I regret my factual errors: I remembered that Klobuchar performed better than Warren in Iowa and New Hampshire and over-extrapolated without checking the numbers.
You say Klobuchar “performed terribly on the debate stage” as though that’s a settled fact, when in fact it is widely believed to be the opposite. :dubious: And she vastly outperformed Warren where it counts, in general elections among swing voters.
She delivered Minnesota for Joe, is stumping for him in Michigan as we speak, and she has a hell of a lot better chance of becoming the first female vice president than Elizabeth Warren does.
Vice-president? Oh wow!!
I mean seriously, so what? She’s got a better chance than Warren does of winning a position that you ‘win’ by being picked by a single individual?
Well yeah, she does, since the individual’s almost certainly going to be Biden, and Biden’s not going to choose Warren as his running mate. (And Warren wouldn’t want the job anyway!) So her chances of being picked for veep are in fact better than zero. Big freakin’ deal!!
Ah, “widely believed.” Well there you go.
Ha - love it!
Yes, your opinion about this is idiosyncratic to say the least.
The NY Times says “her debate performances were often well reviewed” and describes what happened after the NH debate:
Others chimed in with similar takes:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/10/politics/klobuchar-debate-closing-statement/index.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/10/klobuchar-surges-primary-eve-new-hampshire-113561
But you say she did a crap job in the debates, so I guess you must be right! :rolleyes:
Oh look you found some things that support your opinion. And I can find some things that support mine.
But who gives a shit? She crapped out, never even hitting 6% in the national polls. She’s fine for Minnesota, I don’t see her doing much elsewhere. If she’s on the ticket, so be it, but I don’t see how she could help a guy who already does well in the industrial Midwest. The most exciting thing she did over the course of her whole campaign was to drop out and endorse another candidate.
But, hey, if you want this win this one, I’ll concede that it’s my *opinion *that she sucked on the debate stage. And that apparently other people hold the opinion that she did absolutely great up there.
My observations:
When she had a hard time getting a word in edgewise through the crosstalk of the other candidates, she adopted a pleading posture and bleated out pathetically, “come on!!”
She also had a habit of going WAY over her time. “Thank you Senator—” “blah blah blah” “Thank you —” “blah blah my grandpa worked in a mine, blah blah” —“THANK YOU, SENATOR” --“and that’s why I’m going to BEAT DONALD TRUMP!” Yes, most of the candidates did this to some degree. To Biden’s credit, he recognized when his time was coming to an end and would say, “well, my time is about to be up, so that’s it.” That’s one of the few things I liked about him. Klobuchar was the worst offender though.
She always had a half-smirk on her face. Something about her expression gave me vibes of “this whole thing is kind of a lark for me, I’m in over my head, it’s actually kind of ridiculous that I’m in this situation - oh well, I might as well smile.”
I can hear it already: “Misogynist! You tell women, ‘you ought to smile’, then when they do smile, that’s somehow wrong too.” To which I have two words: Lincoln Chaffee. Remember him? I doubt it. He had a very, very brief run in the 2016 Democratic Primary. Mr. Chaffee, God love him, suffered from exactly the same goofy smile; I observed it and remarked on it then (though I hadn’t joined this board yet); and as far as I know, he is not a woman. It’s a goofy, annoying habit - end of story.
Klobuchar reminded me of another person from that primary - on the other side - John Kasich. Same kind of “plain folks”, “aw shucks”, “just a nice fella trying to help everyone get along” shtick. Well, it’s not enough to power through an election.
On Klobuchar in the debates, she had some really, really good debates and some bad ones. But she had more good debates than bad. People were really discussing how well she was doing in late 2019. And then she hit it out of the park before New Hampshire, which is why she got 20% there. However, after NH she had 2 poor debates.
So, something just crossed my mind after reading about the lockdown in Italy…
What if the rest of the primaries can’t take place because either Trump declares a similar lockdown out of spite, or heaven forbid one is actually necessary?
Well, for starters - I doubt the president has any authority over elections since they’re run by the states; even more so for a party primary. But taking your hypothetical at face value: I’d bet the DNC would declare Biden the nominee…which is probably not what Trump would prefer.
(Also, depending on the details of the Italian quarantine, such a “lockdown” here would not necessarily prevent people from voting at a local polling place to begin with.)
This POTUS directs the US Public Health Service to ban all assemblages of more than ten people, including schools, meetings, polling places, and government offices, and directs troops (in sub-squad-size groups) to enforce the ban with lethal force as needed. Classes and confabs can go online but voting and vote-counting will have to wait till the end of the crisis, maybe around year 2029. Have patience, hey?
If Trump were to really do that, he’d do it near Election Day. Mucking up the (D) primaries doesn’t really help him in any way longterm.
Hearing rumors that Bernie is suspending his campaign. Axios has reported that Bernie has suspended his campaign ads on Facebook, a common indicator that the campaign is stopping.
Bernie Sanders has never mattered so little to so many people since 2014. He should just quit.
A lot of people are calling on Sanders to stop his campaign, but this may not be just about him. If progressives are told he is no longer campaigning, will they still bother to vote for progressive House and Senate candidates in the primary? Look what happened in Illinois’s 3rd District.
Yes, look what happened. Biden crushed Sanders in Illinois and Sanders’ favorite in the 3rd still won. Sanders can’t give similar support without being a candidate?
I don’t know offhand the general dates of the down ticket primaries but Florida’s is in frigging August. He can’t hold on til then regardless.
This is just the break that the Tulsi Gabbard campaign has been waiting for!