Elections 2020 Democratic Primary Thread: The Announcements

[PEB]

 

[Trotsky]

Ha!

Where did that money come from, because if it wasn't from small donors, he has opened himself to calls of being co-opted.

I imagine that special interests and institutional donors are falling over themselves trying to get in early favor with him. He's clearly a future star.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Beto: That grill-ass looking thing is probably the last thing his victims saw before he plowed into them drunk

 

[PEB]

 

[Trotsky]

Welp, later Pete

Last May, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg went to Israel with the American Jewish Committee and two weeks later discussed his trip with that organization. At the time Israel was killing Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence– 60 on one day within daysof Buttigieg’s visit, getting global attention — yet Buttigieg repeatedly praised Israel’s security arrangements as “moving” and “clear-eyed”, said the U.S. could learn something from them, and blamed Palestinians and Hamas for the “misery” in Gaza.

He also faulted fellow Democrats for making snap judgments based on “90-second cable news versions of what’s going on over there.”

Buttigieg, 37, a former Navy intelligence officer, is today a rising star in the Democratic presidential field as a midwestern mayor with a reputation for intelligence and pragmatism. In his 22-minute discussion with the AJC’s Seffi Kogen last May, Buttigieg never mentioned the Gaza protests directly. But he said that if you only visited Israel, you’d see what wise judgments Israelis are making.

Buttigieg is a quick study; and what leaps out from these remarks is how completely the Rhodes Scholar imbibed the official pro-Israel version of events, and showed contempt for Palestinian understanding.

He went to Israel last May for the first time at the behest of strong Israel supporters, the Jewish Federations of Indiana and the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. “I’d always been interested [in going]. But when the Jewish Federation reached out and told me how special this opportunity was, I thought ‘Now’s the time.'” (It helps to be planning to run for president.)

Rockets fell from Syria on his visit and Buttigieg was impressed that Israeli society did not “grind to a halt.” He went on to justify every choice Israel has made on its security in a “challenging neighborhood,” offered those choices as a “moving” model for the U.S., and said the U.S. is not doing enough to pressure Egypt and the Palestinians.

Seeing the way that a country can be on the one hand very intentional, very serious and very effective when it comes to security and on the other hand not allowing concerns about security to dominate your consciousness– I think that’s a very important lesson in that that hopefully Americans can look to we think about how to navigate a world that unfortunately has become smaller and more dangerous for all of us…

I was in a very modern city surrounded by people going about their lives. Seeing how people fit those things together was illuminating and in many ways moving. There’s a sense there that no matter what challenges there are in the community or in the society, they can’t wait for security issues to be resolved. People live their lives, they’re pretty clear-eyed about what is going on around them. And at the same time, you don’t let that take over… The sense that we were in a very safe and very peaceful place– some of the numbers we’ve been shown on violence of any kind in many of the cities we visited, even in Jerusalem, whether you’re looking at political violence or petty crime, those statistics would frankly be the envy of a lot of our midwestern cities….

Kogen asked what Buttigieg would want Americans to understand about Israel. The mayor said, How exciting Israel is, not the cable TV images:

Certainly just understanding the complexity and nuance of the issues. Also understanding the level of modernity there….So often you only see coverage of international tension. You only see what’s maybe going on with the prime minister and the Palestinian Authority and you’re not seeing nearly enough I think about the energy, the dynamism, the creativity, the innovation that’s happening at the local level and how some of that is also feeding up to the national context in a positive way.

He spoke of keeping Israel a bipartisan cause, and keeping the focus on Iran.

I think there’s a risk that Israel could come to be regarded as a partisan issue, and I think that would be really unfortunate.

One of the first things you realize when you get on the ground is this is not a left versus right issue. At least it shouldn’t be. We met a lot of people from the Israeli left who have complicated and nuanced views of what is going on [including the]…. relationship with Iran. Unfortunately these things are reduced into a black and white picture sometimes in the American media.

Buttigieg also visited the occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. And he faulted Palestinian leadership and Hamas for Palestinian misery, and said Democrats just don’t get it cause they’re watching cable news:

[We got] a more nuanced idea of what is happening on the Palestinian side. So one of the first things that was very clear to us was the extent to which there really is not a unified or single voice for the Palestinian … people. Most people aren’t aware of the difference between what’s happening in Gaza run by Hamas in a way that is contributing to a lot of misery there but also totally different than an environment where you would have a negotiating partner across the table is really important. I don’t think that’s widely understood and I think if it were you would see more Democrats would be asking more questions as we face these kind of 90-second cable news versions of what’s going on over there.

Remember that many progressives responded to the shock of the May 14 slaughter by pronouncing it a massacre. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

This is a massacre. I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such. No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else. Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore.

