Ready The Clown Car: The First Batch of Democrats Are Ready To Announce Their 2020 Bids

well that didn't go quite as planned

 

I'm not talking about executive orders.

I am talking about things like William Barr getting involved in the sentencing of Roger Stone and changing the sentence recommendation...... resulting in all the prosecutors on the case quitting in protest.

I am talking about the President of the United States withholding aid to a foreign nation unless they investigate a top political rival. A claim he denied, until the evidence became so overwhelming that his defense change to "so what?"

I am talking about a President that got rid of an Attorney General that would not operate as the President's personal attorney, and replacing him with one who would. One that misrepresented the Mueller Report and manipulated the release date for political reasons. An office where the guiding mission in print is: “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”

A President that has had his attorney argue in court that the Presidential power is so expansive that "A President would even be immune from prosecution if he shot someone."

A President that stated that regardless of what he or his businesses do, they are immune from investigation and prosecution simply because they are the President.

A President that lied about eminent threat so that he could assassinate the general of another nation without congressional approval as required under the law.

Trump has completely destroyed investigative independence by the Justice Department, FBI, State Department, CIA. He has actually stated that he would "get involved".



Now..... Trump did not create the problem. It has always existed to some extend. GW Bush used 9/11 as a way to do things that are highly abusive such as hold people in GITMO for 18 years....... Bush and Obama both used surveillance beyond congressional approval (also you better believe Trump is doing as bad if not worse). Obama used things like executive orders to get the immigration reforms he wanted, but could not get through congress........ but that was all a warm up for what Trump has done.

 

I am curious to see the response to this by @Corrosion @Os Trigonum @TheresTheDagger

 

Notice that I didn't mention your name?

 

analysis of where the Dems stand from everyone's favorite blog:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/02/the-state-of-the-race-democrats-in-despair.php

The State of the Race: Democrats In Despair?
Posted on February 12, 2020 by John Hinderaker

I and many others have been saying for a long time that the Democrats don’t have an adequate presidential candidate this year. Events in Iowa and New Hampshire have tended to confirm that assessment.

I first described Joe Biden as a “dead candidate walking” in mid-October, when he was leading the national Democratic polls and, as I recall, ahead of President Trump in some polling. This is Biden’s third presidential campaign. The first two were bad, and this one is embarrassing. Jonathan Chait reminds us that in Biden’s three presidential campaigns, he has never once finished higher than fourth in any primary or caucus. It is time to discreetly draw the curtain on Biden’s 2020 effort.

It was only a few months ago when we said that the Democratic nomination was Elizabeth Warren’s to lose. She has lost it. Her decline seemed to begin with the unraveling of her “Medicare for all” plan, but I think it actually goes deeper than that. As of six months ago, most voters probably knew nothing about her false claim to being an Indian and the role that claim played in her academic career. As she has gotten better known over the course of the campaign, her ethnic fraud has likewise become more widely known, in large part due to President Trump’s mockery.

A second factor is probably even more important: Warren is a harridan. It should be no surprise that few people want to be lectured at by her for the next four years. It came out today that Warren has cut back on her advertising spending in both South Carolina and Nevada. Her campaign isn’t quite as dead as Joe Biden’s, but it is on life support.

Bernie Sanders has a loyal following, mainly among the young and ignorant. But he hasn’t been able to expand that following beyond the base he had four years ago. More likely, his support has contracted. He went from 60% in the New Hampshire primary four years ago to 26% this year–and that was against Hillary Clinton, not Pete Buttigieg. Sanders’ age, his recent heart attack, his unabashed extremism (which still hasn’t been aggressively exploited by his opponents), the enmity of the Democratic establishment, and his lack of support among African-Americans all tell against him. It would be fun to see Sanders as the Democrats’ nominee, but if he can’t score over 25% in the states that on paper are most favorable to him, it isn’t going to happen.

