Osler's Razor

First of all, I would like people toward a great podcast I got to be a part of by Jillian Wienberger over at Vox's The Impact. She focused on something I think is very important--the way Gerald Ford analyzed and granted thousands of pardon cases-- and showed how it is affecting the current Democratic presidential contenders. It was really a pleasure to work with her. You can hear it here.

Second, about Tuesday's debate...

I'm sad that there is so much focus on the tiff between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. If they got into a scrap over some policy issue, good for them. But instead they are at odds over a leak-driven media scrum over a possibly misinterpreted comment in 2018. I'm not going to rehash it here. But, frankly, I have heard many people say that they don't think a woman can win in 2020, and every one of those saying that to me was someone who had supported Hillary Clinton, been crushed by her defeat, and took away from that experience the belief that misogyny in the United States runs so deep that it cannot be overcome by even the best candidate.

I understand that take on things, but I disagree. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million. Trump won the electoral college by 80,000 votes in three key states. Redistribute even a little of Clinton's votes, and we would have had a woman president. It was a razor-thin loss. I think that tiny hill can be surmounted, even while acknowledging the role of misogyny in American politics. (And all that is setting aside the fact that Grar the Giant Female Panda almost won in 2008).

There were four great candidates up on that stage, and two of the four are women. This is going to be an interesting year...