If Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D-Missouri), a **centrist Democrat ** who is a two-term governor since 2009 and former attorney general of Missouri from 1993 to 2009 had ran for president in 2016, as a Democrat, would he have won the Democratic nomination; and would he have won the presidency of the United States?
Nixon might have had some chance (maybe more likely as a VP candidate) before the unrest in Ferguson. But he was widely seen as being grasping and ineffective when the shit hit the fan. That probably sunk his chances for higher elected office, at least for a few more years.
I think I’ve heard him discussed as a possible cabinet pick though. ISTR him being thought of as a good administrator but bad crisis manager.
Did Hillary die?
Or do you not mean 2016?
Yeah, it’s kind of weird to be using unreal past conditionals when you’re talking about next year.
Weird question. But as a Missourian, while I’m a fan of Nixon and think he has been a generally very high-quality governor, his handling of the Ferguson situation probably ruined any shot of nation-wide elected office.
If MO was still more purplish than solid red he would have made a good VP pick too (again, had Ferguson not escalated quite the way it did).
Hahahaha!
No, sorry. Again, it wasn’t obvious before the Ferguson incident, but Nixon seems to be the sort of Democrat who doesn’t know how to deal with a) the black population’s issues nor b) the fact that some police officers and prosecutors, not to mention some of his own longtime political allies and supporters, are actively in favor of police murdering the citizenry (black variety).
It’s a shame. I’m not saying he’s really a racist himself. I think maybe he didn’t get just how racist his friends were.
Just out of curiosity, which dialect uses “had ran” instead of “had run”? (Edit: I’ll guess Missouri for a start.) I don’t think I’ve ever heard this, but you did it twice so I don’t think it’s a typo.
Um…that is nonstandard, but yeah, probably a Missouri hick thing.
In another thread the OP claimed to be from New Jersey.
I live in Missouri – although not in the sticks, but in one of our fine metro areas. In defense of my rural cousins, they don’t say “had ran.” If anything, they’d say “ranned.”
As for Nixon, his original appeal was that he was a rural Democrat who would work with both big-city Democrats and rural Republicans. He really hasn’t worked out with either power base. Right now, I doubt he could even win a Democratic party primary in Missouri.
They’re just variant names for the same place – you know, like Holland and the Netherlands, or England and Britain, or China and Japan.
He’d be polling worse than O’Malley and Webb though obviously better than Chafee
Yes, I am from New Jerseyan. I am a Northerner. However, I’ve heard about Jay Nixon for years now and I was surprised by his Ferguson 2014 response. I thought he would be the ideal 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. I don’t think he will be the Democratic vice presidential candidate. Sad.
-Centrist Democrat
-Two-term governor
-Comes from red-leaning state
-Southern white Democrat
Brian Schweitzer fits most of the bill although obviously not Southern and he’s simply a pro-gun progressive not a centrist.
We’ve had Bill, we’ve had Obama, we do not need another centrist POTUS, we need a leftist and we need it bad. If we can’t have that, well, Hillary will be the best option available, I hope she’s just a bit leftier than Nixon.
Also just out of curiosity, I checked COCA and found people from various places using it: Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas; journalist Neil Karlinsy, from Michigan, used it on Nightline (Jan 25, 2008), as a past perfect; singer Etta James, from California, used it on Fresh Air (Jan 27, 2012), as past perfect, and I also found it actually published, in the journal Analog Science Fiction and Fact, written by author Justin Stanchfield, (I think from Montana?) as past unreal conditional in narration, not dialog (Oct. 2010, Vol. 130, Iss. 10; pg. 91).
More common is had went, which is a similar substitution of the past form for the past participle. Even more common than that, though, is have went, especially with modals (e.g., should have went, could have went, would have went, etc. ) Notably, has went is much less common.
What’s wrong with centrist presidents? I’m an independent who looks at both parties, and does lean Democratic sometimes, but a leftist president would lead this country to Greece. Nixon wouldn’t.
This literally could not happen.
Sanders would lead this country to Scandinavia. Not at all a bad place to be, and better than where we are now.
I don’t think the military would survive a Sanders presidency. He would decimate it to pre World War I levels.