The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread, Part 3

[Mr. Morden]

Swalwell will be back in Iowa on Sunday:

https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/eric-swalwell-is-returning-to-waterloo/article_b217e991-3864-5962-a5a0-cc0d0763a2f1.html

[Canis]

Why are so many Democrats running? Such a fractured field may only end up helping Trump.

I mean the 2016 Republican primary was quite fractured as well. It didn’t seem to hurt Trump in the slightest.

President Ford's second term agrees with this too!

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He was an incumbent president challenged in the primary this new situation has nothing to do with that

[Harlow]

Why are so many Democrats running? Such a fractured field may only end up helping Trump.

I mean the 2016 Republican primary was quite fractured as well. It didn’t seem to hurt Trump in the slightest.

President Ford's second term agrees with this too!

.

He was an incumbent president challenged in the primary this new situation has nothing to do with that

I think they're referencing the fact that Carter emerged from a very crowded Dem field and that didn't hinder his chances in the general.

[henster]

Half of the Z listers are running for book deals & cable gigs I know Swalwell just loves the cameras. Running for President can be pretty lucrative you deliver a lot of speeches and get around the news along with the free travel funded by donations.

[Calthrina950]

Why are so many Democrats running? Such a fractured field may only end up helping Trump.

I mean the 2016 Republican primary was quite fractured as well. It didn’t seem to hurt Trump in the slightest.

President Ford's second term agrees with this too!

.

He was an incumbent president challenged in the primary this new situation has nothing to do with that

I think they're referencing the fact that Carter emerged from a very crowded Dem field and that didn't hinder his chances in the general.

It might not have hurt Carter's chances, but by nominating Carter the process handed the Democrats a much weaker nominee than they might have had otherwise - not to mention a trainwreck of a presidency that was bad for the country and even worse for the party. Somethong similar happened to the Republicans in 2016.

I don't think a similar result is out if the question here. The historical record, brief that it is, suggests that competitive primaries produce stronger presidents than coronations, so long as they aren't clown cars. This might be worth more discussion in another thread.

I think that if this were a competitive primary between Harris, Booker, Warren, and Klobuchar, Democrats would be in better shape. Sanders and Biden are too old, while Gillibrand has no traction. And that is to say nothing of Gabbard, or Castro, or Buttigieg, or Delaney, or Inslee, or Hickenlooper, etc.

[SnowLabrador]

Ugh, does Hickenlooper really need to do this? He's wasting his time.

[Mr. Morden]

Brown:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/sherrod-brown-worker-2020-campaign

“There’s no hold-up,” said Brown, who set a March deadline for deciding. “There’s just sort of crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ and deciding, are we willing to do all this in this race?”
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Brown confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he has been recruiting staff nationally and in these early states. He wouldn’t disclose names of prospective hires but said he’s “totally confident” he’d be able to activate a professional operation on day one, between his existing team of longtime loyalists and new people.

“We knew that if we decided yes that we’d have to have people in place or about to be in place from organizing to fundraising to field to communications,” he said.

Moulton:

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/03/01/seth-moulton-2020/

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when asked if he was considering running in 2020, Moulton replied, “I am. I’m seriously looking at it.” He went on to hit some of the same points he’s always mentioned to tout his credentials, such as his military service, as well as his ability to reach residents of middle America, pointing to his experience campaigning for Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania and Amy McGrath in Kentucky.
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Moulton indicated he’d base his decision on “whether this is the best way I can serve the country in 2020,” acknowledging the “amazing candidates” who have already announced (including fellow Massachusetts resident Elizabeth Warren), and saying he was asking himself, “Can I contribute to this debate?”

Abrams said a few days ago that she’s thinking of running for Senate:

https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/stacey-abrams-i-am-considering-running-for-senate-1448082499979

She gets included on some of the lists of “people thinking about running for president”, but (unless I missed a quote somewhere) so far she hasn’t singled out a run for president as something that she's actively considering in the way that a Brown or a Swalwell has.  She’s just said that she’s open to all options.

[scutosaurus]

Great profile on Bennet from the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/senator-michael-bennet-weighing-run-president/583993/

POLK CITY, Iowa—Sitting under a framed ticket from an old Obama town-hall meeting, down in the basement of a farmhouse surrounded by snowy fields of corn and soybeans, I tell Michael Bennet that an Iowa Democrat who’d come to hear him speak compared him to pea soup. Good pea soup, hearty. But still pea soup, in a 2020 primary field that has sizzling fajitas and cake on the table.

...

