Election 2020

[Teenwolf]

This quote says it all.

I'm tried of Baby-Boomers controlling our politics. While I don't agree completely with AOC and her ilk, I want some fresh faces that show me a future in America, not the 1960's. Move on Boomers!

Interesting that young voters go apeshit for Bernie tho, considering the media constantly repeats the mantra that voters don't want old, white men.

Young voters want someone who represents their interests, which is fighting for climate change action, living wages, free college, and Medicare for all. I believe these platform planks, and Bernie's strongest stance on all of these, will propel him to victory. Regardless of whether you think these are pragmatic or achievable goals, I think they're stronger selling points than the incremental measures presented by all other candidates. He also has the advantage of saying the same messages for 50+ years. Not having to discuss a candidate's "evolution" is refreshing.

[Teenwolf]

Do you consider Warren to be a phony progressive?

I consider Warren my 2nd choice based on policy alone. Her equivocations on Medicare for All are highly problematic to me, and I believe her personal style and background are way too vulnerable to run against Trump. I think her attempt to punch back at Trump with the DNA test result reveal was a major flop, obviously. So I like her progressive taxation ideas, among other policy, but I think she's ultimately too much of an incremental change candidate in an era requiring drastic actions.

Phony progressives are Yang, Buttigieg, Harris, Beto, and to a lesser extent Tulsi Gabbard, but she won't last long. Booker/Klobuchar are kinda in the center, and that won't play. I think the rest are all flatlined, and Biden is the final question mark.

[B-Fly]

If Biden doesn't run, Mike Bloomberg may seize the opening...

https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-michael-bloomberg-biden-2e19cd85-975d-43b4-a7ac-b25359b82b82.html

I'm fine with Mayor Mike jumping into the primaries and seeing if he can sell his vision to Democratic primary voters. What I would not be fine with would be Mayor Mike mounting an independent run-the-center general election campaign between, say, Trump and Sanders.

[In the Corn]

Interesting that young voters go apeshit for Bernie tho, considering the media constantly repeats the mantra that voters don't want old, white men.

Young voters want someone who represents their interests, which is fighting for climate change action, living wages, free college, and Medicare for all. I believe these platform planks, and Bernie's strongest stance on all of these, will propel him to victory. Regardless of whether you think these are pragmatic or achievable goals, I think they're stronger selling points than the incremental measures presented by all other candidates. He also has the advantage of saying the same messages for 50+ years. Not having to discuss a candidate's "evolution" is refreshing.

They love his ideas and that he has a certain curmudgeonly grandfather-ness to him, and if he were 55 he would be more viable.

[Sour Masher]

If I were placing a wager today, I'd say Harris v. Trump, but I'm not ready to back anyone or to say there's anyone I wouldn't back.

I hope not. I think Harris would lose, unless she can gain way more support in the black community than she has now.

[Sour Masher]

If Biden doesn't run, Mike Bloomberg may seize the opening...

https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-michael-bloomberg-biden-2e19cd85-975d-43b4-a7ac-b25359b82b82.html

I'm fine with Mayor Mike jumping into the primaries and seeing if he can sell his vision to Democratic primary voters. What I would not be fine with would be Mayor Mike mounting an independent run-the-center general election campaign between, say, Trump and Sanders.

Bloomberg as a Dem replacement for Biden would be interesting and welcome in the primaries. If instead he ran as an independent, ensuring a Trump win, he'd go on my hate list forever. But he won't do that, I don't think. he is too pragmatic and knows what doing that would mean. I'm more afraid of Schultz doing that if Sanders is the Democratic nominee, and even though I doubt he'd pull many votes, they may be enough to matter.

[Teenwolf]

Kasie Hunt, anchor for MSNBC tweets: "Anyone who doesn't treat @BernieSanders becoming the democratic nominee as a realistic and even likely possibility is making a big mistake (and failed to learn from mistakes made in 2016)"

Interesting one of them finally broke the bubble. I think the main point she makes is that if you continue to act like Sanders doesn't exist, you will lose. Also sounds like a bit of a warning to her colleagues, like 'let's get this done.'

[TS Garp]

If Biden doesn't run, Mike Bloomberg may seize the opening...

https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-michael-bloomberg-biden-2e19cd85-975d-43b4-a7ac-b25359b82b82.html

I'm fine with Mayor Mike jumping into the primaries and seeing if he can sell his vision to Democratic primary voters. What I would not be fine with would be Mayor Mike mounting an independent run-the-center general election campaign between, say, Trump and Sanders.

I'd prefer Bloomberg to Biden but I still think the democrats are being tone deaf if they think that having two old white men as their front-runners is wise given everything that's been happening in our country over the last few years.

[Teenwolf]

Two more women come forward. From today's New York Times article "Biden’s Tactile Politics Threaten His Return in the #MeToo Era"

The list of women coming forward is growing. Caitlyn Caruso, a former college student and sexual assault survivor, said Mr. Biden rested his hand on her thigh — even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort — and hugged her “just a little bit too long” at an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. She was 19.

Ms. Caruso, now 22, said she chalked up the encounter at the time to how men act, and did not say anything publicly. But she said it was particularly uncomfortable because she had just shared her own story of sexual assault and had expected Mr. Biden — an architect of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act — to understand the importance of physical boundaries.

“It doesn’t even really cross your mind that such a person would dare perpetuate harm like that,” she said. “These are supposed to be people you can trust.”

D. J. Hill, 59, a writer who recalled meeting Mr. Biden in 2012 at a fund-raising event in Minneapolis, said that when she and her husband, Robert, stepped up to take their photograph with the vice president, he put his hand on her shoulder and then started dropping it down her back, which made her “very uncomfortable.”

