In 2016, I decided to make it a custom here at the shebeen to reveal the candidate for whom I voted in the Democratic primary election because a) I think it’s right to be transparent about such things, especially in a format dedicated primarily to opinion, and b) because why the hell not? (I did not do this in 2012, the shebeen’s first presidential election, because there was no primary campaign to speak of.) In 2016, I voted for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton because his views on most issues were closer to my own and because, I’m sorry, bragging about your friendship with Henry Kissinger always is a deal-breaker with me if I have other options. Which I did not have in the general election, so I voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton over Donald Trump because I am not a moron. Since I will be Super Tuesday-ing elsewhere, I opted for early voting. So I went over to City Hall this afternoon and voted for Elizabeth Warren for president.

The basics, first. I voted for her because I know her and her husband, Bruce Mann, and I like them very much. But, besides that, I think she is so obviously the right person for this particular moment in time that it’s almost not worthy of discussion. She has the right combination of righteous anger, uncompromising vision, and policy chops to meet the times ahead.

I went over to City Hall this afternoon and voted for Elizabeth Warren for president. Drew Angerer Getty Images

In addition, I admire how she has resolutely refused to be the suicide bomber dispatched to blow up the Sanders campaign on behalf of some bed-wetting Republican exiles and a bunch of Democratic moderates who have proven to be inadequate to the task of running against each other, let alone Sanders. (By the way, Joe Biden is beginning to slip, visibly, and not just in the polls, either.) I respect the fact that, as we learned over the weekend, she scared the hell out of Michael Bloomberg long before she handed him his freshly extracted viscera the other night. (She also makes Mark Zuckerberg nervous, which is a very good thing.) I admire also her ability to see past the end of her nose and to recognize that, if she had managed to sink Sanders, she would be the next target of the people who hate the ideas they share and, for that matter, any progressive renaissance in the running of the country. So that’s what I did on Tuesday at noontime.

Nevertheless, she has to put some daylight between herself and Sanders somehow in the debate Tuesday night. She's running out of time and primaries in which to make a splash. Biden is hemorrhaging support, and Sanders is having every bit as bad a week as Biden is having, with his stubborn defense of his remarks about Fidel Castro. (Re-litigating the 1962 midterm campaign was not something that was on my radar this year.) The path is narrowing, but it's still there. A frontal assault on Sanders wouldn’t work and, besides, the rest of them are fairly chomping at the bit to launch one of those.

has the right combination of righteous anger, uncompromising vision, and policy chops to meet the times ahead.

But one of the ways she could get at his support without undermining the ideas they have in common would be to marry her anti-corruption programs to the notion that she could get them carried out while he could not. That’s the one policy chop she has that Sanders doesn’t. He believes that he can bum-rush his healthcare plan into law by applying outside pressure on the members of Congress who would have to vote for it. That is likely to be ineffective at persuading Mitch McConnell and his majority to go along. (Want to see those impeachment poll numbers again?) That is pure movement politics, and while valuable and fun to watch, it is no more suited to the historical moment than Biden’s Dad jokes are. That’s the finesse play for SPW if she wants to take it, and it’s also another reason why I voted for her.

As for everyone else, it’s hard to see both Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar alive and kicking this time next Wednesday, so that genuine hostility will get what is likely its final go-round on Tuesday night. If Biden continues to fold in the debate like he has on the stump, almost anything can happen. If he collapses, I think much of his support ends up with Tom Steyer, at least in South Carolina. It’s hard to know what happens after that. Maybe we should all take the late Molly Ivins’s perennial advice and just enjoy the ride, laughing.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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