2020 Democratic presidential primary

Some commentary.

i'm reading https://smile.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759 right now and honestly, what a mess! good book so far!

News: BETO is ending his presidential campaign

He will not run for Senate, has no immediate plans to endorse

"My service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee"https://t.co/MXUSDiLDIK

— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) November 1, 2019

Oh well. Whatever. Never mind.

believing is art

He's gettin' the band back together.

"My service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee"

you're too old to enlist, robert

lame that he's ruling out challenging Cornyn wtf

To be fair, he's probably burned out on campaigning, and wants to be a dad for a bit, or maybe write a book or something.

I mean, with exception of the two or so months between the end of the senatorial race and the beginning of his presidential run, O'Rourke has been on the trail since early '17.

I’d like to see him do it too but I suspect his gamble to be the eXtReMe anti-gun candidate (which, cool imo) might make a second senate run in Texas even harder than the first one? idk just spitballing here.

Castro would have been a good pick to run against Cornyn, but I imagine he's angling for a cabinet position after he drops out. Hell, O'Rourke may be dropping out now to rest up for a VP spot.

i wonder if this poll was the final straw

Our first Times/Siena poll is out in the state of Iowa:
Warren 22
Sanders 19
Buttigeig 18
Biden 17@alexburnsNYT with the storyhttps://t.co/X74g4N2f25

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 1, 2019

(of 1500 responses, apparently 3 went for beto)

Castro should get more VP buzz than Beto. Beto's not going to help any of the frontrunners win Texas and doesn't move the needle anywhere else.

Glad Beto recognized what was going to ultimately happen; for that alone he is way smarter than many candidates.

Harris is effectively pulling out of NH; writing’s on the wall for her, too, I think. I REALLY don’t understand why she hasn’t taken off, and the booty judge has.

the answer is she's a black woman

and all the scared old white 'centrists' or whatever we're calling them aren't convinced she's "one of them"

certainly racism is a factor, as it always is, but I don't think that's the primary reason for Harris not doing well. her pragmatism resembles obama's, and her positions often fall between the left and moderate prongs of the party - those are both very positive factors for her in terms of electability. but what is her issue? what is the thing that people think of when think of harris? warren: she's got a plan; sanders: socialist; biden: stood near obama for 8 years; mayor pete: likes to portray himself as the voice of reason, white normcore; beto: hates guns; klobuchar: courageously tells other democrats that their ideas will never work.

what about harris? works well with cops? yelled at joe biden?

(^^obviously the caricatures above are what i see as popular perception, to the extent that anyone pays attention in the dumbass country, not what they actually stand for)

Iowa winners will be Warren, and Buttigieg seconed.

*Buttigieg

lol not sure why I did that -- blame the wine.

Harris yelling at Biden read as 'uppity' to alot of his base.

Isn't her signature issue criminal justice reform?

Harris had to walk back most of her debate victories didn’t she? After that, I’m hardly surprised she’s doing poorly.

That's the problem: she has no signature issue anymore.

For most of the summer she was my third pick, but despite her gravitas she has no talent, I've noticed for smooth well-phrased banalities like Buttigieg, who, whatever else, is a good politician.

ugh, I’ve been getting over a cold
and completely forgot about the dinner
tonight. not sure I’d want to hang with 13k screaming people, though? some
friends are texting me about it

my friend’s wife got a picture with Rosario Dawson and I asked if she seemed a little beardy

all my women friends are Warren at this point, almost all the dudes are Pete smgdh

if we're going by who's a good politician, Trump has everyone beat

I think maybe my friends are split? might both be Warren, but idk

I need to seem like a good political wingman to join them on events because they have access. She’s the state director of an org that we will call “blanned barentdood”

Gotta say, Pete Buttigeig has played his cards very well so far, but he has friends in wealthy well-connected places, and it seems clear to me he was recruited by elite operatives, working for - gee, that's a good question - and dealt much stronger cards than a mayor from South Bend ever could have commanded from his own political resources.

would you say your words have a chastening effect on those considering supporting him?

You mean does it make them want to marry him?

there was a power vacuum in the Democratic establishment, Buttigieg was there to fill it.

hey-oh

stop

i think i missed something

the local gay political action committee types seem into Candidate Pete but it all seems very de rigueur

I was actually heyo-ing the previous post but I think Alfred is acknowledging “power vacuum” as something akin to a power bottom

Kind of hilarious that at this point the great hope of the major Dem donors is the mayor of the forth largest city in Indiana.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 2, 2019

xp oh yeah i didn't consider that connotation sorry. i was being serious!

I'm actually warming to Mayor Pete. If he still has a chance by the time the primary reaches my state, I might vote for him.

would mayor pete be polling higher or lower if he were straight

I don't know. Honestly though I think the people who absolutely wouldn't vote for a gay man were never going to vote for anybody but Trump anyway.

liberal urban moneyed types, or people who fashion themselves as a combination of the above, like the guy

It feels like pure branding, and the people who see themselves as his base seem like socially/politically-striving types who feel identity is more important than policy

he’s a mckinsey type who took advice on which advisors to hire from facebook

having lived through many mckinsey and mckinsey-type corporate restructurings, none of which were saudi arabian (thankfully), don’t trust him

It's not that I don't care about policy. But at the end of the day, what any of these candidates is going to be able to accomplish in office is a lot different than the policies they would support in a vacuum.

Buttigieg was there to fill it.

Yes, he's very ambitious, but the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana does not embark on a national campaign for the presidency just because he woke up one morning and said to himself, "By god, the nation needs me and I'm going to do it!", then start cold-calling all the billionaires on his rolodex to pitch his innovative ideas about the Supreme Court.