Her husband, seeing the movement, put his hand on Mr. Biden’s shoulder and interrupted with a joke. Ms. Hill did not say anything at the time and acknowledged that she does not know what Mr. Biden’s intention was or whether he was aware of her discomfort.

“Only he knows his intent,” she said. But norms are changing now, she said, and “if something makes you feel uncomfortable, you have to feel able to say it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/politics/joe-biden-women-me-too.html

What a trainwreck. He can't possibly throw his hat in the ring now, can he?

[Sour Masher]

Two more women come forward. From today's New York Times article "Biden’s Tactile Politics Threaten His Return in the #MeToo Era"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/politics/joe-biden-women-me-too.html

What a trainwreck. He can't possibly throw his hat in the ring now, can he?

I'd bet on no at this point. Maybe that is why he has waited so long, to see how this would play out in the court of public opinion.

[B-Fly]

Yes, I'd have to say Sanders is probably the leading contender as of today, as the only person polling better than him is Biden, who isn't in the race and may never enter the race.

[Teenwolf]

Okay, so Morning Joe is repeating the smear that Bernie Sanders is somehow responsible for these Biden allegations. Mika read from an Axios article:

"Several around Biden think advisors to Bernie Sanders are at least partly behind the anti-Biden campaign. One prominent backer thinks Biden will run, and "is ready to kill Bernie."

Right, no slanted coverage of Bernie here... NPR reported on the Biden allegations with the same conclusion, "Bernie shouldn't run"... its pathetic.

Do you still refuse to see bias here?

[B-Fly]

Okay, so Morning Joe is repeating the smear that Bernie Sanders is somehow responsible for these Biden allegations. Mika read from an Axios article:



Right, no slanted coverage of Bernie here... NPR reported on the Biden allegations with the same conclusion, "Bernie shouldn't run"... its pathetic.

Do you still refuse to see bias here?

NPR reported on the Biden allegations by concluding that Bernie shouldn't run? That's pretty shocking if true, but do you have a link? I'm just not hearing or seeing "Bernie shouldn't run" in any of the places I find my news.

Edit to add: I have seen a decent amount of "we shouldn't nominate an old white man", but those statements have focused equally on Biden and Sanders.

[Judge Jude]

NPR's op-ed yesterday said this:

"Some will also wonder why Biden, at 76, seems more a target here than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has had to deal with allegations of sexual harassment by staffers within his 2016 campaign. Sanders is, after all, even older than Biden and at least as much a product of an earlier time.

But Sanders, the outsider candidate who calls himself a democratic socialist, was not accused of inappropriate contact himself, and he also found in 2016 a connection to the outsider voters of his adopted Democratic Party. He especially spoke to and for the young, regularly beating Clinton among primary voters younger than 30. Even among African-Americans, who otherwise heavily favored Clinton, those younger than 30 preferred Sanders.

Because he has never been a creature of the establishment, inside or outside the party, Sanders seems new and fresh and even youthful in a sense. Biden, despite his eight years at Obama's side, remains rooted in the much older world of Washington that greeted him as a freshman senator in 1973 — nearly half a century ago.

On the other hand, if Biden suffers from all this, will the main beneficiary really be another white man in his late 70s? If the fundamental issue is the male sense of entitlement regarding women's bodies and personal space — and the lack of socially enforced boundaries — that message may need a more natural messenger.

Someone with an innate sense of what women still experience in this country.

Someone, like, a woman."

[Teenwolf]

NPR reported on the Biden allegations by concluding that Bernie shouldn't run? That's pretty shocking if true, but do you have a link? I'm just not hearing or seeing "Bernie shouldn't run" in any of the places I find my news.

Edit to add: I have seen a decent amount of "we shouldn't nominate an old white man", but those statements have focused equally on Biden and Sanders.

The suggestion is that Sanders doesn't deserve to benefit from Biden's issues with women, because he's guilty by association as a fellow old white man. Pretty damn stupid.



Here's the last 1/3 of the NPR article, where it shifts to focus on Bernie Sanders' campaign sexual harassment allegations, despite the fact that Kamala Harris & Gillibrand both dealt with the exact same campaign harassment claims! His conclusion is that we should elect a woman, so... ignore Harris & Gillibrand dealing with the exact same issue? Do you suppose this writer for NPR just hasn't heard about the allegations against Harris and Gillibrand's campaigns, or is he withholding it purposefully? What other woman could he be suggesting should win??? Such utter trash.

Some will also wonder why Biden, at 76, seems more a target here than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has had to deal with allegations of sexual harassment by staffers within his 2016 campaign. Sanders is, after all, even older than Biden and at least as much a product of an earlier time.

But Sanders, the outsider candidate who calls himself a democratic socialist, was not accused of inappropriate contact himself, and he also found in 2016 a connection to the outsider voters of his adopted Democratic Party. He especially spoke to and for the young, regularly beating Clinton among primary voters younger than 30. Even among African-Americans, who otherwise heavily favored Clinton, those younger than 30 preferred Sanders.

Because he has never been a creature of the establishment, inside or outside the party, Sanders seems new and fresh and even youthful in a sense. Biden, despite his eight years at Obama's side, remains rooted in the much older world of Washington that greeted him as a freshman senator in 1973 — nearly half a century ago.

On the other hand, if Biden suffers from all this, will the main beneficiary really be another white man in his late 70s? If the fundamental issue is the male sense of entitlement regarding women's bodies and personal space — and the lack of socially enforced boundaries — that message may need a more natural messenger.

Someone with an innate sense of what women still experience in this country.

Someone, like, a woman.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/02/708921102/biden-finding-new-rules-apply-to-himtoo