Libertarian: Harris’ Self-Inflicted Wound

Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard got into “another lively confrontation” at Wednesday’s debate, Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown ­reports, with Harris saying Gabbard’s foreign policy views and criticisms of the Democratic Party establishment made her unfit to be seeking the party’s nomination. Gabbard retorted: “Our Democratic Party, unfortunately, is not the party that is of, by and for the people” — a zinger Team Trump retweeted after the debate. Harris pounced, tweeting: “I rest my case” that Gabbard isn’t a true Democrat. That just shows a tone-deafness on Harris’ part “so extreme that it’s almost funny,” says Nolan: Harris’ attack on Gabbard “demonstrates exactly the party-over-people and uphold-the-status-quo-at-all-costs mentality that Gabbard was trying to critique.”

Liberal: How Patrick, Bloomberg Make Sense

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick “cannot possibly expect to enter this race at this late hour and run a normal presidential candidacy,” notes The New Republic’s Alex Pareene — and Michael Bloomberg’s apparent bid seems to make even less sense. Yet they do make sense as “calculated bets on a brokered convention.” Patrick, who has the support of “Obama World,” and Bloomberg, who “has always surrounded himself with Democratic campaign veterans and aides,” know their chances are better in a general election than in a primary — so they’re counting on the nomination’s being “completely up for grabs next July.” That doesn’t mean there will be a contested convention, but “plans are in motion, because nothing is going to plan. Be prepared.”

Iconoclast: Biden’s Campaign Is ‘Elder Abuse’

Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate failed to clarify “the state of the presidential race,” insists The Week’s Matthew Walther. It definitely didn’t help presumptive frontrunner Joe Biden, whose presidential campaign Walther terms “elder abuse.” Sure, it’s “funny” when the former vice president announces that “the next president of the United States has to defeat Donald Trump.” But his digression about “the precise circumstances under which it is acceptable to hit a woman” and memory lapse that “the woman standing a few feet away from him is black” are “evidence of serious cognitive decline,” not “amusing gaffes.” Urges Walther: “Never mind his party — for his own sake, someone close to Biden should convince him to drop out.”

Conservative: Moynihan’s True Heir

“Josh Hawley might be the most interesting thinker the US Senate has seen since Daniel Patrick Moynihan,” enthuses National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty. In a recent speech, the Missouri Republican delivered a “searing piece of cultural criticism, an indictment of America’s economic and social arrangements” that have left the working classes depressed, opioid-addicted and quite literally suicidal. “For basically my entire adult life,” recalls Dougherty, “the default mode of Republican speechifying has been a kind of reheated ‘optimism.’ ” Hawley, however, offers “a prophetic critique of a cult of the individual and self” that has captured the American mind for decades. In place of that cult, Hawley asserts a vision of freedom rooted in responsibility, community and faith. The question, Dougherty wonders, is “what would [Hawley] do to revive a healthy role for the labor unions he lauded last night? What will he do to revive neighborhoods and churches? What can he do to accomplish these things as a senator?”

Energy beat: An American Nuclear Revival

At The Washington Examiner, Assistant Secretary of Energy Dr. Rita Baranwal argues that America needs to “show the world” it is still a “powerhouse in nuclear innovation” — but that means building the “infrastructure” to test new materials for nuclear reactors. Right now, “more than 60 companies” are designing reactors that will be “economically competitive, faster to build, more flexible to operate and generate less waste.” But they lack a “versatile test reactor” to help in the research and data collection. Without one, “U.S. companies will have no choice but to rely on foreign countries, such as Russia and China, to develop their technologies.” Which is why, explains Baranwal, DOE is pushing to have a VTR operational by 2026, ensuring “US leadership in clean, reliable energy.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board