Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

[Progressive Pessimist]

Beto is nothing but Jason Kander 2.0

I actually wonder if Kander hadn't sought treatment for his mental condition, how he would fare in this primary. If Buttigieg could be doing as well as he currently is, I think Kander could have possibly had a shot too.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Beto is nothing but Jason Kander 2.0

I actually wonder if Kander hadn't sought treatment for his mental condition, how he would fare in this primary. If Buttigieg could be doing as well as he currently is, I think Kander could have possibly had a shot too.

Kander is actually a dynamic speaker and campaigner, so he’d definitely have shut bland Buttigieg out.

[politicallefty]

I'm thinking if he can't have a massive breakout moment in the first or maybe second debate, he should consider moving his candidacy to the Texas Senate race. I donated to his campaign in March. I wouldn't be offended if he transferred that money to taking out Cornyn.

[Mr. Smith]

Beto is nothing but Jason Kander 2.0

I actually wonder if Kander hadn't sought treatment for his mental condition, how he would fare in this primary. If Buttigieg could be doing as well as he currently is, I think Kander could have possibly had a shot too.

Kander is actually a dynamic speaker and campaigner, so he’d definitely have shut bland Buttigieg out.

So was Beto during the Senate run. That's what caused all the hub-bub that put him into a field he really shouldn't have entered.

[Gustaf]

Imagine still being excited about Beto O'Rourke in June of 2019.

imagine being a libertarian...ever...

It's even lazier trolling than his increasing pathetic attempts to start a discussion on race and IQ in the Joe Biden thread. (Which, happily, the entire forum ignored.)

I was going to note that this guy isn't a libertarian.

[John Dule]

Imagine still being excited about Beto O'Rourke in June of 2019.

imagine being a libertarian...ever...

It's even lazier trolling than his increasing pathetic attempts to start a discussion on race and IQ in the Joe Biden thread. (Which, happily, the entire forum ignored.)

This is just flat-out slander. I did no such thing.

[John Dule]

Imagine still being excited about Beto O'Rourke in June of 2019.

imagine being a libertarian...ever...

It's even lazier trolling than his increasing pathetic attempts to start a discussion on race and IQ in the Joe Biden thread. (Which, happily, the entire forum ignored.)

This is just flat-out slander. I did no such thing.

If you're talking about this post, then you've completely misinterpreted it:

Can any leftist Biden critics here fuse together the Atlas narrative that Joe Biden is an apologist for racism and the plain fact that a huge portion of African-Americans support him, without implicitly stating that black voters are "low-information?"

My point was that Biden is clearly not a racist, and that to make that argument you basically have to argue that black voters are "voting against their own interests." I find that kind of argument stupid whether it's being applied to African-Americans supporting Biden or to blue-collar whites who voted for Trump. I was pointing out how stupid and condescending such an argument is, and how it significantly undermines that moronic Atlas narrative that Biden is some kind of apologist for the KKK.

Then again, numerous people recommended that post, and they all seemed to understand it perfectly fine. So I'm going to go ahead and assume that this misrepresentation of my views is more motivated by deliberate maliciousness than by accidental misreading.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Ew. No.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1143099867897716736

[Dr. Arch]

↑ That is a legitimately horrible policy proposal.

[Ilhan Apologist]

Is the intention to make war less popular among non-military families?

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Ew. No.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1143099867897716736

I could see this used as a way to deter future wars by making Americans have to pay more for them out of pocket.

[GP270watch]

This is a policy dud for Beto.

[John Dule]

If you're talking about this post, then you've completely misinterpreted it:

Can any leftist Biden critics here fuse together the Atlas narrative that Joe Biden is an apologist for racism and the plain fact that a huge portion of African-Americans support him, without implicitly stating that black voters are "low-information?"

My point was that Biden is clearly not a racist, and that to make that argument you basically have to argue that black voters are "voting against their own interests." I find that kind of argument stupid whether it's being applied to African-Americans supporting Biden or to blue-collar whites who voted for Trump. I was pointing out how stupid and condescending such an argument is, and how it significantly undermines that moronic Atlas narrative that Biden is some kind of apologist for the KKK.

Then again, numerous people recommended that post, and they all seemed to understand it perfectly fine. So I'm going to go ahead and assume that this misrepresentation of my views is more motivated by deliberate maliciousness than by accidental misreading.

If that's all that you meant, fair enough. The attitude that you criticize is condescending and ignorant. But I wasn't the only person to take you that way, perhaps because there are obvious explanations for Joe Biden retaining widespread black support regardless of how problematic his comments were. Politicians far more racist than even the most outrageous caricature of Joe Biden have won large portions of the black vote.

Your remark would have confused me less and amused me more if it referenced Elizabeth Warren's consistently decent numbers among Democratic People of Means.

I wasn't aware that anyone had found that comment confusing. Perhaps those responses got buried in the thread, but I didn't see any. I'll post a clarification.

To stress this point though: Black voters have a lot of options in this primary but they still make up a large portion of Biden's support (40% according to one poll, if I recall correctly). It's not like they're being railroaded into choosing between Biden and a candidate who's even more racially insensitive. Therefore, I find the notion among some Atlas users that Biden is an apologist for segregation to be implicitly insulting to black voters. To make that argument, you basically have to say that they're either not paying attention to the process, or that they're only voting for Biden because he was Obama's VP. I've criticized this condescending "voting against your own interests" argument many times in many other situations.

I may have overestimated how prevalent this mentality was on Atlas, but I still thought that this was why nobody responded to that post, which is why I quoted it a second time. Anyway, for the record, I've never tried to start a """conversation""" about race and IQ on this site. We can probably leave this here. Thanks for the follow-up.

[Saint Milei]

Every1 says castro sounds like Obama but am i the only one that thinks O'Rourke literally talks like Obama

[Buzz]

Drop out imminent

[John Dule]

Drop out imminent

I have not doubted this moment would come for a single second of a single day since he announced this doomed campaign.

[Crumpets]

I think he still wants to be VP, so he'll probably stick it out a little longer.

[terp40hitch]

Is Beto this cycle's Scott Walker:
Jumped in as a frontrunner, was given a large amount of money and then quickly faded and a rough debate

[Dr. Arch]

He bombed horribly.

[SCNCmod]

nothing is ever decided this far out... just when you think someone is out- all of a sudden something brings them back.

That said- if Beto does stay below 4% from this point forward- Biden has the nomination wrapped up.  Beto is the only candidate who could potentially draw enough support from Biden to allow one of the other candidates to catch up with him.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He bombed horribly.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Castro ate him for dinner. Oof!

[Xing]

Yeah, this seems like Walker v 2.0, except that he jumped into the race sooner than Walker.

[Crumpets]

Every1 says castro sounds like Obama but am i the only one that thinks O'Rourke literally talks like Obama

Yeah, I can see it. The reasons I thought O'Rourke did poorly last night were pretty similar to the reasons I didn't support Obama in the 2008 primaries.

[bilaps]

Is Beto this cycle's Scott Walker:
Jumped in as a frontrunner, was given a large amount of money and then quickly faded and a rough debate

He was never a fronturunner, especially when he jumped in.