# The Andrew Yang Presidential Campaign thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [February 14, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555 "2019-02-14T21:16:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 28
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/541 "2020-01-03T14:54:37Z")
First of all, the primary schedules are different so December 2019 isn’t the same as December 2015. But more importantly for the Yang Gang, qualifying with local state polls requires 7% in two polls. That is a hopeless goal for Yang.
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/542 "2020-01-03T17:25:52Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#):
>
> I like the (sarcastic) suggestion in the comments:
>
> “You should ask [the callers] what they want the result to be and start with that.”
>
> They’d probably approve.
>
> I said it a long time ago, possibly in this very thread, but man oh man he really is the Ron Paul of 2020.
I said he’s the Snakes on a Plane Candidate. All the rage on Twitter but a bomb at the boxoffice.
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/543 "2020-01-03T17:41:12Z")
Except his campaign is raking in the dough. Main expense seem to be giving some shlub a Freedom Dividend.
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/544 "2020-01-03T18:20:01Z")
Let me know when he breaks 5% in any meaningful poll.
Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/545 "2020-01-03T18:59:01Z")
Why are there such negative feelings towards Yang? He’s not going to win but he could make a good cabinet secretary if a Dem wins.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/546 "2020-01-03T19:10:52Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#):
>
> Let me know when he breaks 5% in any meaningful poll.
>
> Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
[Emerson poll Sept. 2019](https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/september-national-poll-warren-surges-biden-slips-and-sanders-holds-creating-three-way-dead-heat-for-the-nomination)[rated A- by 538](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/).
> [@](#):
>
> The September 2019 Emerson national poll finds . . . Entrepreneur Andrew Yang increased his support to 8%
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/547 "2020-01-04T05:26:48Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> [Emerson poll Sept. 2019](https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/september-national-poll-warren-surges-biden-slips-and-sanders-holds-creating-three-way-dead-heat-for-the-nomination)[rated A- by 538](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/).
September 2019? Guess he’s [losing support](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/) since in anything recent he has a high water mark of 6% - and that’s in a more recent Emerson poll!
Maybe you can find some polls from 2018 which [get him into the January debate](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/23/who-has-qualified-january-democratic-debate/?arc404=true)?
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/548 "2020-01-04T06:19:01Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> Why are there such negative feelings towards Yang? He’s not going to win but he could make a good cabinet secretary if a Dem wins.
No, he wouldn’t. I’ll assume he made a decent “entrepreneur ambassador” or whatever he was for Obama but he deserves no national scale powers.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/549 "2020-01-04T19:39:08Z")
Yang fails to qualify for the Ohio primary for some paperwork error in circulating his petitions.
>
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/550 "2020-01-04T22:48:43Z")
Cue the YangGang whining about how the man is keeping Yang down, even though no other candidacy seems to be having this problem in Ohio.
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### Author:  [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/551 "2020-01-04T23:00:09Z")
Yang’s response, in part: "“My campaign submitted nearly three times the amount of signatures needed, virtually ensuring I would be on the ballot in Ohio. Nevertheless, because of a bureaucratic paperwork issue caused by **an awkwardly-worded law** , nearly 3,000 Ohioans’ First Amendment rights have been denied. **As a non-politician, it’s unfathomable that this could happen…** ”
Bolding mine.
Wow.
I guess I should wait to see whether any other candidate also gets ruled off the ballot, but if it’s just Yang then this is a very, very bad look for the campaign. Maybe I’m slightly biased because I got my political chops in Chicago, where ruling people’s petitions invalid is a national pastime, but any serious campaign and any serious candidate needs to make it their business (and usually does) to research the ins and outs of ballot access in every. single. state. If there’s an “awkwardly-worded law,” you get on the horn to the state officials who can explain it to you. If you’re a “non-politician” you make sure to surround yourself with people who ARE politicians enough to know the quagmire that ballot access rules can be.
Unfathomable indeed. But not perhaps for the reasons Yang thinks. Guess we’ll see if anyone else has this problem too.
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/552 "2020-01-04T23:20:27Z")
It’s just a talking point: “As a businessman I can cut through government nonsense.”
Meanwhile, beyond the talking point:
1. As President he will have absolutely dick to do with changing election laws in 50 states and the handful of territories.
2. None of the other candidates seem to be having an issue.
3. Sometimes the government is better at some things. That’s why government-run healthcare across the planet does better than our model.
Wow, Yang hates Medicare for All, what a shock.
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### Author:  [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/553 "2020-01-05T02:26:40Z")
Oh, I think it has less to do with being a businessman cutting through government nonsense and more an attempt to say “It’s not my fault–it’s the stupid rules. Be mad at the state, be mad at the guy enforcing the rules, don’t be mad at me.”
Seems to be working on his supporters, as you predicted. Check out the comments on the tweet **dalej42** linked to.
Of course, being a write-in candidate is not necessarily the kiss of death–consider Lisa Murkowski. Maybe this is just the break the Yang campaign is looking for!
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/554 "2020-01-05T16:44:50Z")
Just created a thread about January polls but Yang came in at less than 3% so that really doesn’t bode well for him making the next debate.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/555 "2020-01-06T18:37:09Z")
Funny pic of the day.
CNBC just posted a video of the Presidential campaign hauls. On [the graphic](https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1214230483892133889), they have the numbers for Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard. For the pictures, there’s another asian guy for Yang and Kirsten Gillibrand for Tulsi.
This was one of the comments from the youtube video they took down. I just happened to have it open on my browser while they were taking it down.
> [@](#):
>
> LMAO did your guy just google “Asian guy” for Yang’s picture? That’s not him. I’m dying :))))
After the Yang campaign and the Yang Gang had a good laugh about it, and The Hill did a [piece mocking them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKJnjk6MBc&feature=youtu.be), CNBC took down the video and put out an apology in another piece.
