Thread by @AlexandraErin

The left is sure that Warren viciously turned on Bernie and has stayed in just to spite him. If you watch the right (and the right-leaning center), though, they are just about as mad that she hasn't attacked Bernie. They swear if she would have, she'd be doing better.

And as I watch the post-mortem tweets go by and see the right-wing saying her mistake was not differentiating herself from Bernie, I think that's the missing puzzle piece here, in this thread I referenced earlier.

https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1234867061425393665

What the NeverTrumpers and the moderates who coalesced around Biden were looking for in order to recognize him was basically a wink. They wanted her to assure them that she didn't really mean it when she said she would hold people accountable.

Now that we have seen more of the shape of the race... I don't know that it will make sense to her to stay in. If she does, though, here is what I think the rationale will be.

She hasn't made a secret of the fact that she sees coming into the convention with some influence to wield as an acceptable fallback to winning.

If she drops out now, she's basically got to endorse someone right away. It's hard to see a way around that.

I would say that the natural move for her is to endorse Bernie, but I think that's become harder. Are we going to pretend she could share a stage with him without being hissed at and hammered with invective? I mean, maybe not in person. I'm not sure how broad that hatred is.

But it doesn't seem like there's an environment right now where she could fruitfully collaborate with him as freely and easily as say, noted psychic prayer warrior Marianne Williamson.

Staying in frees her from the obligation to endorse him or not endorse him...

...with the added complication that the longer she stays in, the worse that situation gets. But she could take the time to make some overtures, work out a ceasefire.

It's definitely not all about Bernie, though. I can't see her dropping out before Bloomberg does, for instance. She was never running because president was something she wanted to be; she was running to stop men like him from continuing to make the world worse.

I think before tonight she had hopes to have enough delegates at the convention that she could make a difference. I don't know if she still thinks that. If she does, I think she's in. I don't know. It's hard to imagine that after this board, but maybe they see something we don't.

I don't know what she's got planned. She's been playing some cards close to her vest, which unfortunately allows people on all sides to read into things.

But tonight does seem like a gamechanger.

If she does drop out... I was going to say I'll be sad, but I don't know if I have the bandwidth to be sad. I think it's a terrible waste of a candidate who combines some of the best qualities of some of the better people to run, and someone who could have been a unity choice.

The politics of electability drove voters away from her as sure as they've been driving people to Biden. Lot of people mad at me for saying we shouldn't let electability convince us not to vote for her are also mad about the Biden voters, go figure that one out.

I'm not sad or mad or disappointed about any of the results, though. It's a primary. People voted. That's the thing I care most about. I haven't been watching the returns as they come in or added up delegates. Ultimately the minutiae of tonight matters very little.

People voted.

I'm going to be reading everything I can find about turnout tomorrow. The only other possible outcome of tonight that I would find terribly interesting or consequential four months from now is if Bloomberg bows out.

He's my nagging wrinkle in Vote Blue No Matter Who.

I think I would vote for him over Trump, for the same reason I do a lot of things, for the same reason Han Solo does anything: to get five more minutes to think, five more feet of breathing room. He'd be terrible, but he'd be a slightly different terrible.

Or the Jason Medonza approach to problem solving: if you can't solve the problem in front of you, change it to a different problem.

Beating Trump is the endgame for me.

And a lot of people think this means I should be all in for their candidate because he's the unstoppable juggernaut in this race, but they don't all mean the same guy and yet it turns out they were all wrong about how unstoppable he was.

And I am genuinely sorry to tell you that we've got three months of primaries left, during which about 2/3rds of the delegates are yet to be awarded.

Which is why, while I won't be surprised if Warren and/or Bloomberg drop out, I won't be surprised if they don't.

Would I still vote for Warren in April if she's still running? Yes. Why? Because I believe the point of a primary is to pick the person we think would make the best president.

And because I can't hope halfway. I can't say "Better things are possible." and yet not vote my heart.

Looking at the spread it feels tempting to say it wasn't a great night for anybody. Neither of the two anointed frontrunners broke away, none of the runner-ups really solidified.

But I think it's a great night all the same. I woke up hopeful and I'm going to be the same way.

People voted.

It's a great night for democracy.

You can find that cheesy, but honestly I've done angry and bitter more and more since my mom died, and I don't like it. I don't think it helps me and I don't think it helps anyone else. I feel like I hit rock bottom on that front recently and I got nothing out of it but regrets.

And if some people find the cheesiness off-putting... by the numbers, more people tune in for the dose of measured optimism.

We're in the early stages of a likely viral pandemic. We can prepare ourselves and then proceed as though we're going to make it, and we won't be around to feel silly if we don't. Or we can give up and assume everything is pointless, and not be ready if we live to regret it.

At my best, I spend my days telling you all that it's worth trying even when things seem pointless because if they are pointless it doesn't matter that you tried, but they aren't then it really matters that you... I can't do that and not vote for my candidate if she's in.

So if she's in, I'm in, and if she's out I'm for Bernie, and if he doesn't win I'm for the candidate.

I say this knowing there might not be a real election in November.

But I'm going to be ready to vote in case there is.

#TeamSunnyOptimism