In the course of today's "Meet The Press" the issue of President Trump's acquittal in the Senate this week was only briefly touched on in comparison to the discussion of what is going in the Democratic primary.
We'll tackle this first as the question was asked, "What was the lesson that the president learned?" But the more significant question is "what we have learned?" Mr. Trump, as Kasie Hunt pointed out, feels that he can be vindictive as he wants and take any actions he thinks will benefit him, given the Republican-controlled Senate's vote. What have we learned? We've learned that this president is now free to operate above the law as it would apply to an ordinary citizen and that his behavior and methods will not change.
The political fallout in November is still too soon to predict, but one thing is certain and that is Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is continually getting played by this president and frankly when she suggests that she hopes Mr. Trump has learned a lesson from all this, she is being hopelessly naive and the streak of independence that she purports to have looks like a joke. At the end of the day, she'll go along with the crowd.
As for the Democrats, even with the Iowa debacle behind them and on the cusp of the New Hampshire primary it is still really too soon to tell who the nominee will be come the general, but right now, the two front runners are Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fmr. South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg who Chuck Todd interviewed this morning.
Make no mistake, both would have a very difficult and perhaps improbable road to the White House if either was to become the nominee. Also, for the record, Mr. Todd challenged Mr. Sanders less than he did with Mayor Pete, as he is known.
Mr. Sanders is an ideologue for the left, which being as such, will make it problematic for him to win. Medicare-for-all and other proposals that Mr. Sanders is advocating for sound good, but practically speaking are unattainable. We're not trying to burst anyone's bubble, but looking at pragmatically, the votes will never come to pass such societal changes.
As for Mayor Pete, he takes a much more centrist approach; case in point would be with healthcare and creating a public option within the Affordable Care Act. However, with both of these two candidates, one word comes to mind when thinking of either of them in the general election.
Surrogates.
President Trump will denigrate socialism himself if going up against Mr. Sanders. He's done as much already, but his surrogates will pull out all of the statements he's made from the past 40 years and put Bernie on the defensive for every one of them. Mr. Sanders, corrected Mr. Todd when the moderator posed the notion that people are scared on the word "socialism," calling what he is for is "democratic socialism." It's not going to matter. Middle America doesn't want to be Europe, especially when they find out that they'll have to pay more in taxes to have Medicare-for-all.
During the interview with Pete Buttigieg, Mr. Todd played a clip showing an Iowa woman being told that Mr. Buttigieg is gay and then her saying that she wants to change her vote because of it. Mr. Buttigieg's answer was compassionate inasmuch as he said that he was saddened by the answer but that if he were the president, he would be working hard for her too. The majority of Americans do not take issue with Mr. Buttigieg's private life, but unfortunately, the president's surrogates will know no low when it comes to smearing the fmr. mayor's sexuality. It's this type of harsh reality that the country will have to prepare for, and again, frankly, they're not ready to be so open minded. Sad but true.
As for Joe Biden, he will likely finish fourth again in New Hampshire creating even stronger headwinds for his campaign. Mr. Biden will be in the race until at least super Tuesday, which will be the great determining factor in deciding the nominee. However, one can't help but think that Mr. Biden has missed his window. Objectively, he just hasn't been as sharp as he needs to be this time around to capture the nomination.
And speaking of super Tuesday, with all the talk of the primaries, there is still the candidacy of billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg looming over the entire field. Mr. Bloomberg is putting all his resources into advertising leading up to that day. After super Tuesday, it will become very clear whether Mr. Bloomberg will continue or not. Regarding his resources, i.e. money, Mr. Bloomberg has already spent $273 million dollars on advertising, completely dwarfing the entire field.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has contested that someone should not be able to buy his way into the nomination. However, it's difficult for this column to condemn Mr. Bloomberg for the way he is conducting his campaign because given all the hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money that plays a role in political campaigns, we know that all the money that Mr. Bloomberg has spent is his own. Mr. Buttigieg explained that there is little substitute for retail politics - listening to the electorate and communicating with them face to face - and as Mr. Sanders stated today, campaigns are about more than just money, you still need the message and the votes.
It's too early to make any predictions with the exception that once the general is upon us, Mr. Trump will be sure to make it the ugliest campaign we've ever witnessed.
Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; John E. Sununu; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Senator of Missouri; Joshua Johnson, MSNBC
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