Dear Commons Community,

Yeshiva University announced this morning that a student has tested positive for COVID-19, making this the third confirmed case of the new coronavirus disease in New York state.  As reported:

“We have unfortunately received news this morning that our student has tested positive for COVID-19. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected,” the university said in a statement. “We are taking every precaution by canceling all classes on Wilf Campus in Washington Heights for Wednesday March 4th, 2020.”

The statement continued, “This includes all in-person graduate courses on that campus as well as at the boys’ high school. This precautionary step will allow us to work with city agencies and other professionals to best prepare our campus and ensure the uncompromised safety of our students, faculty and staff. “

The school’s three other campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx will remain in operation.

On Tuesday, New York state and city officials announced that the second person with coronavirus was a man in his 50s who lives in New Rochelle and commutes to Manhattan for work. He had not been to any of the countries with outbreaks (China, Iran, Italy, Japan, and South Korea), but had traveled to Israel and Miami in February. He is hospitalized in “severe” condition.

His family is also in quarantined in their home. One of his children is a daughter who attends SAR Academy and High School in Riverdale, prompting the school to close its locations, while another child is a son who attends Yeshiva University and lived on the Wilf campus in Washington Heights. The daughter did not have any symptoms, while the son did have symptoms.

Officials also characterized the Westchester man as being the first case of “community spread” of the disease. Community spread is when someone contracts the illness without having been knowingly in contact with someone who also has disease or having traveled to one of the countries where coronavirus first spread.

The temple, Young Israel of New Rochelle, where the man worshipped has stopped its services indefinitely, and worshipers who attended services on February 22nd or a funeral and a bat mitzvah on February 23rd were asked to self-quarantine until March 8.

The first person infected with coronavirus in New York was identified on Monday as a health care professional who had been in Iran. She and her husband, who officials believe will test positive for coronavirus, are in self-quarantine in Manhattan.”

It is likely that Yeshiva is probably going to have to keep its campus closed and try to make other arrangements for its students.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The novel coronavirus and Covid-19, the disease it causes, are becoming a public-health threat across the world.  As more cases are reported, colleges are re-evaluating their study-abroad programs, moving courses online, and taking other preventive measures. Meanwhile, some academic associations are canceling their conferences.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has compiled information on the virus’s spread and its implications for higher ed.  Here is a recap.

Which American campuses have reported cases?

As of March 3, more than 100 cases of the virus had been reported in the United States. There were scattered reports of connections to college campuses:

Rice University said on March 2 that a staff member traveling internationally had possibly been exposed to the virus, and that 17 people — including faculty, students, and staff — with whom the staff member had had contact were self-quarantined.

Dartmouth College notified its community on March 2 that an employee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center had tested positive for the virus, and had attended an event at the college’s graduate business school before being quarantined.

Students at Lake Washington Institute of Technology, near Seattle, may have been exposed to the virus, according to the Kirkland Reporter, after visiting a nursing facility where cases have been confirmed.

A University of Massachusetts at Boston student who had traveled to Wuhan, China — where the virus originated — was among the first documented cases in the United States.

How has Covid-19 affected study-abroad programs and travel?

Because most reported cases are abroad, many American colleges and universities are advising students studying abroad in countries where coronavirus cases have been reported to return home. Some colleges are also imposing self-quarantines on people returning from affected countries.

Many colleges are restricting or suspending travel they have sponsored to the same countries, and canceling or suspending study-abroad programs. Several campuses have gestured toward future cancellations, including of study-abroad programs for the summer and fall semesters.

How else are campuses preparing for a possible pandemic?

Some colleges are preparing for even-more-disruptive scenarios. Syracuse University said on March 2 that it was devising a plan to continue instruction in case it has to “suspend residential learning.”

Have academic associations canceled conferences?

Yes.

The American Physical Society announced that its biggest meeting of the year, scheduled for March, has been canceled. The Asia-Pacific Association for International Education announced on February 29 that its annual conference, slated to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, would be postponed. The Educause Learning Initiative said that its annual meeting, slated for Bellevue, Wash., had been canceled.

Other conferences are deferring a decision, suggesting possible action if the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues other guidance. The American Council on Education said on March 2 that it planned to go forward with its annual meeting, scheduled for mid-March, but would be in touch with attendees if the situation changed.