Bennet is on edge. He has been warning of the destruction of democracy for years. He thinks he’s more Cassandra than the boy who cried wolf, as he points out when I remind him that in October 2017, he warned that Trump’s decision to cancel the protections for Dreamers needed to be fixed immediately. It hasn’t been. “These issues are tearing at the heart of who we are,” he says.

[Calthrina950]

Great profile on Bennet from the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/senator-michael-bennet-weighing-run-president/583993/

POLK CITY, Iowa—Sitting under a framed ticket from an old Obama town-hall meeting, down in the basement of a farmhouse surrounded by snowy fields of corn and soybeans, I tell Michael Bennet that an Iowa Democrat who’d come to hear him speak compared him to pea soup. Good pea soup, hearty. But still pea soup, in a 2020 primary field that has sizzling fajitas and cake on the table.

...

Bennet is on edge. He has been warning of the destruction of democracy for years. He thinks he’s more Cassandra than the boy who cried wolf, as he points out when I remind him that in October 2017, he warned that Trump’s decision to cancel the protections for Dreamers needed to be fixed immediately. It hasn’t been. “These issues are tearing at the heart of who we are,” he says.

If Bennet were somehow to obtain the Democratic nomination, I wouldn't have a problem voting for him. He, along with Hickenlooper, Biden, Bullock, Klobuchar, and Brown, would all receive my vote over Trump. However, none of the ones that I listed (except for Biden), has any shot at getting the nomination.

[I Can Now Die Happy]

Great profile on Bennet from the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/senator-michael-bennet-weighing-run-president/583993/

POLK CITY, Iowa—Sitting under a framed ticket from an old Obama town-hall meeting, down in the basement of a farmhouse surrounded by snowy fields of corn and soybeans, I tell Michael Bennet that an Iowa Democrat who’d come to hear him speak compared him to pea soup. Good pea soup, hearty. But still pea soup, in a 2020 primary field that has sizzling fajitas and cake on the table.

...

Bennet is on edge. He has been warning of the destruction of democracy for years. He thinks he’s more Cassandra than the boy who cried wolf, as he points out when I remind him that in October 2017, he warned that Trump’s decision to cancel the protections for Dreamers needed to be fixed immediately. It hasn’t been. “These issues are tearing at the heart of who we are,” he says.

If Bennet were somehow to obtain the Democratic nomination, I wouldn't have a problem voting for him. He, along with Hickenlooper, Biden, Bullock, Klobuchar, and Brown, would all receive my vote over Trump. However, none of the ones that I listed (except for Biden), has any shot at getting the nomination.

Would you vote for Trump over Bernie? Or Trump over a progressive candidate who you think needs to be stopped, or because you don't want a Democratic President with a Democratic congress?

[MAINEiac4434]

Swallwell has such a weird face

Also my phone autocorrects swalwell to “sewage elk” and that’s pretty accurate.

[junior chįmp]

Clown Biden wants to run against the left and populism:

https://mobile.twitter.com/billscher/status/1102009925251801088

Lawd Jesus help us if this clown gets the nomination. The polarization will never end

[Rookie Yinzer]

Clown Biden wants to run against the left and populism:

https://mobile.twitter.com/billscher/status/1102009925251801088

Lawd Jesus help us if this clown gets the nomination. The polarization will never end

As anti-Bernie as I am I will order a Feel the Bern 2020 t-shirt and knock doors for him if Biden is the alternative. That’s how awful he would be.

[Calthrina950]

Great profile on Bennet from the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/senator-michael-bennet-weighing-run-president/583993/

POLK CITY, Iowa—Sitting under a framed ticket from an old Obama town-hall meeting, down in the basement of a farmhouse surrounded by snowy fields of corn and soybeans, I tell Michael Bennet that an Iowa Democrat who’d come to hear him speak compared him to pea soup. Good pea soup, hearty. But still pea soup, in a 2020 primary field that has sizzling fajitas and cake on the table.

...

Bennet is on edge. He has been warning of the destruction of democracy for years. He thinks he’s more Cassandra than the boy who cried wolf, as he points out when I remind him that in October 2017, he warned that Trump’s decision to cancel the protections for Dreamers needed to be fixed immediately. It hasn’t been. “These issues are tearing at the heart of who we are,” he says.

If Bennet were somehow to obtain the Democratic nomination, I wouldn't have a problem voting for him. He, along with Hickenlooper, Biden, Bullock, Klobuchar, and Brown, would all receive my vote over Trump. However, none of the ones that I listed (except for Biden), has any shot at getting the nomination.

Would you vote for Trump over Bernie? Or Trump over a progressive candidate who you think needs to be stopped, or because you don't want a Democratic President with a Democratic congress?

