2020: The Democratic Presidential Nomination Thread

[Joe K]

MSNBC in meltdown mode. You just hate to see it.

[Johnnie]

Glad I was able to get WiFi to watch that. Oh boy. I'm gonna go to sleep happy. Thanks for that, Joe.

[degenerasian]

Yep.

Chris Mathews just equated, Bernie Sanders (a Jew) winning, to France getting invaded by the Nazis in WWII.

[mister d]

Going to ask my intern to check if anyone mocked the concept of “establishment Dems would prefer Trump to Sanders”.

[A_B]

So Bernie apparently dominated Hispanic voters. So does Cubanos outweigh that? Serious question for Florida.

[Johnnie]

Yeesh!



ETA

Bernie's comms director:

[degenerasian]

Next storyline: Why winning state after state is actually bad for Bernie and should the DNC step in? We ask ten conservatives why they hate Bernie. Did you know he owns shoes? See why this makes him a hypocrite.

[Johnnie]

BERNIE BAD. HE CAN'T UNITE US.



ETA

This tweet fucking TRIGGERED establishment Democrats.

[degenerasian]

Who does Mayor Pete think he is? Trump? Hes tweeting every minute.

[Pruitt]

Who does Mayor Pete think he is? Trump? Hes tweeting every minute.

Millenials and social media, amirite?

[Joe K]

😂

[mister d]

Save this for 10 months or 10 years from now ... the only goal of the Russia Sanders shit is to turn a enough “impressionable people” against him so that future claims of interference or election impropriety are ignored as sour grapes because “we told you he couldn’t really win”.

[A_B]

Pete comes with trump typos and all!

[Pruitt]

Every four years, the primaries produce such utter horseshit from the media.

The only time when 3rd or 4th with a few thousand votes counts as "momentum." Klobuchar? Media said she was on a roll.

[degenerasian]

Every four years, the primaries produce such utter horseshit from the media.

The only time when 3rd or 4th with a few thousand votes counts as "momentum." Klobuchar? Media said she was on a roll.

Was it like this in 2016? Yes Fox and others were against Trump but I dont think it was this blatant this early.

[Pruitt]

Every four years, the primaries produce such utter horseshit from the media.

The only time when 3rd or 4th with a few thousand votes counts as "momentum." Klobuchar? Media said she was on a roll.

Was it like this in 2016? Yes Fox and others were against Trump but I dont think it was this blatant this early.

Not really talking about the cheerleading or the media turning against certain candidates...

More about the hype. I remember Tsongas getting momentum, Howard Dean, Lamar Alexander, Huntsman...

Just so many people writing so many stories and looking for angles.

[Johnnie]

This is an oddly specific, extremely subtle but very telling way you can call out Pete Buttigieg's deployment but not his service. Simply ask him:

"In your time spent in Afghanistan, how often did you and your co-workers play Spades, Dominoes, and/or Uno?"

It looks like a goofy question from the board game guy here and to anyone it absolutely would be, but here's the thing...those hours spent playing those games in a crappy office on the other side of the world in a country you don't want to be in is where camraderie is built and mentorship happens. Teaching the young folks on their first deployment how to play Spades, specifically, is right of passage.

Plus, it shows just how diverse your work section is or whether in a more diverse setting you were invited to join. If my work center was all white people, it's not likely those games come out.

I know that sounds really, really weird, but believe me, if Buttigieg could accurately bid on his hand and not undercut his partner or know when to make a house, he'd have a little more support amongst minorites.

[degenerasian]

I dont belittle Pete's service but the fact the first thing on his twitter description is "Afghanistan Veteran" says alot about the guy.

And that's a great question Johnnie but we know in the debates and interviews, media has been asking softball questions.

[Johnnie]

I dont belittle Pete's service but the fact the first thing on his twitter description is "Afghanistan Veteran" says alot about the guy.

And that's a great question Johnnie but we know in the debates and interviews, media has been asking softball questions.

I really should put "Kuwait/Iraq/Qatar/Afghanistan/Saudi Arabia/Diego Garcia/Guam strip clubs veteran" on my social media just to be like "I can be president too!"

[Pruitt]

The opening paragraphs of a front page article in today's New York Times:

In the early years, there was his commentary on gender relations featuring a rape fantasy, his support for the Sandinistas and his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.

Once he entered Congress, there were votes to shield gun manufacturers, a commitment to remaining uncommitted to the Democratic Party, and secret plans to mount a 2012 primary challenge against President Obama.

And more recently: the F.B.I. investigation into his family, the heart attack, the resistance to detailing the costs of his signature policy proposal, “Medicare for all.”

