My brother was all in for Harris because he thinks she's hawt, but he does a lot of activism against incarceration and confirmed that all his fellow activists weren't interested in voting for a cop.
I'm having strong anti-Newsom feelings, and my stomach just turned when they announced that he'd be stumping with her in Iowa next week. I'm glad that got called off.
Jesus Florida Christ, Bloomberg is now averaging 4% in the polls. At least Gabbard is at a deserved nadir.
2.2: Remember when they made a handshake agreement to avoid running against each other for Governor or Senator? I wonder if mutual support for President was part of the deal.
Wonder if that deal will hold if they both want to run for president in 2024.
Don't look at polls, Minivet. There's still 11 months to go and you'll burn out.
Well, yeah: she'll be VP under Biden, and he won't survive his term.
I sure hope any candidate over 70 also has a plan to make good use of their death if post-nomination or post-election.
7: course he will. Life expectancy for a 77 year old US male is 10 years. And Biden is healthier than the average.
7: course he will. Life expectancy for a 77 year old US male is 10 years. And Biden is healthier than the average.
This chilled me for a few seconds until I registered the joke:
BREAKING: Kamala will endorse Pete Buttigieg. She didn't say so, but his website's probably about to.
The primaries have felt depressing. I went in thinking that I'd be fine with a number of candidates and that I was mostly hoping to see who ended up looking good -- who looked comfortable campaigning and was able to minimize their weaknesses.
Instead, every candidate seems to be struggling to expand their support beyond a solid base, and the non-Warren front-runners are two old white men (and the top 3 are people who have been effectively running or preparing to run since 2016). I was hoping for a dynamic primary and it just feels like a slog.
12: At the risk of depressing you even more, I will point out that the primaries haven't even started yet.
I will point out that the primaries haven't even started yet.
I am aware of that, and _maybe_ the race will feel more fluid and dynamic once people start voting, but my enthusiasm is low at the moment.
14: Yes, I'm not optimistic about that either.
7: Over on the other other place there's some talk about her as VP, but more as Attorney General.
The primaries became depressing as soon as Biden entered. Remember we already had all those other centrists. 90% of their support went to Biden and they just kept hanging around in case he had to drop out for health reasons. Now it's even worse as centrists who prefer to vote for a younger person are supporting Buttigieg (why him? why not me?) and the billionaire candidates seem to have actual support, which seems to be taken from Elizabeth Warren's carefully constructed base of middle-aged people who "just want the government run by someone competent". I thought the Howard Schultz experience meant other billionaires would also be laughed out of the race, but it turns out he didn't bother to try.
12: same. I was cheerful when it looked like Warren was making a big move that would stick--both because she's my favorite and because that would likely shake up the top of the race and maybe make room for the next tier to move up--but what's happened since just sucks on every level.
Edit to 17: I shouldn't say that's Elizabeth Warren's "base", but it's a ton of people who love the idea of having a plan for everything.
19: Yeah, but I still don't get it. They must have realized her plans were pretty radical.
20: Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they just heard her say "I have a plan for that" and didn't pay any attention to the actual plan.
Anyway, there's still plenty of time for the other billionaires to be laughed out of the race.
I keep telling myself that it will all become much clearer when the actual primary voting starts.
11 months ago:
Chris Cillizza and Harry Enten's definitive 2020 Democratic candidate power rankings
1) Kamala Harris
2) Beto O'Rourke
3) Joe Biden
4) Cory Booker
11 months ago:
Chris Cillizza and Harry Enten's definitive 2020 Democratic candidate power rankings
1) Kamala Harris
2) Beto O'Rourke
3) Joe Biden
4) Cory Booker
25 would have been funnier if it started with 10 months and twenty-nine days ago.
17 Ditto on Biden. I was really hoping he'd see himself as more of a mentor than a player.
Iowa will clear out a bunch of the remaining candidates.
Steyer and Bloomberg probably won't get that many votes -- at least I hope they don't.
One thing about Schultz is that he was going to be an independent, and then went touring Iowa and New Hampshire, as if there was some purpose in him being there and not California and New York.
As I mentioned in the linked thread, California going early really shuffles the deck. It makes big money way way more important, and gives the billionaires a real chance to make waves even if the high information / high commitment voters of Iowa and New Hampshire are unimpressed with them.
I think Harris's campaign expected a "favorite daughter" effect in California, so it was pretty embarrassing that she was doing barely better there - in one poll, apparently not published before it actually happened, 61% of California Dem primary voters said she should drop out of the race.
Ditto on Biden. I was really hoping he'd see himself as more of a mentor
Have you listened to him talk during all this? Sounds like he's drunk or losing his marbles. Biden needs to go away.
30 I had the pleasure of hearing him live, twice in one day, in 2018. I'll vote for him if he's the nominee, and I suppose if it's down to him, the billionaires, and Gabbard, but not ahead of anyone else in the race. Oh, head of Yang maybe also.
Maybe time for me to read the Biden stutter article? https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/
Turns out I prefer Biden to Buttigieg. Its a tough call, but I think its a case of preferring the devil you know.
I've been thinking that Donald Trump is sort of the Id of the modern GOP base, and then wondering: who's the Democratic/liberal/progressive Id?
With strengthening intramural tensions, if there is someone iddy, I doubt they could be described as both liberal and progressive.
who's the Democratic/liberal/progressive Id?
Bernie.
Bernie is the Id who purports to act as Superego.
36 is sad. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's sad.
This comment, from Nate Silver today, captures what has made the race depressing to follow.
The polls and endorsements tell a quite similar story in fact. They both point toward Biden being a fairly weak frontrunner, but no one else able to overtake him.
Yes. Racist Troll is now an occupation, not just an attitude.