2020 Democratic presidential primary

I'd still want LBJ as president though

sorry to AOC up the thread, but here is how you treat your workers

Leadership starts with our choices.

That’s why I decided that no one on my staff will make less than $52k/year.

It’s likely one of the highest entry-level salaries on the Hill. We pinch pennies elsewhere, but it’s worth every dime to pay a living wage.https://t.co/IxfNH4632h

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 23, 2019

AOC- we runnin this Rep shit

the most annoying thing about "midwest nice", especially when a politician makes it part of their identity, is that it's often just a hint of a mask of politeness covering up complete assholes, and it fools so many people

"Behind every smile is a set of clenched teeth!"

I thought “Minnesota nice” literally meant being an asshole with a passive aggressively nice front. I’m very confused by this new usage where it just means nice.

it's both, is the thing

"that's interesting"

bless your heart

the most annoying thing about "midwest nice", especially when a politician makes it part of their identity, is that it's often just a hint of a mask of politeness covering up complete assholes, and it fools so many people

― Karl Malone, Friday, February 22, 2019 10:01 PM

I thought Fargo was also meh!

klobuchar really does do a convincing impersonation of a nice person.

who cares how unusual it is? don't vote for anyone who treats their underlings like dog shit. the smartest, most talented people i have ever known have often been the kindest and most generous to the people that they employ.

I mean: https://m.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/anger-management-sanders-fights-for-employees-except-his-own/Content?oid=2834657

When he defended himself against the really quite poorly sourced article he bragged that he payed his interns 12$ an hour, which seems a few dollars too low as well...

welcome back, nerdstrom!

I'd prefer that the candidate was a nice person, and that they treated their staff fairly, and I agree it is an indicator of character, but I also have to be honest with myself and say look, if Trump was all up into free healthcare and was obsessed with combatting climate change, how much do I care about his personality now? The answer might be, really, not all that much

"He yelled in meetings all the time," says one of Sanders' former Senate staffers. "He'd yell, 'I don't want to hear excuses! I want to get it done!'"

i don't doubt that sanders could be a frustrating guy to work for but this is not even close to being in the same category as throwing things at people, trying to sabotage your staffers' future careers, violating senate rules by forcing your staffers to perform personal chores for you like doing your dishes, pulling shady shit with paternal leave, or any of the other things klobuchar allegedly did

I agree, which is why I only brought it into the discussion one Karl made a broader point about employers being nice.

In my head Bernie’s ranting sounds like DeNiro’s Capone. “I want him dead, I want his family dead...”

i agree w/Killer Poin here, w/Bernie it's cute because he's a white dude in his 70s. I think Bernie's appeal comes from him almost being a old dude mascot, as much as his mostly excellent positions. People would react to Kamala saying the same thing very differently, no doubt.

― omar little, Friday, February 22, 2019 1:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"I was listening to Snoop while smoking up back in the day" is not the same class of statement. Maybe if she said something like "I thought Iron Maiden was a female Marvel superhero", I could see the comparison (and I would find that endearing).

― silent as a seashell Julia (Sund4r), Friday, February 22, 2019 1:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Admittedly, I did consider this morning whether Warren would have been seen in the same light if she made the Killer Mike comment and idk if Square Granny would be viewed as equally lovable as Square Gramps so.

(but maybe?)

maybe if Warren had a Brooklyn accent

recently decided i'll happily vote for whoever makes it out of this alive

in the past I've been bummed about my vote not mattering but it feels pretty good this time around

the thing is, anyone who achieves a certain measure of political power and has the ambition to be president is going to be an asshole to some degree. most of them are not people we would want as colleagues or bosses.

obama actually seems to have been utterly remarkable in that people generally don't have anything (or much) bad to say about his interpersonal behavior. even carter, who at this point seems to have achieved secular sainthood, had a reputation as brittle when he was president. (note i am not indulging in obama worship. his being a "nice guy"--scare quotes not really necessary i suppose--does not make up for his policy of drone murders or anything else. it's just an observation about his personal behavior.)

i totally can imagine bernie as stony and unfeeling. he certainly is incredibly single-minded. it takes a certain monomania to be so fixed in his principles and aims for so many decades. and it doesn't surprise me that that manifests in some untoward ways.

i'm not excusing it. but finding a qualified, reasonably principled, promising candidate for higher office who isn't something of an asshole, esp. in the workplace, maybe not really be in the cards.

that ended up being a much longer and more boring post than i had intended.

as seen on internet: "joe biden is hiring staff in new hampshire... heeeeere we go"

no thank's

I had a family member, who I thought knew better, tell me recently that they were hoping for a Biden/Beto ticket. WTF?

Unless that family member is highly active in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina politics their preferences today mean little.

his candidacy is going to result in even more ass-showing op-eds than klobuchar's

xp

No, they live in Texas. I'm not claiming their opinion is consequential. Just think it's extremely weird for anyone to want this ticket.

his candidacy is going to result in even more ass-showing op-eds than klobuchar's

― bhad bundy (Simon H.), 26. februar 2019 19:04 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A lot of that is priced in already, though, people know who Biden is. I fear Bidens candidacy will be the Green Book of the primary campaigns.

Republican in my office maintains that Biden is the only candidate he’d vote for in the general from the Dem field.

good thing we don't need him (your colleague that is).

I’m not trying to extrapolate anything from one anecdotal conversation with a guy who voted Trump over Hillary but we are in PA where Biden might actually represent a strong electoral play nb I’m not a fan myself and he’s nowhere near the top of my preferences (tho not at the bottom either)

A guy who votes Republican but would vote for a Democrat - yeah, that might be someone you'd want to attract.

Unless Dems are only interested in popular vote victories from here on out.

A lot of that is priced in already, though, people know who Biden is

There hasn't been a full airing of his creepy grabby tendencies though, and people will spring to his defence when it happens

or maybe activate young voters and non-voters, especially women and POC, and get them excited about a candidate. and Biden ain't that candidate. xpost.

a guy who voted Trump over Hillary

This should tell you all you'd need to know about the probability he'd vote for any Democratic nominee, including Biden, when the moment came to mark his ballot. Sure, he might give Biden a bit more consideration, but in the end he'd think 'I just can't hand more power to the Democrats. I align with the Republican agenda and must vote for Trump to maintain it. However much I am uncomfortable with Trump, a Democrat would be worse.'

Republican in my office maintains that Biden is the only candidate he’d vote for in the general from the Dem field.

My take is that people who identify as Republicans say stuff like this and even to some extent mean it but in the end are going to vote for the person with an R after their name 99% of the time.

Pierce:

He's had almost four years now to decide if he wants the job. He's had almost four years now to decide if he wants to go through what you have to go through to get the job. With all due respect to his family situation, that's more than enough time to make up your mind on these questions. In 2016, with his son's death still fresh in his mind, he passed. (Understandable, although the question intrigues me as to whether, absent Beau's death, Biden would have told the Obama people to stuff it and run against Hillary Rodham Clinton—and, as it turned out, Bernie Sanders—anyway. Now that would've been a campaign.) There is no reason for him still to be puzzling this whole thing out while freezing the top of every poll of actual Democratic contenders.

That said, there's a lot in Joe Biden's political history to make you wonder whether or not he's really the juggernaut his name-recognition indicates he might be. He's run for president twice and flamed out badly both times. In the days of the #MeToo movement, and with a strong group of accomplished women already in the field, does the party really want the guy who took a dive on Anita Hill? (Or, more precisely, on Angela Wright.) And does Joe Biden want to get up on a stage and debate his shilling for the credit card industry behind an indefensible bankruptcy bill in 2005, a measure that occasioned the first move into national politics from an obscure Harvard Law professor named Elizabeth Warren?

I think it’s silly to gauge Biden’s appeal based on pre-VP runs. He got 8 years of great publicity as Obama’s buddy. He’s a much stronger candidate now than he’s been in past primaries.

yes this is true but -- and I can't stress this enough -- fuck joe biden

biden’s gonna burn through any lasting goodwill from the obama years and/or the onion’s caricature of him in about three days once people start looking properly at both his political history and his creepiness towards women

last two posts otm

From a game-theory perspective it probably makes sense for him to declare as late as possible. He doesn’t need to build name recognition and I assume fundraising won’t be a problem. So getting in early just gives more time for people to try to chip away at his support with the kind of issues mentioned .

Biden needs to go ASAP

via Raymond C, some useful tactics

https://medium.com/@ScottSoriano/welcome-to-the-stupid-season-some-basic-tools-for-mastering-the-2020-election-season-becoming-a-d634063cd0f8

There have been a lot of early-polling poll front runners this many months ahead of the election who never came within a whiff of the nomination. A presidential campaign is long and brutal, and no amount of great publicity as Obama’s buddy will save Biden from his own laxity and poor judgment. I predict that if he runs he'll be toast by the end of Super Tuesday, if not beforehand.

^^^^

potential biden candidacy a huge hilarious joke until further notice