intention of providing universal healthcare. You have no intention of doing anything on climate change, you have no intention of helping anyone under 40 or addressing economic inequality.
“Nothing would fundamentally change.” - Biden. That's the point though I guess.
1359
@Juan It would be good if Sanders tried to be more inclusive with democrats who don't agree with his plans. Instead I believe that he is mean-spirited and has no respect for those who don't idolize him and his platform. That's why I'm voting for Bloomberg or Biden (if Bloomberg drops out). I want the democratic party to have a bigger tent.
415
@Juan This argument reminds me of the Nader campaign in 2000. He said that voting for Gore or Bush makes no difference, it's all the same. That is utter nonsense. Democrats in the House have passed legislation on climate change, gun control, and many other bills that have died in the Senate, and certainly would be vetoed by Trump if they ever made it that far. The problem is, as Friedman points out, a Sanders presidency has less chance of passing the kinds of things you would like to see. He doesn't have allies in the Democratic party because he has been an independent for virtually his whole political career. He doesn't try to build the types of coalitions needed to pass Medicare for all, or any of the rest of his agenda.
435
Reading all the letters here, one wonders why Trump is called a divider, meaning the other candidates are unifiers.
It seems the young Sanders lot don't think so.
Which means you may have got the narrative wrong again. You have got it wrong on the US, Israel, Europe, UK, as well as India.
If the New York Times opens out its collective mind and re-examines all the so-called right wing leaders and their supporters, stops demonizing them, then maybe you can be a source of unification for the world.
If the New York Times wants to see who are the great dividers, maybe - just maybe - you should just look in the mirror.
35
at least Biden will choose capable advisors and help make Congress functional again. otherwise I'd take the tree. Sanders is a great campaigner but that does not automatically make a great leader.
2
"My preference to lead this unity coalition would be Mike Bloomberg, because I think he has a campaign machine that is built to last." No, he has the most money.
2
The anti-Trump gang is currently pointing the gun at their foot.
You are correct Mr Friedman we need them not to pull the trigger. How to choose the general to beat Trump is the question.
After the Romans were crushed at Lake Trasimene by Hannibal and Consul Flamminius had been killed, Fabius Maximus known as 'The Delayer' was made Dictator and the Senate made the bold Minucius his Chief of the Army. Against Fabius' wishes.
Fabius and Minucius were political enemies. Minucius, against the advice of Fabius, rashly went out to fight Hannibal in a small engagement near Rome but again Hannibal wiped out the Roman contingent of several thousand men and Fabius had to rush out from Rome to save Minucius from death.
Minucius knelt before Fabius and called him father for saving his life and for showing him what wisdom is.
Choosing the right general is very important and the right general needs the right staff.
Bernie is as bold as Minucius but Bloomberg is the better general.
1
First, let me start by saying that I have always liked Bernie Sanders and his ideas. However, it's disheartening to read the various comments on this piece. Those writing comments attacking Friedman for his view just provide further proof to the moderates that they probably won't be there to support someone other than Bernie in the election. I've had discussions with my moderate friends and they are very much afraid that Bernie will scare off any potential moderate conservatives who "held their noses" while they voted for Trump. This begs the question, would those conservative voters switch to vote for a moderate Democrat and would we lose those potential votes with Bernie as our candidate? Bernie has engaged many on the left who felt they were not represented previously by the "establishment." That coalition includes the young. The idea that the youth vote would make up the difference in the election to beat Trump is looking unrealistic as the exit polls show that LESS young voters showed up in many of these primaries yesterday than in 2016. That is concerning. As much as I like Bernie and his ideas, I realize that we CAN'T rely on the young vote. Please don't take that the wrong way as I was once young and completely disinterested in politics. None of my friends were engaged in politics at that age either. Now, that said, I don't know if we can rely on the moderate conservatives to switch over...but I think that strategy has the stronger chance.
3
Yesterday's endorsements for Joe seemed like The Adjustment Bureau had stepped in to ensure Bernie doesn't become the nominee. Yes Joe is a decent guy and all that, and to all appearances the Democrats are a decent party, but the truth is the Democrats have done hardly anything to address the gross inequality in this country, until Trump it has been hard to notice any difference between the Democrats and the GOP. Do I think Joe will forcefully address Climate Change? No. Do I think that his improvements to Obamacare will address the costs of healthcare significantly? No. Joe has been a poor candidate in the debates, promising more of the same. Which will leave us exactly where we were in 2016 when it was clear that a lot of the country were fed up with that same, so much so that they elected an imbecile as "President" in the hopes of seeing some change. I do not feel the youth will be well served by a Joe Presidency and they are the people most neglected by neo-liberalism. Will we ever get the kleptocracy off our backs? It doesn't seem like we will this time. Again.
