The following is a partial transcript of a special revival episode of the television game show “I’ve Got a Secret.”  The show first aired on CBS on June 19, 1952 with host Garry Moore and panelists Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, Faye Emerson and Jayne Meadows.  This retro-version is hosted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with guest panelists Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters. The celebrity received $20 each time a panelist failed to come up with the secret.  NOTE:  The full transcript was unavailable as White House legal counsel Pat Cipollone asked that it be re-classified and kept in a code-word protected server.

ANNOUNCER:  Celebrity guest #1, please introduce yourself.

[Curtain parts]

CELEBRITY GUEST:  My name is Ivana Maria Trump and I’ve got a secret.

PELOSI:  Do you mind if I call you Ivanka?

TRUMP:  Yes, I do mind.  Please call me Senior White House Advisor Trump.

PELOSI:  Ivanka’s secret involves a person who has been in the headlines recently.  Adam, you may start the questioning.

SCHIFF:  Is the person a U.S. citizen?

TRUMP:  No.

SCHIFF: Is this person the president or prime minister of another country?

TRUMP:  No.

SCHIFF: Is English his or her native tongue?

TRUMP:  Yes.

PELOSI:  Adam, your time is up.  Do you want to take a guess?

SCHIFF:  I’m stumped.  I was sure it was Justin Trudeau until she said it was not a president or prime minister.

PELOSI:  Ivanka, you just won $20 or if you prefer, 1,260.31 rubles.  Maxine.

WATERS:  Is this person a male?

TRUMP: Yes.

WATERS:  Is he a person of color?

TRUMP:  Are you kidding?  Of course not.

WATERS:  Does the Trump Organization owe this person money?

TRUMP:  No.  I told you, he’s not the leader of another country.  Daddy was right, you really are a low IQ person.

PELOSI:  Sorry Maxine, your time’s up, not to mention the racial slur.  Any idea what her secret might be?

WATERS:  None.  Not owing him money eliminates a lot of foreigners.

PELOSI:  Ivanka, you have now won $40.  Jerry.

NADLER:  Did you ever date this person?

TRUMP:  Daddy ordered me not to answer questions about my personal life.  He said it is protected under Article Two of the Constitution.

NADLER:  Are you still in contact with this person?

TRUMP:  No.

NADLER:  Without giving us privileged information about any past relationship, would your father be happy if you were still in contact with him?

TRUMP:  Mr. Nadler, I think I can honestly say he would go batsh** covfefe.

PELOSI:  Jerry, time’s up.  Last chance.

NADLER:  This is harder than proving a quid pro quo.  But I’ll take a wild guess.  When you attended the state dinner at Buckingham Palace, did you tell Prince Phillip you wish he was your father so you could be a real princess?

[Buzzer]

PELOSI:  Sorry, that’s wrong.  Ivanka, would you please share your secret?

TRUMP:  I have known Christopher Steele, author of the Steele dossier since 2007 when we met at dinner.  We stayed in touch for several years by email and met on subsequent occasions at Trump Tower.

PANEL (in unison):  No f***ing way!

TRUMP:  Way!  Just ask Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz.  It’s right there in his report on the Russian investigation.

PELOSI (banging her gavel):  Calm down, panel.  Thank you, Ivanka.  When we return from this commercial break, we welcome celebrity guest #2 Devin Nunes and who knows which of his many secrets he’ll share with us tonight.

[Fade to Commercial]

AND FINALLY

In breaking news, the Trump administration unveiled new male uniforms designed especially for the re-education camp in Hersey, Pennsylvania.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Voters in the United States are a rare breed.  You want evidence?  Explain how someone who voted twice for Barack Obama suddenly decides to back Donald Trump.  Face it, Americans seldom know what they want from one day to the next.  However, a spate of new polling released this morning provides what may be the keystone to the 2020 presidential election.  It is not so much what Americans want, it is more dependent on what they will not accept.

