Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

I think Hunt3r's point is Trump's professional life accurately predicted his political one.

trump represents actual valueless hypocrisy, the dark side of politicians responding to voters - here the con man as shimmering blob, morphing into whatever his marks want to hear at any given time, to be forgotten again minutes later with no consequences.

I happily voted for a woman who was a former CIA officer and had a photo of her and GW Bush in her TV commercial (as well as the same photo of her with Obama); she flipped a gerrymandered as shit district that was held by an asshole republican guy for ages and I don’t feel even slightly uneasy about this.

morphing into whatever his marks want to hear at any given time, to be forgotten again minutes later with no consequences.

This is why, barring incontrovertible evidence of massive criminality, Trump will win the Republican nomination handily. He accurately mirrors what goes on inside the heads of his supporters, no matter how ignorant, misguided, racist, or nonsensical those thoughts might be.

These people aren't going to Iowa and South Carolina for the culture.

up yrs Johnny Fever, some of the strivers actually visit to pump up interest in congressional elections

I'll admit that's the bare minimum of them, but it happens

I'll try to be more proactive in documenting the Iowa visitors who are the definite presidential strivers this cycle

It will probably pay dividends for Dem candidates to study the effects Trump's tariffs and the Chinese countertariffs are having on Iowa corn, soybean, and swine exports. It may not be high culture, but taking a clear stand in favor of free trade in agricultural exports may shift a lot of habitual Republicans there...

As for South Carolina, I'm guessing that they've been historically dependent on German capital, like the BMW plant. Numerous German multinationals are holding off on further US investment for the duration of this presidency.

Harder pulling ahead in D10 in CA

Er wrong thread

Nobody's gonna shift any Republicans, habitual or otherwise. Republicans are a death cult, and Presidential elections are understood as a strictly binary choice - My Team versus Satan's Team. (I'm excluding third party voters from this discussion because fuck those moss-brained suck-asses forever.)

...except those of us who live in irrelevant states, riiiiight?

Are you disputing the moss-brained or the suck-ass

you cur, i am much closer to moss-assed and suck-brained

who sucked your head?

lads

...except those of us who live in irrelevant states, riiiiight?

I exclude no one. Vote third party in a "safe" state*, you send the message to moss-brained suck-asses in "unsafe" states that it's OK for them to do it, too.

*there's no such thing

I would like to unsubscribe from your newsletter.

unperson would you feel differently if at some point down the line a set of reasonably popular set of left figures took a stab at a genuine left party or do you see the US as uniquely doomed to forever be a two-party country where 40%+ just don't engage

(this is not a defense of jill stein)

unperson would you feel differently if at some point down the line a set of reasonably popular set of left figures took a stab at a genuine left party or do you see the US as uniquely doomed to forever be a two-party country where 40%+ just don't engage

Yes, I would feel differently if at some imaginary future point "the left" started focusing on running candidates for - and winning - local offices (school board, city council, mayor, state legislature) instead of just running for president in acts of public masturbation so egregious they'd embarrass Vito Acconci. So wake me up when that happens.

you send the message to moss-brained suck-asses in "unsafe" states that it's OK for them to do it, too.

yeah, fuck that. such people would be thicker than you are, if they existed.

wait a sec, i'm confused, i thought the Democrat Party was the only "left" in America

you know, the party that went to Trump's last wedding and took his donations

umperson, Nerdstrom and iatee probably have weekly write-hatemail-to-Susan-Sarandon parties.