Senator Bernie Sanders has the kind of vulnerabilities that make political opponents salivate. Yet throughout his congressional campaigns, the 2016 primaries, and now his second White House bid, one rule has defined the senator’s political rise: Nothing sticks.

[Joe K]

Why it’s almost like voters have far more pressing concerns than Sanders’ writings in his 30s or his thoughts on Nicaraguan politics.

I saw this this thread a couple of days ago from a conservative-leaning economic researcher and thought it was pretty interesting.



By in large people who get paid to write NYT/WaPo editorials or to talk politics on TV are pretty well off. So they are pretty oblivious to the types of economic insecurities discussed in that thread. Even apart from the media I think most affluent people (and I certainly am one myself) just don’t appreciate the stresses that come with living paycheck to paycheck.

Sanders and Warren are the only candidates who make any substantive effort to center working class people in their politics. Biden is all talk in that regard, Pete and Klobuchar haven’t done much, and Bloomberg is as openly hostile to working people as any politician you’ll ever see. I’m not exactly sure why Warren has struggled so much but I’m really not surprised to see one of them emerge as the breakout candidate.

[degenerasian]

I think Warren went too far against the rich. If you're a billionaire, you're automatically evil. This is why her attack against Bloomberg was right in her wheelhouse. But she's has the ultimate 'woke' mentality. Preaching about the oppressed and only the oppressed gets old really fast. In America, the beacon of capitalism, she can't a campaign that hates capitalism to it's core. She can't kill the American Dream. As has been said here, people may be poor and victims now, but their goal is for them or their children to eventually be rich.

She goes on about having women and minorities on her team. She preached on about how she had the only trans person in Iowa knocking on doors. Every school board trustee can be vetoed by a transgender student in that school, or even better, a transgendered kid would get to interview all her candidates for Secretary of Education. Her story about a person having only $6 and giving her half. Or environmental and health care racism, what is that? Or employees should make up 40% of all executive boards. Steve here, has mentioned that he's a partner of a law firm. Imagine if he had to get 40% of employees to vote on everything he does.

And the last bullet was going after Bernie for being sexist.

Bernie is left wing, but he doesn't go down this path. Warren is a victim of her own identity obsession. Which is too bad because she would have been the candidate to beat Trump in this election.

[Johnnie]

Well stated.

[Brontoburglar]

I think Warren went too far against the rich. If you're a billionaire, you're automatically evil. This is why her attack against Bloomberg was right in her wheelhouse. But she's has the ultimate 'woke' mentality. Preaching about the oppressed and only the oppressed gets old really fast. In America, the beacon of capitalism, she can't a campaign that hates capitalism to it's core. She can't kill the American Dream. As has been said here, people may be poor and victims now, but their goal is for them or their children to eventually be rich.

She goes on about having women and minorities on her team. She preached on about how she had the only trans person in Iowa knocking on doors. Every school board trustee can be vetoed by a transgender student in that school, or even better, a transgendered kid would get to interview all her candidates for Secretary of Education. Her story about a person having only $6 and giving her half. Or environmental and health care racism, what is that? Or employees should make up 40% of all executive boards. Steve here, has mentioned that he's a partner of a law firm. Imagine if he had to get 40% of employees to vote on everything he does.

And the last bullet was going after Bernie for being sexist.

Bernie is left wing, but he doesn't go down this path. Warren is a victim of her own identity obsession. Which is too bad because she would have been the candidate to beat Trump in this election.

lol what is this shit

[tennbengal]

Typing while on an acid trip?

[degenerasian]

I really like Warren, she's by far the best of this bunch. I just think she doubled down on the wrong things and torpedoed her campaign.

There is no other reason why Bernie is getting 40% and might run away with this and Warren is at 10%. She is more competent than him in every way.

Unless you guys can think of some.

[Joe K]

I really like Warren, she's by far the best of this bunch. I just think she doubled down on the wrong things and torpedoed her campaign.

There is no other reason why Bernie is getting 40% and might run away with this and Warren is at 10%. She is more competent than him in every way.

Unless you guys can think of some.

Well she’s clearly not more competent than Sanders at establishing a national campaign ground game. He’s been kicking everyone’s ass at outreach to minority voters, especially Latinos. I still think Warren “should” be doing better than she is but I certainly wouldn’t attribute her poor performance as composed to Sanders to her being too mean to rich people.

[degenerasian]

I really like Warren, she's by far the best of this bunch. I just think she doubled down on the wrong things and torpedoed her campaign.

There is no other reason why Bernie is getting 40% and might run away with this and Warren is at 10%. She is more competent than him in every way.

Unless you guys can think of some.

Well she’s clearly not more competent than Sanders at establishing a national campaign ground game. He’s been kicking everyone’s ass at outreach to minority voters, especially Latinos. I still think Warren “should” be doing better than she is but I certainly wouldn’t attribute her poor performance as composed to Sanders to her being too mean to rich people.