I’ll start with the latest Quinnipiac Poll of head-to-head races between Trump and potential Democratic opponents.  In order of margin, respondents chose Joe Biden (51-42), Bernie Sanders (51-43), Elizabeth Warren (50-43), Michael Bloomberg (48-42), Pete Buttigieg (48-43) and Amy Klobuchar (47-43).  With a margin of error of +/-2.6 points, any of these six contenders would statistically defeat Trump today in the popular vote.

Which proves my first point.  Since many of the majority/plurality voters are the same people, most voters are open to an extremely broad range of options.  They will accept an aging vestige of the Obama administration, a self-declared socialist independent, a woman who has spent her public life crusading against those with wealth, another New York billionaire (this time a real one), a gay mayor of a small town and another women who presents herself as the moderate response to exuberant progressive enthusiasm.

The easy answer would be to simply say all these voters have one thing in common.  They do not want Donald Trump anywhere near the Oval Office as of 12:00 pm on January 20, 2021 if not sooner.  And there is certainly some truth in that.  However, it does not help us understand what is going on in the Democratic Party as we approach primary season.  For this analysis, we need to look at the latest poll in Iowa where the first meaningful vote of the 2020 election is just 54 days away.

This morning’s Emerson College poll of preferences among Iowa voters provides some clues. The headline is Warren’s support dropped by 50 percent since the previous poll from 24 to 12 percent of respondents picking the Massachusetts senator as their first preference.  One might say that results from a growing fear a more progressive candidate will have a tougher time picking up electoral votes in purple states Trump won in 2016.  But that does not explain that Sanders (22 percent) is still in a virtual dead heat with Biden (23 percent).

I have a different theory.  This is clearly not about ideology.  There is something else at play.  And the event which seems to have contributed most to Warren’s precipitous decline was the suggestion there was no room for private insurers in her “Medicare for All” plan.  As I have written previously, the two are not incompatible.  The current Medicare program includes advantage and supplemental options provided through private insurers of which nearly 70 percent of Medicare recipients take advantage.  Which brings me back to the title of this post.  What Americans will not tolerate is someone telling them there is only one solution to a problem.  The beauty of the Affordable Care Act is, despite its flaws, it is still (pardon the expression) “pro-choice.”  Which explains why there is much more support for a public option (one more choice) as opposed to a mandated single-payer government program.

The Emerson poll affirms one other truth about the 2020 contest for the Democratic nomination.  Voters dominating the conversation on social media are not representative of Democratic party supporters as a whole.  Take the five top candidates, all of whom have double digit support among Iowans who plan to attend the February caucuses.  The “moderate” candidates–Biden (23 percent), Buttigieg (18) and Klobuchar (10)–total 51 percent of voter sentiment.  In contrast, Sanders (22) and Warren (12) share an aggregate 36 percent of likely voters.  I know, Iowa is hardly representative of many solid blue states, but its residents look and sound more like the swing voters in the mid-West and suburbs who are needed to ensure an electoral college victory in 2020.

I will close with a piece of advice to all the candidates for the Democratic nomination.  Your success does not depend on any additional public benefit you promise (e.g. parental leave).  Remind voters what they will lose, what will be taken away, if Trump and the GOP control the federal government for the next four years.  And this goes far beyond reproductive rights.  Remind voters how Trump and Trumpist legislators have:

• Filled federal courts with judges who erode voting rights.
• Confirmed judges who consistently choose corporate management over workers.
• Neglected oversight of regulatory agencies who place corporate profits about health and safety.
• Blocked legislation that would reestablish a level playing field (net neutrality) for on-line businesses.
• Indiscriminately re-allocated duly appropriated funds for pet projects.
• Kowtowed to the NRA and stalled sensible gun legislation supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans.
• Turned their heads when fair elections are threatened by welcomed or unwelcomed foreign interference.
• Failed to challenge a chief executive who does not believe in a system of checks and balances and publicly states that all power resides in only one Article of the Constitution.

Of course, we would all like MORE.  But I believe American voters, when presented with a clear choice, will never tolerate LESS.  Especially when it comes to the foundations of the Constitution or individual rights guaranteed within.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP