2020 Democratic presidential primary

(Fwiw, Fred, it can be - b here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irrational
is almost identical to 1a here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unreasonable )

the thing about all this talk over what will be accomplished legislatively (which is correct, nothing sweeping will happen in 2 or probably 4 years) underscores is the need to vote for an executive that will give us the most left wing judges and most restrained foreign policy. I know who I trust the most

^^^

I think I said something completely different? That a lot of stuff could be accomplished legislatively, including sweeping stuff, just not unpopular stuff like M4A?

good grief, M4A is not unpopular!

M4A, wealth taxes, corporate taxes, prison reform -- all poll well.

Which version of M4A polls best?

M4A does not poll well from what I've seen. There's that big flaw that support goes way down if it includes abolishing private insurance. Wealth tax polls well no matter how you ask.

Part of the reason is successful corporate resistance; the Dem donor base has successfully inculcated the belie in many voters' minds that M4A will obliterate private insurance of any kind.

"Hey, would you like free health insurance?" would poll significantly better than "Hey, we're gonna take away your health insurance and then involve you in a risky socialist scheme where the government will tell you what doctor you can go to - is that OK with you?" And the latter is what's currently being polled in order to yield the result that "Medicare For All spells electoral dooooommmmm!!!!!"

Oh cool a possible president legally constrained by a private business

For those curious: the @PeteButtigieg campaign tells me he's still not been released from his NDA for his work with McKinsey, also noting that his work was long before the events in this story. https://t.co/TyzMsJO931

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) December 3, 2019

Charles Pierce makes a case for Harris:

Harris should still be in the race. She is a brilliant, accomplished woman who showed her leadership chops when she reduced Brett Kavanaugh to tears during his Senate confirmation hearings. (In fact, one of the only upsides to her decision that I can see is that now she’ll have all the time she needs to prep for her role in the Senate trial of El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago.) She got screwed by the political system of legalized influence peddling that we were gifted by the Supreme Court. It has bothered me from the start that fundraising numbers were such an important metric for the DNC in deciding who should be on the stage and who shouldn’t. Harris qualified for the December 19 hoedown, but she couldn’t sustain her campaign until then. (Two whole weeks!) Instead, we’ll get Tom Steyer, but not Julian Castro. Tulsi Gabbard, but (probably) not Booker. How is this good for anyone? In what is arguably a populist moment, this is simply crazy.

Kamala Harris will still be a force. Right now, she has to be at the top of every vice-presidential shortlist. Any Democrat elected has to consider her for attorney general. And, once the Senate trial starts. she’ll likely get all the free airtime that she couldn’t get while running for president. In addition, she is the most important outstanding endorsement on the board right now. But the field is infinitely poorer without her, and completely out of touch with the actual dynamics of the 2020 election.

So on one hand voters are held by the propaganda machine because of lack of critical thinking and don’t prefer single payer M4A but on the other hand it is wildly popular and moderates are very dumb to not join in the movement asap because it’s very obvious it is what voters wants.

kamala as VP only really makes realpolitik sense for buttigieg imo

AG seems a lot more likely

she's no doubt on every Dem nominee's list.

Well, maybe not all of them.

Biden would leap at the chance to have Harris as VP imo

biden will leap at the chance of being mayor pete's vp

#buttigieglord

Well, maybe not all of them.

― Simon H.,

sorry, for attorney general

ah yeah that makes more sense

Still don't know why anyone thinks Harris would take the AG job. There's nowhere in public office for her to go from there. She hasn't pursued the career she has to serve 2-4 years in the Cabinet then go private.

or VP for that matter, also traditionally a career-ender

She'll remain a Senator and be a 2024 or 2028 front-runner.

biden will leap at the chance of being mayor pete's vp

don't be silly. disregarding the fact that pete likely won't be the nominee, and even if he were the nominee, he wouldn't offer biden the vp spot, there's still no way in the world that biden would accept it, if it were offered.

dude

The CEO of Kissinger Associates seems to like Pete Buttigieg just finehttps://t.co/g8Iwuz9JAS pic.twitter.com/JwoHUC9Nk1

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) December 3, 2019

perfectly sensible

glad I stopped reading Chas Pierce

Kissinger liked Obama too surely?

also elizabeth holmes never forget

Kissinger likes anybody w power

...who keeps the bombs dropping for 8 years

As goes the Kissinger endorsement, so goes the election.
https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/RT_hillary_clinton_and_henry_kissinger_3a_ml_160518_4x3_992.jpg

it's weird that guy is still an active presence (sort of) in american politics. to think -- a contemporary of lincoln

Hell won't take him.

good god Charles Pierce waving his cane at the clouds is pathetic

I like Charles Pierce

"She got screwed by the political system of legalized influence peddling that we were gifted by the Supreme Court" is a bit much - she would have happily played the role of main billionaire cash sweeper to Bernie/Warren if Biden and Pete Butts hadn't interceded.

mm yes

Dude, milo, she was such a bad politician that she couldn't even 'leverage' the plutocrat dough.

Pierce was an idol of mine for many years or maybe he just seemed like a smart, biting cynic before the Internets came along.

And I really don't get his impassioned defense of Harris.

He's still great when it comes to sports.

A cynic is a sentimentalist, and Pierce is not a sentimentalist. Y'all have read the wrong man.

he’s turned into a hack. it’s sad but trump did that to a lot of people

I think that's how I feel Kevin but that might be me just being lazy.

And OK, Al. But he just seems fucking angry all the time and if I want that, I just look at Twitter for ten minutes.

Milo and Al, have we been on ILX for 20 years together yet?

maybe you too Kevin?

he’s turned into a hack. it’s sad but trump did that to a lot of people

― k3vin k.

Wow -- how fiendishly we disagree. He's not the first columnist I read anymore, but his turns of phrase still depend on how shrewdly he looks at the race, impeachment, and where we're at morally.

and, yeah, I'm fucking angry all the time too, and anger, like John Lydon sang, is an energy. It's also clarifying and -- what the hacks miss -- makes you lighter on your feet.

yes

The best clear-eyed take on the Harris withdrawal is Erik Loomis'.