The Sanders crowd sure has the knives out for O’Rourke. Got to the comments sections of any lefty you tube video like TYT.
I’m starting to like a Brown/Beto ticket. Or Biden/Beto. I’m fine with either.
Full disclaimer: I hate Bernie Sanders. But, if Sanders does run again in 2020, I think a lot of his fans are going to be like when you bring a guy/girl home from the bar for a one night stand and then wake up the next morning and wonder what you were thinking.
I don’t hate Bernie Sanders, I actually kind of like Bernie Sanders and another three or four of him in the Senate and a dozen in the House might drag the center back to, well, the center. In fact, I feel about Bernie the way A. B. Potts felt about God: “I have no problem with God - it’s his fan club that scares me.”
I’m not a fan of Bernie. As I’ve posted before, my wife’s from Vermont and I’ve followed his career since the late Eighties. Over the course of his career he’s run against Vermont Dems fourteen times and has long insisted, sometimes in insulting terms, that he’s not a Democrat. For him to say that he’s a Dem only when he thinks he might win the Presidency is political opportunism of the worst sort. If you want to be a Democrat, great, c’mon over and be one. But don’t do it just in an election year when you think you might snag the top job the party has to offer. I see from his Senate website that he’s back to describing himself as an Independent.
The first Des Moines Register poll is out. (Really? Already?!)
TL;DR version: Biden 32%, Bernie 19, Beto 11, Warren 8, Kamala 5, Booker 4, Klobuchar 3, Bloomberg 3, nobody else with more than 1%.
Full Des Moines Register story, including complete poll Q&As
For context, DMR poll, December 2006:
John Edwards 36%, Hillary 16, Obama 13, Tom Vilsack 11
Any evidence that the authors of those comments are actually “the Sanders crowd”? Or that they’re even Americans?
I thought the problem with Clinton was she was too status quo which I agree with . So now people want Biden who is 76 and spent 44 years in DC? In his entire life he only spent 4 years working outside of DC.
It’s more “authenticity” I think. Hillary didn’t appear authentic. Biden does, and also–god help us–Trump.
I like Biden, and will certainly vote for him if he’s nominated. He’s not my first choice, though.
I wonder how many of the new Dem congress people for this year were not even born when Biden went to DC in 1973? I figure more than a few .
Not sure why Biden seems authentic .
Maybe it’s just me. Many politicians sound like they’ve focus-grouped every word that comes out of their mouths. Biden seems to say what’s on his mind.
Yes. He is a sincere public servant, a man of the people, the guy who said of Trump “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”
I’m not sure Joe Biden is the smartest cookie in the jar, and I think he voted the wrong way on both of the Gulf wars, bu I love the man and he would be my very top choice … if he weren’t quite so old.
“Biden 32%, Bernie 19, Beto 11, Warren 8, Kamala 5, Booker 4, Klobuchar 3, Bloomberg 3, nobody else with more than 1%.”
:eek: Beto, Warren, Booker, Kamala would all most probably lose to Trump. Bernie will seem stale by 2020. For heaven’s sake, Democrats, pick someone with a chance in November, not someone to appeal to the left-wing base.
I still look with favor on Amy Klobuchar and Sherrod Brown. If neither of them takes off, I’m instructing all my delegates to support Joe Biden whole-heartedly.
By what basis do you say this? I’m gobsmacked that anyone can still feel like they have any better than a wild-guess chance at predicting political outcomes this far in advance. You shouldn’t feel any such confidence – no one should. At least no one on this board. We all suck at this, and such predictions are just wild guesses that shouldn’t be treated as anything better than a wild guess.
Biden in the best of times is a gaffe generator and, given his age, will probably go into gaffe overdrive when dealing with the rigors of a presidential campaign. Do we *really *want him as our nominee, if we want to draw a sharp contrast with the incumbent?
You don’t need intelligence in a President. You need humility. Presidenting requires much more knowledge and expertise than any one human can possibly fit in their head, and so a good president is one who finds advisors who, between them, collectively possess that expertise, and then listens to them.
I think Biden can probably do that. I know that Trump can’t.
I think it’s very likely a non politician will be in the Dem race and could really shake things up. Could be someone like Schultz from Starbucks.
Now before someone jumps in and says “not another super rich guy with no experience” I don’t assume this non politician person will get the nomination.
I think in an ideal world Elizabeth Warren would be the best candidate. But I worry she has zero appeal with rural middle America.
Beto is the best hope we have, I think, for a candidate that can make the Dems look like the party of the future.
Whether it’s legitimate or not, the Hillary debacle should demonstrate the power of baggage with conservative-leaning voters. The best counter for that is someone young and with limited political exposure.
And I know there are a lot of people here shitting their pants about Beto, but the dude’s a pretty stellar campaigner. He took on an incumbent Democratic congressman in 2012 and won. Obama supported the incumbent, and Bill Clinton actively campaigned against Beto. Beto reportedly knocked on almost 20,000 houses. He ended up being the only Texan to knock out an incumbent in 2012.
And we all know about his 2018 campaign work (254 Texas counties visited, almost $80 million raised, an amazing ability to deliver a message, go viral and inspire).
Again, I’m not saying he will be the one to come out on top, but nothing he’s done so far suggests he can’t be the one. Fundraising prowess, inspirational, messaging, and a tenacious, unyielding and fearless drive on the trail.
My take on Biden is: supposing he wants to run for President, what’s his platform? What does he want to be President in order to accomplish? And why hasn’t he been using his influence to promote his vision of where we should be going?
If he’s going to throw his hat into the ring, I should know as much about his goals for America as I do about Warren’s or Sanders’. But I really don’t have the faintest idea how a Biden Presidency would be different from an Obama third term - and it would have to be different from that, if he wants to win.
We tried that in 2016 - Hillary was the safe choice intended to appeal to the moderates.