Iconoclast: Joe Biden’s No Anti-Racist Champ

The current Democratic frontrunner is highly unlikely to “contribute anything of value to our national conversation about race,” sneers Matthew Walther at The Week. In fact, it would be “hard to think of a Democratic politician less capable of speaking with moral authority on the subject of American race relations than the former vice president.” Joe Biden has “gushed over Strom Thurmond,” waxed nostalgic about “the good old days of hammering out back-room deals with Southern segregationists” and attempted a “character assassination of Clarence Thomas during . . .[his] Supreme Court confirmation hearing . . . [with] a patently obvious attempt to make use of racist tropes about black male hypersexuality.” Perhaps this record “should give some Democrats pause before they insist that the only person who can beat Trump is . . . [this] soon-to-be 77-year-old white man.”

2020 watch: Voting Blocs’ Clues to Dem Race

Handicapping the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Michael Barone at RealClearPolitics notes that none of the wannabes got a boost in polls from the Detroit debates. Looking at voting blocs, he observes that white college grads — about 40 percent of those who vote in Democratic primaries — now represent the Dems’ “leftmost voters,” and, according to a post-debate Quinnipiac poll, Sen. Elizabeth Warren leads among them with 28 percent support. Among black voters, who often vote “near-unanimously or heavily for one candidate” and make up about 25 percent of Dem primary voters, former Vice President Joe Biden is in front with 47 percent. Meanwhile, high-income voters “seem to have little use for Bernie Sanders,” who gets just 6 percent of their backing. Which group will win out? “We’ll have answers in 18 months.”

Legal expert: Strzok’s Lawsuit Is on Shaky Grounds

Ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok’s lawsuit to get his job back won’t likely be tossed immediately, but once litigation starts, argues ex-law clerk Margot Cleveland at The Federalist, its chances of success are “shaky.” Strzok claims his firing violated his free-speech rights. But the Justice Department can counter, based on a Supreme Court ruling, that his politicized texts weren’t protected because government employees must “avoid practicing political justice.” He also claims his privacy rights were breached when his anti-Trump texts were leaked. But the department can assert that it never authorized those leaks and, anyway, the texts aren’t covered by the Privacy Act. Meanwhile, a report by the agency’s inspector general is likely to “expand on Strzok’s misconduct.” By the time litigation starts, “the landscape may have significantly changed.”

Economist: Minimum Wage Won’t Cure Poverty

Most of the debates over hiking the minimum wage focus on the trade-off between higher incomes and job losses. Yet that, argues Jonathan Meer at City Journal, is “misguided.” Fact is, “there’s much more to the labor market than wage levels or the existence of jobs” — such as “work hours, job satisfaction and flexibility” — and businesses often adjust these before trimming employees. That’s “convenient” for wage-hike advocates, because it lets them point to “negligible job losses” after a bump in the minimum wage and claim it caused minimal damage. But the “other adjustments” — often not “visible to resarchers” — also “have real consequences.” Bottom line: The minimum wage is “the wrong tool” to boost “economic mobility” and ease poverty.

Data expert: A Better Way To Stop the Ebola Virus

With the Ebola virus again spreading in parts of Africa, computer-science professor Sheldon Jacobson at The Washington Times urges officials to “optimize screening protocols” this time around. Specifically, he recommends a procedure called “social contact tracing,” in which travelers are asked questions to see if they may have come in contact with an infected person and identify their “potential footprint of contacts.” Such data can provide vital information about exposures and help contain the virus. “The power of analytics and data science can be unleashed on the Ebola screening process,” as it has been in other areas, he argues. The Centers for Disease Control needs to update screening procedures now, so “informed public health policy” can prepare the nation for “the impending challenges.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board