Towards the end of an online discussion with Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist Gail Collins offers an assessment of Elizabeth Warren that is supposed to be reassuring but turns out to be the opposite: “I know you know that if she gets elected, she’ll only get a little chunk of her agenda passed into law. There are pieces, like the free tuition part, that I’d like to see her rework substantially. It’s already clear she’s going to come up with a revised agenda and I say let’s wait for that to have a real point-by-point argument.”


In a more logical world, the assessment from like-minded fans that “she’s going to have to come up with a revised agenda” would be a major counterargument against a candidate running on the unofficial slogan, “I have a plan for that.” And “wait until her revised, real plans get unveiled” is simultaneously an admission that the current plans are glaringly unrealistic and a plea to the electorate to put their faith in something unknown and hoping for the best.