Moderates on the Rise In 2020 Race

[Gothmog]

22. The early boom for 2020 Democrats' left turn is yielding to moderate muscle

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The early boom for 2020 Democrats' left turn is yielding to moderate muscle as Elizabeth Warren falls, Joe Biden persists and Pete Buttigieg rises.

What's happening: Poll after poll shows voters like the idea of Medicare for All. But the second you tell them about costs and tradeoffs, they turn on it.
Why it matters: A harsh spotlight on Warren's specifics collided with Mike Bloomberg's massive spending on a moderate message, as well as rising angst among donors and investors about risks of Warren-Sanders socialism.

Warren collapsed in the latest national Quinnipiac University poll just as she's been diving into the details of how she'd pass Medicare for All — and fending off a barrage of attacks from her more moderate rivals.

She's not the only Democrat who's run into trouble. Kamala Harris realized she could be checkmating herself by dismissing private health insurance — which is why she changed her Medicare for All plan to allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans.
And in an interview for "Axios on HBO," she told Axios' Margaret Talev she knew there could be a political price to pay for changing her plan — but says she told her team that "we need to do a better plan. This is not good enough."