Oprah 2020?

Truth is irrelevant, perception is everything. Trump is only for himself and that in many ways is establishment. But many of his supporter and have drunk the Koolaid.

Trump is like a fucking monkey paw.

Folks keep trying to use him, only to have their wishes go horribly wrong.

Again though, if you’re a republican politician (who hasn’t been kicked out of you job for responding to his childish taunts) or a republican donor, why are you unhappy with what Trump has done?

I think there will be plenty of unhappy Republican donors Nov 7, 2018 and even more in 2020.

Most of these articles say the same thing: Oprah shouldn’t run because Trump.

If you took the top 10000 celebrities and put them in a room, Oprah probably would be the best presidential candidate out of all of them. I don’t buy the “celebrity OR politician” rhetoric. Oprah would need to buckle down right now and start developing some policy plans and a stellar coterie of advisors, but I think she could do it. The President needs to be a savvy politician and intelligent statesperson, but also a charismatic leader because that, ultimately, is what likely will help reunite the political divide in this country. From that perspective, if it took 4-8 years of run-of-the-mill policy to heal and reunite this country, it would be worth it. Her media empire might be useful, in that regard, as the Dems otherwise show no ability to counter Fox News.

No, Oprah shouldn’t run because she has no experience in government or the public sector.

I disagree – the GOP unwittingly set themselves up for this when they constructed their primary system to pick a front-runner fast. Their wide swath of winner-take-all early states put Trump into an early lead and made knocking him off harder and harder as time went on.

By contrast, the proportional nature of the Dem primaries (and the “superdelegate” structure) meant that even with a commanding lead, Hillary couldn’t knock even a distant non-threat like Bernie off the ticket.

A wide field of reasonable competitors should naturally winnow down to a couple good choices by the time of the convention under the existing Democrat system.

As Strollen said, I think a LOT of Republicans are very unhappy with what Trump has done. Beyond the short-term gains of repealing literally anything that Obama signed, he has poisoned the GOP brand for at least a couple election cycles if not an entire generation.

They said this with the financial crisis in 2008, yet here we are.

She brought us Dr Oz and Dr Phil. She supports Jenny McCarthy. I rest my case.

Peoples’ willingness to support whatever nutjob is on TV because they seem “nice” or gave a good talk or something astonishes me.

Doesn’t Oprah also advocate for kooky new age shit like “The Rules” and that stuff that goes on essentially about karma? Attracting good things to yourself by magnetic thoughts or some shit like that? Promoting Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, etc. She really sounds like a winner for serious political office.

Of course, people will attempt to explain away anything to get their TV talking head elected. I’m sure all of those things will just be things she did for “entertainment,” and she’ll really be an enlightened and intelligent leader.

We’re already getting the same kind of bullshit excuses for stupid crap that we got for Trump.

Look, Oprah’s cool. She’d unquestionably be better than Trump. But that’s not the fucking bar that I have in my mind for being a President.

This.

I mean, she’d be better than Trump… but so would just about anyone, that isn’t a high bar to clear.

If she’s serious about being President, she can run for governor or senator or something. I’d rather not have us swapping talk show hosts every cycle instead of electing people who actually know what they’re doing.

I’m sure Oprah could get up to speed, but this is a road we never should have done down. The solution isn’t to go further down it and hope it all works out.

Exactly.

Do I think she is more likely to surround herself with capable and credible people than Trunp? Absolutely.

Do I think it is also plausible she would put some spectacularly unqualified people into public positions? Certainly.

Would she be an improvement? Yes.

Could she prove capable of being a good president? Possibly.

Is it possible she could be a terrible president due to lack of relevant experience, and history of elevating fringe positions? Definitely.

Could she be worse than Trump? Almost certainly not. But not 100% certainly.

I have a weird idea. Let’s maybe, elect politicians based on their, you know, politics, maybe, instead of their ratings? I dunno, just spitballing. And maybe based on their actual politics, not just what they say their politics are, which we know because they have a history of actually advocating for policy positions, authoring legislation, or working in government?

But… but… that would require real reporting, people to pay attention and do their fucking homework, and an electorate with an attention span in excess of a goldfish.

I’m extremely sympathetic toward the Oprah skepticism but also somewhat discouraged at the doublethink and lack of self-awareness this criticism shows - which, perhaps, is the big reveal that the men behind the liberal curtain aren’t as dispassionate and rational as they themselves like to believe.

We need a policy wonk, not a celebrity! Don’t fall into the trap of BernieBros and only think of policy!

We don’t need the most popular woman in American right now! It’s sexism that held Hillary back! It’s pushback against sexism that’s driving Trump into the ground!

We don’t need to get stuck on nice speeches and celebrity, we need a real politician! The news cycle is broken! The electorate are broken! They don’t care about policy! That’s why they elected Trump!

We need turnout to win elections! African-American turnout went back to normal after Obama in 2016! Black women saved Alabama!

We don’t need an outsider candidate! We need a career politician! The electorate are voting for outsider candidates consistently!

Don’t get me wrong, i don’t think she’s “well prepared” to be president but she’s almost perfectly suited to win at this particular junction in history. I think not taking her potential candidacy seriously is a huge mistake.

I think you are happy you have a “republican” in the white house, but at the same time you must know that Trump can only hurt the other republicans in office and the republican brand. But Trump will sign what your republican congress passes.

Let’s not get carried away. The GOP reclaimed the White House just 6 years after Nixon.

Potentially he will, but voters are stupid and have very short memories. Even if Oprah gets elected next time, when she is up for reelection, republicans will be running against her, blaming her for the resurgence of white supremacy movements. Just like Obama got blamed for the economy he inherited.

In the short term Trump will sign and push for establishment republican positions and he will also move to fill positions with conservatives.

I would certainly love to be in a position where the president was a huge asshole but worked constantly to push policy positions i supported.

Have people been arguing the latter? In this climate I don’t deny that she might win the election, but I don’t just care about winning, I care about someone being qualified for an extremely important job that could affect all our lives.

I’m not sure I see the doublethink. Yeah, she could win. That’s what worries me.