Omnibus thread for pointless campaigns by Presidential candidates who won't get the nomination

[foolsguinea]

Is Inslee environmentalist in general or just against climate change? If the former, I’m interested. If not, well, I’m disappointed, but at least he has both Congressional and gubernatorial experience, which is a good resumé for the position.

[CarnalK]

@foolsguinea

Is Inslee environmentalist in general or just against climate change? If the former, I’m interested. If not, well, I’m disappointed, […]

I don’t quite get your point. Are you worried he’d only care about fossil fuels but be soft on radioactive sludge dumping in rivers?

[Procrustus]

@Jonathan_Chance

As for how it benefits you? Skip the SCOTUS, dude. Play for a cushy ambassadorship someplace fun. That’s where major donors end up and you don’t have to wait for someone to die to get the job.

Thank you for this. I would be very happy to accept the President’s nomination as our next Ambassador to Tahiti.

[foolsguinea]

@CarnalK

I don’t quite get your point. Are you worried he’d only care about fossil fuels but be soft on radioactive sludge dumping in rivers?

There are other environmental issues, like water management & species conservation. And of course phosphate pollution, pesticide use, herbicides, waste stream management, international fishing treaties, ground-level ozone pollution, and so forth. And it matters that we care about forestry standards and EPA enforcement procedures.

[Anny_Middon]

@foolsguinea

Joe Biden was VP for eight of those years. Bernie Sanders is broadly seen as white. The fact that Beto and Buttigieg are even being taken seriously looks a lot like an attempt to elevate an underqualified white male as an advertising gimmick, to excite voters who want another Jack Kennedy.

Meanwhile, women have been dismissed and overlooked as candidates for most of the last century. Apparently getting the vote didn’t mean women got to run. Well, you can stop whinging about the fact that Democrats run something other than white men now. Maybe you’ll live to see a race wherein both the GOP and the Democrats run tickets with two women.

If voters want another Jack Kennedy, why don’t they get Joe Kennedy to run?

Seriously, what I know about him I like. For a time there my ideal slate was Joe Kennedy/Tammy Duckworth.

[foolsguinea]

Joe Kennedy’s the one who had Elizabeth Warren as a teacher in university, right? I seem to remember that they speak well of each other,

But I think RFK Jr’s anti-vax noises are bringing down the Kennedy family name’s reputation.

[ITR_champion]

Bennet is in. So this means that Hickenlooper no longer has the boring-moderate-middle-aged-white-male-politician-from-the-state-of-Colorado lane to himself.

Heck, these dudes even look like each other.

[Red_Wiggler]

If you were asked to rank all the declared candidates 1-21, how far down your list would the eventual nominee have to be before

1. you would vote third party instead

2. you would vote for Donald Trump instead.

My answer in both cases is “22.”

[Gyrate]

Bennet endeared himself to me with his government shutdown rant against Ted Cruz and his fellow travellers. Anyone who can get me to watch half an hour of uninterrupted C-SPAN clearly has leadership potential.

Mostly I’m just going to let the winnowing by fundraising, endorsement and self-immolation take out the first tranche of candidates and see who turns up at the debates.

[Thing_Fish]

This just in from the Department of Fuck That Guy:

@538.com

In an interview with Reuters, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., criticized his fellow 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for pushing America “too far left,” and for being just as “divisive” as Trump.

“The problem with some of the candidates in our party is that they’re divisive in the same way that Trump has been so divisive,” Moulton said. “They are pitting different parts of America against each other.”

Also from 538’s weekly update, about Tim Ryan (D-Who?)

While campaigning in New Hampshire, Ryan was asked by Fox News about Biden’s entry into the presidential race and appeared to take jab at the former vice president saying, “I don’t think people are looking for a superstar. I don’t think they’re looking for a savior. I don’t think they’re looking for a miracle. I think they’re looking for someone who can roll their sleeves up and grind this thing out.”

Um, actually I’d quite like a superstar savior. Nothing like starting your campaign out with a call for lowered expectations.

Eric Swalwell shows some spunk:

Following the deadly shooting at the Poway, California synagogue, Swalwell was the only presidential candidate to directly mention Trump, saying in a response to Trump’s tweet, “Spare us your thoughts and prayers. It’s an alibi for inaction. You told the NRA yesterday you’d keep dangerous guns in the hands of dangerous people. We will take it from here with action.”

[SlackerInc]

@Red_Wiggler

If you were asked to rank all the declared candidates 1-21, how far down your list would the eventual nominee have to be before

1. you would vote third party instead

2. you would vote for Donald Trump instead.

My answer in both cases is “22.”

Mine too. But that just means you and I are not the people whose personal preferences should be catered to in choosing a nominee. We need to find the nominee who can best do a combination of the following, particularly in MI/WI/PA:

1. Pull Obama-Trump voters back into the fold

2. Keep Romney-Clinton voters, plus appeal to some very reluctant Trump voters who had hoped he would start acting presidential after the election and are now disgusted

3. Get black voters who sat out 2016 back to the polls

4. Convert a number of people who voted third party in 2016 to voting Democratic

[ITR_champion]

And now word on the street has it that De Blasio is about to jump in next week.