Election 2020

[Bicycle Bill]

REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN STRATEGY FOR 2020

(Why not? It worked in 2016... )

-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

The one thing that I can say with certainty about the 2020 election is that I will NOT be be voting for Donald Trump...

The Democrats could nominate a serial killer cannibal Dallas Cowboy fan, and I still wouldn't vote for Trump....

(Of course I wouldn't vote for the serial killer cannibal Dallas Cowboy fan either...)

[BoSoxGal]

Really excellent conversation today on Preet Bharara’s podcast - he talks with Steve Schmidt, former lifelong Republican voter and GOP strategist turned registered Independent. This interview is really worth a listen - LJ, you especially would appreciate it.

https://player.fm/series/series-2249929 ... ve-schmidt

I listened on the way home from Cambridge to Taunton in crazy morning traffic and had to dab my eyes a few times; Steve’s a true patriot and the kind of Republican I didn’t often agree with, but could respect and break bread with. The kind who are endangered in the current perversion of the GOP.

[rubato]

I would support Yanis Varoufakis except for the fact that he is Greek. Short of that I would support Paul Krugman or Leon Panetta. I would vote for Al Franken but his party did a stupid thing and made him resign for acts which were barely infractions, not even misdemeanors. Stupid.


yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

(Of course I wouldn't vote for the serial killer cannibal Dallas Cowboy fan either...)

I'm with you; Dallas fan is definitely a deal-breaker.

[Lord Jim]

(Of course I wouldn't vote for the serial killer cannibal Dallas Cowboy fan either...)

I'm with you; Dallas fan is definitely a deal-breaker.

I might consider a candidate who was only a serial killer cannibal, but there are some lines I just won't cross...

[wesw]

trump/mattis 2020

or

trump/Kelly 2020

[Scooter]

Either of those would be appropriate running mates, because in their current roles he has afforded them zero authority and zero scope to exercise any independence of thought or action. Which is pretty much what they could expect as his VP.

[Econoline]

Just found this piece on Facebook, and this thread seems like the appropriate place to share it.

• Emily Holmes
  January 2 at 8:26 AM
  
  Liberal Friends, listen to this right now: Democratic Nominees are not clay pigeons.
  
  I repeat.
  
  DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES ARE NOT CLAY PIGEONS.
  
  But, Emily, whatever do you mean? What is this metaphor?
  
  It goes like this.
  
  One by one, over the next couple of months, Democratic nominees are going to launch their official bids for President. They are going to launch themselves, one by one, into the sky, right into our line of vision.
  
  Our job is not to shoot them.
  
  Our job is NOT, the second we see them cross the sky, to reach out for the gun being handed to us by conservatives (because duh, conservatives and guns) and take aim, and blast them, one by one out of the air, for not being absolutely perfect.
  
  Not likeable enough. BOOM.
  
  Not an inspiring enough speaker. BOOM.
  
  Said that awkward thing that one time. BOOM.
  
  I wouldn't want to have a beer with them. BOOM.
  
  Too old. BOOM. Too female. BOOM. Too white. BOOM.
  
  Not a fucking flawless progressive superhero. BOOM.
  
  Because what happens next? We shoot the candidates down. We degrade them. We belittle them. We smear them. Then we hand the gun to the media. They do the same. They hand the gun to the conservatives. They do the same. Then the bots start reloading. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
  
  And then at the end of primary season, we have to pick up the shattered remains of whoever got the most votes and attempt to glue them back together into a candidate who can win the general election.
  
  And we will lose. Because we learned fucking NOTHING from 2016, apparently.
  
  Trump didn't win because every conservative loves him. Most of them hate his fucking guts. But they held their noses and voted for him because he was the only way to push their agenda forward. And holy shit, have they pushed it. Despite his complete ineptitude, his bumbling, his gross incompetence, his blatant corruption, they have shoved through some really damaging policies that are hurting real people every single day, and they will continue to do so for as long as we let them.
  
