Election 2020

[epilogue]

Random thoughts, night two:
--Felt like greatest hits night for Bernie, he's likely to linger around for a while like he did in the last campaign.
--Harris didn't change my mind in that she should be a serious competitor.
--Alongside Castro, I thought Gillibrand was being underrated, and my mind hasn't changed there either.
--I feel like Biden the same way that I did about Beto last night: not great, but not terrible.
--I can see why Mayor Pete has been impressing people, he should have a long, bright future ahead of him in politics somewhere.
--Swalwell at least made things interesting and felt like he was serious about his campaign.
--I have no idea why the Colorado guys, Yang, and Williamson are here.

Once again, I largely agree.

[Bammer]

Random thoughts, night two:
--Felt like greatest hits night for Bernie, he's likely to linger around for a while like he did in the last campaign.
--Harris didn't change my mind in that she should be a serious competitor.
--Alongside Castro, I thought Gillibrand was being underrated, and my mind hasn't changed there either.
--I feel like Biden the same way that I did about Beto last night: not great, but not terrible.
--I can see why Mayor Pete has been impressing people, he should have a long, bright future ahead of him in politics somewhere.
--Swalwell at least made things interesting and felt like he was serious about his campaign.
--I have no idea why the Colorado guys, Yang, and Williamson are here.

Once again, I largely agree.

Totes McGotes

[B]

Biden's always going to be on the defensive. He's never going to be able to stake out a winning position and define his presidency.

[Simple Torture]

Why even run these anymore?

[Bi_3]

Healthcare for illegals as well? Not sure that’s a winning position right now

[liebzz]

Healthcare for illegals as well? Not sure that’s a winning position right now

It won’t win over Trump’s base but really nothing will. I think their theory is they won on health care in 2018 and they will keep hammering at it.

[wease]

apparently someone has sold my e-mail to the RNC. Since yesterday, I’ve been inundated with emails from them that wants me to contribute money to the effort to defeat all dirty bastard Democrats everywhere. If I don’t donate, the life and freedoms I enjoy will be over when the dirty bastard Democrats win.

God, I hate these people.

[Bi_3]

Healthcare for illegals as well? Not sure that’s a winning position right now

It won’t win over Trump’s base but really nothing will. I think their theory is they won on health care in 2018 and they will keep hammering at it.

The economy will not be in great shape around election time next year, which should be enough to rid the world of trump, unless he can channel that economic worry into nationalism... fastest way to do that is "while you are getting laid off, they want to spend YOUR tax money on free healthcare for illegals"

[E.H. Ruddock]

I thought Mayor Pete was great.

Bernie was so-so until his final statement, I loved.

Biden was a bunch of hot air, really sounded like any other old white politician. I really hope it isn't Biden that gets the nomination.

[epilogue]

Biden's always going to be on the defensive. He's never going to be able to stake out a winning position and define his presidency.

Especially not if he wants to define it as "Obama is my homeboy."

[McParadigm]

I think the media representation of this as a horse race is ratings-considered and wrong-headed. This is an extended primetime hour of democratic talking points, consistent across candidates as far as public processing is concerned, which illustrates the difference between that party’s language and Trump/McConnell’s rewritten version of conservatism.

Republicans will talk up Biden, or a handful of others who are extra centrist, because they sense a loss in the making and nothing would make them happier than for it to be the most centrist Democrats on stage. The media will humor that, as they have. But the last two nights have illustrated how little “democratic disarray“ there really is, and how much 2018-level energy still rolls on.

Literally what Fox News was doing for half an hour this morning.

It boggles the mind how unprepared Joe was for someone to openly say a thing that people have been throwing around for weeks. Did he really not prep for that possibility??

[Peeps]

harris to me seems the clear cut choice

the problem is people are going to see her as overbearing and opinionated and get turned off by it because when those traits are in a woman its bad but in a male it's hes got his shit together

[Green Habit]

Healthcare for illegals as well? Not sure that’s a winning position right now

It's still more of a winning position than my radical position, which is that anyone should be able to live and work wherever they want in the world, and be able to enjoy a society's services if they also pay taxes to contribute to those services.

[Green Habit]

Biden's always going to be on the defensive. He's never going to be able to stake out a winning position and define his presidency.

And there's likely not much he can do about it, he's been in politics so long that he's going to have plenty of votes or stances that his opponents can pounce on.

[Green Habit]

harris to me seems the clear cut choice

the problem is people are going to see her as overbearing and opinionated and get turned off by it because when those traits are in a woman its bad but in a male it's hes got his shit together

I think that if anyone can overcome that sexism, it's Harris. I worry that Warren and Gillibrand are going to struggle more in overcoming that.

[McParadigm]

Biden's always going to be on the defensive. He's never going to be able to stake out a winning position and define his presidency.

And there's likely not much he can do about it, he's been in politics so long that he's going to have plenty of votes or stances that his opponents can pounce on.

I think he’d have done well if he came out the gate with an attitude of “it’s a new America, and I want to be right there with it,” rather than “fuck yeah I go bowling with segregationists.” Past actions only ever play out as harmful if they are extra awful or if the actor appears to still embrace them (or, like last night, appear baffled as to why anyone else would feel otherwise).

His campaign so far has essentially just been a democratic version of “make America great again,“ and that fails to overlap the zeitgeist.

[Mickey]

I am of course primed to think this, but I thought Biden was awful last night. He allowed himself to get dragged into a fight about segregation, doubled down on state's rights to oppose busing, trailed off multiple times, said his first act as president would be to defeat Donald Trump--in short, unprepared, agitated, slow, and distinctly conservative.

Harris was great, almost enough to make me forget about her sketchy prosecutor record. Bernie was not great, way too many canned answers. They need to winnow the field down to get everyone on the same stage, but they ABSOLUTELY need to keep Marianne.

[Mickey]

Biden's always going to be on the defensive. He's never going to be able to stake out a winning position and define his presidency.

And there's likely not much he can do about it, he's been in politics so long that he's going to have plenty of votes or stances that his opponents can pounce on.

I think he’d have done well if he came out the gate with an attitude of “it’s a new America, and I want to be right there with it,” rather than “fuck yeah I go bowling with segregationists.” Past actions only ever play out as harmful if they are extra awful or if the actor appears to still embrace them (or, like last night, appear baffled as to why anyone else would feel otherwise).

His campaign so far has essentially just been a democratic version of “make America great again,“ and that fails to overlap the zeitgeist.

Yeah agreed. The "Remember Obama?" move fundamentally misreads the tenor of the electorate right now. But then again there's a reason Joe never won the nom before either.

[liebzz]

What everyone here is saying.

I can say that I am still undecided but there are candidates after this I don’t think I can support that I thought I might. The aforementioned Beto O’Rourke is out for me when I hoped he would run after the senate race against Cruz. Biden, who was my top choice heading into the debates, is out for me. I was honestly annoyed at his performance and think that his record and his inability to adjust to the times is just too much to overcome.

That being said, I am leaning toward Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg who I resisted for a time because he seemed like a flash in the pan but looked for real last night.

[Peeps]

also when bernie speaks am i the only one that hears a bad nixon impersonation?