In his interview, Buttigieg issued one mild criticism of the Trump administration policy, as consisting of “sweeping gestures that may move public opinion, but not so committed to peace.” Everyone over there wants peace, but people here reach easy judgments, he said.

Those who seem to have the most clearcut answers and the most strident opinions seem to be the one on the outside looking in. That’s another reason the trip was so valuable.

Buttigieg says the region needs for the U.S. to be an “honest broker” of peace, but we’re losing “credibility.” But when asked how we’d go about doing that, it’s building the alliance with Israel and putting more pressure on Palestinians and Arabs.

I think the security and intelligence cooperation [between the U.S. and Israel] is obviously vital, certainly something that is as important for American interests as much as Israeli interests.

There may be some opportunities perhaps not under the present administration but over time to be a constructive voice in inducing some of the other players in the region to accept greater responsibility. You think for example about the Egyptian role when it comes to the situation in Gaza, and you think of some of the leverage the US has over Egypt. Before you even get to the Iran issue and what’s going on in some of the Gulf States, there’s certainly a chance for the U.S. to exert influence and be a constructive player when it comes to a lot of states in the region that frankly just haven’t lived up to their responsibilities.

So Israel has lived up to its responsibilities, but Egypt hasn’t.

Buttigieg is a quick study; and what leaps out from these remarks is how completely the Rhodes Scholar imbibed the official pro-Israel version of events, and showed contempt for Palestinian understanding. There is no sense in Buttigieg’s remarks that Israel is a militarized, rightwing country that adores Donald Trump and that is led by a strongman and that answers resistance to the existing order with overwhelming force that international human rights organizations said at the time of his remarks were likely war crimes.

Buttigieg did not meet with AIPAC last week; but we can expect Buttigieg to take a centrist pro-Israel position in opposition to the Democratic base, which is highly critical of Israel.​

https://www.commondreams.org/views/...VS9RP2XSSFK7W8VlRGQ8M3uUgoVoBCCUscvtBsKlrJZf8

 

[grizzard2bid]

Obama armed radical jihadists and contributed to the genocide of half a million Syrians.

So, you're either racist, or a sub potato intelligence liberal.


FFS, Bill Clinton was easily better.

Racist and sub potato intelligence are not mutually exclusive.
What a dumbass. Bill Clinton was 10x the president Obama was in foreign policy and he was still better than Obama domestically, although he did sign NAFTA and that's a big stain on him.

 

[grizzard2bid]

I’m also not sure if he’s going above and beyond visiting Iowa cause that does seems to have a significant factor in that state. I can’t recall who it was (I think Cruz) but there was a GOP candidate that visited ever county or district in Iowa and it helped them massively polling wise.

Cruz won Iowa. Than got Trumped everywhere else. lol
It's funny to look back and realize Ted Cruz was a "runner up" because he was such a distant 2nd....

 

[VivaRevolution]

I imagine that special interests and institutional donors are falling over themselves trying to get in early favor with him. He's clearly a future star.

He shouldn't take it. The guy reminds me of Obama a bit, in that he has little to no history for me to verify, but is very polished.

It makes me wary on its own, but if you add large donor money in the mix, you are basically dead to me.

I've seen some people trying to hit Warren for not taking the big donor money. I think we should wait for a debate before that judgement is made. I think the people taking that money are building their own gallows.

 

[Happy Man]

Welp, later Pete

Last May, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg went to Israel with the American Jewish Committee and two weeks later discussed his trip with that organization. At the time Israel was killing Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence– 60 on one day within daysof Buttigieg’s visit, getting global attention — yet Buttigieg repeatedly praised Israel’s security arrangements as “moving” and “clear-eyed”, said the U.S. could learn something from them, and blamed Palestinians and Hamas for the “misery” in Gaza.

He also faulted fellow Democrats for making snap judgments based on “90-second cable news versions of what’s going on over there.”

Buttigieg, 37, a former Navy intelligence officer, is today a rising star in the Democratic presidential field as a midwestern mayor with a reputation for intelligence and pragmatism. In his 22-minute discussion with the AJC’s Seffi Kogen last May, Buttigieg never mentioned the Gaza protests directly. But he said that if you only visited Israel, you’d see what wise judgments Israelis are making.

Buttigieg is a quick study; and what leaps out from these remarks is how completely the Rhodes Scholar imbibed the official pro-Israel version of events, and showed contempt for Palestinian understanding.

He went to Israel last May for the first time at the behest of strong Israel supporters, the Jewish Federations of Indiana and the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. “I’d always been interested [in going]. But when the Jewish Federation reached out and told me how special this opportunity was, I thought ‘Now’s the time.'” (It helps to be planning to run for president.)