At least one association with an imminent conference said it would proceed as planned. The Association of Writers & Writing Programs released a lengthy statement explaining its decision to hold its annual conference in San Antonio from March 4 to March 7. Several academic presses subsequently posted on Twitter that they would not be attending.

What will be the long-term effects on higher education?

It’s unclear. Some observers have speculated that if it can’t be contained, the virus could prove to be the biggest disruption to higher ed this year:

Meanwhile, colleges have confronted an unwelcome side effect of the paranoia surrounding the virus: discrimination. Leaders on several campuses, including Pennsylvania State, Syracuse, and Northwestern Universities, have taken pains to emphasize not targeting people of Asian descent, after reports of anti-Asian discrimination on campuses.”

Below is a statement from CUNY’s Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriquez.

I have already told the students in my courses (they are already offered in blended mode) that if there is any disruption, we will move to a totally online environment.

Tony

——————————————————————————————————-

OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR

As we continue to monitor developments related to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is important to gather facts, take preventive measures, and plan for a variety of scenarios. As I am sure you know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published preliminary recommendations for organizations to consider in case of local transmissions of the coronavirus in the United States.

Although the first case of coronavirus in New York City was just confirmed, the risk to New Yorkers remains low. The NYC Department of Health has “not detected community transmission of COVID-19 in New York City.” Community transmission means the disease is spreading and the source of the infection is unknown. However, it has raised our level of concern and we are stepping up our ongoing preparations for the possibility of our city and campuses being impacted by the virus.

We are also giving our facilities extra attention in terms of restocking hand sanitizers, soaps and other cleaning supplies and ensuring that there are plenty of places throughout common areas where students, faculty, and staff can wash or sanitize their hands. Clear signage regarding proper hygiene (washing hands and covering coughs, etc.) will be displayed in restrooms and in various common areas around campus and CUNY offices.

For our employees, please note:

Employees who are sick and exhibiting symptoms of acute respiratory illness are asked to stay home and not come to work until they are free of fever (100.4° F [37.8° C] or greater using an oral thermometer) and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines. Employees should notify their supervisor and keep them informed of their absence. For the health and safety of all employees, staff members who report to work exhibiting these symptoms may be sent home.

Employees returning from a country designated as “Level 3” by the CDC are to contact their Human Resources office by phone or email before returning to work.

Employees who may have international travel plans should check the CDC’s Traveler’s Health Notices for the latest guidance and recommendations for the country of travel.

The University also recommends regularly checking the following resources for updates:

• CUNY.edu/coronavirus
• New York State Department of Health
• New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• World Health Organization
• CUNY Research Foundation

We understand that employees may be experiencing heightened levels of anxiety during this time.  We want to remind you that CUNY’s Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) is available to work with you toward addressing this.  CUNY’s EAP may be reached at 1-888-993-7650 or www.deeroaks.com.

The NYC Health Department is preparing for all possible scenarios, and we will continue to monitor and communicate with them about any potential impact to our campuses.

Please be assured that CUNY is taking this possible threat very seriously and we are actively making and updating plans to ensure employee and student safety, as well as continuity of our business and operations across a range of possible scenarios.

As you know, CUNY’s academic systems, including its learning management platform Blackboard and our cloud collaboration tools Microsoft Office 365 for Education and Dropbox, can be helpful ways to deliver academic instruction in a remote/online manner, should the need arise.  Furthermore, CUNY’s Virtual Desktop environment and many similar Virtual Desktop environments at the colleges provide students, faculty, and staff with remote access to some of the software products commonly found in computer labs across the University, again should the need arise.

We will continue to communicate with you about our ongoing efforts regarding the coronavirus.

Should you have any immediate questions or concerns, please contact your College Human Resources office.

Dear Commons Community,

The battle for the Democratic Presidential Nomination was the focus yesterday for much of the news media with fifteen contests including the high population states of California and Texas. While counting is still continuing, all of the major networks projected Joe Biden winning at least nine contests and Bernie Sanders winning California, the state with the largest number of delegates.  Here is an analysis from the Associated Press.

“A resurgent Joe Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. But his rival, Bernie Sanders, seized the biggest prize with a win in California that ensured he — and his embrace of democratic socialism — would drive the Democrats’ nomination fight for the foreseeable future.

And suddenly, the Democratic Party’s presidential field, which featured more than a half dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest.

Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 presidential nomination fight.

It could take weeks — or months — for the party to pick one of them to take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night.

Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont.

