Warren now has the 2020 bull's eye on her back - Washington Post [View all]
he Commentary
The biggest event of the week was obviously the Democratic debate. The front-runners sparred on health care. Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg clashed on guns. Cory Booker worked “dumpster fire” and Robert Bork into his answers. Tom Steyer was, inexplicably, there. A lot happened.
But the most important moments came near the beginning of the debate, when Elizabeth Warren started to take some heat from rivals like Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar on health care. As her opponents pressed her on the costs of her plans, it became clear that Warren’s competitors see her as the front-runner. The data suggests she’s been a co-front-runner for some time now — she briefly surpassed Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, raised a boatload of money and has a viable path to the nomination — but the bull’s eye is just now landing on her. Reporters and opponents alike are about to dig deep into her past and scrutinize everything they find. Nobody knows what’s going to turn up, though we can probably still rule out hunky Marines.
Warren wasn’t the only progressive who entered a new phase of the race last week. During the debate, some news broke that was great for Bernie Sanders: The Post reported that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be endorsing Sanders at an upcoming rally. For months, Sanders has been struggling to break out of the mid-to-high teens in the national polls, and the AOC endorsement could be a shot in the arm for him.
Both progressives also posted large sums in the official third-quarter fundraising reports (about $25 million each), but they weren’t the only candidates bringing in the dough. Buttigieg, who is clearly trying to supplant Biden as the moderate alternative to Warren, brought in $19 million. Biden, still stuck in the maelstrom surrounding President Trump’s call to Ukraine, took in $16 million, and Kamala D. Harris’s $12 million barely outpaced Andrew Yang’s $10 million. The rest took in enough to stay in the game.
All of this adds up to progressives as the stars of this week, but none of the major players are out of the game … yet.
POSITION CHALLENGER CHANGE OVER LAST RANKING
1. Elizabeth Warren —
2. Joe Biden —
3. Pete Buttigieg —
4. Bernie Sanders —
5. Kamala D. Harris —
6. Amy Klobuchar UP 1
7. Cory Booker DOWN 1
8. Beto O’Rourke —
9. Andrew Yang —
10. Julián Castro —
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/18/bulls-eye-just-landed-someone-new/?arc404=true
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Undecided
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