Rockets fell from Syria on his visit and Buttigieg was impressed that Israeli society did not “grind to a halt.” He went on to justify every choice Israel has made on its security in a “challenging neighborhood,” offered those choices as a “moving” model for the U.S., and said the U.S. is not doing enough to pressure Egypt and the Palestinians.

Seeing the way that a country can be on the one hand very intentional, very serious and very effective when it comes to security and on the other hand not allowing concerns about security to dominate your consciousness– I think that’s a very important lesson in that that hopefully Americans can look to we think about how to navigate a world that unfortunately has become smaller and more dangerous for all of us…

I was in a very modern city surrounded by people going about their lives. Seeing how people fit those things together was illuminating and in many ways moving. There’s a sense there that no matter what challenges there are in the community or in the society, they can’t wait for security issues to be resolved. People live their lives, they’re pretty clear-eyed about what is going on around them. And at the same time, you don’t let that take over… The sense that we were in a very safe and very peaceful place– some of the numbers we’ve been shown on violence of any kind in many of the cities we visited, even in Jerusalem, whether you’re looking at political violence or petty crime, those statistics would frankly be the envy of a lot of our midwestern cities….

Kogen asked what Buttigieg would want Americans to understand about Israel. The mayor said, How exciting Israel is, not the cable TV images:

Certainly just understanding the complexity and nuance of the issues. Also understanding the level of modernity there….So often you only see coverage of international tension. You only see what’s maybe going on with the prime minister and the Palestinian Authority and you’re not seeing nearly enough I think about the energy, the dynamism, the creativity, the innovation that’s happening at the local level and how some of that is also feeding up to the national context in a positive way.

He spoke of keeping Israel a bipartisan cause, and keeping the focus on Iran.

I think there’s a risk that Israel could come to be regarded as a partisan issue, and I think that would be really unfortunate.

One of the first things you realize when you get on the ground is this is not a left versus right issue. At least it shouldn’t be. We met a lot of people from the Israeli left who have complicated and nuanced views of what is going on [including the]…. relationship with Iran. Unfortunately these things are reduced into a black and white picture sometimes in the American media.

Buttigieg also visited the occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. And he faulted Palestinian leadership and Hamas for Palestinian misery, and said Democrats just don’t get it cause they’re watching cable news:

[We got] a more nuanced idea of what is happening on the Palestinian side. So one of the first things that was very clear to us was the extent to which there really is not a unified or single voice for the Palestinian … people. Most people aren’t aware of the difference between what’s happening in Gaza run by Hamas in a way that is contributing to a lot of misery there but also totally different than an environment where you would have a negotiating partner across the table is really important. I don’t think that’s widely understood and I think if it were you would see more Democrats would be asking more questions as we face these kind of 90-second cable news versions of what’s going on over there.

Remember that many progressives responded to the shock of the May 14 slaughter by pronouncing it a massacre. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

This is a massacre. I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such. No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else. Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore.

In his interview, Buttigieg issued one mild criticism of the Trump administration policy, as consisting of “sweeping gestures that may move public opinion, but not so committed to peace.” Everyone over there wants peace, but people here reach easy judgments, he said.

Those who seem to have the most clearcut answers and the most strident opinions seem to be the one on the outside looking in. That’s another reason the trip was so valuable.

Buttigieg says the region needs for the U.S. to be an “honest broker” of peace, but we’re losing “credibility.” But when asked how we’d go about doing that, it’s building the alliance with Israel and putting more pressure on Palestinians and Arabs.

I think the security and intelligence cooperation [between the U.S. and Israel] is obviously vital, certainly something that is as important for American interests as much as Israeli interests.

There may be some opportunities perhaps not under the present administration but over time to be a constructive voice in inducing some of the other players in the region to accept greater responsibility. You think for example about the Egyptian role when it comes to the situation in Gaza, and you think of some of the leverage the US has over Egypt. Before you even get to the Iran issue and what’s going on in some of the Gulf States, there’s certainly a chance for the U.S. to exert influence and be a constructive player when it comes to a lot of states in the region that frankly just haven’t lived up to their responsibilities.

So Israel has lived up to its responsibilities, but Egypt hasn’t.

Buttigieg is a quick study; and what leaps out from these remarks is how completely the Rhodes Scholar imbibed the official pro-Israel version of events, and showed contempt for Palestinian understanding. There is no sense in Buttigieg’s remarks that Israel is a militarized, rightwing country that adores Donald Trump and that is led by a strongman and that answers resistance to the existing order with overwhelming force that international human rights organizations said at the time of his remarks were likely war crimes.

Buttigieg did not meet with AIPAC last week; but we can expect Buttigieg to take a centrist pro-Israel position in opposition to the Democratic base, which is highly critical of Israel.​

https://www.commondreams.org/views/...VS9RP2XSSFK7W8VlRGQ8M3uUgoVoBCCUscvtBsKlrJZf8

Damn, he’s one of those types of people.