“You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics,” Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. “This will become a contrast in ideas.”

Biden’s victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots — a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45.

Sanders’ success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decadeslong political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast.

The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half billion dollars to score a single victory — in American Samoa.

The balance of Super Tuesday’s battlefield — with Biden winning at least eight states and Sanders four — raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.

Biden’s strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats’ establishment wing.

The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a victory in Massachusetts. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas — in addition to Oklahoma.

Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night’s biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado.

Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000.

The Democratic race has shifted dramatically as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden.

In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump.

Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party’s far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nation’s political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party’s Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change.

Across the Super Tuesday states, there were early questions about Sanders’ claims that he is growing his support from his failed 2016 presidential bid.

Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016′s numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders’ vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders’ raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country.

“We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016,” Bloomberg said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida.

The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Warren was also fighting to be optimistic.

Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan before news of her disappointing home-state finish was announced, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she’s willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn’t claim an outright victory anywhere.

“Here’s my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart,” Warren declared. She added: “You don’t get what you don’t fight for. I am in this fight.”

With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 438 to Biden, 369 delegates to Sanders, 45 to Warren, 39 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift dramatically throughout the night as new states, none bigger than California, report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.

The ultimate nominee must ultimately claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season.”

Congratulations to the victors, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.  The losers, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg will likely drop out of the contest.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Political rivals, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg, need good showings in today’s Super Tuesday primaries to remain viable candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.   The Massachusetts progressive senator who seeks to limit the influence of the wealthy on policymaking and the former Mayor of New York City, who is determined to use his fortune to advance centrist policies have exchanged fiery and exasperated barbs at the last two Democratic presidential debates, and Warren has aired hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads against him.

But the pair find themselves in similar political positions heading into the single most important day on the Democratic presidential primary calendar, a date both campaigns have long pointed to as the real start to a long march to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee this summer. Strong performances from a triumphant Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a resurgent former Vice President Joe Biden in early states have significantly weakened Warren and Blooomberg’s candidacies. Both campaigns may find it difficult to justify their continued existence to allies without surprisingly robust performances tonight, when roughly one-third of all the delegates to the convention will be handed out.  As reported by The Huffington Post.

“The pressure is likely greater on Bloomberg, who has fewer long-standing ties to the Democratic Party, and based his very entrance into the race on the idea that Biden would limp into Super Tuesday ― a possibility the former vice president’s nearly 30-point win in South Carolina erased. Two of the most senior strategists in the Democratic Party suggested on Saturday night that Bloomberg should exit the race.

“The reality is Bloomberg needed Biden to lose South Carolina to have any chance,” David Plouffe, who managed former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, said on MSNBC. A few channels over on CNN, top Obama strategist David Axelrod had similar musings: “As long as Biden is competitive in this race, where’s the path for Bloomberg?”

Warren has faced less explicit pressure, but polling indicates she could win at most just one of the first 18 states to vote ― her home state of Massachusetts. Some progressives are growing increasingly antsy about her presence in the race and fear she could limit Sanders’ delegate advantage. One previously neutral left-leaning group, Democracy For America, endorsed Sanders on Monday. And other groups could seek to push Warren out of the race after Tuesday. 

“If you get to a point where the difference between Biden and Bernie is down to five points, and Warren is that five points, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on her to drop out,” a Democratic strategist said, requesting anonymity to avoid alienating Warren and her campaign.

Both Warren and Bloomberg received a boost recently, when Pete Buttigieg and May Klobacher dropped out of the race potentially making it easier for them to hit the 15% viability threshold necessary to receive delegates in states and districts across the Super Tuesday map.

At a Bloomberg event in Houston on Thursday morning, an older-leaning but diverse crowd munched on a plentiful spread of breakfast tacos and picked up free T-shirts from the campaign, listening to Bloomberg deliver an brief stump speech and take no questions before jetting off to a campaign stop in Oklahoma, another Super Tuesday state.

“You’ve all heard our slogan, ‘Mike will get it done,’” Bloomberg said, in the midst of a speech that portrayed him as uniquely positioned to use his combination of money and management experience to pass gun control and climate change legislation. “If you haven’t heard it, then we spent a lot of money for nothing.”

