2020 Democratic presidential primary

once pressure comes from the other side?

what other side? the conservative, "law and order" side of the Dem party? how strong are they right now/how many votes do they have? or do you think she's gonna take marching orders from the GOP, who will never vote for her?

she's going to take the measure of where the party/her voters are currently at, and where they are currently at is not WAR ON DRUGS/Superpredators!/imprison more people

surely there is no precedent for a democratic president, especially in this century, who has shown a concerning openness to dialog with republican legislators. you're right

I am glad you're genuinely so convinced by her. I wish I could be less cynical

We share your skepticism, believe me. I'll continue to shop for the least awful among them.

the only presumptive candidate that creeps me out besides Biden is Corey Booker.

and Bloomberg isn't a candidate, he's a dildo for rich Third Way/Dem satraps

I don't think Harris has nearly the same charisma or likability issues as HRC did. For one thing, as suggested upthread, I do think she has the potential ability to disarm and destroy Trump in a debate without losing her cool.

HRC didn't lose her cool, she kept countering Trump and saying true things about facts, history, policy and Trump, while the moderators allowed him to spout insane bullshit and talk over the top of her.

I can't see Harris disarming Trump in a debate, but I can see her enraging him with calmness and facts even more than HRC did. Actually I'll pay $5 to watch that tomorrow, someone call the networks.

surely there is no precedent for a democratic president, especially in this century, who has shown a concerning openness to dialog with republican legislators. you're right

we're in a political era where precedents don't count for much imo. But for what it's worth, I don't think any national-profile Dem honestly thinks there's any working with the GOP as currently constituted - I think Obama getting burned and the rise of Trump have pretty well torched any serious room for compromise.

like I don't think anybody, even in the Senate (which is def more collegial than the House), looks across the aisle and says "huh, if I just adjust my position a little bit, I will peel off the necessary votes from the other party to get this bill passed". Because that doesn't happen anymore. at best you get a couple of defections and that's it, which really only matter when the partisan split in the Senate is *very* close - and who knows what it will be if/when Harris is President. But even in that scenario, I doubt she'll be crafting too many policy proposals with the specific goal of peeling Huckleberry's vote away from the blobfish.

Michael Tracey in the 2016 campaign would posted pictures of Trump shaking hands w famous black people as proof he wasn’t racist like the libs say he is.

looks pretty likely that the senate will be pretty evenly split in a couple of years, no?

wait I thought that 2016 proved, if it needed reasserting, that debates don't mean shit. Every well-paid talking head said HRC cleaned his clock in the three debates. Yet Trump's voters thought he was awesome humiliating her -- I know this because I heard it from several relatives. Libs and conservatives dwell in discrete galaxies in the 21st century.

yeah I don't think debates really matter much or change any minds

looks pretty likely that the senate will be pretty evenly split in a couple of years, no?

it is really hard to say from this far out, who knows how many people Trump takes down with him

I'm not really sure which states the Dems can flip either, tbh. Can they keep Jones, get a win in Kansas, flip Florida, get rid of Collins, etc.?

Rubio's not up in 2020, though.

not even votes mattered in 2016 iirc

Rubio's not up in 2020, though.

ah my bad

also too bad

I can't see Harris disarming Trump in a debate, but I can see her enraging him with calmness and facts even more than HRC did. Actually I'll pay $5 to watch that tomorrow, someone call the networks.

I have a fantasy where, instead of having Democratic debates where they go up against one other, we just have each Democratic candidate do a one-on-one debate vs. Trump.

Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO, exploring 2020 run as an independent – reports https://t.co/FllhcmDPrb

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 21, 2019

Gabbard: 'Both sides' at fault for shutdownhttps://t.co/ceWW2VHjxV

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 20, 2019

lol ok

michael sweeney thinks her grift is to run for the green party nomination, which makes sense.

Totally

re: Harris and the LA Times article linked earlier

The decision to visit South Carolina first — where black voters flex significant muscle in the Democratic primary — stands in contrast to other contenders, such as Warren and Gillibrand, who made Iowa their first stop.

A bunch of not-announced candidates did election endorsement tours back in October for the 2018 election, with the implication some of them were feeling out support for a possible primary run. Harris was in Iowa about a week prior to the election and it might just be that returning after two months is a little soon. Not sure if she visited SC on that trip, though.

Biden boasted about his role in passing the 1994 crime bill in his memoir, which was published 14 months ago https://t.co/BJc4mUYyXI https://t.co/ikMK8rqOk3

— Alex Shephard (@alex_shephard) January 21, 2019

Biden has to do quick work cleaning up his last 40 years

This from @briebriejoy on Harris's career as a prosecutor and how we ought to judge it is very sharp. https://t.co/GZdAtJEesw pic.twitter.com/hPeDdJDllA

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) January 21, 2019

Kiese Laymon wrote a really good post:

"...But I hope all of us who know what Kamala, Cory and Barry did or had to do to be presidential in this country question also what we had to do to be hired, to be tenured, to not go to jail, to pay for our families' needs. It ain't the same thing, aint same scale, but in dissing and critiquing folk who need critique as anti-black public servants, I hope we also critique the varied ways we satisfy, titillate and bargain with white power in order to eat. We can do both. I teach at a school called Ole Miss and not a school called Jackson State because a school called Ole Miss pays me more, though a school called Jackson State raised me and loved my mama, father, aunties and cousin. All critiques of these feckless politicians have to start there."

kiese <3333

hm

anyone perfect show up yet

hi sorry I'm late

Lol she had to criminalize truants! She had no choice ; )

“We are putting parents on notice,” she said in her inaugural speech as attorney general. “If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law.”~Kamala Harris

she has already explained that

she thought it said tyrants

this primary is going to be so awful

Yeah, I think so too. But since there are so many women running maybe everyone can get it all out of their system in one go so I won't have to hear unlikeable and uncharismatic in the same sentence ever again.

lol

I feel like, if only Bernie and Biden - and probably Beto - got out of the way, then it could be a really inspiring and interesting primary. But the idea that we'll have a rerun of 2016 except with Biden/Beto in the role of DNC candidate is indeed horrifying.

Is Beto still livejournaling?

Bernie should absolutely still run, even if only to keep pushing the policy discourse left.

I feel like, if only Bernie and Biden - and probably Beto - got out of the way

could you get out of the way?

I still don't want the primaries to be referred to as a primary. There are a shitload of them.

You guys do know that JFK-Humphrey-Johnson in 1960 was also "awful," right? Politics ain't beanbag.

you would think polls like this would push it to the top of anybody's agenda:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/426411-record-number-of-americans-consider-climate-change-a-personal-issue

I'm not about to go searching for it now but some asshead on Twitter yesterday basically said that there is no good-faith way to criticize Harris from the left without doing Putin's bidding. He got more or less mercilessly dragged, but good lord.

it's really impressive (and sad) how many regular ass people love playing DNC mouthpiece dress-up

speaking of which, more Putin stooges at work!!

More on Kamala Harris. I'm especially troubled by comments from SF public defender Jeff Adachi and lawyer Anne Weills, both of whom I respect. They asked Harris to investigate local police departments for killing black citizens. She ignored them. https://t.co/I0pNAMvodv

— James Forman, Jr. (@JFormanJr) January 22, 2019

well BLM was created by the FSB obv

The primary lesson Dems learned from their 2016 debacle is that they should slime socialists *before* the primaries. Waaay before.

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) January 23, 2019

Perrin thinks Harris is a socialist?