Why do democrats need a southerner? Nobody says Republicans need to appoint a candidate from New England or the west coast. Obama was a black guy from Hawaii and he won. Twice.
Also liberals are half the democratic party now and because their turnout is higher they could be a majority of primary voters in 2020. I don’t see liberals electing Manchin or Donnelly in the primary. The future of the democratic party is a multicultural, multiracial, multi gender liberal party. Conservative white men from the south will not be our standard bearers.
Warren doesn’t want to run.
O’Malley would be the best pick of the listed picks imo.
I still think Gavin Newsom shows promise. So does Cory booker. Those two will run within the next 10-20 years I bet.
There is no Democrat that can beat Trump. None that I can see anyway. Trump plays the game differently such that he exploits the cultural divisions and tensions in the electorate. Trump himself as a person doesn’t even matter in this situation - what matters is that he positions himself as convincingly being on the side he wants to be seen on.
The problems the Democrats face mainly involve that they simply don’t understand the electorate - they almost end up being the embodiment of out of touch. They are very out of touch with things concerning the portion of the electorate that is neither at one extreme nor the other. On a national level, this is a very large portion of the electorate.
The Democrats need to adjust their strategy to focus on key states and electoral votes, and the candidates need to campaign their asses off on those states. They need to hold large rallies just as Trump did, they need to deliver speeches (even if they’re repetitive stump speeches) over and over again, they need to also have some catchphrases and humor and throw out some lines to get the crowd laughing and cheering. Copious mockery of Trump the man, without mockery of the voters who voted for him, needs to take place.
The big “con” on Holder is that he’s already “pre-slandered”. We know the Republican game plan of tarring any Democrat with all the same old bass canards. (Maybe even some soprano canards.) We need to nominate somebody whom when the usual Republican BS starts flying folks will just laugh and say: “This guy? No way.”
If there’s anything we learned from the last election, it’s that we assume there are many who could beat Donald Trump. The question is whether they would. I kinda think what the Democrats need is a younger version of Bernie Sanders with an edge (and maybe a military background).
My ticket suggestion is Doug Jones, with Jason Kander as VP. That’s a Democrat who won a Senate seat in Alabama, paired with a young up-and-coming pol from the heartland, with military/gun ownership bona fides (remember this ad?)
Not a one of these men could get the nomination, in my opinion.
And you want “bland” against Donald Trump? You think that’s what sells? People voted for someone to kick ass and take names, and now they’ll say, “Oh, no, I want the milquetoast!”?
Now, Webb is not bland. He can sound very, very serious about the national interest. Webb might make a good SecDef or SecState. But the Democratic Party voters basically ignored his Presidential run in late 2015 and he quit early. I don’t think the party are going to crawl back to him.
O’Malley will probably never live down the mass arrests. And he’s kind of a DLC type. Without progressives or minorities, he doesn’t have a chance.
Run someone like Mike McIntyre and the Democrats will take at least 40 states and at least 60% of the popular vote. Hell, even I, Pete Beitz, might vote for him. First time I’d vote for a Democrat since Al Gore in 1988. But they’d have to give up (or suspend) support on some issues. Could they do that for the White House? Huh? Could they?
If it meant a guaranteed win, could the Dems run a guy like that? Just asking.
I like Dwayne, but he seems like a happy guy from the Pacific states.
If we’re going for celebrity, LeBron James would be better, I think. Here’s why:
As I think about this, I think we should plan geographically. Primaries are fought on the state level. Electors are chosen by state parties. The South is out as irrelevant. No white southerners need apply. You’ve already got the West Coast. Florida is probably in play; but the states you have to play for are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Play directly and unapologetically for the Industrial Midwest. Who represents a town like Flint, or Milwaukee, or Cleveland? You want someone very much like a LeBron James with a law degree. Failing that, you may as well get LeBron, who will turn 36 in 2020 and can therefore run. Now, I’m not saying that he should run as a rank amateur, nor that he can do the job once elected. But he does come from there, he does take the idea of being a role model seriously, and that counts for a lot.
Sherrod Brown is from Ohio and a union guy. “Diamond Joe” Biden is from Scranton originally. I’m not sure who else fits; Tammy Baldwin and Keith Ellison are interesting but maybe not quite right.
Would Al Franken have a chance? Remember him? The guy who the Democrats banished so they could have the high moral ground over something the other side cares nothing about?
Even if he’s not a crook, Holder is utterly charisma-free. He’d be a terrible candidate.
Warren is also quite advanced in years. I don’t think her liberal positions are her problem (in fact I think she stands her ground well) but I think her ship has sailed timewise. Still, of the people on the CNN list she’d be one of my top choices, particularly as the Republicans don’t seem to have anything else on her besides the tired “Fauxcahontas” jibe.
We saw Biden run for office. It didn’t go well. I like Uncle Joe but he’s not a front-man kind of guy. Plus he’s got handsiness issues.
I don’t understand the love for Webb - he floundered in the primary debates during his last run, his policy positions were neither exciting nor coherent and he too isn’t very charismatic. For military votes, I suggest Tammy Duckworth for VP. She’s still new to Washington but apparently that’s a bonus these days, plus she’s got the military chops and a good line in snappy comebacks.
And I have no objection to a “white male” in the top position as long as it’s someone who can win and isn’t a horrible person. Someone from the rural West, perhaps - Hickenlooper, Schweitzer (who doesn’t want the job), someone like that.
At least John Delaney isn’t being coy about his ambitions. Retiring Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz famously gave a politician’s non-answer when asked whether he’d be running for president in 2020. While Schultz’s business success would help him appeal to voters who saw in Trump the management experience they thought Washington needed, maybe they won’t want to take a second chance on a non-politician in 2020. With Delaney they get a politician with experience as a business entrepreneur, rather than the heir to a family business that they got in Trump.
There is no question that Obama able to run a third term would have won. If whites who voted for Obama had voted for HRC she’d have won. If Blacks who turned out for Obama had turned out for HRC she’d have won. If she got the same popular vote result (remember she won that by 2%) but shifted some of the votes to MI, PA, and WI, she’d have won.
That last part is I think key. You need a candidate who will win those states. PA, MI, WI … what candidate does best in those states without losing others? Race, gender … matter less than that. Charisma matters more.