7
Get a grip. Your thinking in 2016 gave us Trump and his criminal cabal. Four more years of Trump including two or more Trump Supreme Court Justices will end the Republic as we’ve known and make your dreams beyond reach for generations.
Any Democrat will stop the bleeding. And appoint rational Supreme Court Justices who will stop if not reverse the horrific opinions that have already upended the nation by enabling voter suppression and oligarchy.
If nothing more happens in the next four years it will be historic and a miracle. Then the young can take over and advance a progressive agenda.
Sorry, “they’re all the same” is what Trump and Putin want you to think. It’s not true. Vote blue no matter who isn’t a cute meme - it’s a serious imperative to remove the Trump cancer from our nation.
1
Just this moment, I decided to stay home in November. Once again, my views as a progressive were being dismissed as not important because Bernie Sanders is supposedly a threat. "Sanders has to lose fair and square. "A moderate has to win." The party has to unify, but all the compromise has to be on the part of those Democrats who hold progressive views. Why? Why must Sanders and the progressive people lose? Why not Biden? There is no guarantee Biden will win if he becomes the nominee. I'm tired of the media telling me I have to compromise my views and take one for the team. Since my progressive views apparently don't count for anything, I won't bother voting. I'm through with all of it. Score one for Trump from a disgusted nonvoter.
6
@Kristin I happily voted for Sanders in the 2016 NY Primary. I begrudgingly voted for Hillary in the general.
As of now, the only super Tuesday primary in which Bernie has won a majority of the votes is Vermont. Add all of Warren's votes, and it that statistic doesn't change (well, Utah, maybe). Which is to say, Sanders is losing.
Please explain your reasoning that, having lost the popular vote, Sanders is somehow due the nomination.
If you do not vote for the only person that can defeat Trump - the Democratic nominee, then look in the mirror; what you see a Trump supporter.
7
Your choice not to vote will support re-electing the current president. Isn’t that a worse fate than compromise? Trump will take away more from your progressive values in the next four years with the conviction he knows he can.
5
@Karen
Great response! I too like Bernie, always have but I am a realist and throughout the primaries I see moderates receiving approximately 60% of the votes and progressives receiving 40%. We aren't winning over enough to get the nomination and sadly, the youth vote is NOT turning out as hoped. That said, I voted for Hillary in 2016 and I'll vote for Biden in November because I could NEVER support trump by not voting.
3
After Super Tuesday, it is likely that Joe Biden will be the nominee. He will offer a realistic program of progressive ideas that can be achieved and will be, if the Democrats can win control of the Senate and hold the House. Biden is a decent and empathetic man with the experience to govern and heal some of the divisions and wounds that a demagogue like Trump has exploited.
If he can improve healthcare, control pharmaceutical
pricing, restore more progressive taxation, regulate gun violence, build needed infrastructure, lead the world wide fight against climate change, and restore our alliances around the world, he will unite the country with his decency and his commitment to a better country and world.
I feel he can rout Trump particularly if Bernie handles his inevitable loss with more grace than he did last time. Enough with his ridiculous notions of a rigged system. Please be honest with yourself and your supporters and admit that more voters want a more moderate but progressive candidate than yourself and believe that your ideas are too Utopian to be achieved immediately given the political realities. The revolution should be in removing a demagogue like Trump from office and the feckless Republican Party from power now. It is for restoring our fragile democracy and the rule of law and civility!
13
The problem with your view is that it revolves around Trump setting the bar and defining the show. Why should we be so unambitious in simply wanting to get rid of him? Of course the system is rigged. That’s not at all a ridiculous notion. It’s the elephant in the room.
1
Your style continues with its certitudes, and predictions choosing not to consider reality's ever-present, interacting uncertainties, unpredictabilities,randomness, outliers, impermanence and lack of total control,notwithstanding ones efforts; timely or not.
As for the prediction " is going to remind people," how can/does remind-memory-awareness-perception operate in a culture in which more and more people choose to be willfully blind about what IS that should not BE. EVER! Willfully deaf. Willfully indifferent. And willfully ignorant, while being weighed down amidst endless amounts of available and accessible data to be analyzed. Derived generalizable information weighting/waiting to BE transmuted into meaningful, usable, understandings, and even insights and wisdom, enabling one's efforts to contribute to make a needed difference.