  So, here we are. You're not jazzed about Liz Warren? Awesome. Beto not your boy? Swell. Sick of Biden memes? Good for you, friend. Keep it to yourself. Why? Because EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT WHO RUNS IS INFINITELY BETTER FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY THAN THE FLAMING RACIST POPULIST TRASH CURRENTLY STEERING THIS COUNTRY DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN.
  
  I'm not sure if you noticed, but we already elected a guy based on a cult of personality rather than on whether he was qualified in any way to do the job, and we're going to be putting out the flames for DECADES.
  
  But what do we do instead, you ask? Watch debates. Compare platforms. Be informed. Choose your favorite BASED ON REAL FACTUAL POLICIES AND EXPERIENCE, NOT ON YOUR DELICATE FEELINGS AND WHETHER YOU FEEL SUFFICIENTLY ENTERTAINED OR INEXPLICABLY HAPPY AT THE VERY SIGHT OF THEIR GLOWING FACE. Then get involved. Register people. Drive to the polls. Hold signs on street corners. Write postcards. Knock on doors. Don't tell us why the other candidates suck, tell us why yours is THE BEST. Fight FOR them. Remember how we used to fight FOR things, rather than against them? I know Trump makes it hard to remember, but I promise, that's a thing we used to know how to do.
  
  Then we all, collectively, wholeheartedly, throw our weight and energy and voice behind whoever gets the nomination. If we do that, we win. Period.
  
  ,It's not a question of who can beat Trump, don't you get it? A sentient fucking houseplant with a liberal platform could beat Trump, if we do this right. It's a question of whether WE can beat him, or would we rather tear ourselves apart?
  
  Look around you, folks. The stock market is in free-fall. Our international reputation is in tatters. Our foreign policy is for sale to dictators. Our free press is under daily attack. Our Supreme Court is one conservative white dude away from full-on Gilead, and we can't keep asking an 84-year-old-woman recovering from broken ribs and a third bout of cancer to hang on for six more years because we can't get our heads out of our own asses. I mean, she'll do it, obviously, because RBG is a BOSS, but she shouldn't have to.
  
  I repeat. This is not a test of our candidates. There are lots of good, solid options. It's a test of US. Of OUR ability to unite. Of OUR strength. Of OUR ability to put aside selfish arbitrary purity tests and scales of "likeability" and to just FUCKING GET IT DONE. We don't need the perfect candidate to rescue us. We need to realize that we can rescue ourselves.
  
  So, how about it, Resistance? They want us to forget that we have the numbers, the motivation, and the power. They want us to implode. Let's explode instead, and leave nothing but a charred ruin of this nightmare administration in our wake.
  
  BOOM.

[RayThom]

Biden/Warren...2020

VP Warren/Steve Bullock...2024

I have spoken.

[Burning Petard]

Scooter, I don't know about Canada, but the Brits have a process generally called 'the shadow cabinet' USofA has nothing like it. The transition from one national administration to another here can be chaotic. The Obama people worked very hard with Gov. Christie to set up check-lists and even desk manuals to smooth out the transition. Trump simply ash-canned that whole process and depended on an old-crony network. The turn-over at every level and continued unfilled slots shows how well that has worked.

For that reason I would not support Paul Krugman as POTUS. I like his ideas and the way he evaluates facts. I think he lacks the skill and experience needed as the Chief Executive of the government. I see the Trump experience demonstrating, among many things, that the president really does need to be an experienced politician.

With a very superficial look, Leon Panetta does work as the top of the ticket. He is a smidge younger than Bernie but older than Joe Biden. But on the other hand, the Trump experience also demonstrates the truth of the idea that the qualities required to get elected are also the qualities that should ban one from serving.

I have lived in Delaware since Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. I like Joe Biden. I think he would make a very 'nice' ineffective POTUS.

snailgate

[Sue U]

It's still very early in the game but I'm on board with Kamala Harris right now. Would love to see her methodically take Trump apart piece by piece, like she was doing to Jeff Sessions in the SIC last year.

