Seriously, Andrew Yang? Marianne Williamson? Tulsi Gabbard? No offense, but Mayor Pete?
Over Jay Inslee? An environmentalist, a solid governor of an entire state that includes not just urban Seattle but also rural rabid right wing portions of eastern Washington?
This guy absolutely should have gotten more respect, and there’s no better proof of that than the way he has responded to the COVID-19 crisis. He, more than any official, has addressed this situation in the sober yet calm manner that this health emergency requires.
No argument from me. I think Inslee was very impressive and he would have made a phenomenal nominee.
I always wonder what various people could have done differently to change outcomes in situations like this. I feel as though Inslee was very confident, authoritative, imposing, but maybe he missed opportunities to simply draw attention to himself. Maybe he needed to DO something just to get people around America speaking and typing the name “Jay Inslee” - call it a “publicity stunt” but I happen to believe publicity stunts are actually really important. I wish there was a better term for what he needed to do, but there it is.
If Inslee had said or done something during his campaign that generated intense controversy, either something hilarious that would make people laugh, or something extraordinarily serious that would hit America right in its balls with an emotional impact - he could have broken out. I don’t use that phrase lightly - there were a LOT of candidates, most of America was unclear on what most of them actually stood for, and this created a prison of publicity drought for guys like Inslee. The only way to break out of that prison is to get the nation’s attention.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and remember feeling somewhat shut out of the national political process. Part of that was being a kid, but I think part of it was also geographical. There are almost no politicians from there who have made any kind of name for themselves nationally. I don’t remember any presidential candidates ever campaigning there. The state primary (or was it a caucus?) never made the network news. I heard that Inslee was running for the nomination this cycle, but that’s about all I heard.
For all the talk of parties trying to be more inclusive, some parts of the country are more equal than others.
I felt the same way about Jim Webb in 2015, by the way. Right down to thinking to myself “fuck you for not respecting him” to all the people who thought that Hillary Clinton was a better candidate than a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War who had been Secretary of the Navy and a senator in Virginia. I thought, “here’s our guy right here, how can you fucking assholes not see it?”
But then the debates happened.
I was shocked and horrified to see this man, with such an impressive resume, act like a deer in the headlights - answering every question awkwardly, offering very little to humanize him to viewers - even his rigid military posture, emblematic of all of the things that made him successful in the Marine Corps, turned into such a handicap on that debate stage. And I realized - some people are just not cut out for show business. And politics, at the level of a presidential election, is show business.
I went over and over it in my head - if I somehow magically became Webb’s campaign consultant, would I have been able to do ANYTHING to help him? If I had said, “Jim, here’s what you need to say, here’s how you need to act…here’s the tone of voice you should adopt, here’s the body language that you ought to use, etc etc” would he have been able to understand what I meant? I thought, “fuck, this guy went through the Naval Academy. They trained him to do a million things that the average person could never possibly accomplish. How could he not also be trained to be a better speaker and a better debater? It doesn’t MAKE ANY SENSE!”
But was I wrong? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
shrug Inslee was my( mild )preference as well, but I don’t blame “progressives” for not jumping on his bandwagon. For one thing I kinda consider myself a pragmatic progressive, so that would be a bit of a self-hating meme. For another I don’t think it was failure of progressives to rally to him that was the problem. It was the failure of much of anyone beyond a few percent to rally around him.
And I’m not sure anyone is too blame for that. It was a crowded field and he just didn’t establish himself. Maybe he was more to blame himself for not doing enough to stand out more as Lamoral speculates. Or it was just circumstances and timing.
Maybe next time. After the, at best, holding pattern of the next administration, Republcan or Democrat, and at worst, complete disaster, maybe the country will be ready for a progressive candidate.
Obviously some people, a lot of people in fact, were giving Inslee short shrift. But I don’t know who they were, beyond that I certainly wasn’t one of them. Even absent anything else, any popular sitting governor or senator should be treated as a serious presidential candidate, and Inslee in particular did seem to have some real good points in his favor.
Was it progressives who stalled Inslee’s campaign? I don’t know, maybe. Do you have any reason to suspect that?
Inslee is just not an exciting dude. I live in Central Washington and I’m progressive as fuck for where I live. He’s doing okay as a governor, but he’s not pushing through as much of his agenda as you’d think he would be able to given how liberal Washington is supposed to be. Most people where I live don’t like him just because of the (D), and no one around here gives him any advantage for living here in the past (he raised his kids in my small hometown and used to represent my district).
If he can’t even get the people in Washington pumped up and behind his ideas, I’m not sure why you expect the rest of the country to be thrilled by him. I don’t think it’s enough to be competent at this point, which is a shame. Jay seems like a nice guy though, so he should have passed the ‘person who would talk to me at a party’ test, or the ‘guy I’d like to have a beer with’ test. :rolleyes:
There are probably many people out there who would be better than Bernie or Biden.
Dozens of potential candidates more progressive than Joe. Hundreds more likable than Bernie.
But few people know them.
My problem with Enslee? Inslee? Gotta look that up… is that I’d never heard of him. As I was deciding between Liz, Pete and Joe, he was never on my radar.
Part of a Presidential campaign is marketing. Unfortunate, but a real consideration.
Same with Jay Jablonsky and ‘Manny’ Manoskiwicz and Dick Miller and William Meller and Rick Mueller… no one’s ever heard of 'em. :-}
I live on the WA/ID border and align myself with WA for the politics (ID and MT for the outdoorsy stuff - we have it in WA, but ID and MT have it more). I think Inslee has done a great job as governor. Not sure how someone has mentioned he hasn’t done much? We have one of the highest minimum wages, a paid family leave program, and a paid sick leave program.
If I were someone making minimum wage living in my area, I would definitely move to WA for a wage that is twice ID along with several programs to help those folks. Plus, we have weed
I saw him speak while on the campaign tour and he had a good presentation. He is a bit bland though so I can see how he didn’t grab everyone’s attention.
I’m still gobsmacked that millions of people thought it better to elect the completely unqualified Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, who was better prepared for the job than most of the men who run for the presidency. Remember that she had been Secretary of State and a senator from New York.
Inslee is okay but he’s sort of my boss (or at least at the top of the chain of command where I work) so my views are probably a bit skewed there. Him being governor has been a good thing for me as government employee so I bear him no animosity.
His problem as a presidential candidate was that he was a one issue guy. He ran on just the environment. I don’t think he was making a serious push to be a candidate, I think it was more just advertising himself so that he could get a job in DC as an advisor or cabinet member or something. His run was more of a stunt than anything else.
How dare progressives refuse to accept that asahi always has the answers as to the exact correct strategy to defeat Donald Trump and accomplish progressive policy goals?!? Only asahi has the answers, and all progressives must defer their own judgment and decision-making to his!
Does that sound right, asahi? Just want to make sure, since you’re always right and all.