How can we help one another to BEcome better able to be skeptic of prophecies which can, all too easily, result in feeding toxic complacency. If X is going to happen, why bother! My energies, my contribution, my time, will have no effect anyway!
Perhaps there is a need to Consider that Complacencies + Complicities Can "Cause" a Corroding of much needed Civility amongst those of US who Continue to Care about...
2
I find it amusing that the Democrats are concerned that Bernie will not beat Trump. In truth, I think they are afraid of the opposite: that he might actually beat Trump! The donor base would be very unhappy with that.
If the elders of the party are openly discussing how to rig the outcome, then I suggest that they dispense with the charade of the primaries and just put their candidate forward. Otherwise, all the debates and primaries are a waste of time.
This is beyond a sick joke. I think I might switch parties.
5
Sad that you are incapable of seeing that Bernie is actually the best person to talk about bringing people together. In many of his previous speeches he talks about the morality of his choices and the justice behind his policies. After years of being labeled a crank and a dreamer, been lambasted as the destroyer of our democracy, been accused of closed-mindedness, I am not surprised that Bernie has become more terse and angry, but his passion stems from his belief that what he is suggesting is possible and makes peoples' lives better.
Research the number of negative columns written about Bernie in the past decade in this paper alone and compare them to the number of times it was written that universal healthcare and free college would make America a better place for its citizens. Look at how many times it has been written in the past 6 months about how Bernie at the top of the ticket would hand the Republicans the keys to the country. That is not a fact and actually could be used as a catalyst to reach voters who don't think there is any point in voting.
It's probably true that Bloomberg might be the best candidate one on one against Trump but can he get there? Trump can only attack Bernie with lies and innuendo while Bernie can put Trump in his place repeatedly with the truth. Biden has already tried playing Trump on his own field and it's not attractive or believable. With Hunter in play it's another Hillary e-mail trope in the making and we know how that played.
5
@Lucas Lynch If Bernie was the best person to bring people together, he would have won more delegates than Biden.
1
Bravo, Thomas Friedman, for your passionate and spot on analysis of what we need. My hope and prayer now is that all the candidates for the Democratic nomination will unite to begin to run against Donald Trump. Bloomberg and Warren should drop out and, if the tendency continues with the Biden surge, Sanders must learn to be flexible and supportive to an ideologically less absolute political perspective. Not only that, he must convince his strident partisans to support the Democratic ticket wholeheartedly. The danger to the country of a second Trump term is terrible! The country needs to bind up our wounds and move forward together to respond effectively to the huge challenges we face.
5
You lost me at your preference is Bloomberg. What? The admission that he funds your wife's commendable efforts must be a factor. His money can stay, he needs to exit stage left. There's a few problems with Bloomberg, let's just say the top one is that he is just another version of Trump. He's not a good politician because he's rich. Let's not follow the Republicans down that rabbit hole. He revealed himself to have zero knowledge and zero charisma during the debates. Let's vote for an actual Democrat, shall we?
3
TF, good suggestion (party unity after today). Although Sanders - if deprived of the nomination - would likely then run in November as an Independent, and throw the election to Trump. He's as narcissistic (in a different way) as is Trump. Although not the tyrant that Trump would be (esp. if he loses but doesn't relinquish power [ we already know the GOP would stand behind him in such a move] ).
2
A Fractured Democratic Convention to reflect a fractured party and a fractured country where the superdelegates could produce a third party lead by Sanders. Trump's reelected scenario.
However the coronavirus, tragically, might be the one thing that could unite Americans. The virus will spread inexorably and a government that in 3 years has demonstrated high doses of ineptitude, very, very tragically will fail to tackle, much less solve the crisis.
I do not think Americans have to pay with many lives and a recession to oust Trump and be united. The price is too high. I rather live with a divided country. With healthy people, a healthy economy and a Democrat in the White House. Fantasy. So I guess a divided country with a calamity in the White House is the lesser illness.
Trump's only chance at winning in 2020 is if Bernie is on the ticket as an independent in November. That is his only chance. And that is why Trump is doing everything he can, right now, to tout Bernie over everyone else, and to increase the chances that voters will tip the scales towards Bernie, to keep Bernie's hopes alive so that Bernie does not drop out.
Bernie, wake up. You are out of it for the democratic party nomination. Out. There is no way you win the democratic nomination. And no way you win as an independent.
