Progressives (Liberals)

obstructionist Senate

between the Sanders and Establishment forces

No harm intended.

The Sanders campaign often talks as though it’s only talking about an establishment of insiders and power brokers. But that just leaves millions of activists and voters erased from the picture entirely. The last 72 hours is a case in point. To hear many Sanders surrogates describe it, the establishment and power brokers closed ranks and pushed Biden into the lead. But again, this just pretends like millions of voters don’t exist, or function as pawns of party elites. So you have one theory of political agency for Sanders supporters and another for everyone else. This stands no kind of political scrutiny.

Did key endorsements, especially from Jim Clyburn but also from Klobuchar, Buttigieg and O’Rourke, have an effect? Of course. But focusing only on those ignores what was a parallel reaction among numerous ordinary Democratic voters to the events of the last ten days. The interplay between these two developments is key.

Here we get to a critical, distinct dynamic of this race. Sanders was dominating the primary race with about 25% support. If you won’t or can’t expand your coalition beyond that number you’re in a highly vulnerable position, particularly if you’ve created a confrontational or antipathetic relationship with other factions within the party.

This is not to say the Sanders faction of the party is the only one that faces coalitional problems. Far from it. It will be critical for whoever wins the nomination to craft a story to let the supporters of the losing candidates come on board. That is work every Democrat and really everyone who wants to unseat Donald Trump has in front of them.

On the one hand, Michael Bloomberg spent $500 million on a presidential campaign with nothing to show for it.

On the other hand, Forbes says his net worth has increased $2.9 billion over the past year.
—@mattyglesias

After some unfortunate missteps, John McEntee has a rather powerful role in the White House. The 29-year-old aide used to be the president's personal assistant -- as part of a job known as Donald Trump's "body man" -- but McEntee is now serving as the new director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, making him responsible for hiring and vetting applicants for thousands of executive-branch positions.

As we discussed last week, McEntee also reportedly is playing a central role in a White House loyalty "purge," in which officials are subjected to political scrutiny and those deemed insufficiently pro-Trump face transfers or dismissals.

But as part of his duties, McEntee's office has apparently prepared a new questionnaire for those applying for jobs on Team Trump. CNN reported yesterday on the document's details:

Quote:

Candidates applying to join President Donald Trump's administration will now have to explain what part of Trump's campaign message "most appealed" to them and why. [...] The White House's renewed focus on loyalty has raised questions about whether the hiring process for political appointments will overly weight loyalty over qualifications, raising the prospect that less-qualified candidates could be installed in certain positions.

Biden won’t win.

Lash wrote:

Biden won’t win.

I agree with you on that.