Last week’s Big News was a poll showing Elizabeth Warren leading in Iowa. A Des Moines Register/CNN poll gives her 22% against Joe Biden’s 20%, the first poll knocking Biden out of the lead. It calls into question his attraction as the candidate most likely to beat Trump. But there’s more to poll. It gives Sanders 11 percent. If the far-far-far-left candidates primary voters decide that Warren is the best far-far-far-Leftist for beating far-left candidate then Bernie Sanders’ followers may switch over to give Prof. Warren the party nomination.
Polling has consistently shown Democratic preferences for the far-far-far-left. The most recent national polls show the f-f-f-lefts Warren (19.8%) and Sanders (16.6%), well ahead of the far-left Biden (30.2%). Not much evidence at this point about where supporters of the remaining candidates will go when their favorites drop out.
Mayor Bill De Blasio’s announcement that he’s dropping out of the race will have no impact of these calculations. Months of polling failed to detect any support, within the usual margin of error for his candidacy. The New York Post, which has had a lot of fun with Bill, headlined a gloating obituary of his campaign: “Dead of Ego-Induced Psychosis.” Not kind, but fair.
On Sept. 21 Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Tim Ryan, Tom Steyer, Joe Sestak, Steve Bullock, and Marianne Williamson attended Iowa’s Polk County Democrats Steak Fry. Some of these candidates have views unwelcome among the carnivorous voting bloc. Examples follow.
Yang: “it’s good for the environment, it’s good for your health if you eat less meat…I think it would be healthy on both an individual and a societal level for us to move in that direction.”
Klobuchar supports reshaping dietary guidelines to reduce beef consumption.
Harris supports changing the government dietary guidelines and the food pyramid to reduce the amount of red meat in American diets and proposes putting climate change labels on food.
Pete Buttigieg has called for more “balance” in American meat production but, attentive to the cattleman vote, assured them that he is not in favor of abolishing cows.
Beto O’Rourke: “I think we just have to be more responsible in the way that we do it and the best way to do that is to allow the markets to respond by setting a price on carbon in every single part of our economy, every facet of American life.”
Bernie Sanders: “All I can say is if we believe, as I do… that climate change is real, we’re gonna have to tackle it in every area, including agriculture.”
According to reports, organizers were prepared to grill roughly 10,500 steaks plus 1,000 vegan burgers. Yet no information about which candidate ate steaks and who (if any) ate vegan burgers. Am I the only voter who’s sensing a cover-up here?
Since we’re on the subject of cover-up arts, let’s look north for news of an alternative evasive technique. Time magazine turned up an old photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dressed in Middle Eastern garb and adorned with blackface (brownface?). Faced with an imminent re-election campaign he held a news conference to apologize for what turned out to be not one, but three “black-face” incidents. (He’s nor sure, but there may be more). He condemned himself for being a racist without knowing he was a racist. For me the high point of his confession was when the extracted a maneuver from JFK’s play book. After the Pay of Pigs disaster President Kennedy went on TV to announce he was taking full responsibility. This proved quite effective in softening public opinion. Here’s Trudeau’s version: “I deeply regret that I did that. I take responsibility for my decision.”
Really? Justin took full responsibility for dressing himself? He didn’t blame his mommy or nanny or valet? Is that really going to work? He may have sensed a weakness in this maneuver. He went on to share the blame with Canadian culture and the white race. He later borrowed another maneuver from his southern neighbor. When Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a nasty exploiter of his female subordinates, he immediately announced that the aimed to live a purer life and, better yet, wage relentless war against the American Rifle Association. Trudeau’s version is a vow to wage war against evil looking rifles.

John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for U.S. Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com