Are you that blind that you cannot see this? Look and See Bernie.
Four more years of Trump would break the country's, and the world's, back.
Put your ego in your back pocket. Do what is best for the nation and get out of this thing now. Unite behind Joe, and this thing is done.
Do the right thing, right now, Bernie. Throw your support hook, line and sinker behind Joe.
Have a heart for our country, Bernie. For the sake of our country, for all that is good for the world and our nation, please, please bow out of this.
4
I think the democrats who support Bloomberg are out of touch with American working people. This New York Billionaire cannot hope to appeal to midwesterners. Call it fly-over country at your (our) peril. People don't want to be taken for fools. Bloomberg supporters have an unrealistic expectation of how he will perform when he faces an election.
2
An excellent column all round. The most critical thing is for Dems to have a candidate that is not a polarising figure. I, too, liked Bloomberg for the role but it seems Joe has that broad-based appeal which will pull in all the different aspects of the Dems' broad church so let's be grateful that he decided to run after all. Ultimately though, no mater who the candidate, the Democrats need to put their differences aside and focus like a laser on getting the numbers they need to beat Trump and beat him soundly. #VoteBlueNoMatterWho2020
2
BUT! and BUT!
Gore was a safe bet. Kerry was a safe bet. And shucks, Hillary was a very safe bet - all three recent safe bets were made in that last 20 years!!
So much for it will take a village argument, even though well made in this column.
Truth is, as we know well, no one has any idea who can beat Trump in five states today, Super Wednesday.
As for Bernie? Barney Frank has said people fear government more than income inequality.
3
As usual, excellent insights. But a few observations. Now that Trump has revealed his true self, wart covered, vicious and ugly, I do not believe disgruntled Sanders' supporters would stay home if another candidate is nominated. Second, unity is massively important, but to achieve that unity the Democrats must nominate a minority VP candidate. Trump was not elected because voters wanted a disrupter. He was elected because of his openly racist positions. The Democrats can only win if they are able to convince all Blacks who voted for Obama to vote again for Biden and his VP candidate.
4
The democratic primaries has made it clear that the democratic party is not any different from republicans. What they fear the most is change and that they will do anything to hold on to power. The brokered deals with Mayor Pete and Klobuchar dropping off before Super Tuesday were all good political moves to try to make Biden win but at what cost? Alienating the younger generation and the frustrated working class allowing Trump to tap into that anger. Pushing future generations into medical and student debt. Pathetic.
2
Trump has exacerbated the disunity in America, but he did not start it. There are interests and organizations in America that profit from that disunity, starting with Fox News. Their business model is to divide America for profit. At best it's un-American. At worst it treason. Humans, all of us, have a weakness for those who play to our worst instincts. Roger Ailes understood that better than anyone and he got rich off it.
2
"Populist" is often used, as here, as a synonym for "flim flam man." Merriam says: "a person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups." Gosh, how horrible!
There's a reason Trump won, and it's not really all the disparaging things we liberals say about his supporters. At the core, it's the certainty by a lot of Americans that they're getting a raw deal from the powers that be. Money keeps flowing out of the population and into the .01%. Global warming keeps getting lip service. Obvious problems like health care, infrastructure and education remain unaddressed.
I believe a lot of Trump supporters would switch to Sanders. He addresses the same sick feeling in the pit of the stomach, but he means it when he talks of a cure. Trump's voters aren't stupid. They're desperate.
I believe Biden would lose by a landslide, even if Trump didn't cheat, which he will. Does Biden inspire passion? Are any of his supporters really excited about his candidacy? No. They see a return to "normalcy." "Normalcy" is what got us into this mess. The Republicans rape and pillage and laugh while doing it. The neo-liberals rape and pillage and tell you it's the inevitable march of history, and they're oh, so sorry.
4
Being petrified of having incompetent narcissist destroy our country for another four years has made us incapable of choosing the obvious candidate when a safe mediocre choice only seems more reassuring. Elizabeth Warren embodies a progressive agenda without the baggage that makes Bernie such an attractive target. With a capable marketing campaign, she would make a difficult target for a misogynist president to avoid being “scalped”.
3
So, if Biden wins the national election it will be because of his centrist, moderate politics. And if he loses to Trump it will be the fault of progressives. Got it. Way to build a coalition y’all!
