# Hee-haw, y'all. The 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 12, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415 "2018-11-12T17:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 48
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/941 "2019-04-27T18:31:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In other words, the “Bernie bros” were Kremlin-linked trolls, and if Sanders hadn’t been in the race, they’d have found some other way to troll. Outside of place of birth how’s that different, other than being a few orders of magnitude smaller, than the media, comedians, and people in this country who trolled the Republican primaries? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/942 "2019-04-27T18:35:24Z")
Quite curious to see [how intense this Democratic primary is going to get](https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-entry-triggers-uglier-phase-democratic-primary-201747905--election.html). There are numerous candidates, the chances of defeating Trump are high, Democrats are a sharper-fanged party than before, and for 70+ year old candidates like Warren, Biden and Sanders, it is probably their last realistic shot ever at the presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/943 "2019-04-27T18:57:34Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Outside of place of birth how’s that different, other than being a few orders of magnitude smaller, than the media, comedians, and people in this country who trolled the Republican primaries? This was asked of **Chronos** but I want to ask… What are you asking here? I am having a hard time parsing this. Probably just me, I am not a smart guy I know. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/944 "2019-04-27T19:42:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > This was asked of **Chronos** but I want to ask… > > What are you asking here? I am having a hard time parsing this. > > Probably just me, I am not a smart guy I know. Chronos is stating that the Bernie Bro cohort were Russian trolls. Why? Have no idea. But if they are trolls because the Bernie Bros caused a rift within the Democrats which actually had an impact than why aren’t the media, people on this board even, and others that interfered in the Republican primary not considered the same? My guess is that it isn’t the methods or even xenophobia that leads to this bitterness. Rather it was the outcome of the efforts. There was a tremendous amount of encouragement, talk of strategic primary voting, and free press that went Trump’s way. Why did so many left of center expend this energy and money? To ‘troll’ the Republican primary. Well how did that work out? I would guess not according to plan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/945 "2019-04-27T19:47:22Z")
I have no idea what relevance their place of birth could have. What I care about is their employer. Agents in the employ of a foreign nation have successfully taken actions designed to subvert our democracy, an act which that nation itself acknowledges is an act of war. Of course I’m concerned about that. How is that in any way comparable or relevant to anything the American news media was doing? ---
**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:** [April 27, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/946 "2019-04-27T19:48:03Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > There was a tremendous amount of encouragement, The difference is deceitful intent, and especially deceitful intent with the ultimate goal of _damaging the confidence of the American people in our democracy and institutions_. That’s a pretty damn reasonable thing to be concerned about, isn’t it? None of the liberal “encouragement” was meant to be deceitful – many liberals (including myself) were upfront in (foolishly) saying that we wanted Trump to win the nomination because we thought he would lose the general. > [@](#): > > talk of strategic primary voting I haven’t seen any evidence that this was more than just talk for the most part. > [@](#): > > , and free press that went Trump’s way. Why did so many left of center expend this energy and money? To ‘troll’ the Republican primary. Well how did that work out? I would guess not according to plan. The free press went Trump’s way because that’s how the news people thought they’d get the best ratings. I see no reason to believe that the press values or valued helping Trump more than (or anything close to) they value high ratings. This is capitalism. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/947 "2019-04-27T19:57:33Z")
Evidence of “the free press” going Trump’s way would surely be shown in the number of endorsments he (didn’t) receive. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/948 "2019-04-27T20:33:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In other words, the “Bernie bros” were Kremlin-linked trolls, and if Sanders hadn’t been in the race, they’d have found some other way to troll. Some were. But I knew a few Bernie-bros personally, they were smart Sanders supporters. Still, they gleefully reposted all the Russian troll crap on Facebook, etc. So there was a strong cadre of Russian trolls, but they couldn’t have made the impact they did without being aided and abetted by sincere Sanders supporters. The same thing that happened to Clinton is now happening to Biden, they spend 5 minutes gleefully attacking Biden this morning on Wait-wait, and you can see that attacks right here. The GOP and the Kremlin are afraid of Biden, but want Sanders inas the dem candidate. Why is that?😕:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/949 "2019-04-27T20:34:48Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Outside of place of birth how’s that different, other than being a few orders of magnitude smaller, than the media, comedians, and people in this country who trolled the Republican primaries? I heard very little that was false. Mostly just sardonic “funny” stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/950 "2019-04-27T20:36:24Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Chronos is stating that the Bernie Bro cohort were Russian trolls. Why? Have no idea. > > But if they are trolls because the Bernie Bros caused a rift within the Democrats which actually had an impact than why aren’t the media, people on this board even, and others that interfered in the Republican primary not considered the same? > … Why? Because it is a proven fact that a cadre of Bernie Bros were Russian trolls. There’s my cite right there. Mueller report, read it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/951 "2019-04-27T20:39:10Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Pretty much every analysis out there suggests that Sanders would have beaten Trump in the general election in 2016. … Then why was the Kremlin supporting Sanders vs Clinton? Why did Putin want Sanders to be the Dem candidate? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/952 "2019-04-27T21:09:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Then why was the Kremlin supporting Sanders vs Clinton? Why did Putin want Sanders to be the Dem candidate? Putin didn’t want Sanders to be the D nominee. The idea was to support Sanders just enough to the point where he could weaken Hillary, but not actually beat Hillary. (Although Sanders was always the longest of shots to get the D nomination anyway) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/953 "2019-04-27T22:14:22Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Putin didn’t want Sanders to be the D nominee. The idea was to support Sanders just enough to the point where he could weaken Hillary, but not actually beat Hillary. (Although Sanders was always the longest of shots to get the D nomination anyway) He sure supported him a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/954 "2019-04-27T22:19:26Z")