It turns out that the picture was for a guy named Geoff Yang who is on the board of AT&T.
I watched the video before they took it down. They saved the biggest slam for Bernie. The talking head said that if teachers are Bernie’s biggest contributors, are they teaching all their students about socialism.
The incompetence of the networks is craptastic.
In unrelated news, I thought [this article](https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/universal-basic-income-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/) was interesting. After slamming Yang for the first half of the article, a writer in _The American Conservative_ decided that UBI might be a conservative policy, using all of Yang’s talking points.
\*
Universal Basic Income: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Andrew Yang’s signature policy has propelled him to fame for a reason: it addresses a serious problem that looms over our economy.\*
> [@](#):
>
> Second, it shows real concern for people in rural areas and small towns who have watched their jobs vanish and their neighbors die of suicide and opioid overdoses. “Things are disintegrating in communities around our country, and our government does not care. …Trump’s victory was a giant cry for…help,” Yang said in one interview. While other candidates like Pete Buttigieg continue to trot out the old “basket of deplorables” talking point, Yang truly gets it. His Freedom Dividend policy proves that he does. In her video on the topic, conservative commentator Lauren Chen questioned whether it made sense to give everyone the same amount of money no matter where they live. After all, $1,000 goes a lot further in rural Mississippi than it does in New York City. This isn’t an oversight on Yang’s part though. It’s a deliberate choice to incentivize people to live where their Freedom Dividend has the most purchasing power. This proposal could help breathe new life into dying towns that have lost many of their best and brightest to swollen megacities.
This week is Yangweek for the Yang Gang. People are going to Iowa from all over the world to canvass for Yang in Iowa starting this week.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/556 "2020-01-06T19:38:32Z")
I’ve watched endless hours of Squawk Box on CNBC box, they’re pretty hard right with some libertarian tendencies so I imagine Yang is one of their Democrats they like. Some intern really messed up bad on probably her/his first week.
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### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/557 "2020-01-06T20:22:39Z")
I like UBI.
I am ambivalent about Yang.
I think his fan club sucks goat ass.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/558 "2020-01-06T20:28:12Z")
I agree some of the Yang fans are over the top, very much like some Ron Paul fans in 2012. I think most Yang fans are like me, not like those fanatics.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/559 "2020-01-06T21:16:48Z")
I’d like to see Yang continue on the debate stage so that the other candidates will start to ripping off some of his ideas.
I particularly like his approach to Trump voters. Don’t just call them racists and wash your hands of them. Ask yourself what would cause so many americans to vote for someone like trump and continue to support someone like trump and try to answer the question without assuming or concluding that they are bad people.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-andrew-yang-presidential-campaign-thread/829555/560 "2020-01-06T23:39:42Z")
Going back to the graphics snafu, Geoff Yang [spoke up](https://twitter.com/geoff_yang/status/1214244103174512644).
> [@](#):
>
> Ummm. This is @geoff\_yang
> and I am NOT running for President.
The new joke is that the network will claim that Andrew Yang dropped out based on this statement.
> [@dalej42](#):
>
> I’ve watched endless hours of Squawk Box on CNBC box, they’re pretty hard right with some libertarian tendencies so I imagine Yang is one of their Democrats they like. Some intern really messed up bad on probably her/his first week.
Interesting. I don’t watch MSM, but if I had to guess, I’d guess they don’t know Yang’s platform. If they said anything positive about him, I would think I’d have read about it.
Any thoughts on why all of these graphics are messed up as well? [A Visual History of the #YangMediaBlackout](https://vocal.media/theSwamp/a-visual-history-of-the-yang-media-blackout) They’re all examples of the same kind of thing. That’s a lot of first week interns.
I’ve watched people in the Yang Gang or Yang himself trying to understand why it’s happening. They’re at a loss. Thinking that there’s that much incompetence going on is bewildering. In the beginning, it was easier to believe that they just didn’t think about him or remember him, but lately, that doesn’t explain all the graphics errors that skip over him, considering they’re looking at the poll numbers as they create the graphic.
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#):
>
> I like UBI.
> I am ambivalent about Yang.
> I think his fan club sucks goat ass.
[Here’s a poll for you.](https://twitter.com/fOrGiVeNcHy/status/1214010266045833217)
> [@](#):
>
> Which Democratic presidential candidate has the most #INSUFFERABLE supporters? Feel free to discuss!
You can vent away in the comments.
Half the Yang Gang in the comments voted for Yang because they voted without looking at the question. lol
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> I agree some of the Yang fans are over the top, very much like some Ron Paul fans in 2012. I think most Yang fans are like me, not like those fanatics.
I think they’d almost have to be. Without the Yang Gang, there probably wouldn’t be much happening in the early days of the campaign. There’s no media coverage since he’s an unknown. There was no money since he didn’t have many followers in the beginning, so no ads. His campaign grew first by social media and then by word of mouth from people on social media. Without fervent fans growing the following on social media, there wouldn’t be much of a following. Like anything happening online, things can go south fast on the fringes. That said, I think they try to do their best to try to get people to behave better with their slogan Humanity First!
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> I’d like to see Yang continue on the debate stage so that the other candidates will start to ripping off some of his ideas.
>
> I particularly like his approach to Trump voters. Don’t just call them racists and wash your hands of them. Ask yourself what would cause so many americans to vote for someone like trump and continue to support someone like trump and try to answer the question without assuming or concluding that they are bad people.
From what I’ve seen of Yang, this would be Yang’s dream come true. Since the beginning, he was trying to get other candidates to take on his platform, particularly trying to unite the country and trying to get the party to accept Trump voters. He felt that his platform on automation and UBI would do that.
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