"in acts of public masturbation so egregious they'd embarrass Vito Acconci"

lol <3<3 this made my day

"have weekly write-hatemail-to-Susan-Sarandon parties" also pretty good

the political system of the u.s. is so heavily favored toward a two-party system (not just because of the established power of the current two parties but because we use a winner-take-all system rather than proportional voting) that even a reasonably popular third party couldn't just sort of co-exist with the existing two parties and share congressional space with them, it would have to become popular and powerful enough to replace one of them, the way the republicans replaced the whigs. so even if someone like bernie or whoever were to go off and start his own party, the results wouldn't be significantly different than perot in 92 or nader in 00, it would just be a weak party barely holding together around a celebrity candidate.

wait a sec, i'm confused, i thought the Democrat Party was the only "left" in America

You reveal yourself once again.

people judging candidates based on their past careers/positions is kind of stupid imo. look at where the candidates are now and how they're triangulating their positions to get elected

shakes are you fucking serious with this weak shit man

agree with Οὖτις, some people evolve

up yrs Johnny Fever

I keed

look, when it comes to voting for democrats in the general election in meaningfully close races, that's one thing. but if you're going to sit here in 2018 and stump for this prosecutor to be the democratic nominee, you're a mark

and yes, (most) prosecutors are cops

the guy in philly and the guy in brooklyn and their ilk largely being exceptions

Consider the possibility that a black woman in America might have different motivations to become a prosecutor than are held by the majority of prosecutors, who are overwhelmingly white men, especially if that black woman then uses her experience as a stepping stone to higher offices that do not require a prosecutorial approach to various social issues.

^yes

people judging candidates based on their past careers/positions is kind of stupid imo. look at where the candidates are now and how they're triangulating their positions to get elected

harris aside, this is ridiculous

people can change but if you want to know who someone is you don't take solace in how they're "triangulating"

yes, agree with that

sure, what's her record

https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/12/kamala-harris-is-not-smart-on-crime
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/magazine/kamala-harris-a-top-cop-in-the-era-of-black-lives-matter.html

Reason is a libertarian magazine

liked that NYTM article, although 2 years old

I'm aware of what reason is, thanks. I can think for myself

I agree with your point about voting for someone vs stumping for them

don't think anybody you're talking to here is 'a mark' though

maybe let's relax with circling the wagons on harris then

lol unperson doesnt know when i'm treating him like a buffoon

instead I REVEAL MYSELF TO BE BOB DOLE

srly wtf am i doing here

Brenda Snipes might be asking herself the same question.

Broward’s elections supervisor accidentally mixed more than a dozen rejected ballots with nearly 200 valid ones, a circumstance that is unlikely to help Brenda Snipes push back against Republican allegations of incompetence.

The mistake — for which no one had a solution Friday night — was discovered after Snipes agreed to present 205 provisional ballots to the Broward County canvassing board for inspection. She had initially intended to handle the ballots administratively, but agreed to present them to the canvassing board after Republican attorneys objected.

“We have found no clear authority controlling the situation faced by the board,” said Broward County Attorney Andrew Meyers.

On Election Day, Broward County collected more than 600 provisional ballots. The vast majority were declared invalid by the county’s canvassing board judges for reasons ranging from registering to vote too late to previously voting to voting at the wrong precinct.

But a couple hundred provisional ballots were held in limbo. Those ballots were the result of a connectivity issue in the system that precincts use to look up voter registrations, said Pat Nesbit, the elections day operations manager for Broward County. Voters would swipe their ID and the precinct system would show they weren’t registered voters. But when staffers called the Broward elections headquarters, the voter’s registration would appear. Precinct workers had those 205 voters fill out provisional ballots.

@unperson I def get antipathy towards stunt candidacies even if I don't see the harm in safe-state votes like Morbs'. my only objection would be that leftists run for and win those lower offices you mention in literally every cycle

Beato beating Warren

in that same article

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the most popular Democrat in the potential 2020 primary, with 28 percent of Democratic and independent voters saying they’d most likely vote for him, according to the poll released on Monday.

Biden remains the front-runner even when 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton is included in the poll. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who also ran in 2016, comes in second place at 21 percent.

O’Rourke, who earned a groundswell of national attention in 2018, was ranked third with 7 percent of Democratic and independent voters backing him, garnering more support than other frequently touted potential challengers.

it's all just name recognition at this point

I promise to make sure my peers in the first-to-caucus state do a decent vetting job this time

nothing really heats up until mid 2019 tbh. we had the slate of possible candidates who did a quick swing through to help gin up support in this year's race but it was mostly known quantities other than that california mayor dude