Let’s just remember that Sanders wins the vast majority of voters under 35 - myself included. I believe Sanders can win against Trump despite all the nay sayers (the loudest of which are very wealthy, let’s remember). Bernie is authentic and would push forward ideas that a majority of Americans want and need. He also realizes that if you start in the middle then you don’t have much room to negotiate.
If you expect people to be energetic and enthusiastic about Biden then I hope you boomers have a plan because all I see when he talks is someone who is potentially at the beginning stages of dementia. He’s a fumbling mess with stale ideas, but I’ll vote for him if need be.
And Bloomberg? Seriously? Come on, that’s ridiculous.
2
@Adam Pyburn Biden fluffs his words, Bernie repeats the same phrases endlessly. They are both in their late 70s, so that's to be expected. Let's try not to be ageist though, both have their hearts in the right place and are huge improvements over Donald Trump!
The bigoted demagoguery of the radical right and left unites them in fostering division for fun, profit, and power. Unfortunately, it's not just in politics, it's wormed its way into some institutions that ought to know better--banishing thought in favor of heated accusation. These are not, as commonly said today, new ideas, but they began long before Marius and Sulla, Savonarola, the Reformation, and the Reign of Terror, old ideas we could do well without.
Excellent discussion of the Democratic dilemma. Unfortunately, Biden, the likely nominee, is a very weak candidate. He is not aging well and no matter how innocent his son’s business dealings might be, Trump will rip him apart over this. I am reluctantly ready to support Biden (I voted for Bloomberg yesterday) but deeply fear Joe is going to be defeated. Trump is simply a junkyard dog and in these divided times, coalitions of anger matter. Ugh!
2
Your fantasies are interesting, but irrelevant.
The voters decide this. The only person with the wherewithal, experience, and capability to deal with this is Bloomberg.
Donald Trump is a junkyard dog in the debates, and the ONLY candidate who can equal or best him is Bloomberg. If Trump were to debate Sanders or Biden, he'd eat them for lunch and use their bones as toothpicks.
More silliness to go with the suggestion last week that the Democrats form a slate of a presidential candidate, vice president and cabinet to run together and beat Donald Trump. This week's idea is just as fantastic, as in a fantasy.
Of course there is not going to be any meeting where Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren hash out who is going to run. Joe Biden won going away tonight. He's going to run against Bernie Sanders. And, it looks like, win.
I'll be Mike Bloomberg drops out tomorrow. He's not a fool. Elizabeth Warren may not drop out. She is a fool. But it doesn't really matter what those two do. Their runs are finished. The voters finished them off.
Good luck, Joe Biden. You'll need it.
1
If Bernie is the candidate we stand to lose the House with no chance at the Senate. A big question is what kind of govt would Bernie pull together? BernieBro’s? They are a nasty bunch out of control with his approval. This would be very similar to Trump’s govt.
So, if Bernie is elected as POTUS he and his staff would be isolated in the WH. He has shown absolutely no ability to work with other members of Congress. So what could he hope to accomplish? He would get along with Putin
A bleak but probable picture.
1
You nailed it, Tom, but this house is not only divided, it is dysfunctional with the king of Dysfunction and his party of minions doing their best to grab power (dirty tricks and all), and all the while thinking they can sink the ship of state and not drown with the rest of us.
This is the most diverse election cycle I’ve witnessed since Nixon, but it's Democracy at its best. The "big tent" party is attempting to represent its board coalition diverse voters, but you can’t please everyone at the same time or right all endemic wrongs in one four year term – the Dems are trying and succeeding in some surprising ways.
Bring on the social media of Russian trolls, Chinese bots and GOP digital machine trying to defeat the Democratic Party. They are facing this time around the party of the people, ready to honestly face a world of issues and enemies with firm determination that America can be great again without Trump and his party of minions at the levers of power.
So yes, the Dems don't have a perfect candidate, but they values rooted deeply in the processes of democracy that make this Country stands for before the world. Recognizing the 21st century challenges with we all face, and won't get fooled again…come this November.
We’ve had enough of Trump and his corrupt party which continues to fail miserable at governance, and shrinks from common cause with the nation. If they fail to do their jobs and not serve the American public fire them all!.
2
422: Bills on which Bernie was lead sponsor.
29: Number of years Bernie was in Congress.
3: Number of those bills enacted.
1: Bill that didn’t name a post office.
I will still vote for him gladly against Trump. Trump is the worst outcome by far. Bernie is way better. I just want Bernie supporters to remember that he isn’t the perfect progressive messiah. He is an ineffectual mensch.
