Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

people just can't get enough of this guy who loves stop and frisk

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/opinion/bloomberg-stop-frisk-racial-injustice.html

Best of luck to Orlando Bloomberg

anticipating ilx "nicknames suck ass" posts when i persist in calling pres bloomberg "bloomps."

Obama was a centrist. Clinton was a centrist. Carter was a centrist. The last time a representative of the Dem left was elected was 54 years ago. The last time a representive of the Dem left was elected having not served as VP was 86 years ago.

I want to win, I want to give a Left leaning Dem congress a chance to do things. The existential threat of climate change is the paramount moral issue of the day, and to lose in 2020, because we nominated some DSA approved character that couldn't carry swing states, will be a moral failing that will redound through millennia to come.

― Sanpaku, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 8:00 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This has a nice patina of using historical evidence to support your point, but each of the Presidents you've named was elected at a confluence of particular and distinct historical circumstances that had more to do with the American moment and their opponents than their purported moderation. Like you I don't just want to win, I know we must win -- there is no alternative -- but "some DSA approved character that couldn't carry swing states" is a figment of your imagination. Evers and Baldwin in Wisconsin, Whitmer winning comfortably in MI after being pushed left by Al-Sayed, we've got enough indications people are ready for a progressive leader in the likely 2020 swing states that it's not even an interesting question anymore. The interesting question is who the right one is.

well argued

conclusion: hoos is running

hey guys primaries exist, you can test their values and everything, shit's wild

https://media.giphy.com/media/mEUmeOiT9MCMo/giphy.gif

leaning toward HOOS or Sherrod Brown

Brb, mocking up the "I'm With HOOS" bumper stickers.

Make America steendrive again

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is looking at Troy, New York, as a potential base for a 2020 presidential bid, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. pic.twitter.com/D8MR8GBEqf

— Joseph Spector (@GannettAlbany) January 10, 2019

can't wait for the style section trendpieces

Smarter pick than Brooklyn

"some DSA approved character that couldn't carry swing states" is a figment of your imagination. Evers and Baldwin in Wisconsin,

Evers was definitely seen as on the centrist side of the primary, but point taken re Baldwin, and the point will be hammered home in the 2022 when Mark Pocan beats Ron Johnson and Wisconsin has left-progressive Dem senators.

share the spider sense about this guy, but i'd love to see him debate some dreadful bore like garcetti or castro if they have undercard/kids table debates

I am no fan of golf. I think golf courses should be transitioned to homeless shelters. https://t.co/9e0oiNSHRx

— Richard N. Ojeda, II (@VoteOjeda2020) January 11, 2019

fuck golf tbrr

right

eh he used "transitioned"

The fact that he’s not running for something else to build a base in WV and instead going straight to national politics makes me think he’s angling for a Fox News spot down the line more than anything.

lol @ declaring on a Friday afternoon
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/425010-tulsi-gabbard-announces-2020-white-house-bid

It ain’t gonna be Tulsi Gabbard so why should she try too hard

Ok I know Tulsi isn't the one, but I also am willing to let the process play out. If this thread is a just a skeet shoot it will get tiresome fast.

Nope! Not her. Not him. Not her either. Him? Hell no. HER? Gawd please no. HIM? Are you kidding? Etc.

Lots of people will enter. That is okay. Only one will remain. That is okay too. Personally I am pretty zen about letting it all spoil out without making a choice at this juncture. Ymmv

* spool out

that's fair I was just counter-zinging the "Friday afternoon" zing or w/e

I'll save my eyerolls for Booker

idk shit about tulsi gabbard but fwiw i came across this on fb, from a friend of a friend (who i otherwise do not know at all):

'Her father has led all of the anti-gay initiatives in Hawai’i politics for the last 20 years. Tulsi was right out in front spewing hate until she had her “epiphany” when she ran for Congress. I watched her on more than one occasion SCREAMING at LGBT folks and their allies in front of the Capital. She told me, to my face, in front of a crowd, that I and all my faggot friends (HER words) were going to burn in hell...and that it couldn’t happen soon enough. So that’s a first person account and that’s Tulsi Gabbard.'