Bloomberg is, if nothing else, right about how much money he’s spent. His campaign has spent more than $64 million on television ads in Texas alone. By comparison, Biden has spent just over $217,000; Warren and a super PAC backing her have spent just under $950,000; and Sanders has spent $4.5 million, according to a Democrat tracking ad buys in the state. Bloomberg has a whopping 19 field offices in the state, and has visited six times. The campaign claims to have the only presence in the heavily Latino areas along the U.S.-Mexico border, and is hosting more than 30 events a week.

He’s repeated this type of heavy investment across the Super Tuesday map, hiring more staffers, spending more on ads and opening more offices in any other candidates. But at least in the largest states ― Texas and California ― his investments place him in third and fourth place, according to polling averages.

Bloomberg’s relatively low rate of return has Biden allies in a tizzy, arguing the billionaire is effectively boosting Sanders by stealing ideological moderates and Black voters from the former vice president. On Sunday, a super PAC supporting Biden, Unite The Country, suggested Bloomberg should drop out of the contest.

“Bloomberg’s $500 million in advertising is basically serving as the Bernie Sanders super PAC, dividing the large share of Democratic voters who do not identify in the super-liberal lane of the party,” the group’s leaders wrote. “Mayor Bloomberg should decide soon if he wants to be the reason why Bernie Sanders is the nominee of the party.”

The Bloomberg campaign has rejected that argument, arguing the first four states are electorally insignificant. “Mike Bloomberg has not been on the ballot yet,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheeky said not long after the South Carolina results rolled in. (The campaign has a point: Ten times as many delegates will be awarded on Tuesday as in the first four states combined.)

The Biden campaign, full of energy after South Carolina, has been eagerly suggesting voters could switch en masse from Bloomberg to the former vice president. “I know y’all dated, flirted, dabbled with Mike Bloomberg a little bit,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a Biden endorser, at a rally in Virginia on Sunday. “All is forgiven, it’s time to come home.”

But interviews with Bloomberg voters in Houston indicated there may be more resistance to Biden than otherwise thought. Many of them viewed Sanders as an equally existential threat as Trump, and were deeply disappointed in the rest of the Democratic field.

“This election is huge. American Democracy is under threat from the left and the right,” said David Hoyer, a physician who said Bloomberg would “end the lying, the nonsense and the craziness.”

He quickly ticked through the flaws of the rest of the field: “Sanders is gonna lose, Warren is a nutcase. The Republicans will roll over Buttigieg. Biden is too old.”

Getting Bloomberg out of the race may prove to be easier said than done. While he has no television ad time reserved after Tuesday, a multibillionaire can snap his fingers and restart the ad blitz. Asked on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night if he would stop running if he wasn’t in the top three after Super Tuesday, Bloomberg responded quickly: “No, of course not.”

Warren’s first words after arriving onstage at her rally in front of 2,000 people in Houston on Saturday night were blunt: “I want to be the first to say the outcome of the first four contests haven’t gone exactly as I hoped.”

Earlier in the day, Warren had finished fifth in the South Carolina primary, following up back-to-back fourth-place finishes in New Hampshire and Nevada and a third-place finish in Iowa. But Warren, more than any other non-billionaire candidate in the race, invested early and often in the Super Tuesday states. Her campaign has 60 organizers on the ground in Texas, and started knocking doors and calling voters back in August.”

I believe both Warren and Bloomberg will be seriously looking at the viability of their candidacies after tonight.

Tony

Chris Mathews

Dear Commons Community,

Chris Matthews retired last night from his longtime role as host of Hardball following an allegation that he “inappropriately flirted” with a female guest.

The MSNBC anchor shared the shocking news at the start of his show, announcing on-air, “I want to start with my headline tonight: I’m retiring.”

“This is the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC and obviously this isn’t for a lack of interest in politics,” he added.

An MSNBC insider told The Washington Post that network executive Phil Griffin told Matthews this weekend in Washington, DC, where “Hardball” is filmed, that “he had to resign or retire immediately.”

“The news was kept a secret at the network until around 6 p.m. on Monday when all the senior staff were informed Matthews would retire at the top of his show, at 7 p.m.,” the insider said.

Matthews said he’s leaving his post to make way for “younger generations” who are “improving the workplace.”

NBC News’ National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki took over Monday night’s show after a commercial break.

On Friday, freelance journalist Laura Bassett published a column in GQ, accusing Matthews of making inappropriate advances toward her twice as she readied herself to appear on his show.  This was

Bassett wrote about the incidents in 2017 but didn’t name Matthews at the time.

