2020 Democratic presidential primary

<3

the two first primaries being so white unfortunately helps Warren and Sanders, and hurts Biden, this year.

??

Every chatbot has glitches

Mayor Pete surging in IA. I truly don't understand why he's got the wind at his sails all of a sudden. I guess maybe it's just one or two states and perhaps his team is just objectively doing a good job of getting him support.

he has been doing a Beto-barnstorming thing in Iowa for months now plus he is young, white and squeaky clean

although I do think it's baffling that anyone thinks a kid mayor like this is remotely qualified

white men, failing upward yet again

I've got a couple of otherwise reasonable friends (Latin, naturally) who think he's got it. As Nas said, it ain't hard to tell.

I'm really not eager to find out the extent to which right-wing media is willing to dog-whistle homophobia in 2019 if Pete ends up the nominee.

to be clear, I'm mostly not eager for that possibility because I don't want him to be the nominee because he mostly sucks.

I do think it's baffling that anyone thinks a kid mayor like this is remotely qualified

people who aren't remotely qualified, but who think "mayor pete looks, sounds, and thinks a lot like me and I'd make a really good president". he's a pure Wendell Willkie play on the part of centrist 'status quo' kingmakers in the moneyed democrat establishment.

if he can't turnout the black vote and the youth vote, he's essentially worthless. Biden can at least claim one of those.

they'll worry about that later, after they're done capturing the lukewarm vanilla pudding vote.

not terribly worried about his thin resume if he were to go head to head donald trump. the proper response would be "yeah, the other guy is donald fucking trump, go fuck yourself" ...unfortunately i don't see Pete mustering that, but maybe that's another convo.

i am however baffled by the dorks i count among my friends who are falling for this guy. all i can chalk it up to are that a couple of them have, or will have, a nice chunk of change at some point. also, "mayor pete looks, sounds, and thinks a lot like me and I'd make a really good president" def rings true.

just because the other candidate is an unqualified idiot doesn't mean it's okay for us to run our own unqualified idiot!

oh i agree. i just don't think that's what would sink him against trump.

i'm afraid a lot of people are looking for Obama 2.0 and Pete--depsite whatever brains or talent he may possess--just ain't that. not by a long shot.

also tbh Obama 2.0 doesn't seem like a silver bullet in 2020

Current president of Ukraine’s prior experience consisted of playing the president of Ukraine on TV. Current president of Iceland was a history professor. Vaclav Havel was a playwright and dissident before becoming president. I guess maybe that’s more common in smaller countries.

No one is qualified to be the most powerful person on the planet.

some people are less qualified than others

Not really. There's not another job (in or out of government) comparable to being President. Clinton and Bush were both multi-term governors (the closest job, maybe) and were complete disasters out of the gate.

"Qualified" is just a cover for "I do or don't like" this person or their policies. It's bullshit - nothing that's horrible about Trump has happened because he's 'unqualified,' it's because he's a monster with monstrous policies.

I don't agree w that at all

majority of Trump's foreign policy disasters are based on some combo of his total ignorance of how foreign policy works + his monstrous policies, they work in tandem to ensure that he gets taken advantage of by savvier leaders of foreign countries like Erdogan and Putin and Kim Jong Un.

yeah, though to be fair it is increasingly difficult to separate indifference to governing with ideology/'policy'

Trump's foreign policy has been far less disastrous than what we've gotten (or would have gotten, ie if Bolton had his way) from 'qualified' Republicans.

I'm not going to engage in hypotheticals

you wanted an example of the impacts of being unqualified, I cited some

I consider his policy to the undocumented a "foreign policy disaster."

trump's drone policy is a human rights nightmare that basically no one ever talks about

*trump holds deck of disaster in hands, introduces concept of 'disaster 52 pick-up', figures out personally profitable angles*

xxp - but those aren't the "impacts of being unqualified" they're the impacts of being a Republican and if anything they've been blunted by his ineffectualness.

Foreign policy is the number one place where no one is actually qualified to be President, because no other office has comparable power or duties.

What matters is having a good, humane ideology in terms of foreign policy. By that measure Mayor Pete ranks low in the field not because he's unqualified but because his beliefs and attitudes are generally shit.

the nut of the problem here is that the logical endpoint of Republican ideology these days is essentially anarchism - ie the federal gov't shouldn't function at all. So when those functions break down whether it's by reason of incompetence or by ideology is often hard to tease apart, because those mechanisms are mutually reinforcing.

nonetheless I do think someone more qualified would've seen through Putin, or Erdogan or Jong Un's machinations (and we know that relatively qualified people in the State Dept *did* see through those machinations, but Trump ignored them).

One's qualifications for high office do not simply consist of a resume of the previous jobs one has held. They include one's character, personality and innate abilities, e.g the ability to learn new things and to quickly put that learning to effective use. The list of Trump's disqualifications for the presidency is stunningly long; his non-existant experience of legislative or executive politics is only one among many, nor is it the most disqualifying of the bunch by a long shot.

November Pete vs. February Pete. pic.twitter.com/MolvPWEDki

— wideofthepost (@wideofthepost) November 12, 2019

honestly a slick edit of these clips back to back should be the end of this fucking guy

I can't tell Greta and Pete apart.

(I mean "should" as in "ideally") xp

rly struggling with the idea that doogie howser could become the fuckin president

Greta Buttigieg?

we have a corrupt game show host as president. buttigieg as president would be a relief

nonetheless I do think someone more qualified would've seen through Putin, or Erdogan or Jong Un's machinations (and we know that relatively qualified people in the State Dept *did* see through those machinations, but Trump ignored them).

Greta Buttigieg?

i'm afraid a lot of people are looking for Obama 2.0 and Pete--depsite whatever brains or talent he may possess--just ain't that. not by a long shot.

― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Tuesday, November 12, 2019 2:13 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

also tbh Obama 2.0 doesn't seem like a silver bullet in 2020

― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Tuesday, November 12, 2019 2:14 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

these people seem to be overlooking everything that made Obama an exceptional and electable politician

Yeah I’m afraid that Obama may have done to my generation what Reagan did to my parents’, if that makes sense.

Has anyone tried "Buttigieg Lord" yet?

... to the tune of "Jubilee Cloud" i assume

NEW: Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is telling friends and allies in phone calls today he has made a decision to run for the Democratic nomination for president, two people familiar with the matter tell @CNN, and is poised to make it official by Friday or sooner.

— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) November 13, 2019

goddammit Deval

weird way to thank Warren for the plug she gave him the other week