Ruined an otherwise good person. See ya later Pete.

Cmon Tulsi!!!!

 

[waiguoren]

Rep. Tim Ryan Announces His 2020 Presidential Campaign

 

[King in the North]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/us/politics/tim-ryan-ohio-2020.amp.html


Tim Ryan is in and has my vote. My old congressman. He’s a charismatic guy, who wants to talk the economy and doesn’t give a shit about identity politics. He is EXACTLY what the democrats need right now.

Would any right leaning posters back Ryan?

 

[King in the North]

Rep. Tim Ryan Announces His 2020 Presidential Campaign

Damn he even made a reverse #metoo joke at the end of the interview. He’s selling the progressive agenda the rural midwesterners by explaining it can be economically beneficial to them. That’s the way to do it. Even if you don’t like it.



I want to win. Tim Ryan can win. He may not be a progressive darling, but he’ll kick Donald Trump’s ass in a Youngstown street fight.

 

[Lead]

The Democratic debate over filibuster reform, explained
Vox

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) thinks Democrats should end the filibuster if they regain the majority in the US Senate, and pass legislation by majority rule.

“When Democrats next have power, we should be bold and clear: We’re done with two sets of rules — one for the Republicans and one for the Democrats,” Warren says in advance text of a Friday speech to the National Action Network obtained by CNN. “And that means when Democrats have the White House again, if Mitch McConnell tries to do what he did to President Obama and puts small-minded partisanship ahead of solving the massive problems facing this country, then we should get rid of the filibuster.”

Warren is, of course, running for president and doubtless envisions herself as leading this charge from the White House. The Senate, however, makes its own rules, and a majority of senators could vote to change the rules and allow majority votes to prevail. If Democrats fare well in 2020, a rule change would greatly increase the likelihood that some of these big progressive ideas could come to fruition. But top Democrats are skeptical.

The divide looks to be:
For ending filibuster: Warren, Buttigieg, Inslee
Against ending filibuster: Booker, Gillibrand, Sanders
Unsure: Harris

 

[Lead]

Not that I have much skin in this primary but I thought Warren was going to be one of the candidates I'd want to advance but she's gone was overboard on everything at this point. I find it odd too because it feels like it's an attempt at getting press and, as a result, fundraising. I'll be very interested to see the data on the 15th of each candidates Q1 fundraising.

The other thing I've noticed is Booker is far better and reasonable candidate in this primary than Warren from what I've seen. I hadn't really paid attention to him before this race but it surprises me how he can be quite divisive and uniting from moment to moment. I think he is more of a pragmatist than I originally thought.

 

[Lead]

An interview with Pete Buttigieg


There is going to be one this Sunday with Andrew Yang and Ben Shapiro as well.

 

[luckyshot]

Not that I have much skin in this primary but I thought Warren was going to be one of the candidates I'd want to advance but she's gone was overboard on everything at this point. I find it odd too because it feels like it's an attempt at getting press and, as a result, fundraising. I'll be very interested to see the data on the 15th of each candidates Q1 fundraising.

The other thing I've noticed is Booker is far better and reasonable candidate in this primary than Warren from what I've seen. I hadn't really paid attention to him before this race but it surprises me how he can be quite divisive and uniting from moment to moment. I think he is more of a pragmatist than I originally thought.

You’re going to vote for Trump? Is it the fear of windmill cancer that’s finally driven you over the edge?

 

[Lead]

You’re going to vote for Trump? Is it the fear of windmill cancer that’s finally driven you over the edge?

I suppose it’s possible I could vote for someone in the field. I meant from the sense of it being the primary and I won’t be able to vote in it.

 

[luckyshot]

I suppose it’s possible I could vote for someone in the field. I meant from the sense of it being the primary and I won’t be able to vote in it.

You could always ninja switch your party registration... unless there is some GOP primary you want to vote in.

 

[Lead]

You could always ninja switch your party registration... unless there is some GOP primary you want to vote in.

It’s not only the work of doing that but the possibility the race gets decided by the time they reach Pennsylvania or at the very least, the field is dwindled down to a couple options. I think by the time the GOP primary arrived here, it was just Trump, Kasich and Cruz. I wanna say Rubio dropped out by that point but I can’t even remember cause it didn’t matter by that’s point.

 

[gatchaman]

Mike Gravel announced.


(includes highlights from his senate career and 2007 debates)

From: https://www.mikegravel.org/issues/
Sen. Gravel’s platform is the most progressive of any Democratic candidate. The platform is centered on a mission of ending all wars—not only our murderous wars of choice abroad, but our disastrous war on drugs, the war on crime, and the everyday war on this country’s working class. Our goal is a country defined by peace and justice—not by violence, inequality, and poverty.