Election 2020

[DMT]

If you think Biden can't win the nomination then you don't understand the Democratic party.

[Judge Jude]

If you think Biden can't win the nomination then you don't understand the Democratic party.

I think he can win that - but he'll need some breaks to go his way. the increasingly diverse and younger progressives see an old white dude. then when they hear about his tone-deaf language over the years (I assume no one cares about plagiarism anymore) and recent apology for voting for the 1990s "crack bill" that sent away countless young minority men for many years in prison - well, he'll quickly lose some of the young base for good.

btw I thought one of his supposedly biggest gaffes - at a campaign rally, he asked for the candidate to stand up and be recognized, which was awkward since the guy gets around in a wheelchair - actually was a net plus. his ad lib was truly stellar. #lemonadeoutoflemons

[B-Fly]

He's already got some breaks going his way, in that several of the announced candidates are running in the "progressive lane", such that he might get the "establishment lane" largely to himself. Trump rose to the nomination largely by virtue of having his own lane in a crowded field that was otherwise splitting the GOP primary vote. By the time it narrowed to Trump, Kasich and Cruz, Trump had already established a solid lead that was hard for the other two to surmount. Biden would potentially have a tougher time if someone else with strong establishment/centrist appeal (Klobuchar? Hickenlooper? Bullock?) entered the race and got some traction. If he's running against, say, five or six active Senators who have spent the last two years trying to tack left with an eye on the Democratic primaries, he has a pretty solid advantage in terms of them splitting the vote and him getting his lane to himself.

Although it's worth noting that a lot of Democratic Progressives have already been questioning the progressive bona fides of announced or prospective candidates including Harris, Booker, Gabbard, O'Rourke and even Gillibrand (with her near perfect anti-Trump voting record).

[TS Garp]

I'm very curious to see if Sherrod Brown enters the race.

[Kevin Seitzer]

"They" are the Democratic Party.....

Lets look the list of “front-runners” in the Dem Party
Warren
Sanders
Harris
Biden
Booker
O’Rourke


Now you tell me what percentage of that group are “moderate” Democrats? Biden, yep. Certainly not Warren, Sanders or O’Rourke. Harris and Booker – may be somewhere in between the Far Left and Centrist Left.

However, other than Biden, the party frontrunners all appear to be further left than “centrist left”

Wait, Beto's not a centrist? I don't know what else you would call him. As one piece of evidence, I submit that he got 48.3% of the vote in the Senate race in Texas, hardly a liberal bastion.
(For reference, the previous four Democratic Senate candidates in Texas received 41%, 34%, 43%, and 36% of the vote.)

Which of the things here make you think he's liberal?

https://betofortexas.com/issues/

I honestly am worried that he's too centrist/conservative to get the Democratic nomination, so I find it a little stunning that you think he's a far left liberal.

[Fresno Bob]

Wait, Beto's not a centrist? I don't know what else you would call him. As one piece of evidence, I submit that he got 48.3% of the vote in the Senate race in Texas, hardly a liberal bastion.

Which of the things here make you think he's liberal?

https://betofortexas.com/issues/

I honestly am worried that he's too centrist/conservative to get the Democratic nomination, so I find it a little stunning that you think he's a far left liberal.

but he played in a punk band, he must be a lefty muppet!

[Kevin Seitzer]

I guess one litmus test would be whether you think Obama was a centrist or a far left liberal.

[baldgriff]

Wait, Beto's not a centrist? I don't know what else you would call him. As one piece of evidence, I submit that he got 48.3% of the vote in the Senate race in Texas, hardly a liberal bastion.
(For reference, the previous four Democratic Senate candidates in Texas received 41%, 34%, 43%, and 36% of the vote.)

Which of the things here make you think he's liberal?

https://betofortexas.com/issues/

I honestly am worried that he's too centrist/conservative to get the Democratic nomination, so I find it a little stunning that you think he's a far left liberal.

My apologies - and thank you for the correction.... so your race in the conservative lane is Beto vs Biden?

[Kevin Seitzer]

My apologies - and thank you for the correction.... so your race in the conservative lane is Beto vs Biden?

I don't think primaries actually work that way (candidates competing with others in their "lane"), although I know that's a popular way to think of them. (Edit to say--there's a kernel of truth to that way of looking at things, but I think it oversimplifies too much.)

And I have barely begun to form my opinions of the Democratic primary field yet. I know Beto pretty well because he ran for office here in Texas. Sanders, sure, I know him fairly well, too, from the 2016 campaign.

But a number of the others, I would want to get to know better. Biden I have a generally positive impression of him as a human being, based upon how he handled the death of his son and how he conducted himself as vice president. But I'm a long way from knowing where he stands on the issues.

[onejayhawk]

Wait, Beto's not a centrist? I don't know what else you would call him. As one piece of evidence, I submit that he got 48.3% of the vote in the Senate race in Texas, hardly a liberal bastion.
(For reference, the previous four Democratic Senate candidates in Texas received 41%, 34%, 43%, and 36% of the vote.)

Which of the things here make you think he's liberal?

https://betofortexas.com/issues/

I honestly am worried that he's too centrist/conservative to get the Democratic nomination, so I find it a little stunning that you think he's a far left liberal.

You can start with energy. It's all about climate change. Equality is about LGBTQIA. Immigration: pass the Dream Act friends and family version, with amnesty. Healthcare: Expand Medicare. Women's health: greater availability of abortion clinics using taxpayer funds.

A lot of this is straight from the Democrat's national platform. you can say many things about it, but centrist is not one of them.

J

[Hornsby]

Looks like Amy Klobuchar is about the enter the race, she's got a big event planned for Sunday in Minneapolis.

[swampdragon]

I'm very curious to see if Sherrod Brown enters the race.

me too - I like what he has to say so far - he might enter this week and gain momentum

https://dignityofwork.com/

looks like a candidate to me

[nots]

Well, we don't have to worry about Virginia Governor Ralph Northam entering the race any time soon, lol:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam confirmed Friday evening his appearance in a picture that features a person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood in a 1984 medical school yearbook page that also holds different pictures of the future governor.

WTOP obtained a copy of the photo Friday from Eastern Virginia Medical School library, which Northam attended. The photos were first published by the conservative news site Big League Politics.
https://wtop.com/virginia/2019/02/vi...reaking%20News

Keeps getting more absurd down in Virginia.

https://nypost.com/2019/02/06/blackface-sex-assault-claim-throws-virginia-government-into-chaos/

[Judge Jude]

1. white D Governor admits he wore blackface in the 1980s at a party*
2. black D Lt Governor accused of sexual assault from 2004
3. white D Attorney General admits he wore blackface in the 1980s at a party

* - but now says he wasn't in the yearbook photo

who would be next?

"the third in line for the Virginia governorship if Northam, Fairfax and Herring all step down is state House Speaker Kirk Cox — a Republican, whose party gained its one-seat control of the Virginia House of Delegates by sheer chance in 2017. The election for the balance-tipping seat resulted in a tie — and the GOP candidate won when his name was drawn from a bowl."

[onejayhawk]

Trump's upset that Virginia is stealing his headlines.

There has to be a Santa Claus joke here but I can't find it.

J