But shes the one dedicated to minority voters. Why is she not doing better? She talks about housing and redlining. Shes talking about government housing for blacks and Latinos. She talking about slave reparations. Women, LGBT, everyone... except rich white folks.

[mister d]

Are you asking why Warren (or Biden) addressing certain groups doesn’t gain as much traction as Bernie proposing policies that directly benefit those groups?

[Joe K]

Are you asking why Warren (or Biden) addressing certain groups doesn’t gain as much traction as Bernie proposing policies that directly benefit those groups?

I’d also add that the reporting from Iowa and Nevada especially shows that Sanders’ campaign did by far the best job of actually talking to minority voters, where they live and work, and not just talking about them. That’s the heart of an effective voter outreach program.

I think the expressed concerns about his “electability” overlook that his ground game is miles beyond the other candidates. That is really important this year, since the vagaries of the Electoral College mean that the Dems will likely need to pull out a bunch of close wins in the upper Midwest, VA, NC, and FL. No one else has shown the ability to be competitive all over the map.

[degenerasian]

Are you asking why Warren (or Biden) addressing certain groups doesn’t gain as much traction as Bernie proposing policies that directly benefit those groups?

That's it. I'm opining with Joe K why Warren failed and this exactly one of the reasons why.

[Johnnie]

Girlfriend, you need to vote for Bernie Sanders.

[Johnnie]

When I read a headline like this:

Elizabeth Warren piles on Bloomberg at Denver rally, but avoids criticism of Sanders

It makes me remember that this story flew way under the radar last month:

The Sanders ampaign researched whether Warren could be both Vice President and Treasury Secretary at once.

The answer is yes.

[Nonlinear FC]

Girlfriend, you need to vote for Bernie Sanders.

TBH, I've never really heard her speak, other than a few debate clips mocking her.

She sounds a helluva lot like Cecily Strong doing the meth'd out woman on Weekend Update.

[GoodKarma]

I think Warren went too far against the rich. If you're a billionaire, you're automatically evil.

WTF has Bernie been doing?!?! EW is and always has been much more of a true capitalist.

[degenerasian]

I think Warren went too far against the rich. If you're a billionaire, you're automatically evil.

WTF has Bernie been doing?!?! EW is and always has been much more of a true capitalist.

I think she is more of a capitalist as well, i mean she's totally abandoned medicare for all. The problem is, at the beginning she chose the Bernie lane and not the Biden lane. With her policies, she would have crushed Biden (and Bloomberg) and it should be centrist Warren against leftist Bernie right now.

Bernie does go after the rich as well but not that far. Yes, he says the 1% have to pay their fair share but he doesn't attack them like Warren does. She says things like, they made all their fortunes on the backs of the oppressed, meaning blacks and latinos. Bill Gates merely suggested that he might have to reconsider his donations and philanthropic work if Warren passed a 2% wealth tax and she attacked him. Warren attacks and attacks. Now she wants Bernie's health records.

[Steve of phpBB]

I think Warren went too far against the rich. If you're a billionaire, you're automatically evil.

WTF has Bernie been doing?!?! EW is and always has been much more of a true capitalist.

I think she is more of a capitalist as well, i mean she's totally abandoned medicare for all. The problem is, at the beginning she chose the Bernie lane and not the Biden lane. With her policies, she would have crushed Biden (and Bloomberg) and it should be centrist Warren against leftist Bernie right now.

Bernie does go after the rich as well but not that far. Yes, he says the 1% have to pay their fair share but he doesn't attack them like Warren does. She says things like, they made all their fortunes on the backs of the oppressed, meaning blacks and latinos. Bill Gates merely suggested that he might have to reconsider his donations and philanthropic work if Warren passed a 2% wealth tax and she attacked him. Warren attacks and attacks. Now she wants Bernie's health records.

I think you are incorrect about her totally abandoning M4All or being more liberal or meaner to billionaires than Sanders. She may have been more specific about certain bills she would pursue about the problems of gross wealth disparity and corporate power - including the 2% wealth tax, requirements that certain corporate boards include employees - but I don't think that puts her to the left of Sanders.

She wants Bernie's health records because he's had a heart attack and want to be President until after he turns 83.

[mister d]

Probably 87.

[Shirley]

Maybe I'm odd, but I prefer that Warren support policies that she likes and believes in, not ones that better position against whoever happens to be leading this week's polls. Fortunately, I think she agrees, which is why I like her. Bernie too. Let the others chase opinion polls.

[mister d]

Yeah, if Pete's a 0 there and Bernie is a 10, Warren seems a solid 7, higher before the recent blips.