Month: July 2019

Warren’s Takedown of the Annoying Delaney

We begin with tonight’s second of a new round of Democratic presidential debates in Detroit, Michigan and speak with David Graham, a staff writer for The Atlantic where he covers political and global news. He joins us to discuss his article at The Atlantic “Elizabeth Warren’s Big Night” and offer an analysis of the winners and losers on stage last night as well as predictions on what might happen tonight with the other half of the crowded field on stage. Ironically the debates are taking place in the city of Detroit which is 80% African/American yet last night everyone on stage was white, but tonight there will be at least some diversity along with the expectations that sparks might fly again between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden although this time Biden might fight back. If Biden does not and is as muddled and passive as he appeared last time, the front-runner who is polling well ahead of the rest of the candidates, might well start to fade. Meanwhile the self-described healer and bridge-builder Cory Booker, might show some aggression and divisiveness in order to break out of the rear of the pack and take on Joe Biden too. With the next round of debates scheduled for September, the hope is that the more annoying interlopers like Governor Hickenlooper, the self-improvement guru Williamson, Congressman Ryan and most of all the banker who bought a House seat Delaney, will go away, and not a moment too soon. But Delaney did cue up Elizabeth Warren for the best takedown line last night when she told Delaney “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running to be president of the United States to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for”.

Can “Moscow Mitch” Be Shamed into Doing the Right Thing?

Then we speak with Simon Rosenberg, the President and founder of the New Democrat Network, a leading progressive think tank and advocacy organization. He joins us to discuss his article at Medium.com “GOP Bringing “Moscow Rules” on Disinformation to American Politics” and whether “Moscow Mitch”, as the Senate Majority Leader is now called, can be shamed into doing the right thing and stop blocking efforts to protect our elections systems that were meddled with by the Russians in 2016 and are still under attack and will be targeted more aggressively in 2020 by Trump’s favorite despots in Russia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

A Preview of Tonight’s Democratic Debate

Then finally we get a preview of tonight’s second half of the Democratic field of presidential contenders on stage in Detroit in a debate broadcast by CNN whose moderators appeared more intent of stirring up heat rather than shedding light in last night’s debate which attracted fewer viewers than the previous debates on MSNBC. Jeet Heer, the national affairs correspondent at The Nation where he has an article “The Centrists Did Not Hold”, joins us to discuss whether efforts by the centrist candidates to discredit the leftists which failed last night will be reversed tonight with the centrist front-runner Joe Biden likely to be the target.