JOE MANCHIN 2020!

[GoTfan]

Yeah sure, if you want a left-wing third party challenge that sucks away the Democratic base.

[GoTfan]

He is our best bet, tbh. If we ain't getting Bernie, then he is second best. His losses among Bernie or bust peeps will be massively overshadowed by his amazing performance among blue collar workers and I could easily see him getting 350+EV's.


P.S-Please dont post in this thread, ProgressiveCanadian.

Bernie bros actually would vote for him. He's a white guy from a rural state.

If you think that, you're beyond help.

[GoTfan]

As for the actual topic: please not.

Like Manchin is awesome in the Senate, but let's not have TWO pro-fossil fuel presidential candidates please!

Agreed. Manchin is the opposite sort of moderate Democrats need. We can't out-Trump Trump, by targeting those who: "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." We don't need a fiscally liberal, socially conservative nationalist. We need a fiscally moderate, socially liberal globalist, who can win AZ and FL and the Philadelphia suburbs. Manchin is not that canidate.

How does social liberalism appeal to Floridians? It's a southern state that's reliant on Dems turning out black voters.

I think the better question to ask is how would fiscal moderation turn out the Democratic base there (or anywhere)?

Ding ding ding! We have a winner, folks!

[GoTfan]

Lol Paula Jean Swearengin primarying Joe Manchin. Dumbest thing Justice Dems could possibly do is waste time, money, energy, and resources, on losing in a red state.

Well as I've said before, Manchin is basically a Republican.

[GoTfan]

Susan Collins in multiple areas is more liberal. Manchin didn't support Don't ask Don't tell vote while Collin supports gay marriage. Collins is strongly pro-choice while Manchin even once wanted to stop funding to Planned Parenthood.

Collins was the only GOP Senator even 2-3 years back who didn't want to repeal the ACA. Collins has a good environmental record. Collins was the only GOP senator to vote against Pruitt. In some respects, Collins is better. In other areas, Manchin is maybe a shade better. It is not an ideal choice & would kill the Dem party.

Coal is a dying industry & will largely be wiped off in 10-15 years. Climate Change is threatening the planet & Dems go for a coal loving Manchin for a dying industry for those 3/4 votes of WV?

Clean coal

That is a myth. Not a thing.

[GoTfan]

Also, have fun watching minority turnout crash if Sanders is the nominee.

Your boy Joe Manchin comes from a state that's 94% white, just like Vermont. I fail to see how he would make a difference in that field.

If he picks Cory Booker or Kamala Harris as his VP, then he could easily balance the scale.

I think there's a decent chance Sanders could pick Harris as his running mate.

I doubt she'd accept.

If she won't run on a ticket with Sanders, then she definitely won't run on one with Manchin.

Except, Manchin is much more electable than Sanders. Bernie has such a grim past, while Manchin does not. If Bernie were the nominee, the GOP would tear him to shreds, and Booker or Harris wouldn't want their careers destroyed alongside his.

Untrue, especially for a Democratic base that wants ideological distance from Trump. Manchin was the only Senate Democrat to miss the vote on repealing DADT (he also didn't vote on the Now Very Relevant DREAM Act), and his coal past will make environmentalists angry. Sanders would have his own problems, but let's not pretend that someone like Manchin would magically unite progressives and centrists. 

I forgot, Joe Manchin hung a Soviet flag in his office when he started his career as a State Delegate.

Oh wait, that was Bernie Sanders as Mayor of Burlington.

I forgot, Manchin said he would have voted against the DREAM Act if he had been in the Senate that day. That's the kind of thing that hurts you in a primary, even: "Joe Manchin isn't even principled enough to vote on his own bad stances." Every other Dem running in 2020 would salivate at the chance to paint him as a Trump apologist DINO. And it would probably work.

Is it a bad thing that he's not an ideological hack like Sanders?

Bernie Sanders could be defeated by pointing out specific actions of his past, but it take some digging. Joe Manchin is kind enough to lay it all out on-the-record.

This isn't even the tip of the iceberg

Repeating that Bernie Sanders is a flawed candidate does not suddenly make Joe Manchin a good one. If anything, it shows that you also don't have any idea how he would deflect or dispel the criticisms which would inevitably be brought against him by his primary opponents.

I'm not saying Manchin has a smooth path to the nomination in 2020, but its very possible.

No, it isn't. A center-right conservative is not winning the Democratic nomination. Those days ended in the 60s and 70s.