1
If Tom Friedman's prescription for saving America is worth anything, Hillary Clinton would be president today. Haven't we learned anything since 2016? President Trump is the elephant in the room.
We need a revolution, à la Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden will just coast along. He will just allow the current to take us down river. The current system is NOT working for the majority of Americans, and only Bernie Sanders has the dare, boldness, and chutzpah to swim up current.
2
If sanders gets the nomination, i will vote for him even though warren and klobuchar were my first and second choices. and now i'm supporting biden. this is called being a grown-up. sanders is not being robbed of anything. it's time for the sanders-or-nothing crowd to snap out of it.
3
The naïveté about political system from Sanders supporters is pathetic. Do they not understand, like Trump voters, we’re not voting for a king? Without socialist Democrats and republicans in Congress who vote for his programs, Bernie will get absolutely zero done in office. Nada. Zilch.
Educate yourselves on how our system was designed to work by our forefathers and you would give this idea of revolution and do the real hard work of changing policies one by one.
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How I would love to believe every word uttered here! Here's why I remain concerned. First, Joe Biden isn't going to "beat Trump like a drum." He's up against a lifelong slanderer and accomplished demagogue, who will have a big pile of money. Second, although I think Mike Bloomberg is as qualified a human being to occupy the White House as the American people could possibly have right now, he just doesn't have a charismatic appeal that is going to be necessary to beat Trump. I hope I'm wrong about both of these points.
Let us hope that one of those guys wins the nomination and ultimately the election. Meanwhile, if the Democratic Party loses this year the cause will ultimately lie in a whole generation of smarmy, fashionable sexual and other radicalisms that drove out younger candidates like Seth Moulton and Michael Bennet who with serious support in the inner circles of the party might have had a chance to make a very broad and deep appeal to the American people. If the Democrats lose this year, the historians will see long-standing latent conflicts at the root of what happened. God help our country.
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Bloomberg as leader of a "unity coalition?" This is satire, right? Good one, Mr. Friedman! Or do you really think the Bernie supporters could ever be persuaded to jump on the Bloomberg bandwagon? Bernie fans want actual change, not an otherwise-Republican who happens to be good on climate.
The one point that Mr. Friedman gets correct is that in order to win we need Bernie's diverse coalition (esp. w/r/t theyouth and latinx votes), which is precisely why nominating a talking dead tree stump like Biden or Bloomberg is going to help guarantee a Trump victory. The DNC is going to lose an entire generation to their string-pulling in-group favoritism. Nobody I know could even imagine knocking on doors for these lame-duck decrepit old has-beens. We're supposed to make the cynical calculation to back the guy who thinks he can buy his way to power when money in the system is the problem to begin with? Yeah, right. There goes your turnout. Good luck.
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I don't hate Republicans. I just completely ignore them because in the past 4 years we have seen the content of their character and it is dark and ugly. And I consider myself a moderate pragmatic person
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"but there’s zero possibility that he’d get anything done" Nonsense. EVERY president "gets something done". It's an extremely powerful office. Talking heads said the same about #45 and W. before him.
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I’m a longtime NYT reader and subscriber with my heart with Bernie and my head with Bloomberg.
How many NYT readers are also listening/reading to right-wing media? Some insights about the Democratic race from that side: The DNC is coalescing around Biden because he’s can be an easy talking head for Pelosi and Schumer who hold the real power
in the party; Bernie is obviously being snow jobbed by the DNC again because his socialist views won’t win the election. The Republicans are sitting pretty, chuckling, waiting to unleash a bloodbath campaign fighting the Democratic nominee with their most devilish and charismatic incumbent president in a generation. I agree with Thomas Friedman about Bloomberg, yet I doubt we can collectively see past Bloomberg’s faults to see that toe to toe and fault to fault, he’s the one candidate on the Democratic side with the best chance to beat Trump. All my social and business colleagues in Europe are plainly deadpan convinced Trump’s a shoe in. I fear another four years of the carnaval barking clown and that we are being naive in our choices when we’re fighting a party Noam Chomsky has called the devil...
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tears of longing for Shriver's vision....
for our beloved country.
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If I were a Sanders supporter, I would decide to never ever vote for Biden or Bloomberg after reading this article. If you treat me like garbage and then tell me you need my vote, what do you think I will do?
(I'm not a US citizen and no candidate's supporter, but I came to admire Bernie Sanders for his tenacity in the face of his greatest adversary - Democratic Party)
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