3437

God forbid anyone have any distaste for the rich, though. That just wouldn’t be meet.

3438

More tweeting would probably do it.

In all seriousness, any American on here who volunteers their time next year to help a Dem politician and get rid of trump will get an e-hug from me. Two if you’re from a swing state.

3439

You gotta look at room for unfavorability to go up as well though. Warren has room for that (though less I think than people think, she is not a Hillary by any stretch). Harris has major room to go up, especially among LGBT dems. Buttigieg I think would be fine.

Also I think turnout will rise , as young folks are getting angrier and more scared. Trump might be their Jimmy Carter- the thing that scares them into a lifelong hatred.

I plan on helping out some in 2020 here like I did in 2018. Just hard with my schedule and the local Dems aren’t helpful with how ossified they are.

3440

Put me down for 2 e hugs, cause I am so going to help again this year!

3441

Definitely. And that is going to be the main thing I watch. One of the main attributes I want in a candidate is one whose unfavorability does not go up when they speak to the the public. Particularly the Dem public.

I very much want to reach out to voters who could be won over from the independent and even Repub columns, but that’s a whole other thing. Above all, we cannot be vulnerable to another stealth campaign to convince Dems to stay home in protest.

On a whole other note, the family got together yesterday and watched all of the second debate and a lot of the first one.

As a very text based guy, my biggest takeaway is that I feel visceral hatred for this “debate” format. Problems that have plagued people for decades, in some cases centuries, and the candidate is going to be judged on their 60 second solution. This meets the TV networks’ needs, but if you are looking for transparent democracy, it is terrible.

As a Dem partisan, I also have to be thinking what a poor light it forces the candidates into. Either you have to come across as a aggressive interrupter or a weak wallflower. And it kind of creates the impression of the group as being participants in a cafeteria food fight. Just generally demeaning, and lowering of their gravitas.

It wouldn’t be such good TV, but it would be much more enlightening to give each candidate 10 or 15 minutes to speak, and then a few minutes to respond once to what they heard from other(s) the first time around.

Above all, that would help clarify priorities. Or, more precisely, what mandate this candidate would have, if elected. As it is, my main impression is that one candidate says “I am all in on this Dem priority” and the others then chime in either “Me too” or “Me too but we could accomplish that goal better in a less direct way.” Extremely little difference in ultimate goals. So, at least in our living room, the less politically obsessed end up focusing on hand gestures, facial features, minor mis-wordings, and wardrobe choices.

All that aside, though, I got the impression that a lot (most) of the secondary candidates are not just lesser known, they really are in truth not ready for this level. Swalwell, Hickenlooper, Ryan, Inslee, DeBlasio, Yang, Bennet, Delaney, and especially Williamson, geez, they might be good in the leagues they play in, but I just cannot begin to imagine… Who the heck is telling these people to stay in the race? And why?

3442

I donated to Warren’s campaign, and that is my first political donation ever.

3443

Biden is really not very good at this.

Some will say that he’s just trying to express something which is true — that intolerance of LGBT people has largely become unacceptable. That’s fair enough, but he does it so badly it’s cringeworthy. It’s actually insulting.

3444

It is almost like he is 76 years old, and out of touch.

3445

Next week Joe will tell us that because of #metoo that it’s no longer OK to burn women at the stake, followed by a sentimental reminiscence about how well he used to work with the witch-finders.

3446

I give Biden some leeway on gay rights considering the role he played nudging Obama in the right direction there.

3447

I certainly don’t think Joe is anti-gay-rights. I just think he’s an inarticulate bungler and exceptionally remote from the real world by virtue of having lived in a bubble for more than 40 years.

3448

So, he’s Joe Biden.

I mean, before Trump, Biden’s biggest claim to fame was saying things in the worst possible way.
Obama practically had to lock the dude in a room when anything of import happened because he would say something stupid.

3449

Yup, there is good reason that over three presidential primary Joe has gotten less votes than your typical Congressman gets. Hell, Mayor Pete may have gotten more votes for more than Joe did for President. He is a nice guy, and after Trump I know many of us are longing for a non-asshole president. But not being an asshole is too low a bar for President.

3450

A lovable idiot is still an idiot.

It’s like everyone forgets the beloved Obama/Biden memes are completely predicated on the idea that Joe is an idiot that makes terrible decisions and Obama is always stopping him from doing something moronic.

I know it’s a crazy idea, but maybe elect someone nice who also isn’t stupid.
I mean I’ll take nice and stupid over Trump, but how about something better than the bare minimum?

3451

Too bad such a person doesn’t exist in the Dem Primary. There certainly isn’t 3-4 real candidates that come to mind fitting that description.

Would security please escort the people wearing Butigeg, Warren, and Booker shirts out of the room please?

3452

I don’t think Biden is an idiot or anything close to one.

3453

I don’t know as much about Booker, but it seems like a misapprehension of reality to call either Warren or Butigeg “stupid” or “not nice”. He’s immensely personal and a Rhodes Scholar, was a high power consultant, speaks 24 languages, blah blah. She was the driving force behind the creation of the CFPB, and is responsible for rooting out north of $10B in financial crimes and corruption. Among other things. Also, she and her husband and dog are super cute. These both seem like the sort of highly intelligent and actualized people that we should be electing to lead us.

3454

That was the joke.

3455

Lol, I’m sorry, your humor is too advanced for me.

3456

My wife and I spent a long car ride yesterday discussing the debates, and we had very different impressions of several of the candidates (and of the debate format – she doesn’t mind the one minute format at all).

But at the end, we strongly agreed on one thing. The Dems will nominate Kamala Harris. Not that she is the #1 choice of either my wife or myself, just that that looks like an extremely likely outcome down the road.

She is black and she is a woman, each of which will turn out the vote in large key constituencies.

She demonstrated the ability to stand up to entrenched power and outdated thinking in her encounter with Biden, but in contrast to Swalwell, she did it in the voice of a highly responsible adult.

And the fact that the most progressive wing of the party expresses reservations about her prosecutorial resume will actually work for her, giving her credibility with moderates.

And, above all, she comes across as the perfect counterpoint on stage to Dump. I predict that a lot of Dems are going to come to that conclusion, she and not Biden is the candidate most likely to fix Dump’s wagon.