2020 Democratic presidential primary

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.

America’s fascination with ex-soldiers politicians will forever elude me.

fwiw, I’m currently taking part in a corporate initiative prioritization process called “execute to win”

note that mckinsey was advising the saudis on image strategy *directly* before the khashoggi affair, and they still are selling a corporate strategy with that name

I get it, but Buttigieg was at McKinsey for like 3 years. I don't really see him as the candidate from McKinsey.

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.

Feels to me that one thing does not exclude the other, it just seems interests have aligned. As it often happens.

xxxp that’s fair, but the approach to policy and how people adapt to the election landscape is important, because it shows the compromise strategy that might happen in legislation

Clinton’s campaign and past policy basically stated “a good compromise is the best victory” and it gave us all kinds of bullshit because sometimes the best victory is just tabling things

America’s fascination with ex-soldiers politicians will forever elude me.

it's actually been quite a long time since a military 'hero' had any success in a presidential campaign

Think I read somewhere that Pete has never gotten more than 8,000 people to vote for him in an election.

I don't really see him as the candidate from McKinsey.

i absolutely do

I love Warren's ambition when it comes to policy, but at this point, I feel like the deciding factor for me is who I think is most likely to be able to beat Trump. Not that I have any special insight into that, but that's really what I think most about.

it's actually been quite a long time since a military 'hero' had any success in a presidential campaign

― mookieproof, Friday, November 1, 2019 9:24 PM (twenty-eight seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was thinking of McCain and Kerry who have been successful/are having successful political careers.

Xpost I’m not crazy about Pete but he might be the most electable, he at least seems to have the least baggage, which is obviously mostly a function of being half the age of the other front runners

Mayor Pete probably has the Dem 'anybody but a boomer' vote locked down.

i'd obviously vote for pete over trump but it is astonishing to me that a cybernetically created and not even particularly successful mayor of a small city -- who is gay! -- is considered more 'electable' than various senators/governors/etc of various genders

I’ll wait for him to be firmly in double digits in polling to call him the most electable. So far he is closer to Beto than he is to Biden.

I kind of hate him tbh

The only reasons Buttigieg is more electable than Harris are racism and sexism.

I actually dont think being a young mayor of a small town is adequate preparation for being president

if bernie's major shortcoming is that he can't turn out the black vote, where in hell does that leave pete

Buttigieg moving into Morbs' Target Number 1 spot in the last week or two validates all of the above.

It is a deep fundamental flaw with primary politics that the first two are in such ridiculously lily white states.

3 years is a long time imho