Even as much of a media darling as Buttigieg has been over the last 2-3 months, the truth is he is in the same "who the hell are you" boat as Kamala was before her big moment in debate one. Everyone outside of Bernie and Biden (and to a slightly lesser extent Warren) are fighting an enormous uphill battle in terms of name recognition and reputation. Biden was a Senator forever and VP. Bernie was also a Congressman forever and ran one of the most successful radical presidential campaigns in living memory. Warren has a bit of a cult following from numerous viral moments as a progressive in the pre-Bernie era and also served as a major public foil to Trump recently. Harris, Buttigieg, O'Rouke, Booker... These folks have hardly anything close to that level of public mindshare.
Agreed. I just posted in another thread that I really hope this election cycle serves as a springboard for many of these unsuccessful candidates.
I will say this for the DSA, while they are cringey as hell and an embarrassment, these goobers and snowflakes have zero power or influence. Meanwhile, similar lunatics like the ones you find at the NRA convention or CPAC have attendees and sponsors littered throughout the halls of power in the American government. So, one is an actual threat to our democracy, the other is Twitter theater.
DNC starting to draw up the battle plan for 2020. https://www.politico.com/story/2019...lvHqCdVny98_udqUYF3G-i8_ts3tp65AFH-JiP4lLp_y4
Looks like a good start. Hopefully, they won't have to deal with the same hubris of Hillary's campaign once the nominee is determined.
I think Warren's got this but she's got to connect with the browns and the blacks. Maybe Castro as her VP? I don't really care for him at all but it's pretty evident he gets rise out of the left wing of the party. Don't know if he's meat and potatoes enough though.
The problem with this wide field is that everyone except Biden seems to be a regional candidate and has key demographic weaknesses (as you mention, minorities in Warren's case). Every state poll has Biden at #1 and then various people at #2 - Harris, Bernie, Warren, etc all are 2nd in different places. If Biden can win South Carolina and even be 2nd in Iowa, NH, and Nevada, he probably rolls through Super Tuesday because so many of those states are deep south and not as Warren/Bernie friendly.
Speaking of DSA, they're seeing some success. DENVER’S CITY COUNCIL, LED BY DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST, STUNS FOR-PROFIT PRISON OPERATORS BY NUKING CONTRACTS https://theintercept.com/2019/08/08/private-prisons-contract-denver/
I think the wild card is Biden himself. He's way past his prime and looked lost in the debates. The back and forth with Booker was cringe worthy. If the field becomes more effective in attacking his record I don't think he will be able to defend himself. Perhaps most voters don't pay attention closely enough to notice or care and will just go with the name recognition like they did with Clinton.
Interestingly, in the early polling so far, they aren't splitting a vote. Warren voters have Harris as their 2nd choice in general; Bernie voters have Biden as their 2nd choice. And Warren and Bernie are appealing to fairly different demographic groups. Basically, this whole election is weird, but it seems less ideology-driven than we might think.
Just an update on previous reply to this post, check this out @Major https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacom...ost-donations-from-billionaires/#7a60992c4c15
Biden's candidacy has two enemies. Time and attrition. The longer the campaign goes and the more people that drop out the worse off he is. The dream scenario for Biden is that the field stays super crowded into March and he is able to simply stay afloat by all of the other Dems stealing votes from one another. Of course how that plays out will be determined by the DNC. If they keep upping the debate thresholds it will force more people out of the race.