Pete Buttigieg has performed relatively well in both Iowa and New Hampshire, which I think reflects the desperate state of the Democratic race. “Mayor Pete” has a basic problem: he is utterly unqualified for the presidency. Barack Obama at least warmed a Senate seat briefly before launching his presidential run. Buttigieg can’t even say that. As a former mayor of a small city, he is vulnerable to the sort of attack that Joe Biden launched in New Hampshire. It didn’t help Biden, but similar attacks by others will hurt Buttigieg, badly. The obvious fact is that Buttigieg is in the race only because he is gay. No one imagines that, absent that fact, anyone would consider him a plausible candidate for the presidency.

I don’t consider Michael Bloomberg much of a threat, either. He has one thing going for him: money. Unfortunately for Bloomberg, money, beyond some reasonable level, is not a very important factor in presidential politics. Just ask Hillary Clinton. Bloomberg is Donald Trump without the likability and without a comparable record of achievement. Moreover, his path to the nomination is clouded by his history as–of all things!–a Republican. There was a time when he was even pro-law enforcement, a scandal in today’s Democratic Party. And Bloomberg endorsed George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004. Does anyone seriously think the Bernie Bros will turn out for him?

So who is left? I still think Tulsi Gabbard would be the Democrats’ strongest general election candidate, but she is 1) patriotic, and 2) not a hater. She even wished Rush Limbaugh well when he announced his cancer diagnosis. So there is no risk that the Democrats might nominate her. Tom Steyer hasn’t dropped out, unlike Andrew Yang, Michael Bennet and Deval Patrick, but he has shown zero ability to attract votes, which is the whole point of being a politician.

That leaves Amy Klobuchar, who disappointed in Iowa but came on strong in New Hampshire. It is always dangerous to predict based on a process of elimination, but I think the nomination is now Amy’s to lose. (Heh.) She is smart enough and far left enough, while at the same time preserving the aura of moderation that made her popular in Minnesota. She has some problems, of course. So far, she has demonstrated little ability to appeal to minority voters, and, never having been close to the front of the pack, she has not yet been subjected to much criticism. Suffice it to say that weaknesses will begin to emerge.

Still, I think Klobuchar is now the Democrats’ most likely presidential nominee. Some Democrats still hold out hope of a deus ex machina like Michelle Obama entering the race. It isn’t going to happen. The good news is that I don’t see any way Amy Klobuchar (or any other Democrat in the race) can beat President Trump. His record is just too strong. So in the background, you can hear the cheers beginning to echo: Four more years! Four more years!


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The impeachment will resonate through our politics for generations to come, so I don't think it's really ever going to be over. He was clearly guilty and clearly abetted by a gutless Republican Senate and we'll be paying the consequences for decades. And, it's going to be relevant to every D&D thread for the rest of your tenure, I'm sure, so you may as well get comfortable.

 

Lol, you know that even if Trump was an innocent lamb in this whole thing, persecuted and then exonerated, that this thing still isn't over. His enemies are still arrayed against him and still feeling aggrieved -- even wrongly -- and this thing is going to keep coming back again and again like a bad penny. The only thing you're going to manage to accomplish by claiming victory is to start another tangent.

 

...and Klobuchar at 9. Basically tied with Pete and Bernie.

 

I don't hold it against Mayor Turner. But neither can I agree.

 

One thing to keep in mind, if Bloomberg can deliver Florida and it's 29 electoral votes, then he can struggle some in the Rust belt and still win the Electoral college. If he wraps up Florida and Pennsylvania, then he would be almost impossible for Trump to beat.

 

You’re right, but can’t struggle too much. Ohio seems to be out of the picture, barring something unforeseen. But, yeah, any combination of Florida and 2/3 of the Hillary Killers (PA/MI/WI) should seal the deal.

Edit: just did a model with Florida + 1/3 of the Hillary Killers and you’re definitely right. Florida, not that I trust them by any means, would definitely be a game-changer.

 

Is it too early to start asking who will run for the Dems in 2024? Maybe starting now they can put forth someone electable. They totally whiffed on this one.

 

pretty sure AOC's got that one locked up already

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/27/aoc-president-sanders-089617

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/o...-cortez-female-president-190114063930734.html