# Booker presidency? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 14, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132 "2017-01-14T18:23:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/81 "2019-02-03T14:13:15Z")
I used to want a liberal president, now I just want a competent president. What good is a pure liberal if they can’t accomplish anything? I want someone who can get shit done. But realistically the democrats in congress aren’t going to pass anything truly progressive or meaningful. So it doesn’t matter who is president, as long as its a democrat. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/82 "2019-02-03T14:36:42Z")
I get the feeling that if Alexandria Ocasio Cortez were 35 years old, instead of 29, she would get the nomination, and she would probably kick Trump’s ass all over the place in a general. Ocasio-Cortez is the Bernie of 2020, except that she’s unfortunately not in the running and won’t be even in 2024. I know that Kamala Harris is all the rage right now, and I think she’s a clear early favorite in the Democratic party. But the campaign is long and brutal. We shall see. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/83 "2019-02-03T15:32:33Z")
> [@Ancient\_Erudite](#): > > I tend to agree, he’s just another person jumping out of the clown car. > > Meanwhile Howard Shultz is getting the limelight, and the face of the Democratic party for now, at least in the media is Ralph Northam. LOL. Thanks for this dispatch from the fantasy world of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/84 "2019-02-03T16:40:01Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I get the feeling that if Alexandria Ocasio Cortez were 35 years old, instead of 29, she would get the nomination, and she would probably kick Trump’s ass all over the place in a general. Ocasio-Cortez is the Bernie of 2020, except that she’s unfortunately not in the running and won’t be even in 2024. > > I know that Kamala Harris is all the rage right now, and I think she’s a clear early favorite in the Democratic party. But the campaign is long and brutal. We shall see. I doubt it. I don’t think the left would accept AOC as president with so little experience. Maybe after she had 10+ years in the house, but not right now. Obama got ragged for lacking experience but he had 20 years as a community organizer, state senator and senator before becoming president. An issue with Harris is some people feel she is just saying the right things to win the progressive vote but doesn’t actually believe any of them. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/85 "2019-02-03T20:15:06Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > It will be interesting to see whether Booker says anything when Betsy Devos, Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary, has her confirmation hearing, and also how he votes on her confirmation. Booker has been a major proponent of school choice in Newark, where charter schools expanded rapidly while he was mayor. He touted charters as a necessary means of giving poor students educational opportunity. Devos is also a big supporter of charter schools, so this may help us determine whether Booker is still willing to break with the left. The debate over charter schools and voucher schools gets complicated because there’s so much variation in details. Framing the question as _Are Vouchers Good or Bad?_ demonstrates ignorance on the topic. For example, Betsy DeVos especially promotes her fraudster friends — I think both she and her brother should be locked up in prison. Assuming that a progressive who likes voucher/charter would like DeVos is absurd. And indeed, Senator Booker voted No on confirming that criminal. UIAM every Democrat along with Collins and Murkowski voted to reject this preposterous woman, who was then confirmed from the dais by Mike Pence after a vote of 50-50 . (I think Jeff Sessions, who was himself a nominee and recused himself for most of the confirmation votes, unrecused himself long enough to vote for DeVos.) Another poster mentions [Basis schools in Arizona.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/03/30/what-the-public-doesnt-know-about-high-performing-charter-schools-in-arizona) ```auto Asian Amerind Black Latino White Mixed Arizona 3% 5% 5% 45% 39% 3% BASIS 32% 0% 3% 10% 51% 2% ``` Google “cherrypicking.” > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Evidently Booker has an imaginary friend named [T-Bone](https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/08/the_tale_of_t-bone_cory_bookers_past_statements_haunt_him_on_campaign_trail_with.html). T-Bone is apparently a composite or a metaphor, akin to Joe the Plumber or Archie Bunker. Abraham Lincoln is among famous orators to employ such devices, IIRC. True, the tactic is dangerous in post-rational America. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/86 "2019-02-03T21:39:15Z")
First time I heard about Booker was reading an Economist article which mentioned he might be gay. I watched one of his speeches and I can see how he might come off as not strictly straight. We may discover yet one more level of crassness the Republicans are capable off. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/87 "2019-02-04T01:49:54Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > T-Bone is apparently a composite or a metaphor, akin to Joe the Plumber or Archie Bunker. Abraham Lincoln is among famous orators to employ such devices, IIRC. > > True, the tactic is dangerous in post-rational America. So the fabulism about T-Bone is a minor sin akin to (but less worse than) [our president’s constant, fictional encounters with weeping tough guys](https://www.thestar.com/news/world/analysis/2018/09/08/according-to-donald-trump-a-lot-of-people-are-crying-around-donald-trump.html), but it does rub people the wrong way for good reasons. First, using fictional(ized) people in your political speeches could just be rhetoric, but if you don’t make it clear that these characters and their words/actions are being used rhetorically, it sure looks like you’re using them as evidence, or at least anecdata. Innocent enough, I guess, when you’re just doing platitudes [like Reagan invoking the turret gunner;](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wing-and-a-prayer/) less so when you’re using these stories to hype your past accomplishments or justify policy proposals ([Reagan again](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html)). But then it gets even shadier when you’re presenting a fictional(ish) black man who’s, well, playing to stereotype – [see Clement Price’s comments here](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4732/cory-booker-0708/): > [@](#): > > As a black man, I say, ‘Of all the creations you’re gonna come up with to depict Newark, why _this_ guy? Why contribute to _that_ mythology?’ I never spoke to the mayor about this – I just said to myself, I wonder if Cory’s youth and upbringing are so privileged that, not unlike whites, he has an \*imagined \*view of blacks which is shot through with contradictions. It bothers some black people, and has for years – that quote’s from 2008. So it’s a problem, and he’ll probably have to deal with it – and we’ll learn something by watching him do so. (Shodan will doubtless keep calling him “Spartacus,” too; it’s just one of those things.) ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/88 "2019-02-04T03:55:19Z")
When I hear T-Bone, I imagine a short, stocky, slow-witted bald man from Queens. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/89 "2019-02-04T03:58:58Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > When I hear T-Bone, I imagine a short, stocky, slow-witted bald man from Queens. Heh! By the way, the Jerk Store called … ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/90 "2019-02-07T06:08:15Z")
> [@NiceGuyJack](#): > > And why score only on votes in which the majority of the above voted against Republicans? Doesn’t even identify if the the vote was for or against a progressive issue at all. > > Scoring on this website seems a bit flawed. Have you ever tried to develop a statistic like that? If you did, I think you’d want clear objective criteria, perhaps a computer program that could spit out numbers thoughtlessly. Otherwise, what will you do? Exercise _your own judgment_ about whether a bill is “progressive” or not? Details and chicanery often mean that research is required just to understand the relationship between a bill’s title and its purpose. (Upthread, for example, some Doper thought pro-charter school Booker would be a hypocrite not to vote for pro-charter DeVos. :smack: ) ```auto I knew zero about Booker until I caught his "Spartacus" comment on YouTube. I found the comment a tad too vainglorious ... especially since, in the same sentence, he implicated some other progressives in the "martyrdom." ``` ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132/91 "2019-02-07T19:35:38Z")
Another difficulty with scores of this nature is that Congressfolk can only vote on what they can vote on. If single-payer health care were put to a vote, for instance, that vote count would nicely illuminate the distinction between progressive and moderate Democrats. But as long as the Republicans control the Senate, that vote will never happen. So these scores are a pretty blunt instrument when it comes to evaluating ideological distinctions between members of the out-party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booker-presidency/777132.md?page=4)