During one instance in 2016, Matthews allegedly “looked over at me in the makeup chair next to him and said, ‘Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?’” Basset wrote.

Without addressing Bassett, or those alleged instances, Matthews on Monday night apologized for past comments on women’s appearances.

“A lot of it has to do with how we talk to each other, compliments on a woman’s appearance, that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK,” Matthews said in explaining why he was leaving.

“Not then, and certainly not today. And for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

Bassett reacted to Matthews’ resignation on Twitter. “All I gotta say is… it’s about time,” she wrote.

She followed up those remarks by writing, “Since calling out Chris Matthews, this week has been really rough.”

“The harassment has been invasive, cruel and personal. And it’s all worth it if he will never have the platform to demean and objectify us again.”

Bassett’s allegations were just the latest in a series of setbacks suffered by Matthews.

While covering President Trump’s South Carolina rally last Friday, he mistook Jaime Harrison, a Democratic Senate candidate who he was interviewing, with Republican Senator Tim Scott. Both Scott and Harrison are black.

Matthews was slammed by progressives after last Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate for asking Sen. Elizabeth Warren why she believed a woman who accused Michael Bloomberg of pressuring her to have an abortion while working at his company.

Then days earlier, Matthews was widely criticized for comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Nevada caucus win with Nazi Germany’s defeat of France in 1940. He later apologized, calling the comparison a “bad” analogy.

Another MSNBC insider said Matthews’ recent gaffes contributed to his sudden departure.

“Chris was already on his way out because of his comments about Sanders, and his interview with Elizabeth Warren,” the network insider said. “NBC and MSNBC will not tolerate any inappropriate behavior.”

Mathews had become an institution at MSNBC but he has made a lot of recent mistakes.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar ended her Democratic presidential campaign today and will endorse rival Joe Biden in an effort to unify moderate voters behind the former vice president.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“Klobuchar outlasted several better-known and better-funded Democrats, thanks to a better-than-expected third-place finish in in New Hampshire. But she couldn’t turn that into success elsewhere, as she struggled to build out a campaign that could compete across the country and had poor showings in the next contests.

The three-term senator had one of this cycle’s more memorable campaign launches, standing outside in a Minnesota snowstorm last February to tout her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities. Klobuchar argued that her record of getting things done in Washington and winning even in Republican parts of her state would help her win traditionally Democratic heartland states like Wisconsin and Michigan that flipped in 2016 to give Donald Trump the presidency.

She was hoping to own the moderate lane of a Democratic field that grew to some two dozen candidates. But that got much tougher when Biden joined the race in April, starting as a front-runner and remaining there. Klobuchar also was quickly overshadowed by Pete Buttigieg, a fellow Midwesterner who shot from being the largely unknown mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to a top contender on a mix of intelligence, strong oratory and youthful optimism. Buttigieg dropped out on Sunday, saying he no longer had a viable path to the nomination.

Klobuchar entered the race with low name recognition compared with many of her rivals, a disadvantage she was still citing a year into her campaign. Outside Minnesota, the lawyer and former prosecutor was best known for her questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Klobuchar asked Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow teenager when both were in high school, if he ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. Kavanaugh retorted, “Have you?” Klobuchar continued, unruffled, and Kavanaugh later apologized to the senator, whose father is recovering from alcoholism.

Even before she got into the race, Klobuchar was hit with news stories claiming she mistreated her Senate staff, and she had a higher-than-usual turnover rate in her office. Klobuchar said she is a “tough boss” but countered that she has several longtime employees, including the manager of her presidential campaign.

She also face questions over her prosecutor past. In January, The Associated Press published a story about Klobuchar’s office in Minneapolis having prosecuted the case of a black teenager accused of the 2002 shooting death of an 11-year-old girl. Klobuchar has cited the story to show her toughness on crime. But an AP/APM Reports investigation uncovered new evidence and myriad inconsistencies, raising questions about whether Myon Burrell was railroaded by police. The issue followed Klobuchar on the campaign trail, with protesters forcing her to cancel a rally in suburban Minneapolis days before Super Tuesday.

Klobuchar campaigned on her productivity in Washington, where she led more than 100 bills that were signed into law. And she criticized the more liberal candidates in the field, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, for running on promises she said they couldn’t keep.

