Letters to the Editor: Joe Biden lost two small states. Moderates can still save him

To the editor: Will black voters save Joe Biden’s presidential campaign? The answer is no. What might win Biden the Democratic nomination is moderate voters who value experience and compromise.

Although the results of the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries indicate a shift among Democrats toward the left, history shows that those numbers rarely carry much weight in the final count. One mistake that Biden should avoid at all costs is to rely too much on the nostalgia of the Obama administration. Even President Obama might be ill-suited to win this year’s election.

Anti-establishment forces elected our current president. Will left-wing populism shake up the political order in the United States? Much remains to be seen.

Berta Graciano-Buchman, Beverly Hills

..

To the editor: The claim that moderate candidates got the largest share of votes in New Hampshire misses an important fact: None of the Democratic candidates is a moderate, and most New Hampshire Democrats voted for either Sen. Bernie Sanders — a self-described democratic socialist — or Pete Buttigieg, a self-described progressive.

Buttigieg is far to the left of Hillary Clinton. He has proposed $7 trillion in tax increases; Clinton proposed only $1.4 trillion in tax increases.

Not even Biden, the Democratic candidate most often described as a “moderate,” actually has centrist positions. In December, Biden proposed raising taxes by $3.4 trillion.

Hans Bader, Arlington, Va.

..

To the editor: Early pundits are making sweeping predictions from the results of voting in two small, very white states. Sanders looks as though he is suddenly surging ahead, while Biden seems to be losing ground.

Hopefully, Democrats are not foolish enough to be unaware that some conservative Republicans have said that they plan to vote for Sanders in the primary but for President Trump in November. They believe Sanders would be the easiest Democratic nominee to beat.

Although Sanders or Buttigieg could take coastal states, neither would win nationally. Democrats need to be smarter and vote for the candidate most likely to beat the guy in the White House. Michael Bloomberg along with a female candidate of color come to mind.

Marcy Bregman, Agoura Hills

..

To the editor: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is still running for president. You wouldn’t know it from the news coverage that favors her male colleagues. You wouldn’t know it because this erasure stems from the sexism that acts on all of us, all the time.

If any woman is ever going to hold power in the public sphere, we must name the biases in our institutions that keep her from succeeding. We must also be brave enough to proclaim our support: Warren has a reflective leadership style that makes her open to receiving feedback from marginalized communities.

I’m voting for her in the primary, but regardless of which candidate you support, we must all call out the sexist double standards that Warren faces.

Jean Thomas, Los Angeles