Despite some murmurings to the contrary from their campaigns in recent days, the two Democratic presidential contenders on the left of the spectrum, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), largely avoided a public scrap during the last debate before the Iowa caucuses.
I don’t totally understand anybody’s strategy but Biden’s. You’re in it to win it, right? If he wins Iowa, that’s pretty much the whole enchilada. Are Klobuchar and Buttigieg angling for VP? Sanders and Warren probably need to pick up votes from one another to win Iowa. What are you doing?
On the other hand, caucuses are weird and stupid, so who knows.
A point I am not hearing in the healthcare debate: Why should my employer have anything to do with my healthcare?
To me this is an obvious point of discussion that works well. I want to switch jobs why should it even be a consideration that I might have to deal with a gap in coverage or a new drug prescription plan or that surgery coming up may now be out of network or we should really wait until after the baby gets here. It’s nuts that these are even considerations, yet they are. I get annoyed with an employer wanting to push fitness and wellness programs on me (though having worked at a good company, occasionally these are actually motivated at least partially out of concern for employees rather than just savings) and the thought that my employer gets to have a say in what health choices are moral is outrageous (and it’s not so great on the other side either that anyone should have to include a benefit package they can’t agree with). Our marriage of healthcare and employment is an odd one with an odd history going back to tax situations from WWII. It’s really not good for anyone and it needs to end. If you start with that, a single payer or public option becomes obvious.
I think the Warren/Sanders thing was a tactical strike by Warren. She’s looking to pick up Klobuchar’s supporters when she doesn’t hit the 15% threshhold in Iowa and Nevada.
It seems a simple disagreement in strategy. BS wanted to dissuade EW who would cut into his support. She disagreed having her own agenda and being a very different candidate than HRC. What keeps getting lost is that he was addressing 2020 not forever.
Employer provided health insurance isn’t unique to the United States alone with countries like Japan also having it. The difference is that the insurance markets are highly regulated.
Iowa is a weird event - unconventional & challenging to read ahead of time. A “win” in Iowa does not guarantee ultimate victory … but a surprise set back can become a real albatross. In Iowa, the key is normally to gain “differentiation” … in a crowded Iowa field, finding a way to finish 2-3 % ahead of the pack with maybe 22% can produce huge headlines dramatically proclaiming a new frontrunner.
No I guess it hasn’t. But you should be happy, this helps to ensure that your guy will win – which is okay by me too. I actually very much wanted Biden to run in 2016 and while I can’t say he would have done better than Clinton did for sure, I’ve always had a feeling he might have. I wanted Warren to run in 2016 as well, but no one with any stature in the party seemed willing to challenge Clinton. Nor I suspect were they encouraged to. The primary was laughable.
But I never believed that Biden didn’t run because of his son’s death. What I believe is that Bo wanted him to run, as Biden initially said, and I believe if Biden had gotten a nod in any form, he would have done so.
If you’re familiar with my posting history,I haven’t been very critical of Biden’s opponents,except Cory Booker maybe. I have always believed he would win and in fact he was showing an uptick in Iowa and NH before this dustup started. Not what you would call “happy” about the dustup. It is fascinating though. I seem to recall Joe Biden talked to some of the other candidates before he announced. Don’t know what was said though.
The Wyden-Bennett plan is very interesting and Obama said he liked it but didn’t think he could get the votes for it. Bennett was one of the last moderate Republicans that got pushed out by the Tea Party (Mike Lee). He has died now, but his primary (actually caucus loss) loss is a case study in how extreme elements of a party can take over even when they are not representative of the electorate as a whole.