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Ready The Clown Car: The First Batch of Democrats Are Ready To Announce Their 2020 Bids

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by MojoMan, Jan 1, 2019.

  1. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    The more description the better! Facebook intel suggest the average Trump voter are frustrated with age, blindness, and impotence.

    Cartoons with "in jokes" are nice to haves.
     
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  2. ryan_98

    ryan_98 Contributing Member
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    #woosh over my head
     
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  3. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) has dropped out of the race.

    Seth Moulton ends presidential campaign

    Rep. Seth Moulton is ending his 2020 presidential campaign, according to an advance copy of his planned remarks to a Democratic National Committee meeting in San Francisco. The Massachusetts Democrat, an Iraq War veteran who failed to gain traction, will at the same time announce his intention to seek a fourth House term.​

    If they do not even make it to the fall before the primaries, where they ever really in the race? Really?

    In any case, this is surely the intention of the increasingly stringent requirements to qualify for the Democrat debates. It does not appear that the 2% polling requirements are all that onerous, for a candidate that is truly poised to be competitive. However, with so many candidates in the race, it just really hard for candidates like Moulton to get enough attention or political traction with enough voters.
     
  4. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Is this the cause of the timing of these drop-outs? Or is there something else in the electoral calendar I'm not thinking about?
     
  5. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    There are probably other factors as well, but if you look at the list of who is clearly in the next debate in September, who is on the bubble and who is clearly out, all of the candidates that are dropping out are clearly in category number 3.

    To be fair, if they are not qualifying for the next debate based on their poor showing in the polls and their inadequate number of unique financial donors, they are likely also having significant money and organizational problems, which just magnifies their difficulties. Running for President is a mammoth undertaking. There are just not going to be very many people that are going to be able to successfully do it.

    Anyway, having this many candidates is not helpful to this process, in my opinion, regardless of which party. The DNC is taking proactive steps to cull the field. It does not appear to me that Moulton has any legitimate cause for complaint. His campaign died of failure to launch.

    Now Tulsi Gabbard is another story. It looks like she may well be getting the shaft and may not be receiving fair treatment from the DNC. This should be watched closely by all concerned.
     
  6. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Makes sense, but we have a little cluster of drop-outs recently with Moulton, Inslee, and Hickenlooper all very close together, and not far from Swalwell dropping in July. Also Beto recently re-affirmed his commitment to the race. It makes sense that it's the losers who drop, but just why now. It could just be that the deadline to qualify for the next debate is August 28 and they want to bow out before the indignity of being excluded. But Moulton was excluded for the last 2 and stayed in, so now sure what's magical about this one. I also see that each of the guys who dropped out had another race to switch to. So the calendar of the alternate campaigns might be a factor too.
     
  7. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    Would you stay in, if you were them? These candidates were not going anywhere. There are several more that is still true for. Why not now?

    As the standards get raised for qualifying for these debates, some of these candidates realize that they are wasting their time. Honestly, I do not really believe it was big news when any of these three announced they were running, and it is even less big news now that they are announcing that they are getting out.
     
  8. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Hell, I got out of the race before I could even get in!
     
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  9. TheresTheDagger

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    Biden honestly sounds like he's confused a lot recently.
     
  10. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    Biden has done his best and done it for a long time. At this point, he deserves more respect than he is going to get, especially exiting his political career like this. He has always been gaff prone, but that is not what this is. He is getting old, in fact too old to be taking on this kind of a responsibility. This is only going to get worse. I feel sad for him.
     
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  11. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    Tulsi Gabbard is calling foul on the DNC, whose reputation for corrupting its primary contests is already notorious as a result of their biased conduct in support of Hillary Clinton and her campaign in the 2016 presidential primary contest.

    This time, the DNC is using rather questionable criteria for accepting or rejecting polls for the purpose of qualifying in the September debate, as discussed below. It does look rather fishy.

    Gabbard hits DNC over poll criteria for debates

    Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) hit the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over its polling criteria for upcoming primary debates, asking it to "ensure transparency and fairness" in selecting the qualifying surveys.

    The campaign noted that Gabbard has exceeded 2 percent support in 26 national and early state polls but said only two of those are on DNC's “certified” list, even as "many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as The Economist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC 'certified' polls."

    “The Gabbard campaign is calling on the DNC to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness,” the campaign said in a Friday release. “Crucial decisions on debate qualifications that impact the right of the American people to have the opportunity to participate fully in the Democratic process should not be made in secret by party bosses.”

