NY Times:
Warren and Harris Rise in Democratic Primary, Challenging Male Front-Runners
“I want someone who I know will stand up, that has a backbone,” Ms. Krerowicz said, suggesting that Ms. Warren and Ms. Harris could perhaps form a ticket. “They’re both very, very strong women. I would love to see them together, but I think Elizabeth has the experience.”
In the span of just a few weeks, voters like Ms. Krerowicz have pushed the race into a new, highly uncertain phase, propelling a pair of women toward the top of the Democratic pack at the expense of the onetime front-runners, Mr. Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
WaPo:
Aided by a strong economy, Trump approval rises, but a majority also see him as ‘unpresidential’
The survey highlights the degree to which Trump has a narrow but real path to reelection. His approval rating on most issues is net negative, and more than 6 in 10 Americans say he has acted in ways that are unpresidential since he was sworn into office. Still, roughly one-fifth of those who say he is not presidential say they approve of the job he is doing, and he runs even against four possible Democratic nominees in hypothetical general-election matchups. He trails decisively only to former vice president Joe Biden.
The ‘rise’ is Margin of Error stuff. The ‘unpresidential’ is not. And that path is very, very narrow.
Bill Galston/Brookings:
Can Biden hold onto his lead?
Biden’s lead rests almost entirely on his strength among African American voters, who constitute a large portion of the Democratic vote in almost every primary in the country. In the 18 states that cast votes on or before Super Tuesday, CBS polling data show that Biden enjoys the support of fully 50 percent of likely African American participants. Kamala Harris is a distant third, with 11 percent of African Americans, while Cory Booker has only 3 percent. By contrast, the white vote is split, with Biden at 26 percent, Warren at 21 percent, and Sanders at 16 percent.
Biden’s dependence on African American support underscores the potential consequences of the damage he inflicted on himself with his ill-advised remarks about cooperation with segregationist senators early in his career. “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden recalled. “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son’.” In response, Sen. Booker issued a stinging statement. “You don’t joke about calling black men ‘boys.’ Men like James O. Eastland used words like that, and the racial policies that accompanied them, to perpetuate white supremacy and strip black Americans of our very humanity. Vice President Biden’s relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people.” Booker concluded by demanding an immediate apology from Biden for the “pain his words are dredging up for many Americans.”
Those who want impeachment need to contend with those numbers.
Franklin Foer/Atlantic (before yesterday’s win against the Netherlands):
Megan Rapinoe Is a Patriot
The U.S. women’s national soccer team didn’t just win a match against England—it’s making the case for a different kind of patriotism.
That this team has stirred so much affection, and garnered such high TV ratings, is a testament to how cosmopolitanism has taken hold in a broad swath of the country. These players are a reminder of how, in the depths of a dark political era, it’s possible to love one’s country; they are an object lesson in how the values of liberal America can be patriotically trumpeted.
When Trump indulges in his self-aggrandizing celebration this week, I’m going to choose to think about Megan Rapinoe, with her arms defiantly spread in the air. I’m going to think about how the nation can still garner the world’s admiration, and how an idealistic vision of national community remains undefeated.
Maggie Mertins/Atlantic:
The U.S. Just Won the Women’s World Cup. Now They Have to Win Equal Pay.
Some 1 billion people tuned in to the games this year, making the USWNT’s victory even more critical in their upcoming legal battle.
There is only one appropriate reward for the U.S. Women’s National Team upon their return home as the winners of back-to-back World Cup championships: equal pay. If the U.S. Soccer Federation wants to win another, it has to stop underpaying its banner team.
The USWNT is set to enter mediation with the Federation when they return from France, after bringing a gender-discrimination lawsuit in March. The lawsuit stated that they are paid far less than the men’s team, in some cases earning just 38 percent of pay per game. This team has shown that they won’t back down, on or off the pitch, until they get what they deserve. And with yet another Cup trophy on their shelf, they’ve more than proved that they are worth as much—if not more—as the men’s national team, which failed to even qualify for the World Cup last year.
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
‘Democracy . . . is about to die in Youngstown’ with closing of the local newspaper
For Mark Brown, the Vindicator’s general manger, the loss is personal, devastating — and, he told me, unavoidable.
His family has owned and run the paper for 132 years. His mother, Betty Brown Jagnow, the publisher who is well into her 80s, still comes into the office regularly and has called the decision “gut-wrenching.”
“It’s all we’ve ever known and all we ever wanted to do,” Brown said as we talked last week in his bare-bones office, a converted storage room, filled with filing cabinets and blazing with bright lights.
Brown realized five years ago that he probably should put the Vindicator up for sale but hesitated because he knew that a chain buyer would slash the staff and harm the paper’s quality.
“I didn’t have the stomach for that, so we decided to ride it out,” he said.