I agree. I have no idea why a failed senate candidates, failed presidential candidates and people who haven’t even manged to win state wide office are running for president. The primary would be much better off if only senators and governors were running. I’d also cap the age and say no one over 69 is allowed to run either. Once we eliminated the bums it would allow the viable candidates to get their message out more effectively and we could decide who to run against trump based on platform not name recognition.
As for why people are still entering I think its because everyone running looks terrible so a ham sandwich would make a viable candidate in this crowd and all if takes is something going viral and you’ll run against trump and that should be an easy win.
Uh, that’s plainly nonsense. Barack Obama was touted highly as a presidential candidate ever since his speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. In the years leading up to the 2008 election campaign, he and Hillary Clinton consistently polled the highest among the potential candidates. It was no shock at all that he won in Iowa.
So when he announced his candidacy in Feb. of 2007, only someone who had paid exactly zero attention to what was going on would have considered him a political outsider with no hope. :rolleyes:
Hm…it makes me think there might be something other than being president at stake.
It might be that they want focus for their issue, and this is the best way. Or it is winning just to be a 2020 contender, and write your book (24 of them coming!?) and have your career unfold. Maybe this is one example of
It depends. Buttigieg is pretty clearly building an image for a future run. Just suppose he follows this up by getting elected as governor of Indiana and does a bang-up job of it. (Recall that Bernie made his name as mayor of Burlington, showing that a socialist could play ball with the business establishment.) Anyway as Governor Pete and, say, 8 years older he might be an obvious candidate. O’Rourke, I am less clear on. Good fund raiser, but so far a failed politician. Gay-busting Gabbard, I have no idea–pure ego trip. Inslee obviously wants to make climate change a major agenda item, but he could not get a carbon tax passed in his bright blue state. Each one has his/her reason, some good, some fatuous.
Who had heard of Harry Truman before he was chosen to be Roosevelt’s running mate? Who the hell was Jimmy Carter, or Bill Clinton? Barack Obama was a state senator who made a rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, and four years later he was elected.
And WTF was this business with shady real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump?
Elizabeth Warren had an unauthorized biography published last year (I made it about 20 pages in; it wasn’t very interesting but that was probably just the way it was written) and I’m on a waiting list at the library for this.
Jimmy Carter is really a special case. What helped him rise to the top was [ul]
[li]pretty much universal disgust with Nixon because of Watergate[/li][li]outrage with Ford for giving Nixon a pardon[/li][li]Carter being a Southerner who was open about his “born-again” Christianity[/li][li]and the economy being in the shitter[/li][/ul]
Keep in mind this was just prior to the Moral Majority so Evangelicals had not become completely joined at the hip to the GOP. Also, anti-abortion groups such as Operation Rescue had yet to really come into power.
Carter was seen as a fresh face and (wait for it) outsider in the corrupt swamp that was Washington.
ETA - this was the last election where being a Southern Democrat was seen as compatible with also being conservative and and evangelical. In 1980 Reagan changed that and there was a wave of Southern Democrats who switched to the GOP.
Absolutely. His name had already been thrown around for an eventual run for a few years already by the time he announced his candidacy. I think the surprise was that he ran in 2008 because it was expected that he would run in 2012 or later.
Clinton was only 3 presidents ago. Still highly relevant.
I agree with the above posters that say that many of these candidates are setting themselves up for later, and it’s a strategy that can benefit both the candidates and the voters. I doubt Buttigieg will win this nomination, but when he runs again, whether it be for president, governor, or dogcatcher, we will all have gotten past our initial reactions of, “aw, he’s adorable,” and “how the hell do you pronounce that” and we’ll be ready to hear what he has to say.
And after that keynote address, his book Dreams from My Father was re-released (although it was originally published in 1995. So he definitely became prominent nationally that year.