    The DNC raised the threshold to qualify for the upcoming September and October debates, requiring candidates to poll above 2 percent in four DNC-approved polls and raise money from at least 130,000 unique donors. Gabbard has reached the donor threshold but is two approved polls shy of getting on stage.​

    It appears that Gabbard is regarded as a bit of a maverick and a loose cannon, especially after her evisceration of Kamala Harris during the second debate. This shows a breathtaking lack of deference and respect for the "Identity politics" pecking order and the priority of these values, especially to the radical militant activist Democrat left. At the same time, her foreign policies views are considered anathema by the establishment elites within the party, who still control the DNC and who appear to be quietly supporting the candidacy of Joe Biden.

    So among the primary political power centers within the Democrat party apparatus, Tulsi Gabbard does not appear to have many friends, but she clearly does have some powerful enemies.

    It is sad to see the DNC soiling itself in this manner, yet again. They should fix this and let Tusli participate in the September debate.
     
  12. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    The far left New Republic is concerned that Joe Biden is just a placeholder candidate and that nobody is really excited about his candidacy. But many Democrats are also concerned that the other candidates are too far left to win in 2020 and Joe Biden is the only option that they see to stop one of those too-far left candidates from ruining their chances.

    In any case, is the Biden bubble about to burst? The New Republic thinks that it might be.

    Is the Biden Bubble About to Burst?

    And yet, through it all, Biden has held on to a commanding lead in most opinion polls.

    But that lead may be illusory. There’s a growing sense that Biden is something of a starter nominee, a candidate that voters can glom onto while they search for someone who better suits their values. “I did not meet one Biden voter who was in any way, shape or form excited about voting for Biden,” Patrick Murray, who heads the Monmouth University Polling Institute (which recently released a poll giving Biden a significant lead in Iowa) told The New York Times. “They feel that they have to vote for Joe Biden as the centrist candidate, to keep somebody from the left who they feel is unelectable from getting the nomination.” JoAnn Hardy, who heads the Cerro Gordo County Democrats, concurred, telling the Times, “He’s doing OK, but I think a lot of his initial strength was name recognition. As the voters get to meet the other candidates, he may be surpassed soon. I would not be surprised.”

    {More at the link}​

    My question is, if not Joe (76), then who? Pochantas (70)? Crazy Bernie (77)? These are the top three and they currently appear to be pulling away from the rest of the pack.

    Now there is certainly time for a dark horse candidate to come riding in with music from

    playing excitedly in the background. And I think I would assign odds to that happening that are higher than most people here on this board. But these three are the strong favorites, for sure.
     
  13. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Contributing Member
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    For a little while, it seemed like Biden's political career was over and people treated him with the respect and deference given to a retired professor or CEO.

    When he got back "in the game" he lost that and was reclassified as a threat. People who were recently obsequious and deferential had to get out and sharpen their knives.
     
  14. TheresTheDagger

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    What state are we in again?

     
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  15. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    The Democrats have got a very reasonable moderate candidate waiting in the wings in Montana Governor Steve Bullock. He is already in the race, but is being blocked out of contention by Joe Biden, who is sucking all the air and resources from the more moderate end of the Democrat's political spectrum. Bullock is also a governor, from a red state, which means he has executive experience and also he could possibly appeal to rust belt middle American voters.

    I probably should keep quiet and let them just continue to go all-in with Joe.
     
  16. biff17

    biff17 Member

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    So you think your comments actually make a difference?
     
  17. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    More than yours.
     
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  18. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    Lmao poor guy, he shouldn't have run.
     
  19. biff17

    biff17 Member

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    i guess that means something to you?
     
  20. MojoMan

    MojoMan Member

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    Friends of Kirsten Gillibrand are encouraging here to drop out. If she cannot qualify for the debates with a 2% polling threshold, that is probably good advice.

    'She’s not going to make it': Friends and donors want Gillibrand to drop out

    Friends, former staffers, and donors say it's time for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to end her low-polling presidential campaign, as she struggles to reach the donor threshold that would qualify her for the next set of debates. Instead of focusing on a losing presidential campaign, they instead want the New York Democrat to focus on staying in the Senate.

    “It would be best if she decided that this was not her time,” one longtime Gillibrand fundraiser told the New York Post. "Most people that I talk to are very happy with her as their senator and don’t want her to give up her Senate seat and don’t see any realistic traction for her."

    “I don’t know that anyone even wants to see her on the debate stage. Everyone I have talked to finds her performative and obnoxious,” a former senior staffer in Gillibrand’s Senate office said.

    Yep. And then who is next. Beto? Where's Beto?
     

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