A “Bernie 2020” sign outside a polling place in Miami, Fla., 17, 2020 (Marco Bello/Reuters) The Bernie Sanders campaign released a statement saying the Vermont senator would “assess his campaign” in the wake of another disappointing primary night which saw Joe Biden further his delegate lead and all but secure his path to the nomination.

Welcome to The Tuesday, brought to you, as always, from a state of pristine social isolation . . . Long Days I will get to my regular language thing below, but I begin with a note about the etymology of Lent, which is the ecclesiastical season we currently are in. Lent is a slightly mysterious word, but

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks during the Democratic presidential debate in Washington, D.C., March 15, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) The coronavirus pandemic highlights the dangerous imbecility of Joe Biden’s immigration plan. As previously noted, when Savannah Guthrie asked the contenders for the Democratic nomination whether their respective health-care plans would cover illegal immigrants, Biden raised

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 24, 2019. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The Justice Department on Monday abandoned plans to move forward with a criminal trial against two Russian firms indicted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller for financing efforts to interfere in the

DNC chair Tom Perez addresses attendees before the start of the second night of the second U.S. 2020 presidential Democratic candidates debate in Detroit, Mich., July 31, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) DNC chairman Tom Perez sat down with Jonathan Swan of Axios yesterday for an extended discussion about the state of the Democratic Party. Swan conducted

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during the Democratic candidates debate in Washington, D.C., March 15, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Ending a presidential campaign means killing a dream. If the campaign was launched with reasonably high expectations, and especially if it met with some success, that dream was shared by the candidate, staff, and millions of supporters. For

“If I’m elected president . . . I commit that I will, in fact, pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said during the CNN-Univision presidential debate on Sunday. (Eric Thayer/Reuters) Former vice president Joe Biden announced during Sunday’s debate with Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that he would only pick a woman as

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks during the Democratic presidential debate in Washington, D.C., March 15, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters) Ladies and gentlemen, some thoughts on the debate, as the debate was unfolding. • In the 1980 presidential debate — there was just one that year — Reagan startled Carter by going over to

Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden talk during the Democratic primary debate in Charleston, S.C., February 25, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Liberals lecture Republicans on race, gender, and sexuality, even as Dems pick between straight white guys for president. The top echelon of today’s Democratic Party focuses far less on what unites Americans

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to media before participating in a Census Town Hall at the Louis Armstrong Middle School in Queens, New York City, February 22, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) declined multiple pleas from the Bernie Sanders campaign to stump for the Vermont senator’s candidacy after the Iowa caucuses, according

Medics prepare a tent during a media event at a drive-through coronavirus testing checkpoint in Munich, Germany, March 11, 2020. (Andreas Gebert/Reuters) Louisiana announced Friday that it will postpone its presidential primary, originally scheduled for April 4, for two months over coronavirus, making it the first state to alter its election over the outbreak. The

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about responses to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Del., March 12, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) It may be uncomfortable to bring up the former vice president’s visibly diminished mental capacities, but it’s vital that we do. Democrats showed us a surprising amount of cohesion and coordination,

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in St Louis, Mo., March 9, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) on Wednesday announced he is staying in the presidential race, in his first public remarks since losing the majority of Mini Tuesday primaries to former Vice President Joe Biden. “On Sunday, I very much

It feels like every few minutes, something really surprising happens because of the coronavirus. Now the Democratic presidential debate that was scheduled for Sunday night in Phoenix, Arizona, is moved to Washington, D.C.; also, Jorge Ramos of Univision, who was scheduled to moderate, will not participate. He was “possibly exposed to coronavirus. While he is

Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke endorses former vice president Joe Biden at a campaign event at Gilley’s in Dallas, Texas, U.S., March 2, 2020. (Eric Thayer/Reuters) As Democratic presidential front runner Joe Biden gears up for the general election in November, his campaign has decided to hire former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke’s campaign manager.

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks during a campaign stop in St. Louis, Mo., March 7, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Though the race for the White House is more nationalized than ever and Biden is a well-known national figure, such candidates don’t have a great track record. Joe Biden would be the oldest person ever elected

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in Chicago, Ill., March 7, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) By reworking his rhetoric to appeal to a different constituency, he ended up losing more than he gained Bernie Sanders’s 16-point loss to Joe Biden in the Michigan primary came almost four years to the day after Sanders’s stunning upset

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden in the tenth Democratic 2020 presidential debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina, February 25, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The Democratic also-rans exit, stage left The hecatomb of unsuccessful Democratic candidates raises questions about the current viability of the Democrats

Sen. Bernie Sanders takes part in a FOX News Town Hall with co-moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum in Detroit, Mich., March 9, 2020. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Maybe Bernie Sanders and his supporters will console themselves with the argument that the primary calendar didn’t do him any favors. After South Carolina, Super Tuesday featured a slew

Vince Gilligan, the creator of the televisual worlds of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has an unusual talent: he is brilliant at showing us work. What does it feel like to test fast-food sauce recipes, to push a mail cart around an office, to make a cement walkway, or to highlight relevant items in

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a community event at Sun City MacDonald Ranch in Henderson, Nev., February 14, 2020. (Gage Skidmore) The type hasn’t had much success: Think Mondale, Dole, Kerry. At this writing, the contest for the Democratic nomination has narrowed to a two-man race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks an outdoor campaign rally in Austin, Texas, February 23, 2020. (Mike Segar/Reuters) This morning, I argued that Bernie Sanders devotees use misleading public-polling data to overstate the degree to which the Sanders agenda is consonant with the popular will. David Leonhardt of the New York Times writes that a

Elizabeth Warren cannot believe that she was defeated by the campaigns of Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders — she insists, instead, that she was defeated by their testes. We sympathize, truly. It is difficult to believe, and must be tough to accept, that any barely competent political operation could be defeated … Read More

Former First Lady Michelle Obama attends the Girls Opportunity Alliance program with Room to Read at the Can Giuoc high school in Long An Province, Vietnam, December 9, 2019. (Yen Duong/Reuters) She would bring advantages to the ticket but has shown little interest in running. The good news for Democrats is that the chance that

Supporters of Former Vice President Joe Biden wave at Biden’s bus on the day of the New Hampshire presidential primary in Nashua, N.H., February 11, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) Ross Douthat and Rich Lowry are two of many to take a look at how the movement to stop Sanders seems to have succeeded while the stop-Trump

Sen. Elizabeth Warren talks to reporters with her husband Bruce after informing her staff that she is withdrawing from the presidential race in Cambridge, Mass., March 5, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) Of course, the explanation for her loss must be sexism. Elizabeth Warren cannot believe that she was defeated by the campaigns of Joe Biden or

Michael Bloomberg speaks at his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., March 3, 2020. (Marco Bello/Reuters) He found a path to the nomination, but it was already too late Almost lost in the intense coverage and analysis of the Super Tuesday results, and the remarkable relaunch of Joe Biden as an ark

Unless there’s a revolution in the status of the race, it’s hard to see Bernie’s opening to do it. Apparently he’s been saying that he might catch Biden when all the California delegates are allocated, but that’s not plausible. From NBC’s First Read: On Wednesday night, Bernie Sanders told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that the outstanding

A voter drops ballots for the March 3 Super Tuesday primary into a mobile voting mail box in Laguna Woods, Calif., February 24, 2020. (Mike Blake/Reuters) It encourages people to vote based on limited information. Any juror who tried to render a verdict after hearing two-thirds of the trial evidence soon would become an ex-juror.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem, March 4, 2020. (Ammar Awad/Reuters) The prime minister hangs on — as the result of political genius, or of a deep unwillingness to admit that voters have decided his time is up? Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost — but did