Rather than advocate for “Medicare for All,” for example, Klobuchar favored expanding the Affordable Care Act and working to reduce prescription drug costs — changes she said had a chance of passing and would make a significant impact. She supported making community colleges free but said she wouldn’t promise to do the same for four-year colleges and universities because the U.S. cannot afford it.

“I’ve got to tell the truth,” she said during a CNN town hall at a college campus, where she acknowledged her position may be unpopular with younger voters.

Klobuchar was one of the first candidates to outline a plan for addressing addiction and mental health, an issue she described as personal because of her father’s longtime struggle. Her accounts of growing up with a father suffering from alcoholism and watching him be forced to choose between prison or treatment were some of the most compelling moments of speeches, interviews and discussions with voters. Klobuchar said that her father described getting help as being “pursued by grace” and that it’s an opportunity all people fighting addiction deserve.

But Klobuchar couldn’t match her top competitors in fundraising. She raised about $11 million in the last quarter of 2019 — roughly half of what Sanders and Buttigieg received. The lack of finances early on in the campaign meant Klobuchar wasn’t able to expand her operation on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire until months after her rivals. She then scrambled to put an operation in place in Nevada, South Carolina and the 14 states that voted on Super Tuesday.

Still, there were bright spots, including strong debate performances that helped bring in new donors. Her campaign credited Klobuchar’s showing in a debate days before the New Hampshire primary with helping her clinch a better-than-expected third place in the state’s primary, topping Warren and Biden. Klobuchar said she raised $12 million in the next week.

During one debate she addressed sexism in the campaign, questioning whether a woman with Buttigieg’s experience would qualify for the stage. She also pushed back at fears of a female candidacy, saying, “If you think a woman can’t beat Donald Trump, (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi does it every day.”

In January, she earned endorsements from The New York Times, which also endorsed Warren, and the Quad-City Times, one of Iowa’s largest newspapers. But Klobuchar was sidelined for much of the last few weeks before the Iowa caucuses when she — along with fellow candidates Warren, Sanders and Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado — was stuck in Washington for the Senate impeachment trial.

She continued to rack up endorsements even as her campaign struggled, getting the backing of newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, The Seattle Times and the New Hampshire Union Leader.”

We wish her well.  She ran a good campaign  against better-known candidates.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The state of New York on Sunday confirmed its first positive case of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that’s infected almost 90,000 people across the globe.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that the patient — a woman in her 30s — had contracted the disease while traveling abroad in Iran. Citing a state official, The New York Times reported the woman is in Manhattan.

“The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving” in New York, Cuomo said.

The governor urged New Yorkers to remain calm, saying there was “no reason for undue anxiety” and that the risk posed by the virus “remains low” in the state

Also on Sunday, Rhode Island announced its first likely case of the illness. The patient ― a man in his 40s ― had traveled to Italy, France and Spain in mid-February, officials said. 

At least 76 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. to date. Two people in Washington state have died of the disease, including a man in his 70s who had underlying health conditions, state officials said yesterday.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

NBC News and other media are reporting that Pete Buttigieg is dropping out of the race for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Nomination.   The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana was supposed to travel to Texas but will instead return to Indiana, where he planned to make an announcement later tonight.  As reported by NBC.

“Buttigieg won just 2 percent of black voters in South Carolina on Saturday, likely reinforcing doubts about his ability to win votes from one of the party’s most important constituencies.

NBC News exit polls found that the state’s electorate was 57 percent African American, the first majority-black primary this election cycle.

It isn’t clear who Buttigieg’s supporters will now back. Recent polling by Morning Consult found that they split between various other candidates as their second choice with no clear alternative: 21 percent picked Sanders, 19 percent picked Biden, 19 percent picked Warren and 17 percent picked Bloomberg.

Buttigieg, an Afghan War veteran and first openly gay nominee of a major political party, initially rose to the top of the Democratic primary with strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire. He placed third in Nevada and fourth in South Carolina.

Buttigieg will end his campaign having won 26 delegates.

At just 38, he is widely seen to have a bright future and may be better served by quitting now instead of continuing to compete with rivals, one of whom he will likely end up supporting in the general election.

Buttigieg’s message seemed like a better fit for the Democratic nomination of 2004 than 2020. He poked fun at elite condescension of “flyover country” and the “American Heartland” of the Midwest. He called for deficit reduction and denounced the “revolutionary politics of the 1960s.” His surrogates fondly reminisced about the TV show “The West Wing.”

