You throw those toddlers in chains, and they will snap to.
Have to say, this surprised me a little. But good on her.
Has anybody besides Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker shrugged off PAC & Lobbyist money this time around? Is this going to be a Dem-wide show of ethics?
Honestly, if Gillibrand is saying no, I don’t know how any candidate can accept anything but small individual donor contributions now for the Dems.
Probably all those steroids.
Looks like Inslee is in.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inslee-2020-run-all-systems-go
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) sounded positive Monday when discussing a possible 2020 run, telling CNN’s Poppy Harlow that he is “all systems go at the moment.”
He added that he’d been visiting early voting states and spreading his platform which focuses intensely on climate change.
Oh. Climate change. Media will completely ignore him.
But muh POLAR VORTEX!
What the hell is Sam Hornish, Jr. doing there? Weird.
So Bernie is giving his own response to the SOTU tonight, after Stacey Abrams gives the Dem response? That’s not a good look. What’s he thinking?
The only responses I’m interested are the Qt3 responses.
I think Booker has the best chance of any of the male candidates. He’s young and energetic, good at social media, and has a potentially-viable shtick with all his talk about love. It’s not clear that Harris will own the social justice angle, and as strong as her roll out was, there’s lots of campaigning left to do. If Biden and Warren are the other heavyweights, then Booker and Harris set up on the same end of the triangle across from those two. I think it’s reasonable to look at the demographic splits Nate Silver identified and think that Harris has a wider base than Booker does, but messaging and policies do mean something, At the moment, Booker has a prison reform bill he got passed and the baby bonds idea is getting some scientific backing, while Harris has a lot of people digging up times she enforced the law. I would still bet on her over him because I’m not convinced he’s good enough at speeches and debates to really win a policy fight, but I definitely think 538 has talked themselves into dismissing him too early. If the policy fights all play out in short videos, he has a good shot.
I’d also prefer that Harris or Warren win it, because the religious overtones of his love refrain make me uncomfortable. Give me Booker over the old white dudes, though.
I saw the President will also be providing a response to his own SOTU, on the shitter tomorrow morning.
Booker’s… fine? I dunno, something about him strikes me as disingenuous. He seems really schmoozy. I’m not even sure how to articulate it, but does anyone else get a weird vibe from him? I don’t have anything against him, he seems fine… but I can’t imagine him being president.
If I had to pick someone from the full democratic field, which is not really the most appealing to me, I think Harris is probably the strongest. She’s the one candidate that I could see as being a strong President, if it came down to it. I’ve got issues with some of her past, mainly her support for civil asset forfeiture, but I think that finding any one candidate who checks all the boxes is unrealistic. Either someone is going to have done something I don’t like, or they will have no experience.
(February 2019)
Democratic Party: And here to present the official Democratic Party response to the State of the Union is Stacey Abrams, who …
Bernie: (grabs mike) I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY.
Democratic Party: Really dude?
(2020, probably)
Bernie: The DNC has not been putting mints on my pillow every night. This is an OUTRAGE. The system is RIGGED!
I think he’s got a try-hard vibe, like he’s so desperate for the win, which can make his positions seem insincere. Gillibrand feels a little that way too.
This is kind of it, but it’s paired with some kind of saccharine veneer. Maybe that’s why I find it so hard to picture him as President. He comes off as way too “nice”.
Just looked at the in-progress DailyKos straw poll for this week. With the caveat that it isn’t scientific in any way, and that it includes almost exclusively a mix of people who are both on the Left/Progressive end of the spectrum but largely identify as Democrats…
…Kamala Harris is having a good poll there. No one seems to care about the truancy prosecutions.
…Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand are sucking air badly. Yikes.
…Biden and Beto dropping like rocks.
…Warren hanging tough behind Harris
…Bernie kind of stuck in idle. His numbers haven’t really improved or decreased. On the one hand, it’s good for him: his base is solidly behind him and unwavering. On the other hand, at some point Sanders is going to have to woo those outside the group he’s convinced, and the SOTU thing isn’t likely to endear him to two constituencies he struggled with in 2016: women and persons of color.
For all the clowning I do here, I feel like it’s important to note that I will not be voting for Bernie in the primary. He’s one of a very, very few candidates I have ever donated to, but that ship has sailed.
Question: For all his dictating to the Democratic Party, has Bernie ever actually joined the Democratic Party?