Oprah 2020?

So you’re worried that we have a candidate that is all but a guaranteed win over any Republican? I sort of like knowing that pocket Ace is there.

Maybe we’ve just reached that point in our democracy where we’ve given up the pretense that the electorate is a sober judge of policy positions and embraced full-on demagoguery. 18 charisma or GTFO.*

It’s interesting how so many things come back to Lincoln. The question as always is “whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

*why anybody thinks Trump is charismatic continues to mystify me, however.

Is it so sure Oprah would win?

I’m a pessimist, so my inclination is to think that Trump is the favorite in '20 if he hasn’t been impeached by then. However, it’s been a quarter-century since we had a one-term president, so maybe my judgment is skewed. They used to be fairly common.

It’s about ‘at least they’re on my team’ versus ‘the system just keeps degrading.’ Pick your mindset.

I know what you’re saying but the Republicans are so dysfunctional and broken ideologically keeping them out of power at this point in time is surely more important than finding some perfect policy wonks that balance neoliberalism and globalization with economic and social inequality.

If the candidate is completely unqualified for the position? Without a doubt: yes.

Supporting Oprah because she can beat “them” sounds like Trumpism.

Ginsburg, Breyer, Thomas, Kennedy.

It is fairly likely all will die or retire in the next 1-6 years.

I cannot stress enough that the biggest fire burning down our democracy is Citizens United. Flip SCOTUS over, and CU gets turned over.

I therefore think nominating to that bench, and federal judges in general, is hugely important in the next term, especially following a census and potential redistricting and resulting court challenges.

I will vote for Tom Chick’s cat for President if said cat has a reasonable chance to win two terms and is willing to take the advice of Democratic legal scholars in bench nominations.

I’ll worry about qualified presidents once we put that fire out.

If the president is unqualified, it’s just as likely gasoline gets thrown on the fire, no?

Many a Trump supporter used that argument in voting for Trump.

If Oprah has the right policies and has the good sense (and political know-how) to get some solid politicians in the positions she needs to get good work done, of course I’d vote for her.

Figurehead + political dream team more than makes up for lack of direct experience.

Depends on the definition of “unqualified” here.

She’s eminently more qualified than Trump, despite the horrors of being both black and a woman.

Go fuck yourself.

Fantasy ticketing:

What if Oprah out of the gate nominates Jason Kander to be her running mate?

While I wouldn’t want her to run (I would hope someone who understood the system and could therefore use it would run and win) if it came down to her and Trump she would get my nearly silent support. I would hope she would understand that you need Washington people to run the machine and that you would need people who understood that by your side. Also, without congressional support probably the only things she could do would require executive orders. She may know smart business people, but I don’t think all of Trumps appointments were idiots, they just didn’t know how the machine worked.

At least Oprah isn’t a Clinton.

That’s not fair and you know it. Scuzz is exactly, 100%, correct that your statement is a mirror of the ‘hold your nose and vote for Trump’ voter.

That doesn’t invalidate it, and doesn’t make it wrong to feel such a thing is critical. I can hardly fathom what it would take for me to support Trump over literally any person or inanimate object put up with the D nom. For exactly those reasons.

But ‘the candidate doesn’t matter, the Supreme Court does’ is verbatim a major talking point from trump supporters and you know it.

Her being ‘more qualified’ (which I only agree with to the point that she isn’t a raging racist, narcissistic wastrel, not because she has relevant experience) is irrelevant to that point.

I think I’d vote for a meteor hitting earth over Trump at this point.

(I always try to act like I’ve been there before when I score like that.)