Clorox That DNA

Debate Two, Part Two:  Forget the debates for a moment, the most compelling story of the day was the one about Jeffrey Epstein, his hope to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his New Mexico ranch and the number of those “brilliant” PhDs who knowingly or unwittingly gave him the time of day in the hopes of getting his financial largesse and/or because they thought his ideas were intriguing or just liked hanging out with him and his young “friends.”  Okay, now back to the debates, last night’s crowd of Democratic hopefuls included former VP or as a flustered Kamala Harris called him Senator Joe Biden, California Senator Kamala Harris, NJ Senator Corey Booker who Biden accidentally called the next president, Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, NY Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.  Best soundbite of the night came from the otherwise unimpressive Gillibrand who said that the first thing she would do as president would be to Clorox the Oval Office.  Unfortunately for her, she also had one of the worst moments of the evening when she attacked Biden for an old op-ed that he once penned about the child care tax credit.  She claimed he said that family deterioration follows when women work outside the home, when his point had been that families making above a certain threshold shouldn’t benefit from the tax credit.  Then she bragged about being her family’s breadwinner, as if that made her superior to Biden who had actually become a single parent after his first wife and one of his children was killed in a car accident and whose current wife worked outside the home as a university professor.  It’s time for Gillibrand to go home.  As to Biden, his performance wasn’t great but it was better than it had been during the first debate, a low bar but still an accomplishment given that almost everyone else on the stage had their knives out for him, leading most pundits to conclude that he had done well enough to maintain his leadership spot at least for now or until the next debate when he faces progressives Bernie and/or Warren and maybe even after that since despite his gaffes, as long as he maintains the support of moderates and African Americans and isn’t replaced as the centrist candidate he’ll remain the one to beat.  He tripped up a few times including by ending the evening with a mash up of his text number instead of directing voters to his website, but mostly made his points, especially when he slapped back at Kamala Harris about the costs of her “move to Medicare for all in ten years” health care proposal.  As to Harris, as one of the leaders going into the debate she, like Biden, came under heavy fire and though she didn’t fall on her face, she didn’t emerge unscathed.  Her rambling answers frequently lacked clarity, a problem because going into the evening she was positioned as the candidate who could most effectively debate Trump.  Additionally one scathing attack from Tulsi Gabbard about Harris’ past prosecutorial behavior hit home hard.  Harris needs a better response, given the current focus on prison reform and Trump’s assertion that he, together with his advisor celebutante Kim Kardashian, is the champion of prisons, she will be hearing more about that as the debates move forward. Gabbard is articulate, her anti-war stance resonates, she had a good night, largely because no one brought up her past anti-LGBTQ statements or her attempt to make nice to Syrian strongman Bashir Assad but she’s not going to go the distance, nor should she. Governor Inslee and Senator Bennett are both impressive, Bennet hit home with his comments on education and his concern that those pushing the costly Medicare for All option were unrealistic about cost and what it would take to pass such a plan through the Senate, as well as the risk that more upheaval in the health care market would alienate centrist voters; Inslee’s impressive state track record and call for addressing climate change aggressively are notable but sadly neither of them appear to be gaining significant traction either because the field is too big, or with Biden holding the center, there isn’t any more room for white, moderate guys right now. Andrew Yang brought some levity to the evening with his comment that as an Asian man who liked math he is the opposite of Trump.  He also brought some reality, by saying that we were so late to the game in dealing with climate change that people living in low lying areas should move to high ground ASAP.  His income support plan is intriguing but given that many can’t even get their arms around health care as a right, it, like him, isn’t going to go the distance. Julian Castro was also well spoken even if his views on immigration reform are a little too far to the left for the general electorate, still he’s another one who appears to be having a hard time gaining any traction, he should reconsider running for John Cornyn’s Texas Senate seat. Not much to say about Bill de Blasio except that he was loud and obnoxious, largely because he is loud and obnoxious.  He was trying so hard to get attention that he actually assumed the moderator role for a while, peppering his opponents, mostly Biden, with piercing questions, or at least questions that he thought were piercing.  He’s another one who needs to go home.  Lastly, largely by default, Senator Cory Booker won the evening.  He too criticized Biden, but his style was lighter than Harris’s, he spoke with more clarity and generally he came off as more affable, whether any of that will give him a much needed poll bump is anyone’s guess.  As to CNN, not a fan, their efforts to pit the candidates against each other were forced and benefited only Trump who for some reason picked yesterday to lob another phone call into Vladimir Putin.  We only know about that call because of a readout provided by the Kremlin.  Once the Russians made the call public, the White House weighed in saying that Trump only called Vlad to discuss trade and to offer help with those fires raging in Siberia, nothing about the demonstrators being beat up in the streets of Moscow or election interference, just the fires.  Any chance Trump offered to go sweep them himself? A lot of people would chip in for that ticket.

Other News:  We’ve known for sometime that Trump supporter/financier Tom Barrack  engaged in some questionable activities during and after the 2016 campaign, now recent reports detail his involvement with former security advisor Michael Flynn’s plan to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear facilities, a plan that remains alive because who doesn’t believe that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman can be trusted with nukes.  On the lobbying front we’ve also learned that two of Moscow Mitch’s former staffers lobbied hard for the plant that oligarch Oleg Deripaska is building in Kentucky, the plant that Deripaska delivered in exchange for Moscow Mitch’s help lifting the sanctions against him. In another abuse of power, Trump ordered the Navy to rescind medals granted to the Navy prosecutors responsible for the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher who was acquitted of the most serious charges against him largely because one of the key witnesses changed his testimony at the last minute likely the result of peer pressure and maybe, just maybe because Trump had made it clear that he didn’t think that Gallagher murder of a prisoner of war was a bad thing.  The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a point, not enough for Trump who after the stock market didn’t take off, slammed Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates by more.  Lastly, California Governor Newsom signed a bill requiring that presidential candidates release their tax returns to appear on the state’s primary ballot, a move aimed “squarely” at Trump who claims that he can’t comply because his tax returns are still under audit.  Right?