From the left: Dems Need Bloomy & His Billions
Yes, Mike Bloomberg has “a lot of baggage” — but, argues Vox’s Emily Stewart, “the billionaire businessman” is the only Democrat with the “biography, bravado and bank account” to “beat Donald Trump at his own game.” As New York mayor, he “steered the city through” the financial crisis while overseeing “an economy about the size of South Korea.” He has since “poured millions of dollars into fighting climate change and illegal guns” and “made a difference” by donating to Democrats. His money means he won’t be “in anyone’s pocket,” and he can win in November. “For voters who don’t like Trump but are leery of dramatic change in the midst of the longest economic expansion in US history, he feels like a solid option.” Bottom line: “Mike, as his campaign slogan says, can get it done.”
Campaign watch: Contested Convention Looms
“Only two states have weighed in on the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but already theories about a contested convention are swirling,” reports The Washington Times’ Joseph Curl. “In past contests, candidates have dropped out after” Iowa and New Hampshire, but this time a full eight candidates are staying in. And since most states “distribute delegates proportionately,” it is a “real possibility” that “no candidate will win a majority” — FiveThirtyEight gives it a 25 percent chance — forcing a brokered decision at the party’s July convention. Whatever happens, “strap in” — because the “2020 primary season is going to be a long one.”
Never-Trumper: Don’t Bet on Comrade Bernie
Bernie Sanders returned from the Soviet Union in 1988 “sounding like he had been bamboozled, like so many other credulous Westerners who visited the USSR and took what they were shown by their hosts at face value,” notes Tom Nichols at USA Today. His “ridiculously naïve” comments about the visit “show that his judgment is terrible” — and “will likely cost him the election” should he win the Democratic nomination. Clips “already making the rounds on social media” are “more than enough ammo for the Republicans this fall.” Nichols visited a year after Sanders and saw “grisly” scenes in hospitals: “Patients draining their wounds into open jars of pus. Post-operative infections worse than the problem that required surgery. Reusable metal hypodermics, dirty bedclothes.” Sanders extolling the virtues of such a society shows “he’s a fundamentally unserious person whose far-left politics are ridiculous.”
Liberal: In Defense of AG Barr
“After a Justice Department sentencing recommendation was withdrawn and replaced in the case of Roger Stone,” sighs Jonathan Turley at The Hill, “many in Washington” turned “Kafkaesque.” They called for Attorney General William Barr’s “impeachment, incarceration and disbarment” and charged that he had intervened because of the president’s “irresponsible tweets” about the case. A TV interview in which Barr criticized the tweets didn’t “fit their narrative of Barr being a witless Trump troll, so it was ignored.” Worse, “many media analysts and legal experts ignored” the fact that “Barr was correct” in lowering prosecutors’ “initial draconian recommendation of seven to nine years in prison.” Turley concludes: “Before we impeach, disbar and incarcerate Barr, maybe we should hear from him.”
Green science 101: Plastic Bags Are the ‘Best’
With New York’s ban on plastic bags set to start March 1, John Tierney at The Wall Street Journal cites mounting evidence that such bans are “both a waste of money and harmful to the environment.” Research shows restrictions on plastic bags don’t cut down on litter. Indeed, the bags “aren’t the worst environmental choice at the supermarket — they’re the best”: They’re cheap, light, use few resources and take up little room in landfills. Many people recycle them as trash liners. “That they aren’t biodegradable is a plus, because they don’t release greenhouse gases like decomposing paper and cotton bags.” So if you want to cut carbon emissions, “repeal misguided plastic-bag bans” and send plastic “straight to landfills and incinerators.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board