Elections 2020 Democratic Primary Thread: The Announcements

[Trotsky]

I mean....he is. He's clearly intelligent, used to be a songwriter and poet, etc.

Comparing him to Rubio is idiotic.

 

[Trotsky]

No, he was talked into running by some of the donors who were behind Obama after they saw how mediocre Harris is. His backers genuinely want him to win, or at the least, get the VP nom. However, they're going to ruin his career.

Meh, no. This is fan fiction.

The "donors who were behind Obama" (but abandoned him in 2012 for Romney) were big finance donors betting on a winner. Those donors are flocking to Booker and Gillibrand (with Booker being the better pick), not O'Rourke. O'Rourke is pulling his support from Oil/Gas, charter school magnets, and individual donors.

Booker is actually the best comp for O'Rourke: smart, good looking, and acceptable to economic elite. I'd say Booker is smarter, has more experience, and has a better pedigree, but O'Rourke benefits from the fact that he's not Booker, the biggest cheeseball in the world.

 

[Phisher]

Haha, he definitely makes Booker and Harris seem less human.

But he's not Rubio. The dude is intelligent and does have thoughts. Rubio is pretty unique in that he is actually empty-brained with no positions, thoughts, or ability to think on his own. I can't think of any politician remotely close to Rubio in terms of caricature-esque uselessness.

Beto's problem, like many other Dem politicians, is that he's stuck in the past. He's trying to do the Obama head fake where he comes off like a progressive but, in reality, is a corporatist hack. The problem is that the base isn't going to get rolled like that again. Obama's early success in the primary, before he got the black vote to defect from Clinton, was due to support from progressives. The left flank of the base isn't buying this guy's shtick at all.

But, overall, I suppose that it's better to be stuck in the 2000s than the 90s, like many other people in the field are.

 

[Phisher]

Meh, no. This is fan fiction.

The "donors who were behind Obama" (but abandoned him in 2012 for Romney) were big finance donors betting on a winner. Those donors are flocking to Booker and Gillibrand (with Booker being the better pick), not O'Rourke. O'Rourke is pulling his support from Oil/Gas, charter school magnets, and individual donors.

Booker is actually the best comp for O'Rourke: smart, good looking, and acceptable to economic elite. I'd say Booker is smarter, has more experience, and has a better pedigree, but O'Rourke benefits from the fact that he's not Booker, the biggest cheeseball in the world.

Yeah, the majority of his money is coming from the energy industry, but the deciding factor for him to enter the race was when some of the bigger Obama bundlers like Louis Susman and Mark Gallogly threw him their support.

 

[jrams]

I mean....he is. He's clearly intelligent, used to be a songwriter and poet, etc.

Comparing him to Rubio is idiotic.

That's almost as bad as Bill Maher saying George Clooney understands the Middle East because he was in Syriana.

 

[Lead]

Warren, Castro support author of op-ed accusing Biden of inappropriate contact
The Hill

Presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro said Saturday that they believe the account of a former candidate for Nevada lieutenant governor who published an op-ed Friday accusing former Vice President Joe Biden of "inappropriate" contact.

The two candidates for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination for president told reporters at the Heartland Forum that they believed former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who said this week that Biden leaned in and smelled her hair before kissing the back of her head at a campaign event in 2014.

"I read the op-ed last night," Warren told reporters. "I believe Lucy Flores, and Joe Biden needs to give an answer."

Castro pointed to a statement a spokesman for Biden gave The Hill and other news outlets claiming that the former vice president does not remember the incident Flores described. But Castro stated that he personally believed her.

 

[BarryDillon]

Haha, he definitely makes Booker and Harris seem less human.

But he's not Rubio. The dude is intelligent and does have thoughts. Rubio is pretty unique in that he is actually empty-brained with no positions, thoughts, or ability to think on his own. I can't think of any politician remotely close to Rubio in terms of caricature-esque uselessness.

Dan Quayle?

 

[BarryDillon]

That's almost as bad as Bill Maher saying George Clooney understands the Middle East because he was in Syriana.

Syriana was pretty damn good though.

 

[Trotsky]

Yeah, the majority of his money is coming from the energy industry, but the deciding factor for him to enter the race was when some of the bigger Obama bundlers like Louis Susman and Mark Gallogly threw him their support.

I think you're being cynical. I think he made the choice for the same reasons as most politicians: he got drunk on support and thinks he has a chance.

Also, the idea that Obama was some kind of subterfuge is insulting to both Obama and his supporters. His campaign emphasized vision and change, but he was always a liberal pragmatist, and I would argue he was about as progressive as could be asked for, at least in terms of domestic policy. He couldn't foresee the Republican Party breaking all known political norms on compromise and good faith governance and welshing on promises to sabotage his presidency. People really underestimate just how despicable the Republicans were 2009-2012.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Meh, no. This is fan fiction.

The "donors who were behind Obama" (but abandoned him in 2012 for Romney) were big finance donors betting on a winner. Those donors are flocking to Booker and Gillibrand (with Booker being the better pick), not O'Rourke. O'Rourke is pulling his support from Oil/Gas, charter school magnets, and individual donors.

Booker is actually the best comp for O'Rourke: smart, good looking, and acceptable to economic elite. I'd say Booker is smarter, has more experience, and has a better pedigree, but O'Rourke benefits from the fact that he's not Booker, the biggest cheeseball in the world.

