The Las Vegas Weekly newspaper endorsed Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D) this week and warned that nominating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would guarantee President Trump’s second term.
With the Nevada caucuses nearly a week away, the paper issued its official endorsement, touting both Klobuchar and Biden as candidates who “can beat the divisive and destructive incumbent in November.”
The paper briefly mentioned some of the other candidates who were under consideration but saved the harshest critique for Sanders, calling him a “clear non-starter.”
“Sanders is the only clear non-starter. It’s impossible not to regard the Vermont senator in a Trumplike mold—he seldom has shown an ability to build consensus and threatens to use executive orders extensively, just like Trump,” Las Vegas Weekly assessed.
It also doubted the socialist senator’s ability to “assemble a highly qualified Cabinet,” which would make him, the paper claimed, the “left-wing version of Trump: isolated, angry, unable to work with others and showing too little respect for dissenting opinions.”
“A Sanders candidacy simply guarantees a Trump second term,” the paper said.
Las Vegas Weekly, however, praised Klobuchar as a “sincere and results-oriented leader” who is committed, the paper claimed, to working across party lines. It noted her moderate approach to health care and the college debt crisis and touted her “intense focus” on the working class.
“The bottom line with Klobuchar: She possesses both the appetite and ability to return us to our finest America. We have no doubt that she is a unity candidate for the Democrats,” it wrote.
The paper took a shot at Republicans in its brief pitch for Biden, accusing them of trying to “dirty up” the former vice president and praising him for opening himself “to public scrutiny throughout his five-decade career in office.”
Notably, the paper admitted that it “hardly” agrees with everything Biden has done but said it based its endorsement on his “suite of effective policies that offer a clear vision for America, his support among a broad coalition of voters and his ability to pull together a high-functioning leadership team that can guide this nation back to stability and respect.”
The paper said Biden “embodies the spirit of public service we need now” but added that it remains “puzzled at why Biden is not a more effective salesperson for his own policies”:
Biden just struggles to express it to voters. And we also dislike his tendency to be brutal with voters who ask questions he doesn’t like: There is no reason to shame people for asking a question. Just answer it.
Nonetheless, a Biden administration would clearly be up to the task of repairing the wreckage caused by the GOP. With his decades of experience in government and his support from the Democratic Party establishment, he can effortlessly assemble a strong Cabinet of genuine leaders and knows how to govern from Day One.
“Either he or Klobuchar would be a strong choice for Nevada Democrats,” Las Vegas Weekly concluded.
The Nevada caucuses will take place next week, Saturday, February 22.
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