Mike got it right

Democrats’ focus this week is split between the Senate floor and the towns of Iowa, where wannabe presidents jockey in the final days before the first 2020 caucus. Down in Miami over the weekend, while delivering a powerful rebuke against antiSemitism whether it rears its ugly head on the left or the right, Mike Bloomberg demonstrated one of many reasons why his young candidacy demands attention too.

Bloomberg, a bold pragmatist on expanding access to health care while driving down costs, attacking climate change without killing jobs and growing the economic pie for underprivileged Americans, is the only Democrat in the field who firmly opposed the Iran nuclear deal when it was signed in 2015, and then stood firm against Trump’s dangerous pullout in 2018.

Why? Because, as he put it, the original deal “should have done more to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and financing of terrorism” (as we wrote) and because the withdrawal “was tantamount to giving Iran permission to relaunch its nuclear program” (as we also wrote).

Bloomberg’s freedom from reflexive party dogma gives him a real chance to connect with dispirited general election voters who hate Trump’s lies and fear his unsteadiness but don’t want to trade that for overly rigid and divisive ideological prescriptions at home or dangerous naivete abroad.

Bernie, Joe, Pete or Elizabeth will emerge from Iowa with a head of steam. Mike demands a listen.