IN LEAKED RECORDING, CORY BOOKER SAYS HE AND AIPAC PRESIDENT “TEXT MESSAGE BACK AND FORTH LIKE TEENAGERS”


https://www.google.com/amp/s/static.theintercept.com/amp/cory-booker-aipac-leaked-recording.html

 

[Trotsky]

IN LEAKED RECORDING, CORY BOOKER SAYS HE AND AIPAC PRESIDENT “TEXT MESSAGE BACK AND FORTH LIKE TEENAGERS”


https://www.google.com/amp/s/static.theintercept.com/amp/cory-booker-aipac-leaked-recording.html

You need to make your own posts and arguments. I am too drunk to read articles.

 

[VivaRevolution]

You need to make your own posts and arguments. I am too drunk to read articles.

Just FYI. Thought about doing a thread on it, but figured I would just drop it in a post that was some what on topic.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Hillary Clinton spokesman slams Pete Buttigieg for criticism of 2016 campaign

More recently, Buttigieg weighed in on the 2016 election cycle and said in an interview with "The Breakfast Club," a New York City-based radio show, "We spent, I think, way too much time on our side talking about him." He added, "Our whole message was don't vote for him because he is terrible. And even because he is, that is not a message."

Grady Keefe, a former advance staffer for Clinton, criticized Buttigieg as well and wrote on Twitter, "It is unfortunate when people as smart as @PeteButtigieg engage in this fantasy fiction about 2016. And as a gay American it is disappointing because @HillaryClinton ran a campaign which amongst its many values championed our community."

Buttigieg's spokesperson had no comment when reached by CNN.

In a recent interview with CNN's Van Jones on "The Van Jones Show," Buttigieg talked more broadly about being a small town mayor in a red state, and what he believed motivated voters to turn out for Trump in 2016.

He said he believed "there's a sense of hostility to the system, to the economic and political system that we live in -- and that part of what's motivated some of these voters is not wrong.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not making any excuse for some of the explicit appeals to racism that were made and, in some cases, worked," he continued. "But at the same time, we've also got to recognize that if we come off -- if (Trump's) saying the system is rigged, and the way he's saying it is twisted and not really true, but there's a kernel of truth in there -- and we look like we're the ones saying, oh no, the system is perfectly fine -- then we've got a problem."

He said Democrats are "experiencing this temptation to say, first, you know, this is chaos -- the White House is chaotic, we can't go on like this, it's tearing us apart. That part's true.

"But the second part that is tempting is to say -- therefore, let's go back. Let's go back to normal -- the problem is normal wasn't working for a lot of people," he said.

"Over decades, and Republican and Democratic presidents have let us down and Democrats can't take it back to the '90s, any more than Conservatives can take it back to the '50s."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...y-clinton-spokesman-pete-buttigieg/index.html

Well said.

 

[JonesBones]

Seems she is having trouble getting funding without big donors.

Michael Pratt, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's finance director, is in the process of leaving Warren's presidential campaign as a result of the senator's recent decision to swear off soliciting money from wealthy donors during the primaries, according to a Warren campaign aide.

The aide told CNN Sunday morning that Pratt was "still a consultant but winding things down and transitioning out since we made the decision not to have (Warren) do high dollar events."
News of the departure came at the close of the first quarter fundraising deadline. In the comingdays, a more complete picture of the Warren campaign's fundraising efforts is expected to come into focus. Her team has so far not released any early fundraising numbers, raising speculation that she is lagging behind her competitors.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Pratt resigned after a Valentine's Day meeting in Washington that eventually "grew heated," in which Pratt "noted that campaigns often collapse when they run out of money and pleaded with her not to cut off a significant cash stream."
"He pointed out that winning over wealthy fund-raisers across the country helped build networks that could translate into political support, not just checks," the Times said. "But Mr. Pratt lost the argument to two of Ms. Warren's closest advisers, Dan Geldon and Joe Rospars, who made the case about standing apart from the field and freeing up her schedule."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/31/politics/elizabeth-warren-michael-pratt/index.html

 

[JonesBones]

Senator Elizabeth Warren is already getting out-raised by many of the other Democrats vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Now, her finance director has reportedly resigned over her pledge to not raise money from big-bundling donors and big-dollar fundraisers, even though she could probably use the money. The New York Times reported on Sunday that campaign finance director Michael Pratt resigned after being unable to convince Warren and her advisers to avoid the big-donor ban, which she announced last month as a way to spend more time engaging with voters on the trail.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/elizabeth-warrens-big-donor-ban-isnt-paying-off-yet.html

 

[KILL KILL]

She's not a good candidate, so it's understandable if she's not getting the funding.

 

[Deleted member 484047]

Kind of amazing how she may be the first to drop out, I kinda figured she would wind up being a top-4 candidate at least. But she can't seem to get her campaign off the ground, while others have hit the ground running.

 

[Kitafuji]

she is only getting 1/1024th the funding of the lowest Democratic contender.

 

[Not A Theist]

It's a pity. Much of what I've seen suggests she would likely be one of the best actual political leaders out of the current crop but she'll never get a shot because of the politics surrounding her and the selection mechanism in place. I guess that's true of someone most elections though. Onward to Trump VS whoever ticks off boxes for the Democratic voter base...

 

[Teppodama]

Silly Warren, she's been around long enough to know that politics is a game of big wampum.