The Corndogs and Down Vests Are Over. The Democratic Primary Has Entered the Hot Zone.

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

12 February 20

It's getting real coming out of New Hampshire, as Bernie Sanders faces a stern test from Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren's campaign is muddled, and Joe Biden's is sinking fast.

hings come at you fast.

Not five minutes after Bernie Sanders had finished his victory speech Tuesday night, and not 10 minutes after Sanders had bum-rushed Pete Buttigieg off the networks in mid-platitude, the essential Jon Ralston dropped this little item from Nevada onto the electric Twitter machine. From the Nevada Independent:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would “end Culinary Healthcare” if elected president, according to a new one-pager the politically powerful Culinary Union is posting back of house on the Las Vegas Strip.

The new flyer, a copy of which was obtained by The Nevada Independent, compares the positions on health care, “good jobs” and immigration of six Democratic presidential hopefuls who have come to the union’s headquarters over the last two months to court its members. But the primary difference outlined in the document, which is being distributed in both English and Spanish, is in the candidates’ positions on health care, taking particular aim at the Vermont senator over his Medicare-for-all policy, which would establish a single-payer, government run health insurance system.

The flyer says Sanders, if elected president, would “end Culinary Healthcare,” “require ‘Medicare For All,’” and “lower drug prices.” The language it uses to describe the position of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also supports Medicare for all after a transition period, is much gentler: “‘Medicare for All,’” “replace Culinary Healthcare after 3-year transition or at end of collective bargaining agreements,” and “lower drug prices.”

This is a huge and diverse union and it does not play games.

The union, considered an organizing behemoth in the Silver State, has been known to tip the scales in elections in the past. Though the 60,000-member union has not yet decided whether it will endorse in the Democratic presidential primary, the flyer appears to be part of a coordinated campaign ahead of Nevada’s Feb. 22 Democratic presidential primary and shows the union will not be sitting idly by, with or without an endorsement. A spokeswoman for the Culinary Union said the flyer is also going out to members Tuesday night via text and email.

Shit starts getting real right now.

The New Hampshire results were a triumph for the Comfy Shoes—Don't Scare The Horses faction within the field of candidates. Yes, Joe Biden, that faction's presumed avatar, is sinking without a trace. And, yes, Bernie Sanders won the primary, but just barely, and over Pete Buttigieg, who treated us to the following marshmallow waffle in his post-election speech.

This is the powerful majority we’re gathering together—it is a coalition of addition and not subtraction. A movement reaching into church basements and barbershops, into universities and union halls, carrying the same values everywhere we go...We’re not going to defeat the most divisive president in modern history by tearing down anyone who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent of the time. We also know that we can’t defeat such disruptive president by relying on the same Washington framework and mindset...This election isn't just historic, it's urgent. And tonight, we look forward knowing this is our one shot not just to end the era of Donald Trump, but to launch the era that must come next.

I am inspired by this ... to take a nap. However, it sounds wonderful, especially in the studied Obama cadences that have become increasingly obvious every time Buttigieg takes to a microphone.

Compare that to the night's other big winner, Amy Klobuchar, whose third-place finish is, in fact, being wildly overpraised by the punditariat. Klobuchar's entire surge was propelled by her willingness to take a bite out of Buttigieg in last Friday's debate, which was the key to what is now relentlessly termed her "strong performance" in that debate. That little bit of vinegar put a tart edge on her otherwise soft-focus, "you've got a home with me" pitch down the New Hampshire homestretch. I will grant you that a fifth in your backyard and a third in New Hampshire does not constitute the juggernaut we're hearing about on television, but Klobuchar's combination of tough-love snark and carefully cultivated folksiness, like a grandma's sampler onto which is stitched, "Get Your Fcking Act Together, People!" genuinely sold her to the late-deciding duck-boots up here.

Which brings us to Senator Professor Warren who, God love her, began her speech with the following:

Results are still coming in from across the state, but right now it is clear that Senator Sanders and Mayor Buttigieg had strong nights. And I also want to congratulate my friend and colleague Amy Klobuchar for showing just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out.

SPW gave her speech early, when it already was clear that the night wasn't going her way. But she wasn't getting the hell out of Dodge, the way Biden did. She stuck around for more than an hour until the now-famous selfie line finally was cleared. But beginning her speech the way she did is both a tribute to her innate decency and a window into why her campaign seems stuck in the mud. I don't know who is advising her, but this strategy of refusing to take the fight to the opposition right in front of her is not working.

She is not running against either Donald Trump or the malefactors of great wealth at the moment. She's running against Sanders and Buttigieg and Klobuchar and Biden. And whoever it was who suggested leaking a staff memo in which were made all the criticisms of her immediate rivals that SPW should have been making on the stump and on the debate stage all along deserves a gold medal for passive-aggressive campaigning, as well as a corresponding decrease in pay. Who "stays in the fight" by memo? That bungled tactic managed in one swoop to undermine her reputation for straight talk and her attempt to cast herself the "unity candidate."

Warren still has plenty of time to right things. She has money and a campaign infrastructure that's been in place for months. And she's still a strong candidate. But, as much as she may not like it, she's running in a Democratic primary against other Democrats, and her campaign should start behaving accordingly. In her election night speech, Klobuchar began by saying, "Hello, America. I'm Amy Klobuchar, and I will beat Donald Trump." And she wrapped things up with a conclusion that humbly suggested what an underdog she is against her powerful opponents.

I don’t have that big bank account. (Hi, Joe!) I do not have the big-name of some of the other people in this race. (Hi, Bernie and Liz!) I am not a newcomer with no political record. (What up, Pete?) What I did is get things done.

Her speech made a CNN panel positively giddy. Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, Brian Williams looked at SPW’s endless selfie line and called it, “lonely.” I try not to think too hard about how certain minds work.

The point is that we have left the corndogs and down vests behind now. The campaign is moving into the hot zone with stunning speed. You adapt, or your campaign is bleached bones in the desert, somewhere south of Elko.