So this is what the 2020 Dem primary has come down to: continuously arguing over 2016? Should be a fun year. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/955 "2019-04-28T00:37:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Then why was the Kremlin supporting Sanders vs Clinton? Why did Putin want Sanders to be the Dem candidate? Whose side would you think Putin is on? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/956 "2019-04-28T03:04:03Z")
I assume Putin saw Bernie as also likely to be more pro-Russia than Hillary. > [@Chronos](#): > > In other words, the “Bernie bros” were Kremlin-linked trolls, and if Sanders hadn’t been in the race, they’d have found some other way to troll. Like DrDeth, I know several Bernie bros who are definitely not Russians. It was interesting to see Bernie try to trot out his “I marched with King and backed Jesse Jackson in the '80s” line in response to a question asking him about specific measures he’d take to protect POC from white nationalist violence. He’s so awkward campaigning for black votes. His defenders often go into high dudgeon and insist that he’s got a great civil rights record. Whether or not that’s the case, it’s not the same thing as having a facility with communicating to black audiences. And he very much does not have that facility. This is just so cringey to watch: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXzS9I0zHc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR00497reB3hwYcKD5sUDowYPALb3OvBaBMdPWssWckLPbw\_87d5y8fLbrE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXzS9I0zHc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR00497reB3hwYcKD5sUDowYPALb3OvBaBMdPWssWckLPbw_87d5y8fLbrE) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/957 "2019-04-28T12:35:21Z")
Well, yes, there are always some genuine idiots. But most of them were professionals, and even the genuine ones were steered by professionals. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/958 "2019-05-02T11:50:06Z")
My prediction: whoever the Dems nominate will be under criminal investigation by Sept 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/959 "2019-05-02T13:50:07Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It was interesting to see Bernie try to trot out his “I marched with King and backed Jesse Jackson in the '80s” line in response to a question asking him about specific measures he’d take to protect POC from white nationalist violence. He’s so awkward campaigning for black votes. His defenders often go into high dudgeon and insist that he’s got a great civil rights record. Whether or not that’s the case, it’s not the same thing as having a facility with communicating to black audiences. And he very much does not have that facility. This is just so cringey to watch: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXzS9I0zHc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR00497reB3hwYcKD5sUDowYPALb3OvBaBMdPWssWckLPbw\_87d5y8fLbrE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXzS9I0zHc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR00497reB3hwYcKD5sUDowYPALb3OvBaBMdPWssWckLPbw_87d5y8fLbrE) Does Biden have a better civil rights record? Warren? Clinton (back in 2016)? It is all relative. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415/960 "2019-05-02T14:28:57Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > My prediction: whoever the Dems nominate will be under criminal investigation by Sept 2020. To this point: > **[Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html)** > > As vice president, Joe Biden played a key role in the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who had opened an investigation of a company employing Mr. Biden’s son. **Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies** > [@](#): > > But the renewed scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s experience in Ukraine has also been fanned by allies of Mr. Trump. They have been eager to publicize and even encourage the investigation, as well as other Ukrainian inquiries that serve Mr. Trump’s political ends, underscoring the Trump campaign’s concern about the electoral threat from the former vice president’s presidential campaign. > > The Trump team’s efforts to draw attention to the Bidens’ work in Ukraine, which is already yielding coverage in conservative media, has been led partly by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who served as a lawyer for Mr. Trump in the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Giuliani’s involvement raises questions about whether Mr. Trump is endorsing an effort to push a foreign government to proceed with a case that could hurt a political opponent at home. > > Mr. Giuliani has discussed the Burisma investigation, and its intersection with the Bidens, with the ousted Ukrainian prosecutor general and the current prosecutor. He met with the current prosecutor multiple times in New York this year. The current prosecutor general later told associates that, during one of the meetings, Mr. Giuliani called Mr. Trump excitedly to brief him on his findings, according to people familiar with the conversations. > > Mr. Giuliani declined to comment on any such phone call with Mr. Trump, but acknowledged that he has discussed the matter with the president on multiple occasions. **Mr. Trump, in turn, recently suggested he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors — echoing repeated calls from Mr. Giuliani for the Justice Department to investigate the Bidens’ Ukrainian work and other connections between Ukraine and the United States**. This is why Barr couldn’t answer Harris’s question about if Dotard ever asked for his political opponents to be investigated - because he had done so, and will do so again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415.md?page=47) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hee-haw-yall-the-2020-democratic-presidential-primary/824415.md?page=49)