2020 Democratic presidential primary

chait on sanders/beto

pass

People think likability will be the most determinant factor in the sense that it will be the thing that makes someone impervious to the smears any candidate who faces the GOP is going to have to deal with. He had some viral moments in his Senate race, did way better than people expected so there’s some optimism there. There’s truth to that but he’s not Obama.

Would be funny if neither Biden, Bernie or Beto end up actually running.

I don't want a goddamn viral moment for president, I want someone who makes good policy!

I am not the majority of voters, of course

the Beto buzz came from his fundraising power. the buzzers aren't factoring in the power of cruz-hatred in that equation.

xp
i can understand the buzz: he's handsome, young, has an at the drive in connection, is good at fundraising, and showed that he could do well in purple/red states. ideologically sits in the center of the democratic party (near pelosi). obama likes him.

I don't want a goddamn viral moment for president, I want someone who makes good policy!

I am not the majority of voters, of course

basically this

haha fair enough

pelosi is not at the center of the democratic party tbh xp

lol are you going to argue that she's to the right

no she's definitely towards the left!

https://voteview.com/person/15448/nancy-pelosi
https://voteview.com/person/21361/beto-o-rourke

He’ll obviously be running on good policy in the primary. Whether he runs well on it is another story

i am struggling to find the primary sources for this beto buzz. the only stuff i've seen is people meta-arguing about the possibility, and how he compares to bernie from the point of view of the extremely online. there doesn't seem to be a big constituency for him.

this is good though. he should run again for tx senate.

pic.twitter.com/XONeh8HUf1

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) December 28, 2018

he should run again for tx senate.

otm. he has a decent chance in TX and otherwise it's a gimme for the republicans. at worst he makes them spend a hundred million defeating him.

Fun to watch (not here) obvious concern trolls poison the well for Beto, Harris, and Warren among the "far left" and everybody just swallows it like a bunch of chumps

By this time next year they're going to have my propaganda-vulnerable friend talking about how the democratic front-runner--whoever it ends up being--is just as bad as Trump, like he did in 2016

Beto O'Woke

This article makes me think Warren has lost already: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-sen-elizabeth-warren-is-courting-black-voters-and-their-leaders-as-her-expected-2020-presidential-announcement-nears/

And I like Warren a lot. Policy wise by far my favorite candidate. But yeah. She'll make a good cabinet member?

She should stay in the Senate, get in line for a leadership position imo

^^^

she could be maj leader imo

Isn't she too new in the senate to get that far in the line for any kind of leadership position?

p sure she could stab schumer

Bring back vicious beatings on the senate floor

Isn't she too new in the senate to get that far in the line for any kind of leadership position?

Senate committees are run purely on the basis of seniority. Party leadership positions in the Senate, e.g. majority whip, are elected within the party caucus. Any senator capable of attracting wide support may occupy those positions.

Yeah relationships and events and the makeup of the caucus are significant factors, in addition to seniority

see how easy that was, Richard?

Even with the Affordable Care Act, our health care system still needs fixing. There are nearly 30 million Americans who still don’t have health insurance and plenty more who have insurance but can’t actually afford the rising cost of health care. We need #MedicareForAll.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 30, 2018

Richard?

Richard Harris obv, a better actor sometimes than a legislator

bernie needs to drop out to save the discourse

(richard = beto btw)

that's...beto is short for roberto

Huh, I thought it was short for Francis.

I believe I have noted in several places that I am a dumbass.

Even if you got the name right, probably better to avoid the “it’s not his government name!” Cruz campaign line entirely.

Not to say that overall the point you were making wasn’t valid

beto pronounced as heyo

beto pronounced as heyo and always accompanied by a blast of an air horn

Warren announced this morning. Well, announced that she's formed a committee, but that's just a formality.

I can't remember where, but I said months ago she'd be the only candidate to announce before January 1st, so where do I collect my winnings?

wherever you read Trump's tax returns

Rachel Maddow’s show, iirc

elizabeth warren would be an excellent president. i'm not sure how strong of a candidate she will be. i'll support either her or bernie.

she's a great Senator and a bad general election candidate imo, Hillary 2.0 persona-wise. By which I mean America isn't gonna go en masse for the angry schoolmarm schtick, even if her policy stances are generally leagues better than Hillary's.

My worry about Warren is that a lot of her positions require explanations that won't neatly fit into soundbytes and when you have the nightly news trying to cut them down, on top of Trump interrupting her every five seconds with something insane, the message won't be accurately delivered.

yeah well that is a problem with all the candidates

i'm not supporting a candidate on the basis of what i think the american voter would like. mostly because i don't understand anything about how they think about anything. i don't find warren to be an "angry schoolmarm," she strikes me as an accomplished law professor and a strong advocate for economic justice in the senate.

Yeah, me reading "angry schoolmarm" here or anywhere else gets a huge eyeroll. People who take issue with her tone were never going to vote for her anyway.

my point exactly

to be clear I'm just evaluating her electoral prospects to the best of my ability, not making a judgment about whether or not she would be a good president. (I'm sure she would and of course I would vote for her)

i don't have a perception of what would play with the electorate. to me, trump seems like a clown from the circus but he had mass appeal