Amy Jean Klobuchar (/ˈkloʊbəʃɑːr/; born May 25, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Minnesota.
Previously she seemed to be an also-ran in the Democratic Presidential Campaign race but tonight she finished third in the New Hampshire primary with 20% of the vote, very substantially ahead of Elizabeth Warren with 9% of the vote and Joe Biden with 8% of the vote. Thus I feel it is time for a thread devoted entirely about her as there doesn’t seem to be one.
With a third-place finish, Klobuchar bursts to the center of the Democratic presidential race
Personally I don’t know enough about her (positions…) to know if I will support her.
I mean, not terrible but I seriously doubt she becomes the nominee unless both Biden and Buttigieg drop out before her, and I don’t see that happening.
I think she will limp along, collecting 3rd and 4th place wins then drop out sometime after super tuesday.
I dunno, I heard she did quite well in the last debate and that got her on a lot of radars. I hadn’t heard of her, but I’m in California, and typically don’t pay too much attention to the primaries. Looking briefly through her wiki, there’s a lot to like.
How much of it is because of the spectacular collapse of Warren and Biden? But, as a Pete supporter, I’ll be happy to let her have the target on her back for a while.
The staff mistreatment will definitely be front and center. The allegations seem a lot more serious than they can’t take half day Fridays.
The prosecutorial record will also be under the microscope. In this era of the Democratic Party, I doubt any prosecutor will be able to survive the scrutiny of the activist wing.
Holy shit, Klobuchar is getting the backing of the extremely powerful culinary union in Nevada. People are reporting this as just being anti-Bernie and somewhat anti-Warren. But it’s also pro Klobuchar! And not as positive on Biden or Buttigieg.
Look closely: they are putting their considerable weight behind Amy! I expect they will make the official endorsement announcement soon, but even if not: this could be the tipping point that she will be able to look back at: “this made me president”.
It might even mean that behind-the-scenes the entire Democratic establishment is lining up everything they can behind her as their horse to back the rest of the way. But even if it’s just in Nevada, that’s huge. A win there could catapult her to South Carolina and beyond.
Apparently she had this in her back pocket even before the debate?!? But I guess if she flamed out in New Hampshire they could still pivot and endorse someone else without having officially committed. Very clever.
I wonder if Carville, Axelrod, and/or Begala are behind this somehow. Maybe Terry McAuliffe, Hillary Clinton, even Barack Obama through subtle signaling to his people? Fuck yeah, The Establishment Strikes Back!
I don’t think she’s “super” or even particularly charismatic. But each of the front-runners except for Klobuchar (and Biden) has severe electability problems.
(What’s the obsession with positions on the issues? Any of the D’s will issue executive orders to reverse much of Trump’s damage and seek a progressive path. But legislation will be at the mercy of Moscow Mitch and/or the most conservative Democratic Senator. Much more important than a POTUS’ stance on domestic issues is: will she/he be level-headed in the face of geopolitical crisis? Among the front-runners it is Bernie that gives me grave misgivings there.)
Also her treatment of staff does bother me. I think the democratic voters, as the party of the working and middle class, know what its like to have an abusive, disrespectful boss and she gives off a lot of those vibes. I think she reminds a lot of people of a bad boss they’ve had based on her treatment of staffers. I don’t know if it’ll hurt her in a general election, but its something that would have to be considered. However so far it hasn’t hurt her political career, but she probably hasn’t undergone a lot of scrutiny either for it. If people can worry that Buttigiegs sexuality or Bernies socialism drives away voters, I wonder of Klobuchars mistreatment of those without power will drive away people in a party full of workers who know what its like to have an abusive boss.
I think this scenario is the only one where she has any realistic shot of winning. She has anemic polling numbers and very little money. Unless the establishment quickly decide to line up behind her in a big way, a third place finish in New Hampshire isn’t enough to make her a contender.
I will say that I like her quite a bit, and think she is the one who really sounds the most passionate about becoming president, even over Sanders. On more than one occasion, going back to previous debates, she seemed on the verge of tears when talking about what she wants to do as president. She could stop talking about how many elections she has won, and I wouldn’t complain. “Passion” is an overused term that people describes themselves with, but this is the kind of thing that goes a long way to winning elections.
Minnesota politicians are like pot roast. They can be pretty good, but they tend to be gray and it is hard to get inspired by them. Of course it’s also the state that elected Jesse Ventura as governor, so we don’t always order off the menu.
Meh. That’s the sort of story that is going to be told about many politicians If you like the politician, it shows that they are a hard-driving boss, won’t accept anything but the best, yadda yadda. If you don’t, it shows they are an asshole.
No offense, I hope, but “I don’t care about the issues as long as it isn’t the other guy” is a good deal of the reason why John Kerry isn’t referred to as “former President”.
“S/he’s not Trump” doesn’t even do much to distinguish a candidate in the Democratic primaries - none of them are Trump either.
I think I’ve made my position on her clear for the past few months but if not I am on the record as voting for her in the general over Trump. Please Dems do your job and make her the nominee.
The “hardass boss” stuff could easily be twisted into a useful campaign message – “Yes, I demand high standards among my staff. And I’m not going to stop that – this job is too important. I will demand the highest standards to my staff when I’m working for the American people as President, and I won’t hesitate to let go of anyone who isn’t meeting that standard.” Or something like that.