I would have voted for Sanders back in 2016, if he had won the nomination then. But in 2020, I would probably go third-party. I will definitely vote third-party if Warren, Harris, Booker, or Gillibrand obtain the nomination. I also forgot to mention Buttigieg, Gabbard, and Delaney, all of whom I would vote for if they somehow became the nominee (which they won't). I would go third-party with Castro, though.

[RogueBeaver]

Cuomo says he'll defer to Biden but hasn't completely ruled out a run if Biden doesn't. As usual, Cuomo's virulently contemptuous of the professional left.

[Mr. Morden]

Cuomo says he'll defer to Biden but hasn't completely ruled out a run if Biden doesn't. As usual, Cuomo's virulently contemptuous of the professional left.

To be clear, this interview is from January, but is only being reported on now:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/andrew-cuomo-thinks-hes-best-democrat-beat-trump/583642/

Here’s how Andrew Cuomo ends our first interview at the beginning of January, sitting in a chair in his office, after eating cookie No. 4 from the tray his staff prepared. I put a simple question to him: “Would you like to be president?” He dodges it over and over by talking about how much he wants to do his job as governor well. Finally he says, Well, Joe Biden is running anyway.

A lot of people think Biden is going to run, I acknowledge, and the former vice president certainly seems to be moving in that direction. But Biden looked like he was about to run in 2015 too, only to end speculation at the last minute. So: What if he doesn’t?

“Call me back,” Cuomo says, and puts his hand out immediately to shake, ending a conversation that lasted through a bathroom break and a theatrical phone call with his daughter, in which he begged her not to try cooking him dinner because she’d make too much of a mess of the pots.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Clown Biden wants to run against the left and populism:

https://mobile.twitter.com/billscher/status/1102009925251801088

Lawd Jesus help us if this clown gets the nomination. The polarization will never end

So he’ll be running against policy proposals that are extremely popular with the party base and have been adopted by a good chunk of the field? Good luck with that dude. I hope Bernie eats him alive.

[Mr. Morden]

Amash asked if he'd run for the Libertarian nomination for president in 2020, and says "I would never rule anything out":

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/03/justin-amash-libertarian-2020-1200165

GOP Rep. Justin Amash on Sunday did not rule out a run for the White House in 2020 as a libertarian, but said it was "not on his radar" currently.

"I would never rule anything out," Amash (R-Mich.) said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"That's not on my radar right now, but I think that it is important that we have someone in there who is presenting a vision for America that is different from what these two parties are presenting," he said. Amash is the chairman of the House Liberty Caucus, which represents libertarian-minded lawmakers.

[S019]

Why do Democrats hate Joe Biden, he is a mich stronger candidate than O’Rourke, Sanders, or Harris.

Also if Justin Amash, really wants to run as a Libertarian, he would hand the election to the Democrats. McConnell should ask him to run against Peters, it seems like he has a much better chance of winning that race

[Jon Tester]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

[LabourJersey]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

[OneJ]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

Additionally, he's out of step with the Democratic Party on multiple issues that the party is undeniably starting to moving left on (primarily economic issues). If Biden ends up winning the nomination and then wins the presidency, he'll rightfully face a lot of scrutiny from the left for not being progressive enough, if at all.

[Jon Tester]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

Additionally, he's out of step with the Democratic Party on multiple issues that the party is undeniably starting to moving left on (primarily economic issues). If Biden ends up winning the nomination and then wins the presidency, he'll rightfully face a lot of scrutiny from the left for not being progressive enough, if at all.

To be fair, we don't really know his specific political positions given that he hasn't run in 10 years.

[LabourJersey]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

Additionally, he's out of step with the Democratic Party on multiple issues that the party is undeniably starting to moving left on (primarily economic issues). If Biden ends up winning the nomination and then wins the presidency, he'll rightfully face a lot of scrutiny from the left for not being progressive enough, if at all.

To be fair, we don't really know his specific political positions given that he hasn't run in 10 years.

What do you mean? He makes his political positions really clear in interviews and events all the time--he's an establishment Democrat and makes that clear frequently.

[SteveRogers]

Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

Additionally, he's out of step with the Democratic Party on multiple issues that the party is undeniably starting to moving left on (primarily economic issues). If Biden ends up winning the nomination and then wins the presidency, he'll rightfully face a lot of scrutiny from the left for not being progressive enough, if at all.

To be fair, we don't really know his specific political positions given that he hasn't run in 10 years.

What do you mean? He makes his political positions really clear in interviews and events all the time--he's an establishment Democrat and makes that clear frequently.

Can you clarify which of Biden’s policy positions you are referring to specifically?