Authenticity

Last Sunday's Albuquerque Journal featured a column by Deb Haaland in which she lays out the policies and programs she proposes to enact if elected to be New Mexico's next governor.  It is a well-thought-out approach informed by her own experience in overcoming the kind of challenges which many New Mexicans face. She has done a lot already for the State as the Congressional Representative for my district, and for the Country as Secretary of the Interior. Her leadership will help us all face and survive what is coming during the remainder of Trump's term in the Presidency.

Compare Deb Haaland's well-defined campaign to that of her principal primary opponent, Sam Bregman.  He presents himself in campaign ads sitting on a horse and wearing a cowboy hat, while tooting a tough-on-crime whistle and promising to prosecute ICE maleficence (which is likely to be unfeasible). Bregman's chances in the race look slim, but he could do some damage to Haaland's candidacy.

Bregman's macho posturing may hold some appeal for New Mexican men.  If he has a real interest in being of service to New Mexico he should end his primary challenge and  use whatever authority he has by bending the male vote toward Deb Haaland.

The Nation

Bernie Sanders today received the endorsement of The Nation, the oldest U.S. weekly magazine.  I'm skeptical as to the effectiveness of such media statements of support; I think they mostly just confirm people's predispositions.  However, the article announcing the endorsement is very well written to explain why Bernie is the better choice.

Bernie I hardly knew ye

This was the the picture illustrating the NY Times article about the MoveOn endorsement of Bernie Sanders:

The article itself was buried in a backpage column on the web site.  The Washington post gave the announcement similar treatment.  Seems like a pretty good illustration of the major media effort to ignore the challenge to the establishment candidate.

MoveOn members cast 340,665 votes.  78% went for Bernie.  15% went for Clinton.  O'Malley got 1%.

The Nation site reported the endorsement with a headline story very shortly after the results of the MoveOn vote was announced.