TPM Reader NS states his case …

You said it yourself the other day (paraphrasing)—you are having a hard time believing what objective analysis of the evidence tells you: Sanders is truly viable all the way to the presidency.

TPM Reader NZ has a contrary take on the party unity question …

I am a loyal reader (and member) and generally find your analysis compelling, even if I don’t entirely agree. I’m prompted to write by your “post-primary unity” piece. I thought it was balanced and insightful until the last paragraph. But then I think you went off the rails in a way that replicates some of the frustrating asymmetry in how people often discuss the pro/anti- Bernie camps.

TPM Reader CGM responds to TPM Reader MRK …

I’ve been thinking about some version of this since the first debate. But MRK’s take on Warren made me want to write in and respond.

Some defensive posturing: I am a feminist. I went to an all-girls high school where I was taught women can do anything men can do, backwards and in heels etc. I would love nothing more than to see a woman elected president. But I am terrified about nominating a woman against Trump.

On Face the Nation this morning Sen. Lindsey Graham said he spoke to Attorney General Barr this morning and he has established a new “process” by which Rudy Giuliani will send his Biden “dirt” directly to the Attorney General.

Remarkable. Sen. Graham says he talked to AG Barr this morning and they have set up a "process" by which Rudy Giuliani will now send his Biden "dirt" directly to AG Barr. pic.twitter.com/gteVz53jIG

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 9, 2020

TPM Reader MRK shares some thoughts before heading off to canvass in New Hampshire …

I’ve been trying to figure out why (other than systemic sexism) the media reaction to Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has been muted, especially since she finished ahead of Biden in Iowa. She didn’t over-perform and she didn’t underperform there, really. She should have been able to lay claim to the proverbial third ticket out of Iowa. Biden clearly did underperform, and if it weren’t for his consistently strong polling elsewhere, there would be real pressure on him to quit. But he’s a former VP with strong support from African Americans in the polls, et cetera.

I have a long list of quibbles what with TPM Reader PJ shares here — mainly on conflating two very different meanings of “liberalism” and I think giving too little significance to the coalitional nature of the Democratic Party. But I wanted to share it with you because it’s a good contribution to the conversation …

I appreciate what you’re saying about the far left and liberalism. let me offer a bit of a counterpoint. I think there are some people who read Trump as an expression of something highly American. Maybe not intrinsically American, per se, but something that’s mixed in the DNA and which often takes over: white supremacy, masculinist fantasies of domination, an erotic fascination with violence. Moreover, we know where the roots of liberalism are: John Locke, contract theory, a social imagination that puts the individual at the center of the social world and struggles to understand that personhood is constantly being constructed, rather than etched in stone by a Maker.

TPM Reader RW thought it was Klobuchar’s night …

I’m an undecided New Hampshire democrat–at least I was until tonight. I attended the MSNBC watch party and thought Klobuchar hit it out of the park (and so did most of the crowd). I’ve seen most of the candidates during their swings through the state, many in intimate settings. For weeks my wife and I have been agonizing about whom to support.

In post-acquittal campaign emails President Trump has upgraded himself from the “perfect phone call” to the “perfect president”.

From one just this morning. “Like I’ve been saying all along, I DID NOTHING WRONG. If they had just read the TRANSCRIPT, they would’ve seen that I’ve been a PERFECT PRESIDENT.”

An update from the New York suburbs from TPM Reader FB …

Tonight, a Republican County Legislator in Westchester County New York, David Tubiolo from Yonkers, switched parties and became a Democrat. This left the 17-member Westchester County Board of Legislators, which as recently as 3 years ago had a Republican coalition majority and arch-conservative County Executive, with NO REPUBLICANS. The sole remaining member of the minority caucus is a registered Conservative from the town of Mt. Pleasant.

10:38 PM: Given that some really big things are going to be decided Tuesday and in the week or two just after I didn’t come out of this debate having any more sense of what is going to happen.

9:05 PM: This David Muir guy really typifies the worst of how the big news organizations approach foreign affairs. Most of his questions have centered on goading people into saying they’d start more wars, kill more people. There’s more to our role in the world than macho test questions about whether you would have killed this person or attacked that country. And it’s not like I’m a big pacifist. But that’s a really skewed, warped way of looking at our role in the world.

9:03 PM: Biden started the debate distant and vague. He’s at least showing energy here and focus. Not the highest standard of course.