[BoSoxGal]

Why do you feel Biden would be ineffective as President? He seemed to be a pretty effective legislator for much of his career, setting aside the gridlock of recent years which negatively impacted the whole body.

[Lord Jim]

Personally, I think Biden is probably the strongest candidate the Dems could nominate if (God forbid) Trump is running again in 2020...

He's one of the few I can think of who would have a good chance of drawing back working class white voters from Trump in the key states that provided him the Electoral College victory in 2016 (and keeping the moderate suburban voters who moved away from Trump and brought the Dems control of the House in the midterms) while still being able to appeal to the progressive wing of the party...

If the Dems nominate some strident holier-than-thou lefty like Harris, (who also made a fool of herself during the first round of the Kavanaugh hearings, when she pulled a grandstand stunt trying to make it look like she had some bombshell revelation about contacts Kavanaugh had with Trump's primary law firm, when in fact she had bupkiss) or Sanders, or Warren, they might actually succeed in getting Trump re-elected...

[Sue U]

If the Dems nominate some strident holier-than-thou lefty like Harris, (who also made a fool of herself during the first round of the Kavanaugh hearings, when she pulled a grandstand stunt trying to make it look like she had some bombshell revelation about contacts Kavanaugh had with Trump's primary law firm, when in fact she had bupkiss) or Sanders, or Warren, they might actually succeed in getting Trump re-elected...

Conventional wisdom is conventional, not wisdom.

[Lord Jim]

I believe it was George F. Will who sometime ago said:

"Conventional wisdom is always right...

until it isn't..."

[Scooter]

Scooter, I don't know about Canada, but the Brits have a process generally called 'the shadow cabinet' USofA has nothing like it. The transition from one national administration to another here can be chaotic. The Obama people worked very hard with Gov. Christie to set up check-lists and even desk manuals to smooth out the transition. Trump simply ash-canned that whole process and depended on an old-crony network. The turn-over at every level and continued unfilled slots shows how well that has worked.

It's very similar because both have a parliamentary government. The cabinet ministers who head up the executive branch are drawn from the government members of the legislature. The shadow cabinet, in theory at least, acts as a government-in-waiting; their roles as critics for the respective ministries is one way to prepare for that. The opposition parties also have policy and research staff working for them that can simply move with them if/when they form the government.

Another factor that makes our transitions smoother is that a change in government does not necessitate a wholesale change in the senior management of the ministries. In the U.S. the deputy secretaries and the assistant deputy secretaries (and maybe more) are replaced pretty much wholesale when a new president takes office. Here, the deputy ministers and the assistant deputy ministers will generally stay on to serve the new government as they did the old.

[Sue U]

I believe it was George F. Will who sometime ago said:

"Conventional wisdom is always right...

until it isn't..."

Conventional wisdom said Trump couldn't be elected President.

Conventional wisdom also said Obama couldn't be elected President, that marriage equality couldn't become law, and that recreational marijuana couldn't be legalized.

Not really a great track record.

[Econoline]

• Biden/Warren...2020
  
  VP Warren/Steve Bullock...2024
  
  I have spoken.

Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton of 2020

Americans want outsiders, reformers, and fresh faces, not politicians with decades of baggage.


(The VOX of Matthew Yglesias has spoken. )

[Burning Petard]

I sort of agree with the above--Biden, Warren, both too old. Sanders too old and is not a Democrat. The GOP got their tail in a crack when they nominated one who was not a Republican or even a conservative, but Trump was/is popular.

Biden is a nice guy. He did a terrific job on the senate judiciary committee. But POTUS is not the place for a nice guy who can get along.

Senator Harris of California threw her hat in the ring. I see lots of fireworks with Dems shooting Dems in her campaign. check out the opinion piece from WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 3bfd657cc7

Then compare it with a conservative media review: https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/09/kama ... to-massage

I would like to see Warren as Sec of Treasury.

snailgate