If a New Thing of making words out of “Klob” is compulsory, then I am going to actively campaign against Klobuchar.
That, or klobber someone.
Yang and Bennett both out.
If Bernie Sanders gets the nomination, is it crazy to suspect Trump will refuse to debate him? I think Trump is such a tremendous coward that he will fabricate some reason not to debate Bernie.
Not at all crazy, but there’s no way to predict what Trump will do, any more than one can predict what a rambunctious and frustrated toddler will do.
“Suspended” campaigns, though. So in the event of something unusual happening, either can jump back in. Not to mention,
Klobucharge!
I don’t think that’s helping her. 
What makes Klobuchar’s success odd is that she doesn’t have one defining characteristic that immediately jumps out to all voters, unlike most other candidates.
Bernie - the democratic socialist guy
Warren - like a female version of Bernie
Yang - the UBI Asian guy, but he’s gone now
Bloomberg - the billionaire
Pete - the gay guy who is really young
Biden - former VP
Klobuchar - ?
Klobuchar is my favorite of the moderates, because of two things - firstly, she’s dominated her elections in Minnesota, doing far better than the state’s partisan lean. Secondly, she’s super sharp - she was the best Senator in the Kavanaugh hearings, by my memory, and she’s a very good debater. She’s not great on the stump, but I’m not sure if anyone is this cycle.
But I support Bernie right now, for two reasons - I think the best chance to win is with excitement, and he’s delivering the most excitement by far from what I can see, and because I think the system sucks so much that we need big changes, not the kind of incremental changes Klobuchar would probably offer.
That is what every single candidate does. For the money reasons you mentioned, not to jump back in.
I think I agree with all of this analysis. The other thing I’d add about Klobuchar is that other than her maybe less-than-stellar treatment of staff, I’m unaware of any whiff of scandal around her, and that is some refreshing shit right there.
Trump doesn’t even have a disparaging nickname for her … yet.
My prediction is he’ll make a running gag out of being unable to pronounce it.
The prosecutorial stuff will be used against her. I’m not saying it’s fair and the same stuff was used against Kamala but I bet Twitter is exploding with it tomorrow
Harris was completely unaffected by the prosecutorial stuff. She collapsed under the weight of her own horrible campaign decisions.
Klobuchar has already shown she can defend her prosecutorial record. Honestly I think that the conception that Black Americans are against Law and Order is off base. A prosecutor who has gone after drug dealers and repeat offenders is not third rail in that community I don’t think. Drug dealers may be “non-violent” offenders but they harm communities nevertheless. Bias in policing and violence by police are issues; not a preference for keeping drug dealers on the street.
The Democratic party could do worse than Klobuchar but she does have some electabality problems too. She has done well in Minnesota but there is a huge question mark about her ability to lead a multi-racial coalition around the country. I also think the story about staff mistreatment is real and will hurt her if she becomes more prominent. It’s the kind of thing voters can understand immediately and she appears to be an outlier even DC standards. Secondly it calls into question her basic management skills . I believe when the story first came out it was in the context of her inability to fill some important staff position because of her reputation which is an absolute red flag and calls into question her ability to run both a long campaign and eventually the White House.
On the flip side she is the only candidate who is not too old or young, who has the appropriate level of experience and who hasn’t adopted a policy position like Medicare for All which could be electoral suicide. I don’t quite understand why the Democrats are left with such poor choices but she may well be the least bad one left.
FWIW, Yahoo has just put out a graph/image of the cost of Bernie’s plans.
A good argument about why mainstream and moderate Democrats shouldn’t be afraid of a Bernie nomination: 2020 New Hampshire primary: Sanders’s win shouldn’t panic mainstream Democrats - Vox
Has any major candidate ever collapsed as fast as Biden? I think that’s what happens when your supporters are supporting you not because THEY like you, but because they think everyone else likes you… that electability thing again.
And I’m wondering if the prospect of general election support by the Bloomberg machine has made Amy and Pete more viable choices.
Ed Muskie in 1972. Muskie had been the VP nominee in 1968 and basically started running in 1969. He was the “conventional wisdom” front-runner. He won the Iowa caucus, barely beating back a strong challenge by George McGovern, then reacted poorly to a smear campaign against him in New Hampshire. His campaign pretty much collapsed after that.