She is a legit crank

okay okay, screenshotting your own tweets is kinda lame, so here's a thread by @pplswar listing all the unrelated political reasons for why Tulsi Gabbard sucks https://t.co/n2c1agyoa9

— Sous la plage (@SousLaPlage) January 11, 2019

Her badness has been pretty well documented for a while

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/tulsi-gabbard-president-sanders-democratic-party

Ok I know Tulsi isn't the one, but I also am willing to let the process play out. If this thread is a just a skeet shoot it will get tiresome fast.

OK, I really like and respect every single Democrat who's announced so far and all those who are likely to announce soon, and would support any of them in a Presidential election with fervent and unfeigned enthusiasm, except Tulsi Gabbard, who sucks.

OTM

tulsi is creepy af. quite apart from what she says, her associations are a nightmare: she's been surrounded her whole life with nothing but the passionate worst. other (bad) dems talk clash-of-civilizations but david duke doesn't pop up to say they should be secretary of state.

whatever eccentric erected a billboard a block from my favorite hot dog place a decade ago to denounce "dirty doctors" in letters made of electric tape (story behind this is probably awful) now uses it mostly to denounce tulsi, sometimes for being in collusion w dirty doctors. wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Hopefully her higher profile and the magnifying glass on her awfulness might lead somebody to primary her out of her seat

Julian Castro is in

Someone on FB posted Gabbard's announcement, saying "who is this???" and one of the most fervently right-wing people on my feed, a guy who spends his whole day jumping on peoples' comment threads and decrying their political correctness, immediately came in to praise her and say he would definitely vote for her.

Can't decide whether this is

a) Gabbard actually has appeal for affluent highly-educated right-wing people who think Trump is a fool but hate their suburban advanced-degree liberal surroundings more than anything else
b) Gabbard is the image of what right-wing people think of left-wing people as finding appealing and so RW people are inclined to cynically talk up her candidacy because they believe this will successfully split Democratic votes

Anyway, Julian Castro, great! I like Julian Castro a lot.

I saw someone report that Harris is waiting to announce on MLK day, which is fucked up. Don't step on the man's day!

synergy

Gabbard is the image of what right-wing people think of left-wing people as finding appealing and so RW people are inclined to cynically talk up her candidacy because they believe this will successfully split Democratic votes

it's that one

it's kind of the stopped clock situation and how some leftists could at least appreciate Ron Paul's anti-imperialsim and vigorous denunciation of the Iraq invasion. but with Tulsi and conservatives it's the racism & homophobia

Harris is waiting to announce on MLK day

She just wants to claim his aura by standing in it, which is totally a politician thing to do, because it is wholly symbolic and without substance, yet elections regularly are decided by baseless symbolism and appeals to emotion and they lean on that lever as hard as they can.

i don't see any problem with harris announcing on MLK day. it's symbolic, and for good reason. she is in a position to announce her candidacy as one of the main contenders for the president of the united states in no small part because of the work that King accomplished. she's paying respect to that while also looking forward to the work that still remains to be done.

So, who’s announcing on Valentines Day?

O'Malley obv

someone who wants to lose the Valentines Day Blows vote

KM otm

It's like if someone took a bunch of random warmed over liberal talking points from the 1990s and put them in a humanoid. https://t.co/CNt4HnT9GY

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 12, 2019

"Today, we live in a world in which brainpower is the new currency of success." #Julian2020

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 12, 2019

lol that’s fuckin nonsense

my god

Hopefully her higher profile and the magnifying glass on her awfulness might lead somebody to primary her out of her seat

― harvey wall/barrier (voodoo chili), Saturday, January 12, 2019 4:56 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All my friends here on Oahu are hoping so too.

I’m sure castro is a nice guy but how can he think that kind if campaign could ever prevail.

campaigning for veep? polishing his MOR credentials for some future gov/sen race? i have no idea.

Castro is a Clintonite, not interested