Elections 2020 Democratic Primary Thread: The Announcements

[Lead]

Watch Senator Warren CNN Town Hall




Elizabeth Warren gives a full-throated endorsement for reparations at CNN town hall
Vox

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) gave a ringing endorsement to the idea of reparations for the families of former slaves at a CNN town hall held at Jackson State University on Monday night.

While Warren stopped short of calling for direct payments, she threw her support behind a bill in the US House to study the issue and acknowledged the persistence of racial injustice in America.

“This is a stain on America and we’re not going to fix that, we’re not going to change that, until we address it head on, directly,” Warren said. “And make no mistake. It’s not just the original founding. It’s just what happened generation after generation.”

Warren said some of the most prominent examples of continued racial discrimination in the US is housing and employment discrimination against black families.

“Because housing discrimination and employment discrimination, we live in a world where the average white family has $100, the average black family has about $5,” she said. “So I believe it’s time to start the national full-blown conversation about reparations in this country. And that means I support the bill in the House to appoint a congressional panel of experts, people that are studying this and talk about different ways we may be able to do it and make a report back to Congress, so that we can as a nation do what’s right and begin to heal.”

 

[JamesRussler]

IMO STACEY ABRAMS SHOULD RUN

She is contemplating it. For the good of the country, she should!

 

[bobgeese]

Watch Senator Warren CNN Town Hall




Elizabeth Warren gives a full-throated endorsement for reparations at CNN town hall
Vox

Dear God, please make reparations a huge deal in the 2020 campaign.


It’s like they’re trying to hand trump the election.

 

[Lead]

Dear God, please make reparations a huge deal in the 2020 campaign.


It’s like they’re trying to hand trump the election.

I find it really odd the campaign Warren has run thus far.

 

[PEB]

Beto O’Rourke pulled in a massive fundraising haul — and 2020 competitors are noticing
Vox

Bernie's supporters ran to donate another 27.00 dollars on the announcement they claim that President Obama went to his biggest donors to plow millions in Beto's tally ahead of the news of his official announcement. They say is till take Bernie's haul off the news and make Beto the man and the media to run with it. This is why they are not breaking out the numbers of donors to protect him.

 

[waiguoren]

I don't disagree with the author. I also would love to have Stacey Abrams in the race instead of Beto.

The arguments in that piece are terrible. O'Rourke's performance in Texas was excellent. He's a very good candidate. Almost defeating Cruz in Texas is impressive.

O'Rourke is tall and handsome (remind you of any other presidential candidates?), and has taken fewer policy positions than any of the other candidates which opens him up to fewer attacks. I think if one were to poll the various candidates' unfavorables, O'Rourke would be one of the top performers.

 

[Trotsky]

The arguments in that piece are terrible. O'Rourke's performance in Texas was excellent. He's a very good candidate. Almost defeating Cruz in Texas is impressive.

O'Rourke is tall and handsome (remind you of any other presidential candidates?), and has taken fewer policy positions than any of the other candidates which opens him up to fewer attacks. I think if one were to poll the various candidates' unfavorables, O'Rourke would be one of the top performers.

I don't derive the virtues of a candidate from their likely electoral performance. If Howard Schultz was polling well, I wouldn't hold criticism about his hubris and lack of experience because he's a high-performing candidate (luckily, that's not the case). You've touched on it here before that O'Rourke is more a politician than an advocate, and his thinking that he should be president despite having little in the way of apparent convictions and specific policy prescriptions does emit entitlement.

No, it’s not Beto’s loss last year that bothers me, it’s his entitlement. His certainty that he’s qualified for the most powerful job in the world despite his lack of experience. His belief that he is qualified for the role despite the fact that he himself has absolutely no idea what he stands for. “I don’t know where I am on a [political] spectrum and I almost could care less,” Beto recently boasted during a stop in Wisconsin.

I’ll tell you where Beto is on the political spectrum: he’s wherever it’s most convenient for him to be. He announced his presidential bid by talking about the environment but his six-year record in Congress shows him to be a friend of the fossil fuel industry. His voting record is characterized by flip-flopping and he is vague about his position on healthcare and raising taxes. The only strong conviction he really seems to have is that he deserves to be president. “Man, I’m just born to be in it,” he recently enthused to Vanity Fair.
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"Not Donald Trump" shouldn't be the benchmark on our elected officials. Sure, we should want someone that would beat the single most corrupt, dishonest, and unqualified president in history, but sacrificing the momentum we've built toward progressive change just so that we can beat him would be taking one step forward and two steps back.

​

 

[Jack V Savage]

No, it’s not Beto’s loss last year that bothers me, it’s his entitlement. His certainty that he’s qualified for the most powerful job in the world despite his lack of experience. His belief that he is qualified for the role despite the fact that he himself has absolutely no idea what he stands for. “I don’t know where I am on a [political] spectrum and I almost could care less,” Beto recently boasted during a stop in Wisconsin.

This is also (more) annoying with regard to Gabbard.

And I don't think where politicians should care about where they see themselves on the political spectrum.

 

[waiguoren]

I don't derive the virtues of a candidate from their likely electoral performance.

Then you're missing my point entirely. The success or failure of a candidate (i.e., the extent to which he/she is a "good candidate") need not to correlate tightly with your evaluation of that candidate's 'virtues'. One obvious example is Cory Booker. You have stated that Booker has many 'virtues', but you must admit his chances at winning the nomination (let alone the presidency) are very low (nil, in my estimation).

You've touched on it here before that O'Rourke is more a politician than an advocate, and his thinking that he should be president despite having little in the way of apparent convictions and specific policy prescriptions does emit entitlement.

