Trump & Biden are on the Menu!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

WHAT TO EXPECT!

by Steve Fair

     The first Democrat debate of the 2020 primary presidential race is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Twenty candidates will debate live on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.  The latest Real Clear Politics poll has former VP Joe Biden at 31.5%, Senator Bernie Sanders at 15%, and Senator Elizabeth Warren at 12%.  Over the last month, Biden has lost 10 percentage points and Warren gained 4%.  Warren and nine others will debate on Wednesday, Biden, Sanders and eight others will debate on Thursday.  Democrat primary voters will be watching for the candidate who has the best chance to beat President Trump.  In polls presenting hypothetical match ups with various Democrat candidates, Trump loses to virtually any Democrat, but it is very early and the only poll that matters is the one on November 2, 2020.  Expect three things at the debates:

     First, expect President Trump to be the main course both nights.  It won’t be just the president’s policies the raconteurs will attack, but his personality as well.   With five moderators from liberal news outlets, the candidates can expect softball questions that will paint the president in the worse light possible.  Expect the president to respond to those attacks with attacks of his own, creating more ammo for the next debate. 

     Second, expect Joe Biden to be the dessert.  Biden is the most centrist of the field, but that may be his doom as well as his appeal.  Biden was criticized by his opponents after calling for civil discourse in government and working with those he disagreed with.  While serving in the Senate, Biden worked with other Senators, including some segregationists, to achieve common goals.  Ideology purity is required to get the nomination and the U.S. Senate is by nature a body of compromise.  Until President Obama, no sitting Senator had been elected president since JFK.  Biden served in the Senate for 36 years during a time when civility and reaching across the aisle was considered an asset.  His past diplomacy will be used against him.

     Third, expect a lot of free stuff to be discussed.  Sanders, Warren, Booker, Harris and Gillibrand all favor free college tuition.  Warren wants universal child care paid for by the federal government.  All want an increase in the federal minimum wage.  All favor reparations for decedents of slaves.  Warren, Harris and Gillibrand want to provide housing paid for by taxpayers.   All want universal single payer health care.  The rich would fund these ‘free’ programs by paying higher taxes, but if you took all their money there aren’t enough rich people to pay for those programs. 

     What won’t be discussed at the debates will be the growing national debt and expanding federal government, the constitutional role of government, individual responsibility, and the moral decline of our country.  Those are the root problems in America, but they will be side-stepped.  Politicians tend to treat the symptoms and not the disease.