The Hill’s Top Opinions: If Biden doesn’t run, would Bernie be the best alternative?

View Online  Opinion Monday, March 13 ©  AP Good Monday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions.   With more Democrats expressing doubts about whether President Biden should run for a second term, the question is, who would replace him?   One possible option is Senator and two-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), writes Fox News political analyst JUAN WILLIAMS. Various polls have shown Sanders maintains a strong base of support, particularly among young voters.   But Sanders has made it clear he's not running. For one thing, he's warmed to President Biden, who Sanders says has been "better than people anticipated." Sanders might have more of an impact by remaining in the Senate and continuing to nudge Biden to the left.   But Williams believes the charismatic Sanders generates an enthusiasm among Democrats that no other candidate since Obama has been able to replicate. Williams adds, "The Vermont senator is a champion of unions that are still the lifeblood of Democratic Party politics in terms of money, ground-game organization, and voter turnout on election days."   Of course, the main reason many Democrats oppose another Biden run is his age, 80. Sanders is 81, but, unlike Biden, he doesn't seem to have lost a step. And as Williams puts it, "Despite his age, Sanders continues to speak to working-class and middle-class frustration in watching the rich get richer while they struggle to pay bills."   If the president doesn't run, Williams writes, "you can bet Sanders will take a third run at the White House. And he might win."   Read Williams's column here.    Not subscribed to The Hill's Top Opinions? Sign up here. MORE TOP OPINIONS Lori Lightfoot's defeat is a call to action for Democrats on crime By DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN, Democratic political consultant It is essential to recognize that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's underperformance was not an isolated incident; rather, it was one of many instances over the last two years where voters in blue states and cities explicitly rejected ostensibly soft-on-crime Democratic candidates and policies.  Read the op-ed here Why sanitizing books is worse than banning them By ELIZABETH GRACE MATTHEW, Young Voices contributor When a book is banned, at least people know whether or not they read it. In fact, banned books often become forbidden fruit, and people have always had an Edenic compulsion to possess whatever is off limits. Banning a book has always served in part as a way to advertise it. The sanitization process, by contrast, leaves people believing that they've read a given work, when in fact they have read an imposter. Read the op-ed here We should be thanking Sam Bankman-Fried By TOM P. VARTANIAN, executive director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center Because of Bankman-Fried and his now-bankrupt company, FTX, the crypto balloon crashed to earth before the industry could become so large or integrated into the traditional financial services business that contagion from its collapse could cause the economy to implode. Read the op-ed here How the Fed's 2008 mortgage experiment fueled today's housing crisis By PAUL KUPIEC, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and ALEX POLLOCK, senior fellow at the Mises Institute Any realistic review of the impact of the Federal Reserve's experiment investing in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) would conclude that the Fed should stop buying mortgages. Its decision to invest trillions of dollars in MBS has helped to push the cost of home ownership beyond the reach of many. Others will find themselves locked into homes they cannot afford to sell because of the artificially low rates on their current mortgages.  Read the op-ed here QUICK TAKES China has three roads to Taiwan: The US must block them all   How America actually taxes the affluent   China and US defense spending are heading in opposite directions   Who wants to live in the United States of Florida? Stay Engaged The Hill's Top Opinions is written by Daniel Allott, an opinion editor at The Hill and the author of "On the Road in Trump's America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation."   Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill.   Check out The Hill's Opinion section online for the latest. Interested in submitting an op-ed? Click here. If you find this newsletter useful, please consider recommending it to others: thehill.com/opinion.  Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  Sign Up for Other Newsletters 1625 K Street NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 © 1998 - 2022 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.

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