Perhaps, but even if that's true it doesn't put O'Rourke in a class of his own. Marianne Williamson is running too, for example, and her qualifications are even thinner than O'Rourke's. I think it's funny to single O'Rourke out as being "entitled" when there are already hundreds of Democrats running, the vast majority with thinner credentials than O'Rourke.

 

[HockeyBjj]

I find it really odd the campaign Warren has run thus far.

A few of her ideas have sounded very good, especially the technology monopoly busting, and then she comes back with reparations crap to drive away any moderate voters

It hasn't been easy trying to find a Dem nominee to vote for in the primary

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Whether you're for Beto or against him, we can all agree that Washington Posts's opening paragraphs of their fluffpiece is doing him no favors.

 

[Lead]

A few of her ideas have sounded very good, especially the technology monopoly busting, and then she comes back with reparations crap to drive away any moderate voters

It hasn't been easy trying to find a Dem nominee to vote for in the primary

I think she’s had a lot of good policies when it comes to regulation and somewhat think that’s why she would be best staying in the senate and crafting legislation there. She seems better suited to focus on that issue specifically in the senate rather than president where she has to form opinions/ angles on all this other stuff.

 

[waiguoren]

Whatever post-defeat sadness Amy felt, she was able to kick quickly; she’s always been the stable one. Beto, on the other hand, more prone to higher highs and lower lows, was in a “funk.” In January, Beto hit the road, much as his father had done before him, and drew energy from the people he met, and — on one stop in New Mexico he didn’t write about in his blog — by eating New Mexican dirt said to have regenerative powers. (He brought some home for the family to eat, too.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...olitics/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.60d34c18fc9a

<{cruzshake}>

 

[Joe]

One of the biggest beto bashers(anyone other than bernie really) was just officially hired by bernie.


Lol

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Has Beto released his fundraising data yet? Over/Under 3,000 donors?

 

[Shoemaker]

Joe Biden Tells Supporters He Plans 2020 Bid

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bi...e-plans-2020-bid-11553033380?mod=breakingnews

Reaching out for donations to compete against the grassroots efforts of the rest of the pack.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Joe is dead in the water.

 

[Lead]

Joe Biden Tells Supporters He Plans 2020 Bid

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bi...e-plans-2020-bid-11553033380?mod=breakingnews

Reaching out for donations to compete against the grassroots efforts of the rest of the pack.

I'll be interested in his entrance to the race. Right now there are some shaky topics coming to light for a 2020 bid:
-Green New Deal (this will probably come and go but I'm sure something else with AOC could dominate the headlines)
-Reparations
-Court packing
I would hope with his entrance, he would have enough pull to steer away from jumping on these ideas and sticking to something more mainstream like healthcare, tax policy or protecting entitlments like SS and Medicare.

 

[Lead]

What Does Beto O’Rourke Believe?
FiveThirtyEight

There has been a debate, both in the run-up to and since last week’s launch of Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, about his ideology and policy positions. It has two dimensions. First, people are asking whether O’Rourke actually stands for much of anything — or if his candidacy is just about his perceived charisma and electability. And second, they are asking whether he is a true liberal/progressive — or if he should be classified as a moderate(compared with the other 2020 candidates) or as a more centrist Democrat(based on his voting record in Congress).

I’m not sure how to define O’Rourke’s policy views in one word, and I’m not sure how important that is anyway. But from his 2018 Senate candidacy in Texas to his presidential campaign launch, O’Rourke has taken positions on many major issues, and some of those stances are decidedly left-wing, particularly on cultural issues. O’Rourke may not be an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-style “Super-Progressive,” but he has plenty of positions that Republicans would aggressively attack in a general election.Credit to CNN’s Eric Bradner, who was on the campaign trail with O’Rourke on his recent swing through Iowa and really nailed down the former congressman’s positions on a bunch of policies. This article would not have been possible without his reporting.

 

[Shoemaker]

I'll be interested in his entrance to the race. Right now there are some shaky topics coming to light for a 2020 bid:
-Green New Deal (this will probably come and go but I'm sure something else with AOC could dominate the headlines)
-Reparations
-Court packing
I would hope with his entrance, he would have enough pull to steer away from jumping on these ideas and sticking to something more mainstream like healthcare, tax policy or protecting entitlments like SS and Medicare.

I think his best bet is to avoid the more progressive policies right now. Reparations aren't going to gain anyone any traction; Democrats don't need to fight for the vote of people that want reparations. They got it; it isn't going to the Republicans (there's something to be said about turnout, but I'll get to that). I think he needs to focus on the "return the normal" vote. He'll be pandering for a time that never existed, granted, similar to "Making America Great Again". But it will resonate. It will resonate with people who want the media to be about something besides politics; mainstream media, social media, TV shows, movies and music alike. I think he can pick up more votes along the center that way than he can backing hard-progressive platforms - especially in the primaries where hardline progressives will be voting for the more progressing-appearing candidates anyway regardless of platform.

The question is if he can get through the primaries that way. I'm still registered D, so he'll likely get my vote out of the others. Hopefully we'd see more center-left people going that route. But when it think of Beto, Harris or Warren, Biden stands out as a stronger candidate in the GE.

The online propaganda about his weirdness with kids will be strong. Some of it will be countered with Trump's own weird behavior with regards to his own daughter, but he (Trump) can weather the criticism storm because it's expected. But that will mostly be eaten up by people who have already dedicated their vote to Trump. I'm not sure it will have a measurable impact on Biden; not this day and age.