What Matters This Week in the 2020 Race

By Gerald F. Seib

The rise of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, now the leading presidential candidate hailing from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, has had an interesting bank-shot effect: It seems to have given greater voice to those more in the political center. That effect became clear at the Democrats’ debate in Ohio this week, when Mrs. Warren appeared as the co-front runner in the race for the nomination alongside former Vice President Joe Biden. In response, the more-centrist candidates who had been getting less attention lately—South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke —all found clearer voices as they challenged Mrs. Warren.

Collectively, they now seem more willing to express the broader concern that has been running just beneath the surface among party leaders: that Sen. Warren is pulling the Democratic agenda and center of gravity too far left with her array of expansive policy proposals. Sen. Klobuchar may have put the critique most succinctly when, in arguing for less dramatic policy departures, declared: “The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done.”

Mr. Buttigieg, though, may be the candidate who is best positioned to take advantage of this moment. President Trump’s decision to pull back U.S. forces in Syria and allow Turkish troops to attack the U.S.’s longtime Kurdish allies opened the way for Mr. Buttigieg to speak out on national-security issues, where he has both strong feelings and standing because of his experience as a Naval officer who served in Afghanistan.

Mr. Buttigieg said he, like the president, wants U.S. troops in the region to come home, but used his personal experience to criticize the way Mr. Trump is doing that: “When I was deployed,” he said, Afghan forces “put their lives on the line just by working with U.S. forces. I would have a hard time today looking an Afghan civilian or soldier in the eye after what just happened over there. And it is undermining the honor of our soldiers.”

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-matters-this-week-in-the-2020-race-11571457660 (paid subscription)