4944

The point of giving candidates a chance to gain momentum is to prevent the candidates with the most money from dominating before the primary even begins. That means that the first contest must be relatively inexpensive. A bunch of simultaneous small states is no better than simply starting off with California.

4945

OTOH, the long primary season is by far the biggest reason why US elections are as expensive as they are. And the long primary season is driven entirely by calendars set by the parties. More candidates could plausibly compete if the primary season were limited to a few weeks before the convention.

4946

Yeah, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this long election process is borne of altruism. It’s all about getting more money. The longer the election season, the more money spent. There’s really zero incentive for anyone involved in the process to shorten it.

4947

Yup politics is a $16 billion business. If they parties could start the run for the next president on Jan 21, 2021 they would.

4948

I think Iowa is very much in play for Democrats nationally in 2020.

4949

Oh, and also: the candidate who is probably most hurt if Iowa goes toa traditional caucus with no Virtual Caucus thingy is Joe Biden.

4950

Consider that the fate of our country hangs in the balance, some might argue that it’s pretty cheap. I mean, how much does super bowl ad run these days?

4951

I don’t think the problem is the money, it’s what kickbacks come attached to it to keep it flowing.

4952

I think I’ve decided that the candidate who pledges that he or she will pursue a real investigation into crimes perpetrated by Trump and his compatriots before and during his Presidency, and then bring the full force of law to bear should they find wrongdoing, and rule out a pardon for anyone involved, will get my vote in the primaries.

I fear the joy of winning the election and having Trump in the rearview mirror will push the winner to say that “we need to look forward, not back” and just try to move on.

Fuck that. I want Trump, Miller, and Trump’s family behind bars. And I want Kavanaugh removed from the SC for lying.

4953

So I – and the folks I work for – are doing our part. :) I can’t say too much, but we’re working with a consultancy who has been hired by a major candidate (he/she will be one of the ten onstage for the next debate). What’s cool is that after doing a couple of sessions with either undecided voters, or “uncertain” Trump voters, the candidate’s data manager – who had the same position with, uh, two winning White House bids for Democrats – sat in as an observer and then spent a good deal of time afterwards telling us we were revolutionary and could totally disrupt message focusing. Which is neat. :)

4954

Man, your job always sounds more interesting then what I do.

Let us know what you can, when you can. I always appreciate hearing more.

4955

I’m going to vote for whoever is willing to make whatever efforts we don’t get a 2nd Trump, by any means necessary at this point.

4956

That is neat! 🍻

4957

Looks like everyone’s rolling out climate change plans this week. Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, etc.

Lots of them incorporate elements of Inslee’s plan.

4958

Looks like CNN had a bunch of town halls last week with most of the candidates, about Climate Change. I DVR’d all of them on YoutubeTV.

Did anyone watch them? Are they worth the time?

4959

The CNN climate change town halls are going on right now. I’ve DVR a few.

Edit: I watched Senator Harris townhall. I hated her non-answer to the first question, how would you address those American who’s jobs depend on fossil fuel. She talked all about the executive actions she would take including getting rid of the filibuster. As lawyer and Senator she has to know better, the President has no say on the filibuster.

The rest of the townhall was better, Essentially she’d put in a carbon tax, and sue oil companies an other for their bad behaviors. Her problem with nuclear is dealing with waste, and she was very anti Yucca Mountain. But nothing particularly innovative, nor controversial. I did like her point that if we give the private sector fix long term standards they can generally innovate how to meet them.

4960

Let’s hope there are a lot of these types of people.

4961

I think there are fair number, even if the won’t have the courage to write and OpEd.

4962

Democrats and Republicans alike — refuse to hold this administration accountable.

Both sides again… what exactly does she think the Democrats… can do?

The overall tone though is good. Hopefully the Democrats will accept moderates. We seem to have our own little bit of a… well not wanting to do that,.

4963

Well, that is good news.