Putting aside his warm relations with donors in the credit card industry, Mr. Biden’s record is mottled with more episodes of apparent corruption than Ms. Teachout listed in her op-ed. The fact that the Bidens are entangled in Trump’s impeachment odyssey — uncomfortably, and with no clear exit strategy aside from keeping mum — should also raise serious questions about Mr. Biden’s fortitude in the general election. But all this, Mr. Sanders declined to say — not because it isn’t relevant and not because it doesn’t fit with Mr. Sanders’s platform — but because Mr. Sanders, for all his famed gruffness, doesn’t like going negative. But Mr. Sanders can’t afford mildness, or a steady habit of capitulation. There isn’t any way around it; the logic that demands it is inscribed into every speech Mr. Sanders makes.

Source: New York Times January 24, 2020 10:01 UTC