Ironically for a millennial, Buttigieg ran a throwback campaign that appealed to older and white voters in a party becoming younger and more racially diverse. He was an AIM candidate in a TikTok world, with supporters more familiar with Billy Joel than Billie Eilish.

Whatever comes next for Buttigieg, he’ll always be able to say he was the first ever millennial or openly gay candidate to win a state in a major party presidential primary. It’s a boast that’s likely to come in handy.”

We wish Mr. Buttigieg the best.  He ran a good, clean race!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, endorsed  Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president at a rally yesterday in Houston.  

Weingarten is backing Warren in her personal capacity. The 1.7 million-member AFT has encouraged local unions and members to support either Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump.

The endorsement could provide a jolt of support for Warren,  ahead of Super Tuesday, when voters will decided how to award roughly one-third of the pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Warren is counting on a strong Super Tuesday performance in California, Texas, Massachusetts and elsewhere to make up for middling results in the early states.

The decision by Weingarten, who was a prominent backer of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential primaries, is likely to frustrate some local affiliates and members who have chosen to back Sanders. Several AFT affiliates, most notably the United Teachers of Los Angeles, have backed Sanders’ presidential bid.

“It’s a big deal that there’s a former special education teacher running for president,” Weingarten wrote in a Medium post explaining her endorsement. “Being a teacher means being fearless and flexible, loving and compassionate, hardworking and resilient, and dedicated and devoted to making life better for all kids and families. Being a teacher means having an innate understanding of the value of public education and what is needed to help all children succeed and to support all educators. Elizabeth Warren gets this.”

Many large national unions have been unable to reach a consensus on who to endorse in the crowded Democratic primary field. But Sanders has succeeded in winning the support of more local affiliates than any other candidate ― and, as of the end of January, the donations of more educators than any other candidate.

Weingarten has praised Warren in the past, calling the Massachusetts senator’s education plan “a game changer for our public schools and the 90 percent of America’s students who attend them.”

Warren has promised to name a former public school teacher as education secretary, and to increase K-12 education funding by $800 billion over the next decade using revenue from her proposed wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million. Warren also shares the AFT’s skepticism of charter schools and high-stakes testing.

The AFT, which also represents community college instructors, school nurses and teachers aides, is one of the two largest teachers unions in the country. The 3 million-member National Education Association is yet to endorse a candidate.

A major reason that most national unions have stayed out of the primary race thus far is a desire to move past the rancor of the 2016 Democratic contest between Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During that primary, many major unions, including the AFT, endorsed Clinton early on in the race, eliciting a backlash from some rank-and-file members and locals who were more supportive of Sanders.

Whether Weingarten’s decision to endorse in a personal capacity, while still keeping the union formally out of the race, spares the union a similar backlash remains to be seen. Already there have been tensions inside the United Federation of Teachers, the AFT’s New York City affiliate and the largest teachers union local in the country, over whether and how to endorse a candidate. A group of UFT members largely sympathetic to Sanders has unsuccessfully sought, against the wishes of union leadership, to put an endorsement up for a membershipwide vote.

Here at the City University of New York, the Executive Council of our union, the Professional Staff Congress, is leaning to endorsing both Sanders and Warren.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Joe Biden scored an impressive victory yesterday in South Carolina’s Democratic primary mainly on the strength of African American support.  It was a decisive win with Biden receiving close to 50 percent of the vote and one that could force moderate rivals out of the race.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“Biden’s win came at a perilous moment in his 2020 bid as he needed an emphatic rebound after underwhelming performances this month in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The race now pivots to the 14 states from Maine to California that vote on Tuesday in what effect will be a national primary.

“We are very much alive,” Biden declared at an exuberant post-election rally. “For all of you who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind — this is your campaign.”

Sanders claimed a distant second place, a loss that gave a momentary respite to anxious Democrats who feared that the democratic socialist would finish February with four consecutive top finishes that would make it difficult for anyone to overtake him.

The Associated Press declared Biden the winner just after the polls closed in South Carolina. The AP based the call on data from AP VoteCast, a survey of the electorate conducted for the AP by NORC at the University of Chicago. The survey showed a convincing win for Biden.”

Congratulations Mr. Biden.  On to Super Tuesday!

Tony

NOTE:  After this posting was made, candidate Tom Steyer announced he was ending his candidacy and was dropping out of the Democratic Party presidential nomination race. It may be time for others to do the same.